Being a LRBPTR shooter, I've done quite a bit of reading on the early Creedmoor matches. L.L. Hepburn was a member of the 1874 team and worked at Remington at the same time. IIRC, he mentions that he hand built both his and Fulton's match rifles. The question is, what did they look like. Were they just rolling block Creedmoors or something else? Richard Binger has a rifle that looks like a cross between a rolling block and a Hepburn. It has a side lever and has a lot of traits of the #3 with more drop than the rolling block has. Perhaps they were the first prototypes. Shortly after, Hepburn finished the design of his #3 which we see today. I think he had one thing in mind when he developed it; long and mid-range shooting. He wanted ease of wiping the bore which was allowed at that time, and the ease of passing a rod through from the breech end. This, along with a center hung hammer and faster lock time than most rifles of that era.
Remington did make their own sights as some are seen on existing Creedmoor rifles. If your model has the long top tang, it should be drilled and tapped for that sight. The hole spacing should be around 1.925". It will be one difficult sight to find. Because it is in 30-40, the sight may be almost one of a kind in that the staff would not have to be nearly as tall as the bp rifles need. If your rifle has the short top tang, it would have different hole spacings and indeed take a different sight base.
Does the cut for the base of the heel sight look like an after market fix or was it factory? By the time that rifle was made, (1902-1907) the Creedmoor matches were long gone and the Palma matches were being held.
Last edited by Bob Saathoff; 10/07/12 11:11 AM.
