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Back before the War the 300 HH was the long range caliber of choich. The 3 win mag wasn't even a glimmer in anybodies eye back then.

I just bought a box and half of Winchester Military Match 300 HH, it was destined to be used at Camp Perry in the 30s. I also came by a Winchester pre War model 70 in 300 HH or 300 Mag as it was known before the advent of the 3 Win Mag. It is in new condition.

Back in the day...if you wanted accuracy you had a rifle barreled by Pope, Zischang or Schoyen later the God of accuracy mantle fell on AO Neidner.

In the 20s and 30s the US Military competed in International matches using modified 1903 Springfields. In 1928 they decided to try out a Swiss made Martini and 40 of them were made. They were all chambered for 30/06.

Long range(1000 yard matchs) really started in England in the late 1850s as military shooting matches. However the .577 didn't have the accuracy needed. So Colonel Whitworth developed a rifle with a Hexagon Bore and the "Small bore" military match rifle was born. The caliber was 451 using paper patched bullets. As time went on the rifles morphed into regular match target rifles leaving the military usage behind. By 1870 a new kid appeared on the block and that was the Rigby Long Range Target. Anybody who was anybody had one of those as it was the snaze.

The Irish, Scotch, British, Australians and Americans all fielded teams to compete. In 1874 the match was held in Creedmore, NY. The Americans were using primarily the Sharps and Remington Rolling Blocks breach loaders in 44/100. The others the Rigby muzzleloader. The American team basically won by default because one of the Irish team members inadvertantly shot at the worng target. That was enough to make the difference.

Americans from the mid 1840s on had a great interest in competition shooting matchs. The standard length was 15 Rods or 220 yards. The groups they were able to achieve with their old muzzle loading black powder rifles would put the test to anything manufactured today.