The replica! Can you help?

[4ndy]

Hi Robin

Just found this thread.

You will have to put some picture up when you have it all finished.

Take care

Andy

[RobinC]

Come on Andy, you must have forgotten!!

Not only was it finished, but "some one" (YOU!!!) contacted me and wanted info on a home made Original 75 rifle case with a GB team sticker on, and it turned out it was the actual case from Pam's Rifle, that was you Andy, and you graciously donated the case to us!!

But that was not just the biggest coincidence with you! Some months later you were selling your 75, and brought it to me to see it, as it looked like an early one, and I said I'd like to see it. No, it was not Pam's original stock, but coincidences of all time!!!!! I recognised that it was actually her original action!!!!!!!

I also confirmed that later with dates and numbers, and I could see internal factory modded repair details, from repairs that the factory did at a shoot in Germany!

Andy then graciously agreed to swop that action with us for the restored action I had used on the replica.

Thanks Andy, and once you had sold it it would never have been traceable or recognised as Pam's after that


So meeting Andy has been a big factor in ending a 7 year hunt, and has got a major part of Pam's original Original 75 back, the action, and the case.

I believe the stock, as a very short special was binned long ago by a "must be as made" collector, sad that those people do what they do with no understanding of the history, as it was the very first UK imported Original 75, and the only one used by a GB team member in Internationals, and that won international medals!

If any of you you are restoring, and particularly match guns, PLEASE be very careful to fully research their history. This one was ours personally, but its not the first historic rifle I've rescued, I was also very fortunate to be able to rescue a historic Ex Malcom Cooper 300mt rifle, and restore it, and donated it to the NRA museum at Bisley. That I rescued from some one just before they started to remove match stickers including ones for the world championships, that Malcolm won!

But, the replica stock is finished, Andy has seen it!!! But I'm not able to add pics on here, I am to computers what Putin is to the humanities, but I will send some pics to Andy by email, and perhaps he can add them.

Have Fun
Robin

[4ndy]

Thanks Robin

It was my pleasure returning it to you and Pam.

I must say though If I had known about the online search you had going on for it when I first contacted you all those months before, knowing how much it meant to you both I would have brought it round sooner rather than it sitting in my cabinet. As you may remember, at one point I was considering remodelling the case to take one of my BSA Light Patterns....... OMG..... so pleased I decided against it.

Here are some photos of the rifle with the case when I had it and then with Pam.
Robin has asked me to share these photos on here.
Robin has sent the case away to be restored and is hopefully having some replica stickers created to match the ones that were removed, luckily Robin still has a case with the original sticker on to copy off.

Hopefully we will see the case on here in all its glory

Finally just to say thanks to Robin for his generosity with what he did finding me a special 10mtr rifle and then working his magic on it to make it even better.... and yes its a Walther.



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[RobinC]

Thanks Andy

The case was made for Pam by a club mate, so I knew it was so clearly hers as soon as I saw it, and the same guy made me a case for my 65 pistol which of course I still have, and the clincher was they have the same make clasps!

I'll restore the case when it reaches the front of the queue in my jobs to do, I've just finished building a Barnard P .223 Rem. into a Walther KK500 Alutec stock for 300 mt rifle, my bucket list project, and its a stunner!

The 75 case will be easy, the difficult part will be making period stickers. And researching the ones we would have had!! I have some that will be the same on my old pistol case, as we both did much the same events, her rifle, me pistol, but I will have to get the memory working on what we did, and then research to find sticker designs.

Have Fun
Robin

[Leyland77]

What a great story and interesting thread Robin,
was a great read and the rifle looks great !
Jim

[AC99]

An interesting piece of shooting history with a happy ending and of such personal significance to you and Pam.

The model 75 was also my first 10m rifle.

[RobinC]

Thanks Guys, may be, you may find part of the 75 tale interesting?

Deciding "if" it was her genuine original Original, was quite tricky, as I did not have the serial number, but it was done by a bit of "the little grey cells, dates and history, and an interesting story, so the plot continues!

The very first model 75's had quite different internals, mainly on the internal linkages, and this was the very early type.
The first in the UK were two imported to Dykes in 1977, this was dated early 1977, a month or so before the British Championships that year. It then had to be imported to Dykes, Dykes reserved one of the original two for Pam as she was the only GB Squad member using an Original (then a 66).

I know she got hers a few weeks prior to the 1977 British Championships then held at Cardiff as I had to mod the trigger (short reach) and stock for her. So hers was one of the two, and going by the stamped date on the action of this one, and the date of Cardiff this had to one of the two, but was it hers?

Well, it had to be, why? As she used both!!! Well firstly her's (the first one!) broke down during the first 40 shot qualifying shoot (they did two then), the cocking lever jammed open!!! She stopped shooting, and took the rifle to me, and I took it to the Dykes stand which they had at the championships. (good old days!)

Dykes very helpfully took the other action out of their sole display 75, (they had only just appeared in the UK Pam had hers, so they only had this one!), and I switched it with the broken one, put it in her stock, and with her sights, and she returned to her firing point, and continued shooting!!! The organisers were less jobsworth in those days!!

The broken one became their display one for the rest of the meeting!! Incidentally she won class B and still has the medal!

So first, she used both the first two in the country!! So is this the first one that jammed, or the second one?

Later in an International event in Germany, the same problem occurred, the cocking lever jammed open, Mayer and Grammispatcher, the manufacturers, also had a stand at that meeting, and one of their guys did a quick repair job on the linkage, this rifle has evidence of that repair! So this is definitely the action she finished that 1977 British Championships with, and used after that, and also shot Internationally with, winning her first International medal, two GB Ladies Team silver's at Intershoot in Holland in 1980 shooting with Sarah Cooper and Irene Daw.

Shortly after that they revised the linkage on production 75's, and they are distinctly different.

In early 1981 her Original 75 was sold, (what's started this search and project!), when she changed over to a Walther LGR, and her LGR was a prototype Junior, which she still has, that came about because she told an old gentleman in Germany, she did not like the LGR, and why, and he was a very influential old gentleman! But that's another story.

Good old days, and fun game this shooting!

Have Fun
Robin