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The problem was that Springfield made and numbered receivers and stockpiled them until rifles were requested by the using services, at which point they set up to assemble rifles. That custom was carried over from the Krag and the Trapdoor because they never knew whether a given receiver would become a rifle or a carbine; it depended on the order received from the services through COFORD in Washington. That practice made it difficult to determine just when, and at what number, a given change was made. Most sources indicate that the 800,000 number was the "high end"; they knew the change had been made by that point, but not at which point before that. So is 799xxx OK? I don't know. Is 750001 OK? I don't know. And since the problem was itself random, any given number below 800,000 may be OK, or at least as OK as any SHT rifle.
It is worth noting that the process for heat treating didn't change for the '03. They did the same thing for the Krag, same steel, same process. But the Krag cartridge was lower pressure and ammunition was made under better control than in the WWI emergency.
Note that Krags did let go. The attempt to issue a higher velocity round was aborted when rifles failed. Also worth noting is that for both rifles, the original finish, called oil blackening, was part of the heat treatment and quenching process. Krags and early 1903's often show the flaking and "white spots" typical of old oil blackening. When those rifles were returned to the Armory for refinish, the receivers were rust blued, since the oil blackening could not be redone without heating the receiver red hot.
Jim
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