Winchester Model 1903 and Model 63--

Custom Model 63s are becoming more common. They're a natural canvas for engravers and all steel so they can be 'massaged' to better suit a mental picture in the mind of the builder.
This Model 63 was going to be the replacement for the gun lost in an office break-in shortly after delivery but the customer died and life got in the way.

Tang safeties that work well are tough unless the sears are extended like a double barrel has. The Model 63 has a massive chunk of steel that houses the feed tube between the top tang and the trigger so some creative linkage is involved (not pictured).

Extended tangs and scalloped receivers are 'see what I can do with a TIG' gingerbread items sometimes called 'buttruffles'. It makes stockmaking harder and shows difficulty for difficulty's sake, to quote Don Allen when confronted with a hollow bolt knob.

Sometimes projects last years, but I think forty-one is probably too many.

Omg!! You have no idea how happy I am to find this post/thread, it feels like I just won the lottery. I recently purchased a winchester model 1903 chambered in “.22 Winchester auto” along with 950 rounds of .22 Winchester auto. To not make this comment too long, I tried to load up 1 round into the chamber to test if it feeds and ejects before trying to disassemble the rifle to clean it. To my surprise it won’t chamber a round at all. So I started to disassemble the rifle to see if I could find the problem. The first missing part I noticed was the ejector stop screw, you can see this screw on the side of the carrier when the bolt is in the “close” position. The second part I noticed was missing was the spring that goes under the cocking plunger that helps push it back up. And last but not least I noticed that the “cartridge cut off” was missing. I ordered all these parts. Oh, one thing I forgot to add was that for some reason I couldn’t load more that 1 round. For some reason the magazine tube wouldn’t shut all the way down with 2 or more rounds. I found a local guy near me selling another 1903 for 500$ and at one point I thought about buying it and just exchanging all the parts to mine (I forgot to mention my rifle in in great condition) since it’s really nice, but I didn’t wanna hack up another 1903 and feel guilty. So instead I asked this guy for some pictures of the parts of his rifle so I could see what’s wrong with mine! GUESS WHAT?! SOMEBODY USED A MODEL 63 INNER MAGAZINE TUBE, OUTER MAGAZINE TUBE ON MY RIFLE!!!! Y’all have no clue how much of a PITA this was to discern!!!! With this being said, I was so scared that I was worried that they might of sleeved my 1903’s barrel to a .22 LR barrel. Luckily the .22 WSL Cartridge still fits in the chamber and I also did the “bullet fitment at the end of the muzzle” test. Luckily the .22 winchester round still fits. My guess is that at some point these parts broke and whoever tried to fix it Thought that the model 63 and model 03 had the same internals? I’m not sure but I just now removed the “model 63” parts off, and this post helped me confirm that. With all that being said besides the inner tube and the loading tube is everything else the same? I know like this post said the “cartridge cutoff” and the “magazine tube” are different. And one last question, is there a spring sitting under the “cartridge cutoff”? A website selling this part recommends buying this spring and I’m guessing they go together. Thanks guys and sorry for the long post.

JBelk said:

Back in the day, '03s were cheap because ammo wasn't available. Many were tried to be converted with M63 parts, but the feed mechanism is part of the trigger plate half of the receiver. It become like changing a chopping axe to a splitting axe by just changing heads and handles.
The cartridge cut-off is held up by a spring and pressed down by the bolt. I have M03s and MW63s and can measure anything you need and photo parts.

Welcome to a very good gun group. Glad to have you.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I have the inner and outer tube on order right now! I have the whole receiver/hammer, trigger spring disassembled. It seems like a fairly easy but unique system. I’m just hoping that these are the last 2 parts I need to get her back running again. The rifle is in great condition. It’s almost like someone did a reblue possibly total restoration on the gun. I do have question and need help with one thing. That spring that sit under the hammer and has a rod going through it…. Is being held by a piece at the end of the rod and spring. If you look closely at this part both sides of the holes hook a little different. One side has like a “coned” type of hole and the other just had a “flat” almost looks smaller type of hole. It’s hard to explain but I’d like to know which way this part faces. I’ll try to upload a picture.