July 2008 No. 238 $ Printed in USA $5.99 U.S./Canada

Transcription

1 July 2008 No. 238 $ Printed in USA $5.99 U.S./Canada

2 Sporting Firear earms Journal July-August 2008 Volume 40, Number 4 ISSN Issue No Cleaning Lever Actions Spotting Scope - Dave Scovill 12 Hitting Down Range - Mike Venturino Page Belt Mountain Punch Solid Bullets Mostly Long Guns - Brian Pearce Myths and Realities of Oversized Scope Objectives Optics - Ron Spomer Holes for Sight Mounting Screws Light Gunsmithing - Gil Sengel Man Invents Recoilless Rifle Straight Talk - Ron Spomer Page Remington Classic Cartridges - John Haviland 36 Cooper Jackson Game Rifle Semi-Custom Performance Package Stan Trzoniec Winchester Magnum &.300 WSM How They Stack Up Brian Pearce 56 Speaking Gunsmith A Layman s Guide John Barsness 64 An Old Guy s 1903 Springfield 105 Years Ago... Mike Venturino 74 Marlin Golden 39A A Landmark Levergun John Haviland Page Background Photo: 2008 Ted Rose

3 On the cover... The Cooper Jackson Game rifle is topped off with a Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x36mm scope in Leupold bases and rings. Mike Venturino s Springfield rifle is fitted with a Leatherwood - Hi Lux Wm. Malcolm 3x scope. Cooper rifle photo by Stan Trzoniec. Springfield rifle photo by Yvonne Venturino. Page 56 Page 74 Page 36 Issue No. 238 July-August 2008 Sporting Firear earms Journal 84 Integrity Counts Queries & Comments - Staff What s New in the Marketplace Inside Product News - Clair Rees The Efforts of Many Custom Corner - Stan Trzoniec 06 Bolt-Action Safeties Rifles & Woodsmoke - John Barsness Background Photo: 2008 Ted Rose Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copyrights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts. Publisher/President Don Polacek Associate Publisher Mark Harris Editor in Chief Dave Scovill Managing Editor Roberta Montgomery Art Director Gerald Hudson Production Director Becky Pinkley Contributing Editors Associate Editor Al Miller John Barsness Ron Spomer Brian Pearce Stan Trzoniec Clair Rees Mike Venturino Gil Sengel Ken Waters Advertising Advertising Director - Stefanie Ramsey stefanie@riflemag.com Advertising Representative - Tom Bowman bowman.t@sbcglobal.net Advertising Information: Circulation Circulation Manager Michele Elfenbein circ@riflemagazine.com Subscription Information: Rifle (ISSN ) is published bimonthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, President), 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona (Also publisher of Handloader magazine.) Telephone (928) Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12 issues, $36. Foreign and Canada single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $26; 12 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved. Change of address: Please give six weeks notice. Send both the old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Dept., Rifle Magazine, 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rifle, 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona Wolfe Publishing Company 2625 Stearman Rd. Suite A Prescott, AZ Tel: (928) Fax: (928) Polacek Publishing Corporation 6

4 HITTING DOWN RANGE Mike Venturino Photos by Yvonne Venturino Here in Montana in the winter months, my group of BPCR Silhouette shooters goes inside. Every month they get together for a Schuetzen match with their BPCRs, offhand at paper targets at 200 yards. I don t join them. When they ask me why, I tell them that my mind is just too logical. That always produces puzzled looks on their faces, so then I have to explain. My attitude is that the purpose in shooting a rifle is to actually direct a bullet to a specific target. Also it is a natural law that the higher a shooter s head gets from the ground the harder it is to hit that specific target. Therefore, what I see in the Schuetzen game is merely a good way to miss what I m aiming at. Now understand, I m not taking a shot at the Schuetzen shooters of the world. That s not the point here, and I m happy for anyone who enjoys their chosen shooting game. What I m talking about is hitting: whether it s shooting big game, varmints, steel plates, paper targets or anything else. In a nutshell, if you really want to hit something with a rifle go prone, or better yet go prone and rest the rifle on something solid. Lacking a solid rest, wrap up in the rifle s sling. Lacking a sling or Twenty-five percent of all BPCR Silhouette matches are fired from the offhand position. The targets are the 200-meter chickens. Mike considers hits as bonus points added to the real score, which is fired from prone off a cross-stick rest Mike thinks that the steadiest someone can shoot a rifle without any sort of rest is by going prone and bracing up with the rifle s sling. rest, put a bipod on the rifle or carry a shooting stick. But, do anything to avoid shooting offhand. That is unless you re playing a game. Offhand is the worst possible way to shoot a rifle at anything. In my opinion it should be considered a last resort, say when a wounded animal might otherwise escape. And, of course, every hunter who has walked afield with a rifle has had to take an offhand shot at one time or another because grass and brush are too high to go prone or to sit or to use the kneeling position and that s valid. Less valid is making an offhand shot in a hurry because the animal might be leaving the country. I learned as a young man that shooting at running game was just a way to make a mess of a hunt and feel bad about myself later. On my single trip to Africa nearly a quarter-century back, I never gave any thought to shooting positions. So it s interesting to think back on the trip and realize that for almost every shot, I dropped to a kneeling position instinctively. And when that happened the shot was a killing one.

5 Conversely, the only shot I missed over there was at a gemsbok, a fairly large animal and not more than 100 yards away to boot. The brush was so thick that sitting or kneeling was out. Standing upright and shooting through a hole in the foliage was the only option. Did wobbling around offhand make the bullet miss? Or did it hit a twig and go veering away? To this day I wonder about that. Two springs ago I visited with friends in Oregon for a ground squirrel shoot in a place literally infested with the little rodents. We were well outfitted with good shooting benches and ATVs to haul them to the shooting field. Most of the 1, Remington rounds I fired in five days were shot off one of Royal Stucky s portable benches complete with sandbags. I shot magnificently, even if I do say so myself. Last spring we tried to duplicate our Mike says this Montana deer hunter is using his head, because he used a rest that nature provided for his shot. hunt, but problems arose with the weather and a lack of ATVs. So the three of us walked out to the shooting field, and there my buddies had an advantage over me. All three of us this time were packing semiautomatic ARs. Theirs had bipods and mine didn t. Those two fellows lay down in the grass and went to work. Conversely, I wandered around shooting while kneeling and standing and not hitting squat until I crawled behind a large ir Kirk Stovall photo

6 HOCH CUSTOM BULLET MOULDS Tool room quality, nose-pour, most standard or custom designs made to order. Cylindrical (straight) or tapered. Rifle & pistol designs available caliber, $ caliber, $140. Handles $30. Shipping & Handling $8.00. Catalog No. 12, $3 ($4 foreign). COLORADO SHOOTER S SUPPLY Shop Home N. Delaware Roswell, NM rigation pipe, rested my rifle over it and used my hat and gloves for padding. I did some hitting then. The flat grassy prairie where most pronghorn hunting is done is almost always devoid of any Order Online: Black Powder, Pig Lead and Steel Silhouettes by Paul A. Matthews $16.95 plus shipping: U.S. - $7.25 Foreign - call AZ residents add 8.35% tax sort of natural rest. On one of my last pronghorn hunts in Wyoming, I had enough foresight to take along a set of lightweight, extendable shooting sticks, the maker of which I ve now forgotten. To get close enough to shoot at a buck, I had to hoof it up a deep gully and then crawl up a small finger leading out of it. Rising up from prone, I could see the buck grazing out there about 150 yards, but from prone he wasn t visible through the grass. The little shooting sticks were extended, then very slowly I eased up to my knees with the rifle resting in their fork. Then hitting was easy. For most of my life, a sling on a rifle was merely a carrying strap, never a shooting aid. In fact my hunting rifles always had the new style, non-adjustable, extra wide slings. Leather military-style slings were avoided because they just looked too complicated. Then I attended several of Thunder Ranch s Old Rifle classes where wrapping up in militarytype slings was emphasized, and naturally the proper way to mount and adjust military slings was demonstrated. Now I have the utmost respect for military slings at least American ones. If a rest isn t available, then bracing up with a sling and going prone is possibly the steadiest way a rifle can be fired. With my prejudice against shooting offhand it might seem odd that BPCR Silhouette has become my rifle shooting passion. That s because only 25 percent of the metallic silhouette targets the chickens at 200 meters must be fired at from the offhand position. And in fact, I do dread the chicken relay at each and every silhouette match, preferring to shoot them last when having a choice. Why last? Because I figure that shooting at the longer range targets from prone with crossed sticks will give me my true score. Then if any offhand chicken silhouettes are hit, those are bonus points. R

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8 Cooper Jac Game Rifle Semi-Custom Performance Package Stan Trzoniec The first time I used the.280 Remington was on a writers confab deep in the heart of Texas. At just over 100 yards, a mature Axis deer popped out of nowhere to meet his demise. Coming in at just under 130 points, he now hangs proudly on the wall of my office. So when I had a chance to review a new Cooper rifle chambered in the same cartridge, I jumped at the chance. What s this? A new rifle from Cooper Arms? Yes, and finally we get to see a bona-fide, long-action centerfire rifle from Dan Cooper s haunt in Stevensville, Montana. Long a maker of premium varmint and small game rifles in production and wildcat cartridges, this new entry will be available in Custom Classic, Classic and a unique style Cooper calls the Jackson Game rifle. Going back a few years, Dan Cooper, along with two other former employees from Kimber, started Cooper Arms in Starting out with an American-made, three-position ISU type rifle, he made his mark on the shooting sports then moved on to the The new Cooper Jackson Game rifle is chambered in the.280 Remington and fitted with a Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x 36mm scope. Model 38, complete with three front locking lugs and a four-round capacity magazine. This was the start of his ability to hand make custom quality stocks on a regular production basis and the beginning of his serious efforts to build a rifle that would group five shots at 50 yards (rimfire) in tiny.25-inch circles, and guarantee this precision to the original owner. 36

9 kson As the years moved on, Dan ventured into the more popular sporting cartridges, and in 1993 he designed the Model 21, a bolt action with three front locking lugs that was made specifically for the.223 Remington. While his first design was for the varmint shooter, I have a very light Model Mach IV that is still one of my favorite walking small game guns when the weather is hot and the distances are long. I also have a full-blown Cooper Custom Classic.221 Fireball that brings attention whenever I uncase it in the field. Currently Cooper s line of rifles includes just about everything, in a wide variety of cartridges, except one that of a longer action capable of using the power of grown-up hunting cartridges like July-August

10 Cooper the Remington,.270 Winchester,.280 Remington and the ever popular This all came about by Dan s forward thinking on what next to place in his line of custom-production rifles. Quoting Dan, he mentions, I pondered the question. I had surveyed the dealer base and consumers concluding they wanted all in a new rifle. But something had to come first. Talking about the small action was productive, while discussion of the medium action was predictable. But when it came to the hardest project the long action the excitement was hard to contain. The choice of the riflemen and hunters was obvious, so a repeating, centerfire rifle for hunting North American game that would have to have the same accuracy and style as our single shots was inevitable. The die was cast. With that in mind, I placed an order for a Cooper rifle, the Custom Classic was my first choice but with a heavy backlog (even for a writer) of about a When the rifle is ready to fire, both the cocking indicator and the safety lever show red. The receiver is Cooper s own design. year, I settled on what was coming down the line next. According to Rob Behr, Dan s right-hand man, it would be the Jackson Game rifle. While I hate to settle for second choice, just lifting it out of the box shows that the Cooper presence is there for discriminating hunters, and all at a very reasonable price. While the top of the line Custom Classic has all the bells and whistles to include an ebony forend tip, fleur-de-lis checkering with ribbons and a metal grip cap, the Jackson Game represents a rifle any man would be pleased to carry in the field. It has a well thought out stock design, the metalwork is done to perfection, and the wood is top quality and very select in grain, color and layout design. The stock on this Jackson Game rifle follows the modern-classic school of design. The lines are clean and uncluttered, and the wood is first-class, select AA Claro walnut finished in a smooth, oil patina that rivals the best on the market. My particular sample had an abundance of fiddleback figuring on the entire stock from butt to forend. The stock was well laid out with the grain rising upward as it bled out toward the muzzle. For the contemporary sportsman, the stock features a high comb for scope use, and in conjunction with a rollover cheekpiece, adds a distinctive look to this new entry. Forward of the rollover on the 38 The bolt release is on the left side of the receiver. Note the woodwork around this small lever. Three locking lugs make up the forward part of the bolt. A Sako look-alike extractor is located on the bolt face. That slit in the rear of the bolt is for the ejector to make contact with the spent case when the bolt moves to the rear.

11 right-hand side is a double flare (one for the rollover, one for your hand) that blends just to the rear of the receiver tang. In using the rifle with a Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x 36mm scope, my eye centered on the reticle perfectly every time. Since I m an average male, the stock design is obviously slanted for the majority of American hunters. Above left, the magazine holds three rounds in a single stack. Right, for positive locking, the magazine is secured by a spring-like affair on the forward part of the bottom metal. Moving forward the stock starts a gradual taper toward the forend where it is complimented by finger grooves instead of the usual checkering pattern seen on other Cooper rifles. The stock is semirounded, and if it were a little fuller could qualify as

12 Cooper a varmint stock. All the smaller details around the floorplate, trigger guard, bolt release and bolt handle were treated with a style that befits the most luxurious custom rifle built today. The only checkering pattern is on the pistol grip and is executed in a detailed point pattern starting at a meeting point on the wrist and running down to the metal pistol-grip cap. The diamonds were sharp and uncluttered, and the only overrun I could detect was at the very bottom of the pattern, right next to the grip cap, which by the way is installed with a perfectly aligned slot head screw. Inletting on the stock is perfect in every respect and especially along the barrel channel where it hugs the Above left, the hardened screw adjustment connects to the safety, preventing the trigger from moving to the rear. Right, completely made by Cooper, the trigger assembly is neat, clean and allows for adjustment. inch barrel as if it were molded around it. A Pachmayr Classic buttpad is included (a Decelerator recoil pad would be better considering the cartridges) with a black spacer, as are sling swivel studs front and back. Length of pull is inches. The receiver is Cooper s own design and includes a bolt with three front locking lugs and a Sako-styled extractor machined from bar stock. The bolt is inches long over the shroud and is left in a natural, chromelike state. Within the bolt face is the retractable tab extractor, also machined from bar stock. The bolt release is on the left, rearmost part of the receiver. To execute removal, push inward on the serrated part of the release and pull back on the bolt. Operation of the bolt is flawless as the inside raceways of the receiver are honed smooth. On the receiver, both front and rear bridges are drilled and tapped for commercial bases. (The rifle was shipped with Leupold bases.) Because of the limited distance between the eyepiece and ocular lens, I used a front extension ring followed by a standard ring on the rear. There are gas escape holes on both sides of the receiver, and typical of many brands of rifles today, a washertype recoil lug fits between the barrel and receiver. The two-position safety lever is behind the substantial bolt handle. Forward is to fire, to the rear is safe while allowing the bolt to function. To the left of the safety, Specifications Cooper Jackson Game Rifle Action: bolt action, centerfire Stock: AA Select Claro Walnut Cartridge tested:.280 Remington Cartridges available: Remington,.270 Winchester, Barrel length: 24 inches Overall length: inches Sights: no open sights furnished; receiver drilled and tapped for commercial mounts Weight: 8 pounds with scope, rings and bases Finish: matte black on all metal parts Options: custom shop list available Price: $1,695 (Jackson Game Rifle) Manufacturer: Cooper Firearms PO Box 114 Stevensville MT

13 Above left, a washer-type recoil lug is sandwiched between the receiver and barrel. Right, the receiver is glass-bedded and the barrel free-floated. when the rifle is ready to fire, a cocking indicator shows directly under the bolt shroud. The action is glass-bedded, and the barrel is free-floated. Cooper again guarantees accuracy with three-shot groups of at least.5 inch at 100 yards, but on a blustery fall morning, the best I could do was an inch with Speer ammunition and a rifle equipped with a 4-pound, no-nonsense trigger pull. But I m getting ahead of myself here. The stainless barrel, like the action, is matte finished in a deep blue/black color, measures inches at the barrel receiver juncture and finishes off at Accuracy Results average average bullet velocity group (grains) (fps) (inches) 140 Winchester Silvertip 2, Remington Core-Lokt 2, Speer Grand Slam 2, Notes: Velocity recorded 10 feet from the muzzle with an Oehler chronograph. Accuracy tested off a benchrest, and the results are the average of three-shot groups at 100 yards. a sporter diameter of.630 inch at the target-crowned muzzle. The barrel is furnished clean, without sights and is stamped with the manufacturer s name and cartridge on the left side. The base of the magazine blends into the bottom metal. For the technically inclined, the Model 52 is a semicontrolled round feed action with a single stack magazine capacity of three rounds with present cartridge selections. The machined aluminum floorplate on this rifle shows someone in Montana was thinking, as the design is innovative. Again, quoting from Mr. Cooper: In order to control a round, I laid out the receiver and magazine so that either the chamber or the magazine always captured the cartridge. To eliminate any interference with accuracy, the feeding mechanism had to be isolated from the receiver. Any intrusion into the receiver had to be minimal to reduce contortion under stress. Rigidity had to be maintained. Then there was the real trick of how to make it look like it had a hinged floorplate but yet have the magazine drop clear of the rifle when released. For a different look, this Jackson Game rifle sports a rollover comb on a quality piece of wood. Cooper 42

14 The base of the magazine blends into the bottom metal that houses the trigger guard and, for all intents and purposes, actually looks like a hinged floorplate! However, Cooper has all of us fooled by installing a detachable magazine with a small release just forward of the magazine. Holding the belly of the rifle in your left hand and pushing back Above left, instead of checkering, Cooper opted to use finger grooves on the forearm of this particular model. Right, inletting has become an art, and with modern machinery it is executed perfectly. on the release drops the magazine. Replacing the newly loaded magazine is foolproof, smooth in operation and locks in place both front and rear with a resounding click. Of the four cartridges that are available, I like the.280 Remington simply because of its unusual characteristics. Introduced by Remington in 1957, I believe it was led down the wrong track in the beginning by being chambered in its Model 740 autoloader. While it is nothing more than a July-August

15 Cooper modification of the famed necked to take a.284-inch bullet, the.280 case is slightly longer than the.270 Winchester. While the.280 Remington did not show any substantial gain in overall performance over the.270 Winchester, it has its followers. The reason, they say, is that with a 7mm bullet, handloading offers more choices in downrange performance, bullet selection and powder choices. Considering that the.280 was introduced over three decades after the.270 Winchester, I m often surprised at its longevity considering all the newer, sometimes more efficient, cartridges out there today. Some say that to give something CHIRON INC. The Finest Circassian-Turkish Walnut Blanks For Rifles & Shotguns The largest Selection of Turkish Blanks on our Web Auction Site. Buy online or call for more information! Tel: chiron@hunterbid.com Chiron Inc. PO Box 982 Portsmouth NH Although Trzoniec could not match the factory group (on the right), he did manage to get some nice minute-of-angle groups with the new Cooper rifle. a boost, change the name, give it some press hype and off it goes. In the early 1980s, Remington renamed it the 7mm Remington Express. Later, the name reverted to the.280 Remington. I mentioned before that the smallest group I shot was around an inch with Speer 160-grain Grand Slam bullets. This surely does not match the target that comes with every rifle, as they put three shots into a group that almost looks like one hole! Shooting tunnels and controlled conditions aside, any sporter that will shoot minute of angle groups right out of the box with factory ammunition is good enough for me. On the other hand, looking through personal records and using my Remington Mountain Rifle as a test bed, I did do much better with the.280 Remington and selected handloads. With IMR-4350 and a Hornady 139- grain Spire Point, I managed groups around.5 inch with velocities of just over 2,800 fps. Sierra RUGER M77 MKII ADJUSTABLE TRIGGERS STANDARD OR TARGET TRIGGERS ALL CALIBERS The first and still the best aftermarket trigger for Ruger bolt guns Spec-Tech Industries Inc Mt. Baker Hwy. Deming, WA USA Tel: Fax: and Nosler bullets could be counted on for tight circles of.75 to one inch, respectively, with velocities touching 2,900 fps. I did try Winchester s 140-grain Silvertip and Remington s 150- grain Core-Lokt with groups that averaged just over an inch. The Cooper performed flawlessly, although if I decide to keep the rifle, I d lower that trigger pull a tad (it is adjustable, by the way) and maybe replace that thin recoil pad with something more suited to the backward push of the.280 Remington. Overall, Cooper has a winning combination here. Regardless of who or what you think you are, placing a new gun on the market is risky business. The initial setup and tooling, the money, the drawings and more importantly the final acceptance by shooters all go into the mix. What comes out is anyone s guess. I believe Cooper has a winner. Aside from all this, certain custom options may apply to this rifle with reference to wood grade, buttplates and other accessories that can upgrade your rifle into a one-of-a-kind firearm. With Cooper, the end is never in sight, and for shooters, that s a good thing to know. R

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