ing us a team total of 5284 (x 6000)—a full 100 points ahead of our Swiss rivals. No doubt about it; our per- formance the year before was no fl uke. Morris Fisher won the 3 x 40 individual championship (with a 1075) and Walter Stokes shot 383 for the prone championship. We used Springfi eld rifl es with Pope barrels, though Stokes used a Remington barrel.
The Swiss, needless
to say, were not amused, and resolved to do better in 1925 when the World Championship matches would be held on their home turf, in St. Gallen Switzerland. The USA went into the
1925 matches “one down.” Several of our most ex- perienced shooters were unable to make the trip and, because of the late decision to send a team, open try-outs were not used for team selection. Instead, those judged to be of “team timber” were invited to Quantico where fi nal team selection occurred. The Swiss had prob-
lems, too. They had report- edly obtained a Springfi eld match rifl e and a quantity of our ammunition. Testing re- vealed that their equipment was less accurate than ours. The fast lock time of the Martini was not a cure- all. Swiss precision was called upon and soon their team’s rifl es were equipped with improved barrels and ammunition. The new com- binations were found to be as accurate as ours, and it worked. The Swiss won the 3 x 40 team championship by 131 points, posting a
new record score of 5386. The Swiss won all four indi- vidual championships three with new record scores. The low man on the Swiss team equaled the score of our second highest shooter. There were no matches
in 1926 but the U.S. team that went to the 1927 World Championships probably had the fi nest Springfi eld match rifl es ever assem- bled. John Garand (de- signer of the M1 rifl e) had developed an innovative modifi cation of the Spring- fi eld fi ring mechanism that gave a measured lock time
of 2.2 ms, said to be faster than the Martini, and G. A. Woody had produced a set trigger (of a four lever design) better than any al- ternative. Nonetheless, both the Swiss and the Swedes out shot us, relegating us to third place. Our only bright spot was that Bill Bruce of Cheyenne, WY, won the prone championship with a record 389 score. Clearly, something had to be done and we did it. We got Mar- tinis.
Julian Hatcher waxed
rhapsodic in the June, 1928, Rifl eman: “These
The 1930 U.S. 300 meter team. Kneeling (l. to r.) Russell Seitzinger, Harry Renshaw and William Bruce. Sitting: Mor- ris Fisher, J.K. Boles and S.R. Hinds. Standing: Joe Sharp, Frank Parsons and Emmet Swanson.
[Martini] rifl es seem to just naturally fall into place in the standing position . . . In fact, the gun seems to point and hold itself.” We in- stalled our own .30-’06 bar- rels on otherwise complete Martini platforms. Each rifl e came with two butt plates; one for prone and one for
May 2015 | USA Shooting News 57
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