Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2021 i RifleShooter

Loving Savage Lever Guns I just finished reading the excellent article by Craig Boddington about the Savage 99, which really hit home. I am mainly a bolt-gun guy, but the Savage 99 has a great deal of nostalgia for me since my father, grandfather and uncle all hunted with 99s—.300s and .250s. So I had to have one. Mine is a .250 made in 1941, which I used to tag an antelope buck in Wyoming in 2019. It has a custom-made scope mount that uses the rear sight dovetail on the barrel in the front and the tapped holes in the tang for the rear so it’s not necessary to drill & tap the receiver. Also, I especially liked the July/August issue introducing us to the upgraded Model 70 Super…

Savage Minimalist Sure to attract attention, the new Minimalist 93s and Mark II sport a cool-looking laminate stock in green or brown. The bolt action is chambered to .22 LR (Mark II), .22 Mag. (93) and .17 HMR (93R17) and features an 18-inch carbon steel barrel with a matte finish and sporter contour. It’s threaded 1/2x28. The AccuTrigger is user adjustable from 2.5 to six pounds, and the rifles feed from a 10-round detachable box mag. Comes with two-piece Weaver bases. >> $359, SAVAGEARMS.COM Zeiss Conquest V4 The Conquest V4 has been treated to upgrades, including turret engraving that’s easier to read and a side parallax dial that now goes down to 10 yards—which is especially handy for rimfire shooters. The scopes also have variable-stop illumination, and some models have…

Hot off the press, Mossberg’s new LR Hunter bolt action is based on the proven Patriot action, and it features bells and whistles intended to enhance a shooter’s precision in the field. At first, I was nonplussed by the lack of a heavy, match-profile barrel, since the “LR” model designation suggests long-range shooting. Then I put two and two together and realized that Mossberg has created a rifle that’s easier to shoot well yet still light enough to pack up a mountain. The Patriot action is simple—which is a good thing—and is built with proven characteristics. The bolt can be removed by pressing a small catch at the left rear side of the action tang. Dual, vertical locking lugs up front achieve equal contact via a floating-head bolt design. The…

Franchi introduced the Momentum bolt-action rifle in 2018, and it is still in production. A modified version called the Momentum Elite came along earlier this year, and it was available initially in .223 Rem., 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Win. The 6.5 PRC, .300 Win. Mag. and .350 Legend were added in 2021. Also new is the Momentum Varmint Elite with a heavy barrel in .22-250, .223 Rem. and .224 Valkyrie. Respective rifling twist rates for barrels in those calibers are 1:12, 1:9 and 1:7. When given the opportunity to wring out one of the new varmint rifles, I wished it would be in .224 Valkyrie because I had not shot a bolt-action rifle chambered for that cartridge. My wish was granted. Cylindrical in shape, the Varmint Elite receiver is 1.350…

Norma enjoys a terrific reputation with hunters around the world. With a history dating back 120 years, this Swedish company has been at the forefront of ammunition and bullet technology for a long time. For example, Roy Weatherby began an association with Norma early on in his hunting rifle career, and Norma has been reloading Weatherby’s branded ammo line from the beginning Norma has had a lot of success with its famous Oryx bullet, a bonded pointed softpoint that provides a big mushroom and 100 percent weight retention. It’s the sort of bullet you’d expect from people who are really serious about their moose hunting—and the Swedes are very serious about their moose hunting. In more recent times, the company has branched out into a variety of tipped bullets as…

To the delight of extra-long-range shooters everywhere, Lapua is now making cases for the .300 PRC, which has caught fire despite being relatively new. The cartridge features ultra-modern case design that maximizes efficiency, accuracy and consistency, and it’s engineered to be perfectly compatible with long, low-drag projectiles. As competition shooters and savvy precision hunters know, Lapua creates the most consistent, best-quality cartridge cases available. And especially for those who shoot at really long distances, extreme consistency isn’t just a virtue; it’s a necessity. Let’s take a look at what makes Lapua brass so good, and then run some tests and crunch some numbers to evaluate whether this .300 PRC brass measures up to its reputation. Knowing it’s destined to be reloaded over and over again, Lapua makes its brass resilient.…

I don’t use lever actions all the time, but I love them dearly. My all-time favorite is the Winchester Model 1886. Big but beautiful, with clean, elegant lines and a smooth action. The ’86 was the first lever action designed for Winchester by John Moses Browning, and it was intended to house powerful, large-cased blackpowder cartridges. But by the 1930s Winchester had a problem. Its Model 54 bolt action was successful, but at its heart, Winchester was a lever-action company when it came to rifles. The box-magazine Savage 99 offered serious competition for the ’86, as did Marlin’s side-eject rifles. In this pre-scope era, Winchester’s ’94 was still doing fine, but the ’86 was costly, and sales were down. Engineers created manufacturing accommodations to reduce costs. They also went to…

If you’ve ever watched outdoor television, you’ve probably heard of Best of the West. This company, based in Cody, Wyoming, was one of the early voices in the long-range hunting community, depicting shots on game to its viewers at previously-unheard-of distances. Regardless of your opinion of this type of hunting, there is little doubt it has pushed the envelope in terms of hunting rifle technology. Thanks to the public’s obsession with all things long range, today’s big game rifles are more accurate, durable and effective than ever before. The Best of the West Hunter Elite is just such a rifle. This company’s rifles aren’t inexpensive, but the Hunter Elite model was designed from the ground up to be available at a lower price point than many of the firm’s other…

One of the all-time great straight-pull rifles is the Swiss K31 in 7.5x55. The K31 was beautifully finished inside and out and is usually found in very nice condition with excellent barrels still full of life. Citizen-soldiers issued the K31 cared for them very well, and they are rarely found out of order or heavily worn. Normally, here I would regale you with thrilling accounts of actions involving these rifles. Except there aren’t any. Switzerland has maintained peace with its neighbors for centuries, and there are few tales associated with the small arms beyond thoughtful design. Yet the threats were real, and the K31 was kept at the ready all during World War II, when Switzerland was surrounded by German-occupied Europe and Fascist Italy. While the Allies were hot on…

When Kimber introduced the Hunter model it was an immediate success because it offered the reliability of a controlled-feed action in a mountain-weight rifle that was priced lower than the company’s other 84 Series guns. With its sub-six-pound weight, sub-m.o.a. accuracy and a suggested retail price that barely broke into four figures, the Hunter was heralded as a heavy hitter in the light rifle market. The Hunter is a solid gun and a great value, but its look—a combination of stainless steel metalwork and a flat dark earth composite stock—is rather plain. Some hunters like plain, others do not. The newest member of the Hunter family, the Pro Desolve Blak, comes with a fiber-reinforced polymer stock with Desolve Blak camouflage and is anything but plain. For those who aren’t familiar…

Prejudices die hard. When I first saw CZ’s 457 Varmint Precision Chassis MTR, I looked at its 16-inch barrel and thought, “This is a target rifle?” Having competed for many years with Winchester 52s and Anschutz 1413s, with their long, heavy barrels—as in 27 to 28 inches long—I was suspicious of how accurate an abbreviated barrel like the CZ’s could be. This is why I’m not a firearms designer. For one thing, the 457 VPC MTR isn’t intended for NRA three-position or prone shooting. It’s intended for today’s hot new competition games: National Rifle League 22 (NRL22), which I focused on, Precision Rifle Series rimfire and others. These matches have you shooting over barrels, off ladders and from various barricades/obstacles in addition to standard position shooting like standing, sitting, kneeling…

Bill Ruger’s extraordinary No. 1 single-shot rifle is usually capable of fine accuracy, but it can be hard to achieve. Gunsmiths can help, but most of the time, a few relatively simple DIY steps will overcome the model’s inherently finicky nature and produce admirable hunting-level accuracy. The No. 1 arrived on the scene in 1966, and it is complex and finicky because of its engineering. While it’s bull-strong, reliable as a sledgehammer and adaptable to nearly any shoulder-fired cartridge ever designed, it has a number of hurdles you may need to overcome. Because extensive load testing in the skinny-barreled versions sometimes renders additional steps unnecessary, I’ll start there. Many serious Ruger No. 1 shooters will tell you that No. 1 barrels take some serious break-in. Some advise against doing any…