A while back I bought a 1903 Springfield (1921 vintage) that had been 'cut-down', scoped and restocked. The short Sporter weighed too many pounds, was not a candidate for restoration .... it made no sense, but, the 1903 was cheap and spoke to me!

My plan had been to have a 1903A3 barrel put on it and make a "quasi-sniper looking" rifle.

Well, current prices for 1903A3 barrels and decent Stocks gave me Sticker Shock.

I went to a plan "B" .... make a fun "carbine" out of junk 1903 & 1903A3 parts that are taking up room in my basement.

The barrel had been stripped of its rear-sight & collar. The 21" barrel had no front sight.

I luckily had sights and a wrecked stock and hand-guard.
I decided to patch the 'Compass Hole' in the comb and reshape the stock tip along the lines of an experimental carbine made for the cavalry in 1921.

I need to final shape the stock and re-stain it, put some 'cold blue' on the bare metal at the muzzle, and replace the '03A3 barrel-band with a nicer looking 1903 band.

This should be a fun shooter with both iron sights and a scope option.

I really like it! An 'old school' gunsmith job. You had the right combo of parts on hand, and talent to put them together.
I especially like the Faux A4 bolt with scope rather than a Lyman peep, a deer rifle for sure for older eyes.
Must have been quite a job to file the barrel, but it came out nicely.
A compass was standard in the handle of the '54 Fred Bear Kodiaks. You might want to retain it for the '50s 'tacticool' look.(A little further from the butt plate). 
You and Baltimoreed, FredC have some skills!

Another nicely done. How many days to did you think about how to do this? Solutions to problems like this usually come to me after several days, sometimes the solution wakes me up at night.

My dad used to do stuff like that. He would use his father in law's old mike to check for roundness as he filed lawn mower cranks round. Then he filed the caps on the connecting rods and shimmed them with brass shim stock. I used one of those repaired lawnmowers for many years to mow neighbors laws for spending money.

FWIW Chuck, if you ever decide to repair another 1903 and need a stock, new stocks are available from the CMP.  They have Garand, 1903, 1917, and M1 Carbine stocks for sale... and even have them displayed at the North Store at Camp Perry.  I asked them why they didn't offer Krag stocks too, and was met with blank stares, LOL!

Those are the guys looking to find an "All Matching Numbers/Correct As It Left Springfield Garand Rifle... which is pretty much impossible!!!  There's unfortunately a lot of collectors out there who demand perfection... and a replacement stock that wasn't manufactured by springfield in 1940-whatever is pretty much junk!  My Garand has a new CMP stock and it's perfect as far as I'm concerned.  I think the CMP 1903 stocks are great too!