POTD: British 03 – Remington Experimental .303 Model 1903 Prototype

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a 1903 Springfield chambered for a British cartridge. This is a Remington built 1903 prototype from around 1941, an M1903 reworked for 303 British on a Springfield receiver made in 1911.

Britain needed rifles badly in 1940 and 1941 and went shopping in America, which had happened before. In the last war US firms built the Pattern 14 in 303 for Britain and then adapted that same rifle to 30-06 as the M1917 for our own use. This time Remington came at it from the other end. The British wanted Lee-Enfield pattern rifles, but Remington was tied to the M1903 by US government requirements and could not tool up for something else. So the answer was to take the rifle they were already allowed to build and make it eat 303.

That meant a new barrel, changes to the bolt, a reshaped magazine with a deeper floorplate, and stripper clip cuts recut for Enfield chargers. This one also carries a Pattern 14 style winged front sight and a pair of No.4 bayonet lugs on the barrel, and somebody spliced an Enfield style semi pistol grip into the wrist of the stock.

Savage ended up filling the British No.4 orders, so this went nowhere. A handful of samples is all that exists, and this one was written up by William Hansen in the Remington Collectors’ Journal back in 2010.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“U.S. Springfield/Remington Prototype British Model 1903 Rifle.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/241/us-springfieldremington-prototype-british-model-1903-rifle. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

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