The Hammerli website has a photo of some rifles on a rack with a sign that says IIRC "in transit to US government".  Supposedly these rifles went to a US team competing in the International Matches in Europe 1925-1930.   

A friend just bought a Hammerli match rifle with a 3-digit serial number, a very long barrel (28 to 30 inches). bore .300, groove .310 and chambered for what appears to be a rimmed .30-06 case.  A dummy .30-06 cartridge chambers perfectly but does not eject. A chamber cast says it is a .30-06.  From the photo, this looks to be one of the Hammerlis on the rack.  The rifle has scope blocks and target front and rear sights.  The rear sight slide has several scribe marks that appear to be settings for specific loads.

In Hatcher's Notebook, Julian Hatcher includes a photo of himself as team captain and a table of loads used in the various competitions, but he never says exactly what rifles were used.  Flayderman's Guide refers to International Match Springfields.   

Can anyone shed any light on the rifle or the matches?  Might this rifle, if purchased by the US gov't, be considered a secondary martial arm?  There is no "US property" stamp.

An envious Waterman

Waterman, the Hammerli Team rifles as used by the U.S. 1930 team were chambered for the 30-06 Match ammo of the time. They were rimless and incorporated a extractor that would pop over or around the case and snap into the extractor groove and were quite reliable. I have owned two. Still have one and will look closer at the extractor for you. These Rifles were ordered from Hammerli after the Springfield Armory gave up on trying to make the 03 Springfield rifles shoot as well. The hammerli has a short fall very fast striker and fantastic multi lever set trigger system. If your freinds Hammerli is one of the originalTeam rifles it will be in the serial # range 450 to into the 500"s. By the way the numbers on the butthook assembly are not the serial numbers. The real serial numbers are marked in two places. Under the forend on the face of the reciever, and also by Springfield on the face of the barrel at the breech in very small neat etching. It is reported that Springfield ordered 25 complete rifles from Hammerli and 25 spare actions. Have seen the numbers reported up to 25 rifles and 50 actions. In most cases the butthook and the butthook base plate numbers do not match as the rifle had two different hooks. A prone and kneeling hook and a offhand hook and they were all interchangable and the team members were not fussy about keeping them in order. The complete rifles recieved would not shoot our ammo worth a damm and it wasa dicovered that the barrels had Swiss bore and grove diameters. This gave a groove diameter of .311. So Springfield rebarrelled them using existing pressure proof barrels selected for their very uniform bore and groove diameters all the way thru and found they achieved even finer accuracy than with the star gauged match barrels of the
time. Well, enough for now. Gongradulate your buddy on a tremendous find. Regards, FITZ.

Waterman, OK here is the sound of the second shoe dropping.
There is no record of Springfield ever sending any barrels to Hammerli. So, if it has Swiss proof marks it is most likely a Swiss Barrel. The folks at Springfield by the way never really got over recieving barrels with wrong bore and groove dimensions only two weeks before the team was to embark on boat for Europe. But there may be another explanation. After the U.S. Teams success in the 1930 International matches there was a hue and cry for these Rifles. The NRA in response made arrangements with Hammerli to take and forward orders for team rifles that were to be identical to the U.S. rifles. There were no mistakes on these as to Bore and Groove dimensions and some small number were imported. The cost by the way in 1931 and on was $300 to $400 no small sum at that time. The real test would be in my mind do the Buttplate Base and Butthook numbers on the left side match? If they do it is most likely this was one of the Rifles from the NRA. The actual Team Rifles got all their accessories all mixed up. In thirty years I have only managed to reunite one butthook to its original Rifle. It was a Prone hook I bought loose and a freind and I were comparing numbers and realised he had a team rifle with the same numbers on the base. End result I traded it to him. He has a large collection of them as he has been pursuing them for nearly 45 years and bought every one that ever passed his way. So anyhow congradulations once again on a nice find. By the way both of mine have been terrific shooters also. Regards, FITZ.

My good friend Moodyholler told me of this thread, knowing that I'm always looking for info on Martini Springfields.  Now have a chance to chat with someone who has had two of them.  Mine came from my Grandfather who was lucky to have a Govt Job in the '30s and lived in Wash DC where the DCM had a store.  I'm lucky that my older brother is left handed so I got the rifle with the big cheek piece.  Unfortunately it war reblued back when it was just an old gun, but as waterman says it sure will shoot. 
I never knew where the serial number was, so many thanks.  Mine is a couple of numbers lower than the 450 in Fitz' description.  I also note Springfield Research Service lists serial numbers from 418 - 473 and shows mine being targeted at Springfield on 9 Apr 1929.  Another source of info is Capt E.C. Crossman's 1932 "Book of the Springfield" chapter 4.
Any more information would be more than welcome.

And fine Martinis they are too.  Hope the attach shows a rifle and not a grandkid.

I tried to put in a picture.  A clash of culture between enjoying old single shots and doing stuff with a PC.  I even read the directions in the "help"; to no avail;  I got a young person to try to add a picture and that didn't work either.  I just went to the range instead.
If there is someone who can tell me how to add a picture, in words an officer can understand . . .

Attaching a picture - when you're making a reply, the area on the Reply screen right below the region where you type in your Message is called Attach. You hit the browse button there and search your PC for the picture you want. On a Windows PC that job gets done by another window popping up when you click the Browse button here. Select your picture by highlighting it with a single mouse click, then click the Open button on the window that Windows opened. That puts the name and address of your pic into the little text box back here in the Attach area. Then it should get uploaded when you do a Post. 

Let's see if it works ...

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Hey Joe, sorry to see the lever got all mushed in the car wreck, hope you are okay!

Never was a Gunny, just a SGT, got out before I got that far. The war was over  and they wanted me shine my brass and polish my boots and it wasn't fun no more.

That is beautifull rifle.  They have one on display in the NRA Museum.  I want say it is the one used to win the Gold Medal at the Olympics.

Brophys book has some good photos but Crossmans book of the Springfield has I think the best background and discription of these rifles.

I have a reprint copy of Springfield Arsenals production records will have a look to see if the Free rifles are mentioned. I don't think so but you never know.

Boats

Joe, congradulations on having one of the originals that appears to be unscrewed with. Hint! The originals as barreled by Springfield had their Serial Number etched on the barrel at the breech. Drop the Breech block and look very closely at the face of the barrel. The Numbers are small but they are clear. A batch of these were rebarreled bya well known Pennsylvania Gunsmith in either 1952  or 1953. The barrels he installed were shorter and lighter than the original barrels. This was our first foray back into International shooting. Crap! I cannot remember his name. I believe the reason for the smaller barrels had to do with the weight limit. It had been reduced slightly. My original comes in at 18 + Lbs and the new weight was 17.5 Lbs I think. When I remember his name I will post it. CRS lately. HTH regards, FITZ.

Just found this.  A Serial; number look up for Martini Springfields

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IN response to some renewed interest in the Hammereli Single Shot Free rifles of the 1920-1930 era I am adding a reply to resurrect this old thread to bring it current. 
    I have acquired two of them over the years but both are European ones one in the Swiss regulation 7.5x55 rimless military cartridge which is ballistically like hot 30-06 ammo. 
   the other is an obvious European conversion to a match grade .22 rimfire.  the 7.5 bore was drilled out to about .50 cal and a shorter match grade 22 rimfire barrel turned down and inserted.   I am assuming that one of the Euro-free rifles was modified for small bore competition  All other aspects of the rifle ( action, lever triggers sights and stock) are same as the 7.5mm.