clarence said

clarence said

Years ago (25+), Gary Quinlan showed me one of the International Matches he said had the special rimless extractor;

Gary Quinlan either did not know what he was talking about, or he had a rifle that was modified after the fact.  All (27) of the International Match rifles listed in the factory ledgers specifically state “30-06 Rim”.  Per the factory records, none of them were made for a rimless cartridge or made with a special extractor.

Bert H. said

  

So Bert, does Roger Adam know what HE is talking about in his Int. Match Rifle piece in the current Journal?  It’s true that they were initially made for the rimless cartridge, but were “shortly after” converted to rimless BY THE FACTORY. 

And does Roger misunderstand the purpose of the rimless extractor retention screw?

“That large headed screw on the upper rear left side of the receiver frame is not for the extractor.  Instead, it is for the mandated safety locking device that was required by the Palma Match rules. By turning it 1/4 turn, it blocked the hammer from falling if the trigger was pulled.”

  

No, Roger did not misunderstand it… but I most certainly did, and that was at least a part of my motivation to assist Roger with this article and get that information out to all who are interested.

With Roger’s great assistance and detailed pictures of his rifle (which he graciously disassembled), I was able to learn exactly how the IMRs were modified to handle the rimless 30-06 cartridge and how they actually operate (Roger made a video of the extractor in motion).  I will state that both myself, Gary Quinlan, and John Campbell were not accurate or correct in our spoken & written information concerning the manufacture of those special purpose rifles. 

Roger and I spent a lot of time on the phone and internet discussing and researching the interesting history of those rifles. He wrote the original rough draft of the article and then I rewrote it and added some additional information and the pictures.  It was a true collaborative effort.

What we know at this time, is that of the (27) IMRs that were made (documented in the factory records), (25) of them were modified for the rimless cartridge and shipped to Camp Perry.  There are (2) of them that we know of that are still chambered for the rimmed 30-06 (I included a picture of one of them in the article).  We are 99% certain that it was Frank Burton who modified the rifles after the factory had fully assembled them.  The ledger record entries for all (27) are very clear that they were made for a rimmed cartridge.  The fact that the rifles were shipped to Camp Perry in two separate batches several days apart supports the theory that Burton was still working on converting some of the rifles for rimless cartridges right up to the last minute.  

Roger was able to find quite a bit of supporting documentation discussing the use of the IMRs at the 1913 Camp Perry match.  We intend to add some of that documentation to a follow-up (updated) article after hopefully locating more of these interesting rifles.  Roger is currently tracking down some of the rifles that J. Campbell mentioned in his book.  We plan to meet up in person at the Cody WACA show later this year and compare notes.

Bert