The Imperial German Army acceptance mark on the clearly civilian barrel of Buckstix’s 8x57J Sauer shows it was taken into sniper service in 1914, probably one of those collected in the Duke of Ratibor’s drive to round up scoped hunting rifles in the military calibre.

The intermediate action may well itself have been of military origin.

This Rigby, retailed by them August 1898 to a Mr. W. H. Fox and originally with a cross-over stock had an intermediate action with the action number 10.

It is in Jon Speed’s book as the first of the Rigby Mauser that he lists. As I recall he said these military trials actions came from trials rifles broken up at the end of the trials and disposed of in the trade