[M1903A1]

< boring >

M1903 = the 1903 Springfield rifle, an American classic (even if it is just a plagiarized Mauser design) and our standard arm of 1-1/2 wars--along with plenty of little "brushfire wars" of the teens and 1920s and a sniping role in Korea and early Vietnam.

The A1 variant took the standard 1903 rifle's straight stock and replaced it with a "curved" pistol-grip stock, more like what you'd find on a hunting rifle. It was standardized in 1928, but because the Army had a ton of replacement stocks from WW1 to use up first in what little production there was in the interwar years, it wasn't until about 1940-41 that the M1903A1 variant was in serious production. Because they were made so briefly (and at the outset of a war in which most of them were used up), they are quite rare today.

< /boring >

At the time I signed onto the old CS, I was looking hard for a prewar M1903A1...and, well, I couldn't think of anything more original. Plus, it makes no sense to anybody who isn't a serious gun collector or WW2 buff, so I figured it would stand out.