I think the defective barrels were replaced, but a few might still be out there. When barrels crack at the breech they can split any receiver. The breech had been over heated in the bumping up process, something that was discovered in some early P-14 and M1917 barrels as well. Others were due to a very bad lot of barrels provided by a subcontractor. Some were due to a very bad lot of WW1 manufacture ammo with soft caseheads the case head splitting and venting more gas than the tiny vents could handle, probably why the USMC bored 'Hatcher Holes' in their low number receivers. The low number receiver failures with known causes would have likely destroyed any action but in less spectacular manner. 35 Remington through a 7.7 Jap rifle, the receiver blown to shards on the third shot, so any action may be destroyed if put to enough abuse. Hatcher wrote of an accident where two boys fired three rounds of. Turns out the spare bolt is actually for the A4 sniper rifle and probably worth more than the rifle itself. Gunsmith set the headspace so that either bolt will not take the go guage. I found a partially bent and scalloped bolt for my A3. Funny thing is that I never had it drilled and tapped for scope mounts. Looking to get a really nice set of origional sights for it and try cast boolits. Took it out of its fajen stock stuck it in a C stock and shot it for quite awhile. When I had my 89.00 A3 rebarreled and sporting sights installed and blued I didn't cut the barrel. Tried to tell him about low numbered 1903's but was like talking to the wall. He said I'll give you a good deal only $500. pretty sure the good ones were over 250,000. Checked the serial number and it was around the 200,000 series. Covered in rust from being stored in the attic, had some funky welding done on it and generally looked a mess. Guy I bought my present house from had an attic stored Rock Island 1903 low number.

1903 springfield serial number lookup