Any gun experts?

[Farmersfan]

I have a Rock Island Arsenal Model 1903 30.06 rifle that my father in law gave me several years ago. It is in pretty good shape and by tracing the serial number I find it was manufactured in 1905. I know they made over a million of these rifles over the years but this one has a serial number in the 22,000 range. anyone familiar with these rifles?

[slpybear the bullfan]

I have a 1903A3, made in WWII. Fantastic Rifle, but as a disclaimer; I am big fan of the 30.06 cartridge.

Solid, well built, great balanced service rifle. Any questions you have that brought up the post?

[Farmersfan]

I have a 1903A3, made in WWII. Fantastic Rifle, but as a disclaimer; I am big fan of the 30.06 cartridge.

Solid, well built, great balanced service rifle. Any questions you have that brought up the post?

First off do you know if there is any real selling value to this rifle?

After doing all this research on this one rifle I realized that both might actually be collectors items so I researched the other one. It turns out it is a Winchester Model 1887 lever action .10 gauge shotgun that was made in 1891. Some interesting history about this shotgun is that John Browning founder of the Browning Arms company had the design for this lever action shotgun that was very similar to the Winchester rifles that Winchester was using. Browning refused to manufactor the shotgun and said the pump shotgun was the future of the shotgun industry. Winchester bought the rights for this shotgun from John Browning for 50K in 1887 (I think) and started making these lever action Winchesters. Anyway I think I might just clean them up really good and put them in a display and keep them as family heirlooms since they were passed down from my wife's grandfather.

[slpybear the bullfan]

Ballparking the 03 I would say about $1800 if its in great shape. The 1887 might go a bit higher, but would need a good examination.

Personally, if these were handed down in the family, I would never sell. My suggestion would be to clean both up, keep in your family forever.

My granddaddy said never sell guns or land. ;)


First off do you know if there is any real selling value to this rifle?

After doing all this research on this one rifle I realized that both might actually be collectors items so I researched the other one. It turns out it is a Winchester Model 1887 lever action .10 gauge shotgun that was made in 1891. Some interesting history about this shotgun is that John Browning founder of the Browning Arms company had the design for this lever action shotgun that was very similar to the Winchester rifles that Winchester was using. Browning refused to manufactor the shotgun and said the pump shotgun was the future of the shotgun industry. Winchester bought the rights for this shotgun from John Browning for 50K in 1887 (I think) and started making these lever action Winchesters. Anyway I think I might just clean them up really good and put them in a display and keep them as family heirlooms since they were passed down from my wife's grandfather.

[Farmersfan]

Ballparking the 03 I would say about $1800 if its in great shape. The 1887 might go a bit higher, but would need a good examination.

Personally, if these were handed down in the family, I would never sell. My suggestion would be to clean both up, keep in your family forever.

My granddaddy said never sell guns or land. ;)

The more I read up on these guns the more I'm inclined to think like you. Minimum money now can't replace the history these things will tell for a long, long time.