I have a gunsmithing friend that asked me a while back what I'd like to make next. I had to think on that but came up with a 6.5X55. That's when he said "How about a 6.5X54 MS?". I had never heard of that round. The reason he suggested that was because he was given a 1903 action and he said he'd give it to me. When I first saw it I was amazed at how smooth it was considering the condition it's in. There was quite a bit of rust and pitting but all cosmetic. It is physically sound. We just installed a barrel and test fired it a couple days ago and it tested out just fine.

My plan is to give it a parkerized finish after all the fitting is done. I have found a wild cherry tree that should produce a stock blank with some good figure to make the stock from.

My main reason for this post is to see if anyone on here can shed some light as to when this action was made. The serial numbers do not match on anything that I could see. The bolt knob is round and solid, not hollow. I will try to post some pictures.

This is the serial number on the right side near the front of the action.

This is on the bottom of the action just behind the recoil lug.