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As the name implies, the Springfield Model 1922 was developed in 1922.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It’s really cool.<\/p>\n
The M1922 has target grade Lyman adjustable sights, with interchangeable front sight inserts.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It’s counterintuitive to all the shooting I’ve ever done with iron sights, but it seems to work.\u00a0 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…<\/p>\n The M1922 was produced in four different variants from 1922 until the advent of World War II.\u00a0 At that time, material shortages precluded further production, and the US Army had already moved on to the M1 Garand.\u00a0 Springfield Arsenal produced 2,020 M1922 rifles.<\/p>\n Both Kevin’s rifle and mine have jeweled bolts and the jeweling is identical.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 When Kevin showed me his, he told me that the jeweling on his was the only thing on the rifle that wasn’t original.\u00a0 I think we were both wrong.\u00a0 The jeweling on both bolts (Kevin’s and mine) is absolutely identical.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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).\u00a0 But I know Kevin is not selling his, and I’m not selling mine, either.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Springfield M1922 rifles don’t come up for sale very often, and when they do, they go for big bucks.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The magazines for these rifles are extremely rare, too.\u00a0 I’ve never seen one for sale; I imagine if one did appear on the market, the ask would be several hundred dollars.<\/p>\n I’d previously written about my M1922 here on ExNotes and that story is here<\/a>.\u00a0 There’s more info about these fine rifles online.\u00a0 Rock Island Auction has a good M1922 video.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1-1.jpg\")
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