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I do not know about a 'LAST DITCH' during WW1, I believe the British allowed us to to have an option, we chose to build the M1917 Enfield so I guess it could be said we had a 'FIRST DITCH', we ditched the 03 for the M1917, Browning/Winchester found nickel in 1895, Springfield found nickel in 1926.
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I don't agree with that characterization. The U.S. armed services didn't "ditch" the 1903 Springfield for the U.S. M1917 - production continued at the armories producing 03's throughout the war. It's just that neither Springfield nor Rock River could produce enough rifles to outfit all of the new soldiers, and Remington had extra capacity to manufacture the M1917 based on the Enfield P14 pattern, so contracted for BOTH rifles to be manufactured and issued simultaneously. Definitely not any sort of "last ditch" effort, nor a replacement of the 1903 by the 1917, just an augmentation.