What is the best springer 10M match Rifle

[RobinC]

Drew
Its difficult to make comparisons, she always liked the 75, she's short and I did a lot to shorten it, both the stock and trigger reach, and to get the ballance back by weighting it rearward. Her personal best with the 75 was 384 ex 400, and its difficult to get a true comparison as she was developing as she changed to the Walther, her scores were similar, in the 380's but she never made 390. The reason for change was two fold, first the 75 was problematic, it jammed open at the British Championships, and the agents, then Dykes, changed the action over into her stock with one they had on their stand, and she carried on! Then later at an international in Germany it did it again, and the action was changed again, but she never really trusted it after that so was considering a change.

The Walther was a pre production version of the LGR Junior, and she was given that by the factory to assess, so after we shortened it a little to fit perfectly, and weighted it up to get the ballance rearward, I made an a copy alloy muzzle weight as the factory insisted it had to still look standard, and a load of lead in the butt, she then used that to the end of her International career (and actualy still has it), and certainly prefered it to the 75. I think she was more consistent with the Walther, but that may have been more to do with her than the rifle.

She was given the Walther because during a vist to Walther in Ulm after a successful match in Germany, a very nice elderly gentlman was very complimentary of her shooting as he had been at the match, but asked why she did not shoot their then quite new Walther LGR, she gave him a list! Mostly around it being too big for her, the trigger reach was too long, it was too difficult to load, and several other things! He went away and talked to some one else instead, we were told he was Carl Walther Sn! Three months later she was sent the pre production prototype LGR Junior, free of charge, to try, and give feed back on, we have been close friends with the Walther factory ever since!

She has always been very demanding of trigger set up, so I have spent a lot of time over many years setting up triggers, and it can be very frustrating having a shooter who can feel creep in what you think is a perfect trigger! I think the LGR trigger was a big step up from the 75 and the 300S, it was the first of the match triggers that could be set really crisp and creep free. The 75 is a tad agricultural, but still quite similar in feel to the FWB. I recently had the need to adjust an LGR trigger, and was quite impressed with how close the trigger could be set to a modern match trigger.

She still shoots today at bus pass plus, air with a Walther special, a LG400 expert fitted in an LG300 Junior stock, a model they now make to special order.

We both activelly coach, and the biggest advances from 40 years ago to modern day rifles are in ergonomics, balance, trigger quality, and lock time, the accuracy has improved, but there was not really a lot to improve on.

I always liked the 75, I think its as good as the 300S, trigger and accuracy, its drawback was the ballance, there is a lot of mechanicals sat just forward of the middle and a bit high up, but then most of the springers were the same such as the 300S, and really the LGR was not a lot different, the Anschutz 250 to 380 was similar but were rarely seen, don't really know why, but I think they were expensive then, and no better, so no one really went for them. The FWB 300s was the most common rifle in use then for about 15 years, but the LGR was the big step that started the trail of development to SSP's, then Co2's and then PCP's.

If you ever see a very short stocked early Original 75, with the trigger with a longer alloy bar to get it rearward, the trigger guard skeletonised to clear the rear ward trigger, cheek piece built up, and loads of stickers on it, its her old one and we have been looking for it for ten years, nostagic old farts!
Have fun
Good shooting
Robin