What is the meaning of an IIS http status code 404.503?

Solution 1:

A quick review of the site in question solved this question. It was setup with IP Address Restrictions, the 404.503 is logged for every request that is not from an allowed IP address.

Normally a 403 (Forbidden) status is sent, but in IIS 7+ you can specify which status to return. In the 'Edit Feature Settings' for IP restrictions choose the 'Deny Action Type':

Unauthorized - results in a 401 Unauthorized - IIS-Logs:  401.503
Forbidden    - results in a 403 Forbidden    - IIS-Logs:  403.503
NotFound     - results in a 404 Not Found    - IIS-Logs:  404.503
AbortRequest - results in a Aborted          - IIS-Logs:  not logged