Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2021 i RifleShooter

There’s no question that, in the competitive rifle shooting world, precision rifle shooting is the hottest game in town. The Precision Rifle Series and National Rifle League organizations have exploded in popularity in recent years, as have smaller local matches. It takes a dedicated rifle to compete in these events, and I decided to build my own. ACTION Custom actions such as those from Defiance and Surgeon rule the roost in PRS-style matches but there’s nothing wrong with an appropriately modified Remington 700, an action I happened to have on hand. The first step on a factory action, generally referred to as “blueprinting,” is to true the relevant surfaces to ensure everything is dimensionally correct—taking out any excessive factory tolerances on the action face, bolt lugs, lug seats, threads and…

While hunting moose in Finland in 1987, I learned that Sako had purchased Tikka and production had been relocated to the Sako factory in Riihimaki. Quite a bit of history was also there. Tikka’s first centerfire sporting rifle, the Model 55, was introduced during the 1960s. On a slightly modified Model 98 Mauser action, several variations, including a heavy-barrel varmint rifle and a carbine with full-length, Mannlicher-style stock, were offered. During the 1970s, the rifle was imported to the United States by Ithaca as the LSA-55. Caliber options ranged from .22-250 to .30-06. Tikka eventually introduced an action of its own design. Through the years I have used Tikka rifles on a couple of hunts, most recently for moose with a T3 in 9.3x62 Mauser. It averaged 1.25 inches at…

The hunter’s ideal is to always use a totally familiar rifle. But for whatever reason, a few of us sometimes end up hunting with borrowed rifles. A couple of years ago I wondered exactly how much of my big game had been taken with rifles not owned by me, so I looked through the detailed hunting notes kept since my teens. The total turned out to be 62 big game animals, from the Arctic to Africa. Somehow my first deer, a muley doe, got left off the list, though it certainly qualified. And it broke Rule No. 1 of hunting with borrowed rifles: Shoot the dang thing beforehand to make certain it’s sighted-in for you. The rifle was my father’s Marlin 336 .30-30 Win., loaned near the end of my…

Wilson Combat is expanding its Berryville, Arkansas, plant by 16,000 square feet—a gain of about 20 percent. The expansion will house new automated machining and grinding centers to enhance parts production. Wilson currently employs more than 200 people at its facility. Kimber is moving its official corporate headquarters to Troy, Alabama, where a 225,000 square-foot facility will house R&D and manufacturing operations. Kimber cited area engineering schools as well as gun- and business-friendly support from the city and state as reasons for the move.…

If you can remember back when the .22 rimfire market wasn’t dominated by Ruger’s rotary-magazine 10/22 autoloader, chances are you’re pulling Social Security. But believe it or not, there was a time when bolt-action .22s ruled the roost—classics like Winchester’s Model 52 and 69A, Remington’s Model 580 series, and more Mossberg, Marlin, Savage and Stevens tubular and box magazine-fed entries than you could count. Many of those little bolt guns were single-shots, and one of the nicest was the Winchester Model 67. Produced from 1934 to 1963, it was—in various iterations—the mainstay of the company’s “price” line. But in terms of quality, it’s a serious cut above what would classify today as a utility gun. Of the several variants made over the course of the rifle’s production life, two of…

Forgive me, but I like good-looking guns. What that means is in the eye of the beholder, but I find classic single-shot rifles attractive and just plain cool. I guess Bill Ruger thought so, too, because he had a pet project to improve upon the classic British Farquharson action, which he did in 1966 with the Ruger No. 1. When I first saw a Ruger No. 1, I thought it was the best-looking production rifle I’d ever seen. I still think so. Many thought Ruger had lost his mind and produced a one-shooter that modern rifle shooters would never accept. Production has never been huge and the No. 1 has always been costly, but it has remained in the Ruger line for 55 years, chambered to dozens of cartridges suited…

With the RBG—Rock Bolt Gun—Rock River Arms just didn’t enter the precision bolt-action rifle market. It has jumped in with both feet and started splashing around. The company has been working on this project for several years. While its people had a good idea of what they wanted in the finished product, their struggle was in picking the components that would provide the performance they were looking for. In the end they spared no expense in selecting those components, and if you’re in the market for a factory rifle suitable for long-range shooting and competition right out of the box, a factory rifle capable of competing with custom offerings, you should take a look at this gun. The RBG-1S—the first in a planned series of bolt guns—is far from a…

Of the many .30 caliber magnums, the newish .300 PRC is the easiest to handload for optimal long-range performance on targets and for extended-range hunting alike—which is what Hornady intended. The easy-loading characteristic is thanks to its chamber throat dimensions, overall case design and generous head height. This makes the cartridge ultimately compatible with even the longest, sleekest bullets and is a huge deal for extreme-range shooters. For those unfamiliar with the term, “head height” indicates the length from the case mouth to the tip of the bullet. A short head height forces handloaders to seat long, heavy bullets deeply into the cartridge case—the bullet’s shank intruding into propellant capacity. Worse, many of the best long-range bullets aren’t even usable in cartridges with short head height because their long, sleek…

CZ has one of the most diverse catalogs of any firearms manufacturer, with everything from competition pistols and revolvers (under its Dan Wesson brand) to sporting shotguns and hunting rifles. The company is now adding to that expanded product portfolio by offering an affordable synthetic-stock version of its successful 557 line of rifles: the 557 Eclipse. CZ’s 557 rifles were announced in 2016. They were a departure from the company’s storied 550 controlled-round-feed Mauser action that traced its roots back to the Brno 602. The Brno was much-loved by African hunters who wanted an affordable controlled-feed rifle for hunting dangerous game. CZ recently discontinued the 550, which has caused tremendous grief for many fans of this venerable rifle. CZ has moved on, though, and the 557 is the firm’s new…

In 1948, John Nosler launched the company that would bear his name after developing the Partition controlled-expansion hunting bullet. Nosler’s Partition forever changed the hunting world, and seven decades later, it is still the big game bullet by which others are judged. Under the leadership of John, his son, Bob, and later his grandson, John, Nosler Inc. has continued to innovate by developing new bullets, loaded ammunition, rifles and even its own line of proprietary cartridges. The newest of the latter category is the .27 Nosler, a round that pushes one of America’s favorite hunting cartridge diameters to new heights. The Nosler family of cartridges began in 2014 with the introduction of the .26 Nosler, a high-velocity .264-inch/6.5mm capable of pushing 129-grain bullets at 3,400 fps out of a standard…

Since I like a rifle with a little pizzazz, when CZ introduced the Model 457 Royal, I believe I was first in line. And it is indeed royal, with important upgrades like distinctive checkering patterns, a rosewood tip and a wood grade suggesting semi-fancy. The wood on my sample had a mottled type of fiddle-back grain, and I love the classic lines of the stock, which has a shadow-line cheekpiece. The gun has a much longer fore-end than a standard rifle, almost Mannlicher long—measuring roughly 14 inches from the tip to the forward stock screw and proportioned for offhand or prone shooting. The tip is rosewood, rounded off and cut at a custom-like 90 degrees. The only thing I don’t like about it is the “CZ 457 ROYAL” laser-engraved on…