A Tale of Two M1922 Springfields

By Joe Berk

Many years ago, I inherited an M1922 Springfield rifle from my Dad.  I’ve only ever seen one other M1922 (that’s how rare they are), and it was at the West End Gun Club range earlier this month.  Good buddy Kevin owns one, and we both agreed to bring (and shoot) our rifles.  Like mine, Kevin’s rifle is beautiful.  It has nicer wood than mine.  Just seeing any M1922 is a treat (let alone one with figured walnut), so I really enjoyed seeing Kevin’s.

As the name implies, the Springfield Model 1922 was developed in 1922.  It was built as a training rifle, intended to offer a lower cost, lower recoil approach to learning how to shoot the Army’s main battle rifle, the 1903 Springfield.  The M1922 has the same general dimensions as the 1903, including the large bolt and the long action, but the bolt only retracts just enough to extract and eject a .22 Long Rifle cartridge.  It’s really cool.

The M1922 has target grade Lyman adjustable sights, with interchangeable front sight inserts.  My rifle is configured as a “peep to peep” sight set; instead of seeing a front post in the rear aperture, the front sight has another aperture ring instead of a post.  The idea is that you focus on the target, and the two apertures (in the front sight and the rear sight) appear out of focus.  It’s counterintuitive to all the shooting I’ve ever done with iron sights, but it seems to work.  My issue is age; these days when looking through those tiny apertures it’s difficult to make sure I’m on the right bullseye on a multi-bullseye target. Ah, to be 70 again…

The M1922 was produced in four different variants from 1922 until the advent of World War II.  At that time, material shortages precluded further production, and the US Army had already moved on to the M1 Garand.  Springfield Arsenal produced 2,020 M1922 rifles.

Both Kevin’s rifle and mine have jeweled bolts and the jeweling is identical.  During all the years I owned my M1922, I always assumed that Dad did the jeweling on my rifle’s bolt (he did that on a lot of his shotguns and rifles).  When Kevin showed me his, he told me that the jeweling on his was the only thing on the rifle that wasn’t original.  I think we were both wrong.  The jeweling on both bolts (Kevin’s and mine) is absolutely identical.  I suspect the rifles left the Springfield Arsenal with jeweled bolts, although I did manage to find an internet M1922 photo with a non-jeweled bolt.

Kevin’s rifle had more figure in its walnut stock than mine, and that made me want it immediately (a reaction I have any time I see a rifle with fancy walnut).  But I know Kevin is not selling his, and I’m not selling mine, either.  These rifles are just too rare (they are irreplaceable, in my opinion), and mine came to me from my Dad (another reason I’ll never sell it).  Springfield M1922 rifles don’t come up for sale very often, and when they do, they go for big bucks.  I searched Gunbroker.com and found two that were listed at $2,499 and $2,099, and neither of those was in nearly as good a condition as mine or Kevin’s.  I’d expect our rifles to be in the $3,000+ range if they were for sale, but like I said above, they most definitely are not.  The magazines for these rifles are extremely rare, too.  I’ve never seen one for sale; I imagine if one did appear on the market, the ask would be several hundred dollars.

I’d previously written about my M1922 here on ExNotes and that story is here.  There’s more info about these fine rifles online.  Rock Island Auction has a good M1922 video.  Rock Island does a good job with their videos when they have interesting firearms for sale, and the M1922 Springfield is squarely in that category.

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