M1903 Springfield

The M1903 Springfield—officially the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1903—is a bolt-action, repeating service rifle fed by a five-round, staggered-row box magazine that cannot be removed. It was a standard American infantry weapon for much of the first half of the 20th century. Its first combat use came during the Philippine-American War, and it was formally adopted by the United States on June 19, 1903. The M1903 served in World War I, and though the faster-firing, semi-automatic M1 Garand began replacing it in 1936, the M1903 remained a standard-issue rifle for many troops during World War II because the U.S. entered that conflict without enough M1s. It also saw sniper use in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Today, it remains popular as a civilian firearm, a collector’s item, a competitive shooting rifle, and a military drill rifle.

The rifle’s development was shaped by the U.S. experience in the 1898 war with Spain. Spanish soldiers armed with the Mauser M1893 inflicted heavy casualties on American forces. At the Battle of San Juan Hill, 750 Spanish regulars delayed 15,000 U.S. troops for a significant time, causing 1,400 American casualties in minutes. Earlier that day, 540 Spanish regulars under General Vara Del Rey held off General Henry Ware Lawton’s Second Division of 6,653 soldiers and an independent brigade of 1,800 men for ten hours at El Caney. A U.S. Army board of investigation, formed directly after these battles, recommended replacing the Springfield Krag–Jørgensen rifle.

The adoption of the M1903 in 1903 came after nearly 30 years of political and technical struggle, drawing lessons from the Krag–Jørgensen and the German Mauser Gewehr 98. The design is largely based on the Mauser M1893 and its successors up to the Gewehr 98. The M1903’s forward receiver ring diameter is 1.305 inches—slightly larger than the “small ring” Mauser models’ 33 mm, and smaller than the “large ring” Gewehr 98’s 35.8 mm. The U.S. military licensed many Mauser and other German patents, including the spitzer bullet, later modified into the .30-06 Springfield. The M1903 replaced not only the Army’s various Krag rifles but also the Lee M1895 and M1885 Remington–Lee used by the Navy and Marine Corps, as well as all remaining single-shot trapdoor rifles.