My first accidental discharge and got it on video.

I took my father's 1903 Springfield WWII sniper rifle reproduction to the range in order to do a video for my channel. I wanted to do a video commemorating the USMC birthday, and Veteran's Day weekend. My father was a jarhead, I was a squid, and my grandfather was an Army tanker.

I thoroughly cleaned the rifle and worked the action. Occasionally, I noticed the striker bolt wasn't held back when I closed the bolt. Had I known anything about these rifles, that would have told me that I had a sear that was not right and the rifle could discharge unintentionally.

But I was ignorant and thought maybe this odd action required a live round in it to work properly. It was my father's rifle that he competed in matches with. Surely it was in safe working order.

Nope.

At least I felt it wasn't quite right and made sure it was pointed downrange and secured, and I was wearing ear protection before I put live ammo in it.

The actual discharge is at 4:43 if you want to skip all of the nonsense rambling...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6MoxAyEzb4&t=620s

My guess is that it had too much of a trigger job.
Or a good trigger job that has worn out and needs to be 'addressed'.
You might also try to really scrub the trigger contacting surfaces with a tooth brush & solvent.
If it just has a piece of crud in there-- that might do it.

In my O3, I didn't trust myself carving on the trigger guts, so I just put in a Timeny trigger group.

That switch on the left side beside the bolt is a magazine cut off.
It was made so you could cut off the magazine, then single feed the higher pressure rounds for launching a rifle grenade.

I'm glad that you had it pointed downrange and in a safe direction!

Parts for the 03 are pretty common, both the sears and striker rods. If not sure order both, might not be original to the rifle but it will be safe.

No biggie.

You had the rifle in a safe direction, so that proves you're on top of your game.
It would be a problem under different circumstances.
I enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.

FYI a follow-up...

The neighbor's 20yr old son loves milsurp guns and begged me to let him tinker with the Springfield. Since it was low on my priority list and not too terribly valuable, I let him have at it.

He took it apart and discovered that my dad installed a Timney competition trigger. He checked the part numbers and it was the correct variation for the 1903. However, he did a bunch of research and realized that there were many variations of the 1903 and that Timney made only one 1903 trigger that fit the majority of the later versions. Mine was a very early model made in 1908, so the Timney trigger didn't quite fit properly and was causing the issues.

He found a stock replacement online and installed it after some minor massaging and it is amazingly good! He said the stock trigger was only $25, but I'm planning on giving him $100 for the job, as he did great.

Just wanted to update folks who were curious as to why the rifle was misfiring.

I just found this thread and I was suspecting the sear right off the bat. I have both 1903 and 1903A3 and they both hold quite well. Changing triggers can be a challenge at times or even worse it the trigger mechanics" that are found in every town and village. I too am glad you had your suspicions and had the rifle pointed in a safe direction. Be Well, james

Is it common to add a Timney trigger? How is the stock trigger?
Is that a Malcolm scope on the rifle?

I've installed aftermarket triggers on lots of Mausers. These include Timney and Bold triggers, as well as homemade single stage ball triggers. Before I use any rifle that I've replaced the trigger on I do two tests. The first one is a bump test. With the rifle empty, but cocked and ready to fire, I drop the butt of the rifle about a foot and a half onto the floor. Do this at least 5 or 6 times to make sure that the rifle won't accidentally discharge. Next I place a small screwdriver between the tang and the cocking piece and try to pry the cocking piece up off the sear. You don't need to go Incredible Hulk on this - some upward pressure on the screwdriver, just enough to see if you can cause the cocking piece to disengage and cause the firing pin to fire is all that's needed. If reasonable force cannot cause the firing pin to fall, then that rifle is as safe as can be considered normal.