October 2008 No. 240

$5.99 U.S./CanadaPrinted in USA

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Rifle 240

Sportiting FiFirearearms Joururnalal

October 2008Volume 40, Number 6

ISSN 0162-3593Issue No. 240

www.riflemagazine.com4

26 Custom BoltActionsAll the TrimmingsJohn Barsness

36 American BoltActions of TwoWorld WarsThe Origin of theSporting Rifle Mike Venturino

46 WinchesterModel 701936-1963 Brian Pearce

56 WinchesterModel 701964-2008 Brian Pearce

66 The VersatileBolt Action100 Years andCountingRon Spomer

76 .22 RimfireBolt ActionsThe Most PopularSporters Ever MadeJohn Haviland

8 Browning X-BoltSpotting Scope -Dave Scovill

14 Bolt-ActionCartridgesClassic Cartridges -John Haviland

18 Battle Rifle Sights Down Range -Mike Venturino

22 That FirstBolt ActionMostly Long Guns -Brian Pearce

Background Photo: © 2008 Royal Tine Images

Page 26 . . .

Page 36 . . .

Page 46 . . .

On the cover . . .The D’Arcy Echols & Co. “Legend” Model 70.375 H&H is designed for use against theworld’s most dangerous game, from Alaskanbrown bears to elephants. See more insideon page 90. Photo by Stan Trzoniec.

Issue No. 240 October 2008

Sportiting FiFirearearms Joururnalal

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

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Rifle® (ISSN 0162-3583) is published bimonthly byPolacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe PublishingCompany (Don Polacek, President), 2625 StearmanRd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona 86301. (Also publisher ofHandloader® magazine.) Telephone (928) 445-7810. Pe-riodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and addi-tional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S.possessions – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12issues, $36. Foreign and Canada – single issue, $5.99; 6issues $26; 12 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks forfirst issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. Allrights reserved.

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Wolfe PublishingCompany

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Prescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124© Polacek Publishing Corporation

John Barsness

Brian Pearce

Clair Rees

Gil Sengel

Ron Spomer

Stan Trzoniec

Mike Venturino

Ken Waters

Background Photo: © 2008 Royal Tine Images

Page 90

Page 26

Page 76

90 Working Man’sCustom RifleCustom Corner -Stan Trzoniec

02 The UltimateBobRifles &Woodsmoke -John Barsness

Rifle 240www.riflemagazine.com6

Publisher of Rifle® is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published loadingdata or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced withoutwritten permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copy-rights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept re-sponsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

102

Page 90 . . .

Rifle 240www.riflemagazine.com8

Sitting in a log blind under

a hostile Texas sky, withnothing between me and theblustering wind and rain but thesparse canopy of scrub oak thatdripped like a leaky shower,there was little to do but bracethe hooded parka against the ele-ments and wait.

The little Browning X-Boltrested in the corner of the blind,sheltered somewhat by my pon-cho. Between showers, I checkedthe scope to make sure it wasn’tfogging up or catching whatevermoisture that managed to blowin from the southwest.

Whitetail drifted in occasionallyand without warning, then dis-appeared. A great buck came byon the first and second day, butlike most hunters, I learned thesacred truth – you can’t expect totake trophies if you keep fillingprecious tags with immature ani-mals.

This dark-horned buck, how-ever, wasn’t your typical Texaseight-count. His points stoodhigh, anchored by exceptionallyheavy bases. I estimated his headgear repeatedly – 20 to 21 inchesof main beam, 9- to 10-inch G-2s,G-3s to die for with a 16-inch

inside spread. From the basestraight up to the tip of the G-2on the left side was just a bitunder 2 feet!

While the great little buck wan-dered in and out on four occa-sions, I had a problem. If Itripped the trigger the hunt wasover, but if I came back nextyear, or the year after, that buckwould grow to 160 inches, maybemore, and who knows, the grand-daddy of them all might be outthere somewhere – if I could justsit tight. So, I decided to let thedandy little buck grow up.Whether I got another chance athim or not was up to fate.

So, this is not about the heroshot of me with a great Texaswhitetail, it’s about the X-Bolt, arifle I came to appreciate, in spiteof the drizzly conditions.

Like most field tests with what-ever rifle, we started out sightingin the rifles shortly after arrivalat the Keyhole Ranch, except thefog was so thick we had to pullthe target in to 50 yards. No mat-ter, even in the Texas puckerbrush, 150 yards is a long shot,and the .270 WSM with a 140-grain Ballistic Silvertip was morethan enough gun for deer-sizedgame if sighted one inch high at50 long steps. Confident the rifle

Dave Scovi l l

BROWNING X-BOLTBROWNING X-BOLTS

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was up to the task ahead, I re-tired to the house for a Texas-sized meal.

Before dawn the next morningmy guide, Doug Wadsworth, letme out in the scrubs a mile or sofrom the house – and the firstreasonably good buck I saw wasthe tall dark-horned, fog-en-shrined vision most huntersdream of. Ruined my day, frankly.What kind of a hunt can youwrite about if you drop the firstbuck you see in the first hour ofthe hunt?

So while the buck drifted in andout of view, I tinkered with theX-Bolt. The bolt release, what Icall the “clicker” on top at theroot of the bolt handle, I decided,was a nifty idea. It forces folks tothink about what they are doing,purposely. And, of course, itworks – allowing the rifle to beloaded or unloaded with thesafety on. Like any unfamiliar nu-ances on a new rifle, it takessome getting used to, but since Imanaged, anyone can. Besides, itrepresents “outside-the-box”thinking on the part of the folksat Browning, rather than touchupon a 130-year old Mauser.

Fortunately, or unfortunately,depending on how you look at it,someone at Browning mounted afairly good-sized variable scope,increasing the weight of whatwould otherwise be a nicelybalanced rifle from around 6.5pounds to a nudge under 8. Eightpounds is fine, especially if youare sitting in a blind, but the mid-sized X-Bolt begs for a 12- to 13-ounce 3-9x, or as I see it, a 1.5-5x.Whatever, the choice of scopewas their call, and I could livewith it, for the time being.

The trigger system on the X-Bolt is new – the Feather Trigger.It’s adjustable from around 3 to 5pounds and leaves the factoryat 3.5 pounds. In practice, thesear release is clean and brisk.Students of “triggernometry” canexamine the drawings fromBrowning. It’s a good design, al-

October 2008 9www.riflemagazine.com

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ished again at well beyond sensi-ble shooting range.

That evening an advancingstorm promised to scuttle any ef-fort to hunt the following morn-ing, so I picked the first buck thatwalked in front of the scope, ajunior 10-pointer at somethingless than 100 yards. No match forthe .270 WSM, he bolted a fewyards and crumpled.

By the time I walked over to theyoung buck, I decided to let thelittle rifle go back to the factory,and request another – so I couldwork with it a bit more andmount a more suitable scope.That’s the trouble with spon-sored hunts. The rifle disappears,leaving the writer/hunter with lit-tle more than a sampling of whatthe rifle might offer. The X-Boltwas worth a second look.

The X-Bolt that Browning pro-vided following the hunt is a mir-ror image of the rifle used inTexas. Sans scope, with basesand rings, I was right; it is anicely balanced, easy handlingrifle. I was also reminded how Icame to like the detachable ro-tary box magazine – almost a re-quirement for repeatedly gettingin and out of a truck with anunloaded rifle. With two maga-zines, one in each pocket of theparka, it’s a snap to enter theblind and quietly slip in a mag-azine. The magazine is also a“center” feed, a decided improve-ment over the side-to-side feed-

Rifle 240

lowing the shooter to coax “best”accuracy potential with minimaleffort.

I managed to see a couple ofmore decent bucks during threedays of drizzly weather, but for avariety of reasons, I chose to let

them go. The best of the lot of-fered little more than a flash ofhorns and hide in a thick stand ofoaks at a range of 250 yards ormore, and after much searchingwith the 10x32 Cabela’s binocu-lar, the flash of white as it van-

10 www.riflemagazine.com

The X-Bolt Feather Trigger is creep-free and decidedly crisp with a 3.5-pound pull.

October 2008

ing cycle common to Mauserderivatives.

The four-round magazine isformed from some sort of poly-mer material, so it doesn’t “clack,click or clank” as metal boxesoften do. Some folks don’t appre-ciate polyethylene, plastic orstamped parts, but that’s sort ofstone-age thinking – just lookaround inside and under thehood of a typical present-dayautomobile or truck, any of whichare considerably more “crash” re-sistant than those revered cast-iron buggies that came out ofDetroit before the magic buzzword plastics was revealed tomillions in the 1967 movie, The

Graduate; whereupon, plasticmanufacturing companies be-came successful beyond thescript writer Walter Brooke’s wild-est dreams. So, if you don’t carefor polymer, blame Brooke orDustin Hoffman, take your pick.

Additional dope on the X-Boltincludes a 60-degree bolt lift,an ultrasoft “Inflex technology”recoil pad and an air-gauged,free-floating barrel with recessedcrown. The two-position tang-mounted safety blocks the triggerand the sear, while the boltunlock button “clicker” allowsloading and unloading with thesafety on.

The X-Bolt is offered in longand short action, magnum andstandard and .375 H&H. The tra-ditional cartridge lineup includesthe .338, .300 and 7mm beltedmagnums, .30-06-based stan-dards, the WSM lineup and .308WCF-based standards.

X-Lock scope mounts includefour screw bases that anchor allfour corners. Browning also of-fers a selection of matte, glossand nickel mounts – high, inter-mediate and standard heights –for 30mm and one-inch scopes.The integrated system refers tothe rings and bases being onepiece. Standard rings are .4 inchhigh, intermediate are .5 inch.

My first reaction to the X-Bolt

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stock was . . . well, less than en-thusiastic. After awhile, I startedto like it but could never get pastthe gold trigger and “shaped”trigger guard. The rifle I usedwas an X-Bolt Hunter with satin-like wood finish, checkering onthe lower portion of the forendand the pistol grip, and slingswivel studs. The Hunter fea-tures a subdued blue finish,while Medallion bluing is pol-ished, along with a high-glossfinish on the walnut stock. Ad-vertised weight for the .270 WSMHunter with a 23-inch barrel is 6pounds, 11 ounces. (My original

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Brandon Ray dropped this dandyTexas whitetail at 175 yards with aBrowning X-Bolt .308 Winchester.

estimate was 3 ounces off.) Beltedmagnums have 26-inch barrels andweigh in at 7 pounds.

The stock is a Classic design,but with a (finger?) groove abovethe checkering on the forend thattapers toward the barrel channel,and a slashing cut behind the pis-tol grip. The finger groove makesfor secure handling, but thezigzag is a mystery. Call it “art-ful.” Checkering is well done and,quite frankly, almost sticky.

Additional options include aStainless Stalker with syntheticstock and Composite Stalker. Bothrifles feature Dura-Touch ArmorCoating on the barrel and action.

Over the years readers have re-quested some sort of ranking orcomparison system, so when weevaluate products, they mighthave some sort of relative scalefor evaluation. That sounds nice,but I don’t know two seriousshooters/hunters who share acommon opinion about anything,let alone rifles or scopes. As a re-sult, one writer might give it a 8.5or 9, on a scale of one to 10, be-cause it weighs a bit more thanhe might prefer. Another mightoffer a solid 9.2.

I’ll give it a 9 for style, 9.8 forhandling, 9.5 for engineering and9.5 for ergonomics, assuming Iforget about the scope theymounted, and I get to mount mychoice, a Leupold 1.5-5x, in thoseinventive one-piece integratedbase/rings. In operation, thecushy buttpad is nice but tendsto drag on bulky cotton clothing,e.g., my Cabela’s parka that morethan paid for itself, give it a 9.8,in that cold rain and fog. Accu-racy with Winchester factory .270WSM loads is easily Minute ofWhitetail, and I’ll forgive Brown-ing its trademark gold trigger.Overall: 37.8 out of 40.

October 2008 13www.riflemagazine.com

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76 Rifle 240www.riflemagazine.com

The Most PopularSporters Ever Made

.22Rim Bolt

.22Rim Bolt

back on the trigger to keep from disturbing my aim.Then he stood back and let me figure it out.

The first thing I figured out was a hurried shotwas a waste of time. When I failed to take the mo-ment to steady my sights, and yank the trigger ontop of it, the result was exasperation at missing andhaving to spend more time working the bolt to

ward he said there would be no second chance tokeep the rifle’s muzzle pointed in a safe direction.From there he taught me to take a rest for the rifleover my knee or with my elbows supported on theground. He showed me how to squeeze straight

When I was a young boy, my father took me toHiatt’s Sporting Goods to buy a .22 rifle. I stood byhis side and stared at the world of men and hunting,the knives and binoculars enclosed in the glasscase and a row of long guns on the wall behind thecounter. The men’s talk of rifles and hunting wasmesmerizing. Dad ended up buying me a MarlinModel 81 bolt-action .22. I carried the rifle out ofthe store, and that world came with me as Dad andI walked down the Main Street sidewalk.

Dad took me into the surrounding hills on summerSunday afternoons to shoot the rifle. Straightfor-

IJohn Haviland

If you were a kid in the yearsbefore Generation X, a bolt-action .22 rimfire was yourconstant companion. You shot

targets, cans, squirrels and pinecones with your .22, and along thepath of growing up, that rifle taughtyou responsibility and cultivated alife of hunting.

Above, young Joe Mannix is about to take a shot with his RemingtonModel 512 Sportmaster bolt-action .22. Like most young shooters

today, Joe prefers a scope to the rifle’s original open sights. Left,between 1940 and 1962, 393,665 of these rifles were made.

October 2008 77www.riflemagazine.com

fireActionsfireActions

chamber another cartridge. Patience came quicklyto make every shot count.

When I returned home from those hikes in thehills with my .22, I brought some of the wild withme. And it built over the years.

THE RIFLES

Millions of youth and adults over the last centuryhave garnered the same appreciation of rifles andthe outdoors from bolt-action .22 rifles. Their rifles

could be as plain as single shots with a cockingknob on the rear of the bolt, repeaters with tube-feed or a removable magazine to extremely accu-rate rifles decked out with walnut stocks of fiddleand figure.

Lots of companies sold these rifles, from Ithaca,Marlin, Mossberg, Remington, Stevens, Savage andWinchester to J.C Penney and Sears & Roebuck.

Other than “Sky King,” there was really nothingworth watching on the single channel on our TV

Rifle 240

when I was a kid. So my broth-ers, cousins, friends and I wereout the door on Saturday morn-ings with a sandwich and can-teen and up in the hills with our.22s. One of those .22s, if I re-member correctly, was a Stevens-Springfield Model 83 single shot.We did quite well with that littlerifle. We knew we had one shot,

so we carefully stalked to withincertain range of gophers andstarlings.

My cousin at the north end ofthe county got to use his father’sModel 52 Winchester Sportingrifle. We figured the family wasrich because the rifle even had ascope on it. The Model 52 wasthe finest bolt action of its time,some say of all time. Ever in-creasing manufacturing costs fi-nally caught up with the 52, and

less expensive to manufacture.Pumps, like the Winchester Model61s and Remington Model 12s,and complicated autos like theWinchester Model 63s, fadedaway. The Winchester lever-action Model 94/22 is also gone.

Bolt actions can be a fairly sim-ple design and they survived. Ex-cellent models of these moresimple rifles were the Remington510 through 521 series of bolt-action rifles made from the late

Sporting versions were discontin-ued in 1958. One of those original52s today in good shape costs up-wards of a couple of grand, if youcan find one. My cousin still hashis 52, and it will shoot the headoff a wooden match at 50 yards,if he does his part.

Ever since, the trend in .22rifles has been toward models

78 www.riflemagazine.com

.22Bolt Actions.22

Bolt Actions

Above, bolt-action bolts weresomewhat less complicated andless expensive to make than lever-action .22 rifles. Today, however,autoloading .22s are even a sim-pler design to produce and are tak-ing over the .22 rifle market. Right,these groups were shot at 25 yardswith an old Remington 521-T Ju-nior Target. The Lyman 57 aper-ture rear sight on the rifle is moreprecise than regular open sights.

Left, this magazine is for a CZ .22 Long Rifle. Most new bolt-action.22s have similar removable magazines, because they are less expen-sive to make than rifles with tubular magazines. Below, shooting, andshooting a lot, in the field is why .22 rimfire rifles are made. This is aCZ Training rifle with a 4x scope.

October 2008 79www.riflemagazine.com

1930s to the 1970s. Their worth isin their actions that started witha receiver made from a stiff tubeof steel with cuts for the bolt,trigger assembly and ejectingport. The bolt has an extractoron each side of its bolt face. Theroot of the bolt handle served asone locking lug, and on the oppo-site side of the bolt another luglocked into the left side of the re-ceiver. My 521-T Junior Targetmodel was made from 1947 to1969. With its Lyman 57 aperturerear sight the rifle can group fiveshots in as tightly as .75 inch at75 yards.

Alas, that was a few years agobefore my eyesight took a nose-dive. The other day I shot theRemington at 25 yards with Fed-eral American Eagle shells, and it

shot five-shot groups of .71 and.58 inch.

Tons and tons of these Reming-ton rifles were made over theyears. From 1948 to 1970: 757,624Model 514 single shots weremade; from 1939 to 1962: 558,686Model 510 Targetmasters; 1939 to1963: 381,269 Model 511 Score-masters; and from 1940 to 1962:393,665 Model 512 Sportmasters.Lesser numbers of other modelswere also manufactured.

TODAY’S RIFLES

Those Remington rifles, andothers, lost out to an ever morecompetitive market. A liberal ap-plication of plastic was appliedto later Remington bolt-action .22rifles, like the 581 and 591, andsales were but a fraction of previ-ous models. Today Remington

imports a Russian-made rifle asits only regular production bolt-action .22. Winchester RepeatingArms also imports its only .22rimfire.

Economics and changes in am-

The Cooper Firearms Model 57M has a price tag of nearly $3,000,certainly among the fanciest and most ornate .22 rifles.

A removable magazine, like thisone for the Cooper FirearmsModel 57M, is inexpensive tomake. With a spare magazine inhand, a rifle is also faster to re-load than a tubular magazine.

This group was fired at 25 yardswith a CZ 452 rifle and Federalammunition. That is preciseenough to hit the eye of anysquirrel peeking over a branchhigh in an oak.

Left, the CZ safety operates backward of safeties on most American .22rifles: push forward to engage and back to release. Above, the rear sightfor a CZ 452 Training rifle is adjustable for distances out to 200 yards.Above right, the front sight for a CZ 452 Training rifle is a flat bead.

Ceska Zbrojovka (CZ) in theCzech Republic have garneredquite a good name for themselvesin the few years they have beenon the American market. Therifles are competitively priced,loaded with features and shootvery precisely.

For my birthday last spring, Ibought a CZ 452 Training rifle.What attracted me to the riflewas its European styling with ahumped comb and Schnabelforearm tip. Its sliding adjustablerear open sight and 24.8-inch bar-rel are reminiscent of a Spring-

munition choice have also nearlydone away with tubular maga-zines. A tube magazine was auseful feature, because it wouldreliably feed .22 Long Rifles,Longs and Shorts. But now, whoshoots expensive Longs andShorts? Plastic or stamped steelclip magazines are less expensiveto make and don’t require thecartridge feeding assembly nec-essary for a tubular magazine.Marlin is the only company pro-ducing a tubular magazine on abolt-action .22 rimfire, but only inone version of its seven modelsof 900 rifles.

A Marlin is pretty hard to beatfor a bargain .22 rifle. Its Model900 rifle has a synthetic or stained

hardwood stock and an accept-able trigger. The base of the bolthandle acts as a single lockinglug. Just the other day I shot myson’s walnut-stocked 881, whichis the previous edition of the 981.With the aid of a 4x scope therifle shot five-shot groups withFederal American Eagle 36-grainhollowpoint loads in .52 and .65inch at 25 yards and 1.82 inchesat 100 yards.

The rimfire rifles produced by

Rifle 24080 www.riflemagazine.com

.22Bolt Actions.22

Bolt Actions

Groups witha CZ 453 Varmint

load 50-yard 100-yard(inch) (inches)

CCI Mini Mag HP .51 1.32CCI Select .55Lapua Midas M .47Remington Cyclone .59Remington High .65

Velocity HPWinchester Power-Point .58 1.22

Table I

Above, then clockwise, two extractors on the face of the Cooper boltreliably pull fired cases from a tight chamber, and a tight chamber is themain feature in producing an accurate .22. The Cooper Firearms Model57M Custom Classic is available with options like a skeleton buttplateand skeleton grip cap and is guaranteed to shoot .25-inch groups at50 yards with match ammunition.

The CZ 453 Varmint is a fanciermodel with an adjustable set trig-ger. Its trigger pull is adjustablefor weight, creep and over-travelby turning a screw located insidethe trigger guard, forward andabove the trigger. The trigger canbe set for a lighter let-off bypushing it forward until a clickis heard. With the trigger pushed

field .30-40 Krag. With open sights,the Training rifle shot five-shotgroups with Federal AmericanEagle loads in .53 and .59 inchat 25 yards. With a 4x scopemounted on the rifle, a five-shotgroup at 25 yards went in .19inch and 1.63 inches at 100 yards.

forward and set, the pull is onepound. However, the trigger searis the bolt stop, which is not agreat arrangement for maintain-ing a crisp trigger pull over yearsof shooting.

The wing two-position safetysits at the top rear of the bolt. Itoperates backward of what Amer-

.22Bolt Actions.22

Bolt ActionsFive-Shot

Groups with aCooper Model 57M

Custom Classicload 50 yards

(inch)

CCI Select .33Federal Golden Eagle .28Lapua Midas L .37Lapua Midas M .27Remington Cyclone .35Winchester Power Point .48

Table II

Two locking lugs on the Ruger77/22’s bolt provide a solidlockup.

These groups were shot at 25yards with a Ruger 77/22.

October 2008

icans are used to: forward to thesafe position and back to fire therifle. The wing requires a hardforward push to engage thesafety, as it blocks the firing pin.

With a Leupold 2.5-8x scopemounted on the CZ Varmint,Table I shows how it shot an av-erage of two, five-shot groups.

The Ruger 77/22 is another sta-ple of bolt-action .22s. I boughtmine in 1986 and have been con-stantly shooting it ever since. Themiddle of the 77/22’s bolt has twolocking lugs, and its whole re-ceiver is a bit overbuilt for a .22rimfire. That’s because the sameaction has been used to chambermagnum rimfires and the .22 Hor-net and .44 Remington Magnum.The 77/22 is a bit portly acrossthe middle to accommodate itsmagazine, but that’s an accept-able trade for its inexpensive andinfallible 10-shot rotary maga-zine. The magazine positions car-tridges in line with the chamber,so they feed with a slight push ofthe bolt, no matter what theshape of the bullet nose. The77/22 is sort of a miniature ver-sion of Ruger’s centerfire Model77 MKII rifle. During the springand summer, I practice with the77/22 as a substitute for theModel 77 .30-06 big game rifle.

At 25 yards the Model 77/22averaged .39 inch for two, five-shot groups with WinchesterPower-Points and .37 inch withCCI Select shells. At 100 yards,five Power-Points grouped in 1.37inches.

Cooper Firearms Model 57M isthe rifle if the objectives of a .22rifle are accuracy and style. I re-cently carefully handled and shota Model 57M Custom Classicwith a price tag of $3,000. Therifle’s stock blank alone cost$850. The Cooper folks did a fan-tastic job of shaping the stockand checkering the grip and fore-arm with a wraparound patternof 22 lines per inch. A couple ofcustom touches included check-ered wood inside the skeleton

83www.riflemagazine.com

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349 NW 100 St. • St. John, KS 67576Tel: 620-549-6475Website: www.proshootpro.com

Rifle 240

I carefully, and wistfully, re-turned the rifle to Cooper, butwhile I was there I ordered aModel 57M Classic. The Classic isa bit more utilitarian, but whenit’s finished in six months, it willbe a beautiful rifle and also carryCooper’s .25-inch accuracy as-surance.

That delivery date should comeabout the right time to take myeight-year-old nephew Jack outfor a summer’s day of shootingground squirrels. We’ll pack asandwich and a canteen of water,and I’ll make sure Jack wears ahat to keep from sun-burning hisnose and ears. I might let Jackshoot the Cooper a time or two,but I don’t want to spoil him rightoff the bat. Mostly I’ll coach himalong with the same Marlin 81bolt-action rifle my dad boughtme so long ago. With that riflehe’ll learn to make his first shotcount and along the way developa hunting life, just like millions ofother young shooters have donebefore him.

buttplate and grip cap, blackforearm tip and inlayed slingswivels. This rifle, and all Model57Ms, are guaranteed to shootfive shots with match ammuni-tion in .25 inch at 50 yards. Ona morning of dead calm air, Itook the Cooper to the range tosee how close I could come tothat pledge. With a Nightforcescope mounted on the rifle, theresults for five shots with a vari-ety of ammunition are listed inTable II.

84 www.riflemagazine.com

The Marlin bolt action is a great value and demonstrates fine accuracypotential.

They’re custom built from the ground up by the craftsmen at Brown Precision. Extremely

accurate, lightweight andrugged, Brown custom High Country rifles

integrate only the higestquality components, including BrownPrecision fiberglass or Kevlar stocks.

Call or write for more information and a price list. Catalog $3.00

P.O. Box 270-R n Los Molinos, CA 96055530-384-2506

email: info@brownprecision.comwww.brownprecision.com

500 YardHunting RiflesDon’t Growon Trees

Precision RiflesmithingBarreling to Benchrest Standards since 1987

Mike BryantBryant Custom Knives & Firearms

7761 FM 592 • Wheeler, TX 79096

www.bryantcustom.comShop: (806) 826-5618

mike@bryantcustom.com

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