Scarcely a collectible, but the decent Springfield Model 87A I picked up last week took me back 70 years to when I had my picture taken holding one that belonged to a cousin off with the Army Air Corps...(I was 4 at that time!)
Question: Were the delayed bolt return and the "gills" answers to a problem that didn't really exist, or did they in fact help to keep the action relatively clean.
Ordinarily I don't like autoloading 22's but this is really fun to shoot (reminds me of a miniature Model 8 Remigton), and it can be a straight-pull bolt action too!

airdaleman, The first versions of the model 6 did not have any gills and did not hold the bolt back. These features were added very soon after the introduction and then were kept so it appears they were done to solve problems the were found with early guns. I have not found a Savage parts catalogs that has the early parts listed, they just have a note that says early guns will be updated to the later configuration if sent to the factory.

Here is some more information - topics/7305119/#Post7305119

GeneB, thank you for the info and the link. I wonder exactly what the problem was with the early guns, and what the factory did to correct it.