Home Authors Posts by Jon R. Sundra

Jon R. Sundra

The All-Un-American Straight-Pull Bolt-Action Rifle

Unlike all other straight-pulls, the Maral is essentially the familiar BAR without the gas system. The opening stroke is manual, but the closing of the action is spring powered, as on a semi-auto. It’s the fastest of the straight-pulls.
Unlike all other straight-pulls, the Maral is essentially the familiar BAR without the gas system. The opening stroke is manual, but the closing of the action is spring powered, as on a semi-auto. It’s the fastest of the straight-pulls.

The straight-pull bolt-action concept has been enthusiastically received by European riflemen … and ignored almost completely by U.S. gun manufacturers.

What Are Some Of The Notable Straight-Pull Bolt-Action Rifles:

Since the appearance of the bolt-action rifle nearly 200 years ago, the operating mechanics have remained the same: handle up, back, forward, down. But what if someone were to tell you there were manually operated bolt-actions that could be cycled more than twice as fast as those of traditional design?

Well, such rifles do exist, and they’ve been available for quite some time. I’m talking about guns built on straight-pull bolt-actions—a concept that’s been enthusiastically received by European hunters but almost totally ignored by our American gun companies.

The Straight-Pull Idea

It’s a simple concept really. Instead of the four motions required to cycle a conventional bolt-action, a straight-pull requires only two. Not only does that reduce the required movements by half, it also reduces by more than half the time needed to do it. Lifting the bolt handle on a shouldered rifle employs muscles that are otherwise rarely used, making it awkward, even for those who are well practiced.

This picture, alone, is worth at least 500 words in explaining the mechanics of the Browning T-bolt.
This picture, alone, is worth at least 500 words in explaining the mechanics of the Browning T-bolt.

Should a fired case hug the chamber too tightly—a common occurrence with handloads—lifting the bolt handle on a shouldered rifle can range from difficult to impossible. It’s the reason so many hunters lower the gun to the port arms position to reload—it’s the only way they can get enough leverage to initiate primary extraction. Another advantage to the pull-push action is that it disturbs the gun less, allowing one to get back on target faster on a follow-up shot.


More Rifle Articles:


The T-Bolts

The straight-pull bolt-action concept is hardly new: In the waning years of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, we saw the Swiss Schmidt-Ruben Model 95, Austro-Hungarian Steyr-Mannlicher, Canadian Ross and our own Lee-Navy—all straight-pull military rifles. However, as for making the transition to the sporting rifle market, the straight-pull thing went limp for several decades, because no firearms manufacturer here or abroad showed interest.

The first glow of an ember appeared here, in the United States, in the form of the Browning T-bolt .22 LR, which was rolled out in 1965. Made for Browning in Belgium by FN, the first-generation T-bolt was the first production rifle I acquired after graduating college. The gun’s highly unorthodox action brought out the iconoclast in me (and there’s a lot of that!). The T-bolt was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The way the action snicked open and closed with such a positive feel was so radically different from the bolt-, lever- and pump-action .22s I was familiar with.

When it’s broken down, this Blaser R8 looks very little like a “standard” bolt-action rifle Americans are accustomed to shooting.
When it’s broken down, this Blaser R8 looks very little like a “standard” bolt-action rifle Americans are accustomed to shooting.

Trying to describe how the T-bolt works (and this applies to the other straight-pulls we’ll be reviewing here) is challenging. The locking lugs, such as they are, consist of two circular plates the size of dimes on either side of the bolt body. These, when in battery, fit into corresponding holes at either side of the receiver. The bolt handle is an obtuse “L” shape that pivots horizontally on a vertical pin at its apex. The initial rearward movement of the bolt handle pivots the forward tip of the L outward, pulling the circular locking lugs out of their recesses.

The T-bolt was discontinued in 1986 and reintroduced in 2006 in a redesigned iteration now being made for Browning by Miroku of Japan. Originally chambered only in .22 LR, it’s now available in .22 WMR and .17 HMR in right- and left-hand models, along with a choice of sporter- or varmint-weight barrels in walnut or synthetic stocks.

Blaser R93: Unique Locking System

The next straight-pull bolt-action to come onto the scene was in 1993 with the German-made Blaser R93—the gun that truly ushered in the age of the straight-pull as a viable centerfire sporting rifle. With the R93 came a unique annular locking system that provided 360-degree contact between the locking “lugs” and their abutment surfaces. The head of the bolt is a steel tube, or collet, comprising 14 pliable splines (or fingers), each of which has a small bulge at the front edge. These “bulges” form an annular locking lug.

When it’s broken down, this Blaser R8 looks very little like a “standard” bolt-action rifle Americans are accustomed to shooting.
When it’s broken down, this Blaser R8 looks very little like a “standard” bolt-action rifle Americans are accustomed to shooting.

Inside the collet is a cone that, upon the closing movement of the bolt, wedges the splines outward to where they engage an annular groove in the barrel extension.

Because the bolt locks up directly with the barrel rather than the receiver, the latter is a non-stressed component, allowing it to be made of aluminum. As with most rifles coming out of Germany and Austria today, the R93’s modularity makes barrel/caliber switching easily done.

The Successful Blaser R8

In 2008, Blaser introduced the R8 (a gen 2, if you will, of the R93), and the foregoing general description of it applies to the current R8.

The R93 was an instant success with European hunters, as well as competitive shooters, especially for running boar events, where rapidity of fire is important. It was also adopted by the military or law enforcement agencies of 13 countries around the world.

On the SR30, the handle movement is along the horizontal plane, as on the Browning T-bolt. And, as on the other straight-pulls, the bolt glide is silky smooth. Lockup is achieved with six ball bearings wedged outward to engage an annular groove in the receiver ring, as shown here with the components comprising the Heym bolt’s ball bearing locking system.
On the SR30, the handle movement is along the horizontal plane, as on the Browning T-bolt. And, as on the other straight-pulls, the bolt glide is silky smooth. Lockup is achieved with six ball bearings wedged outward to engage an annular groove in the receiver ring, as shown here with the components comprising the Heym bolt’s ball bearing locking system.

The improved R8 continues to enjoy that same success … except here, in the States, where its starting price of around $3,000 kind of limits its popularity.

The Mauser 96

It was only three years after the warm reception given the Blaser that Mauser countered with its version of a straight-pull bolt-action rifle—the Model 96. Unlike the Blaser, the 96 employed a 16-lug rotary bolt. It was an ungainly looking thing, because not only was the bolt handle much farther forward than normal, it also angled forward, making it look really strange to anyone with a definite opinion about what a bolt-action rifle should look like.

It was probably a combination of the cosmetics and the position of the bolt handle that prevented the 96 from gaining popularity, even though it worked splendidly, was accurate and, in 1996, had an MSRP of $699, making it much more affordable than the Blaser. The 96 was only in production for a few years before being discontinued.

Heym SR-30

Another member of the straight-pull bolt-action family is the Heym SR-30. It was introduced in 1998. Unlike the Blaser and Mauser, whose bolt handles pivot rearward on a vertical plane before the bolt, itself, starts to move and then pivots again the same distance short of lockup, the SR-30 pivots on the horizontal plane like the Browning T-bolt. That, however, is where all similarity ends.

The Merkel RX Helix replaced the R93 in 2008, but the latter was produced, along with the RX, until 2018.
The Merkel RX Helix replaced the R93 in 2008, but the latter was produced, along with the RX, until 2018.

Instead of finding conventional locking lugs at the head of the bolt, there are six ball bearings oriented on 60-degree centers held captive is spherical recesses. The mechanics are conceptually similar to those of the Blaser, in that the final movement of the bolt handle forces a steel tube inside the bolt body forward to where it wedges the ball bearings outward, engaging an annular groove inside the receiver. It’s perhaps the most innovative of all the SPs and the closest to looking like a traditional bolt-action rifle.

Merkel RX Helix

My favorite among the straight-pull bolt-action rifles is Merkel’s superb RX Helix. As on the Blaser, the Helix’s bolt head locks up with the barrel, which allows an aluminum receiver and barrel interchangeability. But, unlike the Blaser, there is no rocking of the handle upon the action opening and closing. In fact, the handle does not pivot at all; it simply moves back and forth. In so doing, it rotates a multi-lug bolt head in and out of battery.

What’s really cool is that the bolt carrier and handle are connected by a rack-and-pinion arrangement whereby the handle moves only 2½ inches, but the bolt, itself, moves 4¼ inches. You can’t believe how fast this action can be cycled from the shoulder when all you have to do is pull back and push forward just 2½ inches!

The Heym SR30 is the most traditional-looking among the straight-pulls.
The Heym SR30 is the most traditional-looking among the straight-pulls.

A feature the RX shares with the Blaser is that it must be manually cocked before the first shot can be fired. The action is cocked by forcibly pushing a deeply serrated cocking lever up a steep incline at the back of the receiver; doing so compresses the mainspring. Depressing a small release button at the front of the thumbpiece allows it to be backed down, relaxing the spring.

Anschutz 1727

Next on our list of straight-pulls is another rimfire, the Anschutz 1727. It was originally designed as a biathlon rifle but is now offered in sporting iterations.

Like the Heym SR-30, this rifle employs ball bearings to serve as its locking lugs. The difference, however, is that this rimfire’s ball bearings are located at the rear of the bolt just ahead of the handle and engage an annular ring in the receiver bridge, rather than up front at the bolt head.

Browning’s T-bolt was originally introduced in 1965 and was the first straight-pull to be offered by a major American firearms manufacturer.
Browning’s T-bolt was originally introduced in 1965 and was the first straight-pull bolt-action to be offered by a major American firearms manufacturer.

With cycling speed being essential in biathlon competition, the Anschutz folks felt a straight-pull action would provide an edge, especially when the bolt travel needed in order to cycle a .22 LR cartridge is about 1½ inches. However, to further that advantage, they designed the bolt so that the action could be cycled with two fingers—the forefinger to open the action, the thumb to close it—all without disturbing one’s grip!

Roessler Titan 16 and Browning Maral

I’ve reviewed and/or hunted with more than one example of each of the aforementioned guns. Two I haven’t personally tested are the Austrian-made Roessler Titan 16 and the Browning Maral.

As its name suggests, the Titan is a rotary-bolt, 16-lug straight-pull very similar to the discontinued Mauser Model 96.

The Anschutz Model 1727 .22 LR is a sporting version of the company’s biathlon rifle. Like the Heym SR30, the Anschutz 1727 employs a ball-bearing locking system—but it locks up in the rear.
The Anschutz Model 1727 .22 LR is a sporting version of the company’s biathlon rifle. Like the Heym SR30, the Anschutz 1727 employs a ball-bearing locking system—but it locks up in the rear.

As for the Maral, it’s been around for several years but has been marketed only in Europe and Australia. It’s essentially a BAR without the gas system. The bolt is cycled manually—but only the opening stroke. The action closes automatically, just as on a semi-auto. This makes it the fastest of the straight-pulls. Its raison d’être is that some countries don’t allow hunting with a semi-auto, and the Maral is as close as you can get without it being a semi-auto.

Straight-Pull Drawbacks

If there’s a weakness in the straight-pull bolt-action concept it’s that it lacks the tremendous camming force that a traditional bolt-action can exert to chamber a dirty cartridge or extract a sticky case. In all honesty, though, extraction problems are usually due to handloads that are too hot or because a case has been resized too many times. Factory ammo or once-fired reloads properly resized are no problem.

Yes, straight-pulls are more complicated and expensive to make, but I still hope some American gun manufacturer takes up the challenge … soon!

The article originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Six’s Saga: From 6mm Remington And .243 Winchester To Today

As a caliber, the 6mm has the least number of commercial members. Starting at left is the ill-fated .243 WSSM, .243 Win., 6mm Rem. (originally the .244 Rem.), and .240 Weatherby.
As a caliber, the 6mm has the least number of commercial members. Starting at left is the ill-fated .243 WSSM, .243 Win., 6mm Rem. (originally the .244 Rem.), and .240 Weatherby.

The popularity of 6mm cartridges has waxed and waned over the decades, but appears to be peaking again.

What are the 6mm Cartridges:

  • 6mm Lee Navy
  • 6mm Creedmoor
  • 6mm Remington (.244 Remington)
  • 6mm Apex
  • 6mm PPC
  • 6mm BR
  • 6mm AR
  • 6mm XC
  • .243 Winchester
  • .243 WSSM
  • .240 Weatherby Magnum
  • .244 H&H Magnum
  • 6mm SAW
  • 6mm Dasher

In 1955, both Remington and Winchester introduced a 6mm cartridge. Remington dubbed theirs the .244 Rem., while Winchester went with .243 Win. It was a different time back then … a time when versatility in a rifle and cartridge was the mantra. The .30-06, for example, was venerated as the king of cartridges because it could take on any game anywhere in the world but for rhino, Cape buffalo and elephant. So, the prevailing sentiment of the day was that one rifle, plus a .22 caliber of some sort, was all a guy needed.

It was also the age of the vertical “gun magazine.” Now, those firearms aficionados with more than just a passing interest in guns and hunting, which included me, had access to all that was new and exciting gun-wise. It was then — the late 1950s — that I developed into a full-fledged rifle weenie. I devoured every gun magazine I could get my hands on, and it was rare that there wasn’t at least one article every month in each of those pubs talking about the “War of the 6s.” But, as it turned out, it was no contest at all: The .243 Winchester had won hands down, and for good reason.

Some of the 100-yard groups fired with a Ruger American in 6mm Creedmoor.
Some of the 100-yard groups fired with a Ruger American in 6mm Creedmoor.

To fully appreciate what was also happening at the time that influenced the 6mm story, it’s noteworthy that varmint/predator hunting was coming of age. Not that hunting groundhogs, prairie dogs, fox and coyotes was anything new: it was becoming much more popular than it had been in the past. As for the “big game” side of the story, if truth be told, a huge percentage of America’s hunters never hunt anything larger than deer, and that was a big factor explaining the attraction to the .24 bore. A 6mm may not be the ideal deer caliber, but it’s certainly adequate out to distances that 98 percent of all deer are harvested.

The 6mm Showdown

So, the stage was set. Winchester saw its .243 as a “dual purpose” cartridge, one that was equally suited to hunting deer and vermin. The popular perception was that, with a .243 Win., you had two rifles in one. As such, the initial factory ammunition offerings consisted of an 80-grain varmint load, and a 100-grain deer load. Remington, on the other hand, envisioned its .244 as a long-range varmint/predator cartridge, and as such it offered factory ammunition loads of 75 and 90 grains.

The first of the majors to chamber for the 6mm Creedmoor was Ruger with its American. Shown here is the example the author has previously reviewed.
The first of the majors to chamber for the 6mm Creedmoor was Ruger with its American. Shown here is the example the author has previously reviewed.

Three of the biggest proponents of the .243 Win. were a Texas gun writer by the name of Byron Dalrymple; famed gun writer Warren Page; and Fred Huntington, founder of RCBS. Both Page and Huntington developed wildcat .24s based on the 7.62 NATO (.308 Win.) case, which were almost identical to what would become the .243 Win. As for Dalrymple, he slew a ton of Texas whitetails and coyotes, and he wrote dozens of articles praising the .243 Win. like it was the second coming.

The .244 Rem., on the other hand, got much less press, and much of it lacked enthusiasm. Here again, Page and Huntington were in the picture because both had also developed wildcat .24s based on the .257 Roberts case, which prompted Remington to choose it for their .244. Right from the get-go the consensus among the gun writers of the day was that the .243 Winchester’s 100-grain load was an excellent deer dispatcher, but somehow a 90-grain slug out of a .244 Rem. was not. That was pretty much bullpucky, but that was the general perception — and perception is everything.

For the 50th anniversary of the 6mm Rem., Remington chose to honor it with a special edition of the Model 700 CDL.
For the 50th anniversary of the 6mm Rem., Remington chose to honor it with a special edition of the Model 700 CDL.

Now, if you were a handloader, the situation should have been easily remedied, but it so happened that Remington chose a 1:12 twist for its .244, while Winchester went with the faster 1:10 twist for its offspring. Again, it was the writers of the day who cautioned that a 1:12 twist might not stabilize 100-grain bullets. Personally, my experience with the .244 Rem. was that it stabilized handloaded 100-grain bullets just fine. But again, there was that cloud of doubt.


More Ammunition Information:


If that weren’t enough to derail the .244 Rem., the last nail in its coffin was that the Remington Model 722 in which it was chambered was a dog. Its stock had all the appeal of a 2×4, and its ungainly 26-inch barrel did not a handy deer rifle make. The .243 Winchester’s home, on the other hand, was the svelte Model 70 Featherweight with a 22-inch barrel, and the Standard Grade which had a 24-inch spout.

At left is .308 Winchester, next 6.5 Creedmoor, then 6mm Creedmoor.
At left is .308 Winchester, next 6.5 Creedmoor, then 6mm Creedmoor.

Remington changed the twist rate to 1:10 around 1958, but it was too late; the damage had been done. The round languished until 1963, when along with the rolling out of the buzzard-turned-swan Model 700 rifle, the .244 Rem. was reintroduced as the 6mm Rem., and with it, two new loadings: a 100-grain slug at 3,190 fps, and an 80-grain at 3,450 fps. Back then, nominal factory ballistics were established in 26-inch test barrels, so they were optimistic to say the least. And to make sure there were no stability problems, they went with a 1:9 twist!

The Then-New 6mm

From the ballistic standpoint, the .244/6mm Rem. case, being based on the .257 Roberts hull, has slightly more powder capacity than the .243 Win., and it’s therefore capable of imparting a bit more velocity. That’s borne out by current factory ammo specs showing the 6mm Rem. 100-grain load exiting at 3,100 fps, and the .243 Win. at 2,960 fps. In handloaded form, the difference is more than that. Nevertheless, the 6mm Remington has never rivaled the .243 Winchester’s popularity.

Another of the author’s 6mms was this Star-barreled BSA action in a Fajen Regent stock.
Another of the author’s 6mms was this Star-barreled BSA action in a Fajen Regent stock.

However, being the iconoclast I am, I naturally went with the 6mm Rem. It was 1965 as I recall, and it was also one of the first centerfire rifles I built after getting out of school. I purchased a commercial Mauser action, had it barreled and set it into a stock from Herter’s. Before I went on to bigger and better things, I took a mule deer, two pronghorns, three black bears and about 300 groundhogs with that rifle. I had such success with the cartridge that I acquired two more 6mm Rem. rifles: one was a Ruger No.1B, which I restocked, and the other I built on a BSA action, a Douglas barrel and a Fajen stock. Both saw action out West and in Canada.

Competition Cometh

Thirteen years would pass after the introduction of the twin 6mm’s before any competition appeared; it was in 1968 in the form of the .240 Weatherby Magnum. Being a proprietary cartridge available only in Weatherby rifles, the .240 Wthby. Mag. didn’t actually compete with the .243 Win. or the 6mm Rem. in terms of sales, but it certainly raised the bar for .24-caliber performance.

In production-grade sporting rifles, no other commercial cartridges are as accurate as the Creeds.
In production-grade sporting rifles, no other commercial cartridges are as accurate as the Creeds.

Based on a unique case best described as a .30-06 with a belt, Weatherby data shows the .240 launching a 100-grain bullet at 3,405 fps, and an 80-grain bullet at 3,500 fps. It’s a bit puzzling that there would only be a 100 fps difference for 20 grains of bullet weight. The consensus among handloading data shows the 3,400 fps figure to be optimistic to the tune of about 100 fps in a 24-inch barrel. The 3,500 fps for the 80-grain, on the other hand, appears to be doable with handloads.

By the time Weatherby came out with his .240 Wthby. Mag. (it was the last cartridge in the Weatherby Magnum family designed by Roy himself), interest in the .24s was on the wane. I think it was because there was such a plethora of new and more capable cartridges being introduced in the ‘60s that the hunting community simply lost interest. I know I did.

The author with a bunch of Pennsylvania groundhogs taken with his first 6mm Rem.
The author with a bunch of Pennsylvania groundhogs taken with his first 6mm Rem.

Also contributing to the malaise were the gun magazines, in that they were convincing hunters that having one rifle for both varmints and deer was a compromise. You needed a varmint rifle and a deer rifle — preferably one more potent than a 6mm. Today, of course, we’re in the age of specialization. We have varmint rifles, predator rifles, mountain rifles, plains rifles, bean field rifles, hog rifles, long-range rifles … and the list goes on. It wasn’t like that back then.

One Last Hurrah

The last “nostalgic” attempt at a new 6mm hunting cartridge was the introduction of the .243 Win. Super Short Magnum in 2004. Because the Winchester folks had reasonable success with the .300 Win. Short Magnum, which they introduced in 2001 — and the .270, 7mm and 8mm versions that followed — they apparently figured, “If short is good, maybe shorter yet would be better?”

Not! The .243 WSSM, along with its sibling .224 and .257 versions, were commercial flops. Only Winchester and Browning chambered rifles for the ill-fated family, and production of those, along with ammunition, lasted but a few years.

One of two black bears to fall to the author’s Ruger No.1 in 6mm Rem.
One of two black bears to fall to the author’s Ruger No.1 in 6mm Rem.

I previously singled out the hunting community as having lost interest in the 6mm, but competitive shooters have never abandoned it. Not only do 6mm cartridges dominate 100- and 200-yard bench rest competitions, but the 1,000-yard game as well. And in the Precision Rifle Series, where once the .30-caliber was king, it has long since trended downward to smaller cartridges and smaller calibers having less recoil.

At first the trend was to 7mm, then to 6.5s — like the 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Rem. and 6.5-284. Today, the 6mm is showing that it may be even better-suited to shooting tiny groups at 1,000 yards. It is somewhat counterintuitive that cartridges like the 6 BRA and 6mm Dasher, which have less powder capacity than the .243 Win., can launch relatively tiny 105-grain VLD (Very Low Drag) bullets more accurately at 1,000 yards than, say, a .300 Win. Magnum or .338 Lapua.

But they do, and they have a good-enough record doing it that Hornady, who gave us the insanely popular 6.5 Creedmoor, last year rolled out a 6mm Creedmoor. I’ve already reviewed two such rifles and both were impressively accurate with factory ammo.

Bottom line: The 6mm may not be as popular as it once was with America’s hunters, but it’s the darling of those shooting the smallest groups at the longest ranges.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Aussie-Style Accuracy With The Lithgow LA102

The Lithgow LA102 has no problem dishing out sub-MOA pills, one after another.

What the Lithgow LA102 offers:

  • Cold-forged, military-grade steel barrel.
  • High-tensile steel receiver.
  • Three lug bolt.
  • Adjustable length of pull.
  • Available in .223 Rem., .243 Win., .308 Win and 6.5 Creedmoor.
  • 2.9-pound trigger pull.
  • Picatiny rail for optics addition.
  • Threaded Muzzle.
  • Three-postion thumb safety.
  • Walnut Stock.

One of the more dynamic gun companies of the past decade has been Legacy Sports of Reno, Nevada. Once known primarily as the importer of the Howa line of centerfire rifles and barreled actions, the company has gradually diversified to where in addition to Howa, it now represents Lithgow Arms, Webley & Scott, Escort, Pointer and Citadel, which together have virtually every firearm type covered — from semi-auto, slide action, O/U and break-open single-shot shotguns, to bolt-action rimfire and centerfire rifles and M1911 handguns. And with their NikkoStirling line, Legacy has riflescopes and other electronic sighting devices as well.

The Lithgow LA102 Laminate in .308 Win. as tested with a Bushnell Elite Tactical 4.5-18x44mm scope in Warne QD lever rings weighed 10½ pounds.
The Lithgow LA102 Laminate in .308 Win. as tested with a Bushnell Elite Tactical 4.5-18x44mm scope in Warne QD lever rings weighed 10½ pounds.

Legacy’s latest acquisition is the Lithgow line of bolt-action rimfire and centerfire rifles from Australia. That this company would introduce a line of sporting rifles was pretty much an inevitable no-brainer, because Lithgow has been Australia’s national armory since 1912. From Gallipoli to Afghanistan, Australian Defense Forces have carried Lithgow small arms into battle.

The country’s current martial arm is the F90, a selective-fire assault rifle in 5.56×45 NATO that has gained quite a reputation among various armed forces and law enforcement agencies around the world. Lithgow, incidentally, is also the name of the town in New South Wales where the factory is located that employs 130 people.


More Rifle Articles:


For their bolt-action sporting rifles, Lithgow started with clean sheets of paper, the results of which are the Model LA101 Crossover rimfire and the LA102 centerfire, both of which were introduced last year. The Model 102 was originally introduced only in a black synthetic stock but it’s now available in a brown wood laminate as well. It, along with the 6.5 Creedmoor chambering, are new this year, but the Creedmoor won’t be available for another couple of months, so the .308 Win. version got the nod.

A Growing Fat-Bolt Family

Not surprisingly, the Lithgow folks chose to go with the “fat bolt” tri-lug system for the 102. I say “not surprisingly” because most of the truly new bolt-action rifles introduced in the United States and in Europe during the past decade have adopted this design approach. When coupled with a tubular receiver and an injection-molded stock, a highly accurate, serviceable rifle can be produced more economically than can your typical Mauser-type design.

The rear of the receiver is machined to perfectly match the top line of the grip.
The rear of the receiver is machined to perfectly match the top line of the grip.

Two perfect examples are Winchester’s XPR and Ruger’s American, both of which are priced substantially lower than their flagship siblings — the Model 70 and M77 Hawkeye, respectively. That’s not to say that all rifles of this genre are “value priced” and selling in the $500 range. It’s just that if a manufacturer wants to produce a budget-class rifle, the fat-bolt tri-lug is the way to go.

In the case of the Lithgow 102, however, its suggested retail price of $1,499 has it competing with Weatherby‘s Mark V, Winchester’s Model 70 Super Grade and the pricier models in Browning’s X-Bolt line. You all know the defining characteristics: The bolt body is fatter than a Mauser-type bolt, allowing the locking lugs to be formed by relieving metal at the head.

The Bushnell Elite Tactical 4.5-18x44mm LRTS scope proved a handsome match and an enabler to the accuracy of the test gun.
The Bushnell Elite Tactical 4.5-18x44mm LRTS scope proved a handsome match and an enabler to the accuracy of the test gun.

However, inherent with the design is that the depth of the locking lugs is limited, so there has to be more of them. Normally there are three, but with the Austrian Roessler 6 there are two rows of three, and with the Weatherby Mark V Magnum, there are three rows of three for a total of nine locking lugs. The number of lugs notwithstanding, all are oriented on 120-degree centers, making for a shorter bolt rotation (handle lift). With there being no protruding lugs, only a round hole is needed for the raceway in the receiver, which allows closer tolerances between the two. The result is a much smoother and wobble-free bolt travel and faster-cycling action.

Under The Lithgow’s Hood

The 102’s receiver starts out as round bar stock, so it’s tubular. Lengthwise flutes are milled into the sides below the stock line to reduce weight, as are the facets milled into the upper sides of the receiver at the “10:30” and “1:30” positions to lend a hexagonal look. Like all other actions of this type, the ejection port is minimally sized to retain as much rigidity to the receiver as possible.

The bolt head of most tri-lug actions look exactly like that of the Lithgow 102.
The bolt head of most tri-lug actions look exactly like that of the Lithgow 102.

The 15-slot Picatinny rail is so well machined that it can almost pass for being integral; in fact, the catalog states that it is integral, but it’s not. Unlike most tubular receivers, this one does not employ a separate washer-type recoil plate sandwiched between the barrel shank and receiver face like the Remington 700, Savage 100-series or Mossberg Patriot, among others. Rather, a simple transverse slot is milled into the underside of the receiver ring that engages a steel plate imbedded in the stock. It’s just another way of transferring recoil forces and it’s as effective as any.

The bolt stop/release is a simple pivoting lever at the left side of the receiver bridge that also serves as a bolt guide, without which the bolt would rotate freely once out of battery. This characteristic is shared by all fat-bolt systems. Like its 22-inch hammer forged barrel and bolt handle, the entire receiver is Cerakote finished in a matte silver that closely resembles raw stainless. It’s quite handsome.

The test gun proved to be exceptionally accurate. Shown here are the three best groups, but the other two averaged 0.76 for a five-group average under 0.60 inches!
The test gun proved to be exceptionally accurate. Shown here are the three best groups, but the other two averaged 0.76 for a five-group average under 0.60 inches!

Looking at the head of the bolt, you could be looking at one out of a Winchester XPR, Ruger American, T/C Venture, Merkel M16, Franchi Momentum, Sabatti Saphire, Sauer 100 or a Steyr SM12, for that’s how similar are the bolt heads of tri-lug fat bolt actions! All have recessed faces, employ plunger-type ejectors, and all have their extractors sliding radially within a T-slot in the face of the right-side locking lug.

Here’s the bottom line: Once you commit to this design, there’s not a lot of room for originality. But, then again, it all works so seamlessly there’s no incentive to do so. That’s why there are now 17 tri-lug rifles available in the United States marketplace manufactured here and overseas that share the exact same design and functional characteristics.

The action and magazine are long enough for standard (.30-06 length) cartridges, so the latter is baffled for the shorter .223 Rem., .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Win. chamberings.
The action and magazine are long enough for standard (.30-06 length) cartridges, so the latter is baffled for the shorter .223 Rem., .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Win. chamberings.

Anyway, at the rear of the bolt we find the fire-control system, and it’s fully contained within the cap or shroud, thus being similar to that of a Model 70 Winchester. When pulled rearward from its 3 o’clock “fire” position to an approximate 4:30 position, the firing pin is locked, and so is the action. This makes it different from all other three-position Model 70-type safeties because it’s normally the middle position that engages the safety — but does not lock the bolt. In this middle position, the bolt can be removed, and by depressing a small button on the shroud, the firing pin assembly can be pulled free of the bolt body for routine maintenance. Rotating the wing to the 6 o’clock position keeps the safety engaged and locks the bolt.

Because the fire control system is fully contained within the bolt shroud, the fully adjustable trigger mechanism, which is housed in a massive non-ferrous casting, houses nothing but the trigger system. The adjustment screws are of course set and sealed at the factory, so I assume tampering would void any warranty.

The 102 comes with a 5/8 x 24 threaded and capped muzzle, thus is brake/suppressor ready. The .223 Rem. version is threaded ½ x 28.
The 102 comes with a 5/8 x 24 threaded and capped muzzle, thus is brake/suppressor ready. The .223 Rem. version is threaded ½ x 28.

With this gun, the recoil plate also serves as a bedding surface for the receiver ring. That, and a small steel platform that engages the rear action screw are the only support points for the receiver. It’s similar to true pillar bedding in that the receiver is supported at only two small contact points. The hammer-forged barrel is fully floated from the receiver on out.

The one-piece single-stack polycarbonate magazine is among the very best of its type. It weighs nothing, it’s virtually indestructible, it has integral feed lips that can’t be bent and it’s easy to charge. Cartridges feed almost effortlessly, and the magazine itself is independent of the stock. In other words, when lifting the barreled action free of the stock, the magazine and its release button come with it. The stock, then, serves only to protect the magazine and provide a handle for the rifle.

The magazine is independent of the stock. Many drop mags, especially European rifles, are stock dependent.
The magazine is independent of the stock. Many drop mags, especially European rifles, are stock dependent.

The stock is comprised of 1/16-inch veneers of firearms-grade maple laminate, which makes it just about as inert as a synthetic — and a helluva lot more attractive! Of course, laminates are a bit on the heavy side compared to synthetics of the same geometry — in this case, 8.2 pounds for the laminate vs. 7.7 for the synthetic.

Lending a rather distinctive look to this rifle is the butt hook directly behind the grip cap. It does provide more room for the left hand to squeeze and slide the rear bag for minor elevation adjustments, but the area behind the cut-out is virtually parallel with the bench, so you don’t have near the adjustment latitude that an angled, conventional toe line provides. In addition, the stippled grip and forearm panels are attractive, functional and very well executed.

Testing For Accuracy

To ready the gun for a little range work, I mounted a Bushnell Elite Tactical 4.5-18x44mm scope using 30mm Warne QD lever rings. With the Bushnell aboard, the field-ready rig weighed exactly 10.5 pounds — so it’s not exactly a mountain rifle!

The .308 Win. is one of my favorite rifle calibers to test and evaluate; it’s very accurate, and with the many match loadings available, it can bring out the best in a rifle’s design. Also, it doesn’t dislodge your fillings when shooting off a bench, yet it’s enough gun for 90 percent of the world’s game.

Lithgow Shot Test

As it turned out, this particular example of the Lithgow LA102 proved to be more than accurate. The star was Federal’s Matchking load, and the first three 3-shot groups measured 0.42, 0.40 and 0.64 inches! Even with a slightly warm barrel, the last two groups still measured an impressive 0.72 and 0.79 inches, for a 15-shot average of 0.59 inches!

And as is evident from the attached data table, the Black Hills load wasn’t far behind. Even the Browning BXR “deer load” averaged just over 1 MOA, with the “worst” load posting a 1.35-inch average. That, sports fans, is an accurate huntin’ rifle!

The Bottom Line

It’s hard to find fault with this rifle. It’s beautifully made, the bolt glides like it’s on ball bearings, it feeds and extracts flawlessly, the trigger breaks like a glass sliver at 2.9 pounds, and it’s accurate as hell. At $1,499, it’s the priciest of the various tri-lug fat bolt rifles out there, but given what the gun offers, it’s fairly priced. The synthetic version lists at $1399.

The only regret was that we couldn’t yet get the 6.5 Creedmoor version for a trial run, for based on past experiences with that cartridge — and especially with Hornady ammo — we can only imagine what kind of groups we could have gotten. That’s combination you should think hard about trying for yourself.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

What Exactly Is A Magnum?

It's difficult to define where regular cartridges end and magnums begin.

Why defining a magnum is difficult:

  • In the ‘60s and ‘70s, it meant a cartridge more powerful than “normal.”
  • Typically based on the belted Holland & Holland case.
  • This was not a hard and fast standard.
  • Many typical “standard” cartridges had magnum performance, such as the .25-08.
  • Some “magnum” cartridges were less than powerful, such as the .256 Win. Mag.

There was a time when the term “magnum” was fairly well defined. I’m talking back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when the word pretty much meant a cartridge more powerful than “normal” and was usually based on the belted Holland & Holland case. In fact, in the eyes of many, if it didn’t have a belt, it couldn’t be a magnum — that’s how synonymous the two words became. As always, though, there were many exceptions to the rule. Back in its early days as a wildcat, for example, the .25-06 certainly provided magnum performance if the “standard” for the caliber was the .257 Roberts. Yet it was never called the “.25-06 Magnum.”

Magnum-7

At the other end of the .25-caliber spectrum was the .256 Winchester Magnum, a bastard of a cartridge if even there was one. Originally designed as a pistol cartridge, what limited popularity it achieved it was in the Marlin Model 62 Levermatic rifle. Based on the .357 Magnum pistol case necked down to .25 caliber, as a rifle cartridge it was pitiful, sending a 60-grain bullet of low sectional density and ballistic coefficient at 2,760 fps. If we again cite the .257 Roberts as representing the performance standard for the caliber, it would have qualified as a super magnum compared to the .256! Incidentally, I actually owned one of those Marlin Levermatics, and the .256 Win. Magnum was the cartridge with which I started my handloading career.

Anyway, another and even better example of confusing nomenclature is the .220 Swift. When it was introduced in 1932, it absolutely blew the doors off any other .22 centerfire cartridge, yet like the .25-06, it too never received the magnum imprimatur. Even when the .222 Rem. Magnum was introduced in 1958, the Swift pushed the same weight bullets about 500 fps faster, yet it was … well, just a Swift, not a magnum.

Grasping For Consistency

Like I said, there are many exceptions to the rule, but for the most part there was some thread of consistency throughout cartridge nomenclature. I guess when you get right down to it, a cartridge is regarded as a “magnum” if its performance — usually based on velocity, but not always, as in the case of shotshells — is higher than the nominal standard. Today, we have many true magnums that have no belt, plus we have short magnums, ultra magnums and “enhanced performance” cartridges, so determining what those standards are is a lot more confusing than it used to be.

The .300 Win. Mag., left, was the fourth cartridge in a series of belted magnums designed to fi t in a standard long action. The other Winchester Magnums are, from left to right, the .264, .338 and .458, all based on the .375 H&H Mag. case.
The .300 Win. Mag., left, was the fourth cartridge in a series of belted magnums designed to fi t in a standard long action. The other Winchester Magnums are, from left to right, the .264, .338 and .458, all based on the .375 H&H Mag. case.

I do think, however, we would all agree that the performance “standard” for our two most popular hunting calibers, the 7mm and .30, are represented by the .280 Rem. and the .30-06. In other words, a muzzle velocity of around 2,800-2,850 fps for a 150-grain 7mm bullet, and 2,750 fps or thereabouts for a 180-grain slug in a .30-06, represent “standard” cartridge performance for those respective calibers. Any cartridge that increases those nominal velocities by 150-200 fps would qualify as magnums, whether they’re called that or not.

Continuing that thread, the 7mm Rem. Mag. and .300 Win. Mag. best exemplify what most of us mean by magnum in those respective calibers. Of course, we now have the 7mm and .300 Win. Short Magnums, which duplicate the aforementioned rounds, but with a shorter, squatter case — and without that once almost-mandatory appendage known as a belt.

Then we have in those same two calibers the 7mm and .300 Remington Ultra Mags, both of which deserve that superlative moniker because they do indeed provide another significant step up in performance over “standard magnums” if you will, which has to qualify as an oxymoron if ever there was one!

A Winchester Model 70 Classic Stainless chambered in .300 Win. Mag.
A Winchester Model 70 Classic Stainless chambered in .300 Win. Mag.

What in recent years has further blurred the lines between standard, magnum and ultra-magnum performance is best characterized by Hornady’s original Light Magnum line of enhanced performance ammunition. By using proprietary loading procedures and propellants specifically formulated for them, Hornady was able to boost velocities in non-magnum cartridges by as much as 140 fps over the nominal standards, with no increase in pressures. After a couple of years, Hornady applied that same technology to magnum calibers, but they felt they had to somehow distinguish it from non-magnum calibers, so they called it “Heavy Magnum,” even though the velocity gains averaged about the same.

For example, the Light Magnum 165-grain .308 Win. load clocked 2,840 fps compared to 2,700 for the standard loading. In .300 Win. the Heavy Magnum load exited at 3,120 fps, or 170 fps over the standard load. Thankfully, the Hornady folks realized the potential for confusion and have since chosen to change the name to Superformance, and it applies to all such enhanced loadings whether magnums or not.

Further blurring the lines between standard and magnum performance is that Hornady has applied this same technology in its development of proprietary cartridge lines for Ruger, Thompson/Center and Marlin. The Ruger Compact Magnums — the .300 and .338 T/C, and the .300 and .338 Marlin Express — are all examples of cartridges that provide significant more velocities than they could otherwise given their case capacities.

Today’s Mauser M98 Magnum is very similar to Peter Paul Mauser’s original — with a few upgrades, including plasma-nutrided metal, a new trigger design and a three-position wing safety.
Today’s Mauser M98 Magnum is very similar to Peter Paul Mauser’s original — with a few upgrades, including plasma-nutrided metal, a new trigger design and a three-position wing safety.

Even more dramatic, though, is the performance gains achieved when these same loading techniques are applied to classic lever-action cartridges like the .30-30, .35 Rem., .444 Marlin and .450 Marlin in conjunction with Hornady’s development of FlexTip bullets that allow spitzer-shaped projectiles to be used in the heretofore verboten tubular magazines of classic lever-action rifles like the Marlin 336 and Winchester Model 94. The gains in velocity, coupled with the flatter trajectories of these much more streamlined bullets, have elevated the overall performance of these old guns to where they would qualify as “magnums” when compared to the standard loadings, and the flat or round-nosed bullets these guns were traditionally saddled with.

Making Sense Of It All

No, the term “magnum” doesn’t have quite the same connotations it once did. There are cartridges today that produce magnum and even super-magnum performance, yet are not so designated — the 7.82 Lazzeroni Warbird and .460 Dakota are consummate examples.

Then there are those that wear a belt and don’t qualify, such as the 6.5 and .350 Remington Magnums; they only duplicate, if that, the performance of the 6.5-06 wildcat and the .35 Whelen, respectively. And lastly there are those that, through enhanced loading techniques and the use of specially formulated propellants, find themselves in that no-man’s land between standard and magnum performance.

There was a time when, in the eyes of many rifl emen, if a cartridge didn’t have a belt it couldn’t be a magnum — the two words “belted magnum” became nearly inseparable.
There was a time when, in the eyes of many rifl emen, if a cartridge didn’t have a belt it couldn’t be a magnum — the two words “belted magnum” became nearly inseparable.

Thanks to our penchant for trying to pigeon-hole everything into neatly defined categories, we find ourselves more frustrated than ever. But, what difference does it really make?

Editor's Notes: This article originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Laying The Wood: The Story Of Laminate Stocks

The unlikely tale of how laminate stocks went from curiosity to commonplace, changing the shooting world along the way — for the better.

How did laminate stock storm the firearms world?:

  • Prior to 1987, there wasn’t a single American manufacturer that offered a wood laminate stock.
  • Jack Barrett and his company, Rutland Plywood, changed this in the mid-1980s.
  • Utilizing special epoxies, the company layered extremely thin veneers of birch to create stock blanks.
  • In many cases, stock blanks consisted of 30 to 36 1/16” veneers.
  • The advantage offered by laments are blemish-free material, greater strength and better action fit.
  • Additionally, they do not swell or warp due to environmental conditions.

For those of you who might be either too young or too new to the world of firearms, the colorful wood laminated stocks you see in the catalogs of literally every rifle manufacturer are a fairly recent development. Prior to 1987, there was not a single wood laminated stock being offered by an American production rifle manufacturer. Today there’s not one that doesn’t offer several among its various sporter and varmint/target models. Seldom can a trend that has become so broad and pervasive be traced to a single company, but in this case it can: the Rutland Plywood Corp. of Rutland, Vermont, and its owner and CEO, Jack Barrett. Unfortunately, RPC burned to the ground in late August of 2014, but that doesn’t change the story.

Lament-Stocks-First

Humble Beginnings

It was at the 1987 SHOT Show that Winchester, Ruger and Savage all exhibited for the first time examples of their flagship bolt-action rifles wearing laminated stocks machined from blanks furnished by RPC. It created quite a stir! My appreciation for laminates, however, goes back to the early 1960s; by then, I was stocking my own rifles using the shaped and semi-inletted stocks as offered by Reinhart Fajen, E. C. Bishop & Sons, and Herters, which were the largest retail sources at the time.

It didn’t take me long to realize after dealing with a couple of traditional walnut stocks that warped enough between the dry winter and humid summer conditions of Pennsylvania, which had them constantly changing zero, that there had to be a better, more stable stock medium. At that time, what few synthetic stocks that existed were crude at best, in their infancy technology-wise, and pretty much used only by the benchrest crowd.

A few examples of the almost limitless color combinations possible. Some examples have as many as five colors.
A few examples of the almost limitless color combinations possible. Some examples have as many as five colors.

Back then the most appealing stock to my eyes was the Regent by Fajen. It was a racy-looking thing with a high, straight comb line that was actually slightly higher at the heel of the butt than it was at the point of the comb. What made this stock look so streamlined was that the upper left quadrant of the pistol grip was not rounded off. In other words, in silhouette, the top line across the grip area was almost a straight line from the receiver tang to the point of the comb (Here is where a picture is worth a thousand words).

Anyway, the Fajen people offered the Regent in an all-walnut laminate of 5⁄16-inch laminations, which they turned from blanks purchases from a furniture manufacturer. That meant there were only six layers of wood in a typical stock, so the multi-layer look we see in today’s laminates was very subdued.

The Birth Of The RPC Laminate

By the time I became a full-time gun writer in 1970, I owned three rifles stocked in Regent laminates and wrote about why I liked them on a regular basis — a fact that did not go unnoticed by Jack Barrett. Jack was a gun enthusiast and hunter who, in the mid-1980s, had begun developing a birch laminate specifically for rifle stock applications. At that time, RPC had been in business for more than 30 years and was one of the largest manufacturers of specialty wood laminates and plywood for industrial use, so the technology and wherewithal were already there.

The author built this rig using a Ruger 10/22 action, an E.R. Shaw spiral-fluted barrel and a Boyds stock. The receiver was colored using an oven-baked spray-on enamel, and the matching scope came out of Leupold’s Custom Shop.
The author built this rig using a Ruger 10/22 action, an E.R. Shaw spiral-fluted barrel and a Boyds stock. The receiver was colored using an oven-baked spray-on enamel, and the matching scope came out of Leupold’s Custom Shop.

To make a long story short, after seeing several of my articles, Jack got in touch with me and invited me to visit his plant; that was in 1986 when they had just finished more than two years developing the special epoxies and production processes to make an absolutely stable, warp-free gunstock that would never de-laminate. Moreover, it was comprised of the thinnest possible layers of white birch — veneers actually, each only 1/16” thick. The result was a blank consisting of 30 to 36 individual layers of wood, depending on the stock style to be turned from it. Couple that with the ability to dye the veneers any color and assemble them in any combination, and you’ve got what we’ve all come to take for granted as the wood laminated stock.

How The Magic Happens

The actual process to arrive at a blank ready for shipment to firearm and stock manufacturers is a fascinating one. Logs are first debarked and cut to length — about 40 inches. These log sections are then placed in a huge steam room for a couple of days where they soften and become easier to machine.

Next comes the turning process that actually produces the veneers. The logs are placed on a lathe where they are spun at high speed against a huge blade. The logs, of course, are never perfect cylinders at the start, so the first few revolutions against the inward-moving blade come off as irregular sheets.

Remington’s Model 673 Guide Rifle was unlike other laminates in that it consisted of five, 5⁄16-inch layers to emulate the original Model 600 Carbine of the mid-1960s.
Remington’s Model 673 Guide Rifle was unlike other laminates in that it consisted of five, 5⁄16-inch layers to emulate the original Model 600 Carbine of the mid-1960s.

Once the log is trued up, however, one continuous veneer comes peeling off at about 15 mph. The spinning log is reduced to the diameter of a broom handle in less than a minute. As the sheet comes peeling off on a large conveyor belt, it passes beneath an optical comparator that triggers a vertical blade, which cuts out any section having knots, voids or other imperfections.

Once the veneers, which at this point are virtually wet to the touch, are cut to size — about 12×35 inches — they go into a huge conveyor oven. Because the sheets are so thin, by the time the veneers come out the other side, their moisture content has been reduced to just 4 to 5 percent, which is lower than a homogeneous stock can be dried.

The processes described thus far afford two more advantages over a single piece of wood. Because the 30-plus veneers that go into each stock are blemish free, that ensures that as the blank is machined into a gunstock, no knots, voids or other flaws will be revealed. With one-piece walnut stocks, the rejection rate for such “surprises” can be as high as 8 to 10 percent.

Seen here is the pressurized autoclave where the veneers are dyed to the desired color, in this case, black.
Seen here is the pressurized autoclave where the veneers are dyed to the desired color, in this case, black.

The next step is the coloring process, which is done by putting stacks of veneers in a huge autoclave where color dye is introduced and the atmosphere is reduced to a vacuum that enables the dye to fully penetrate each sheet. After coloring, all that remains is for the veneers to be run through rollers, which deposit a proprietary epoxy to each side, then stacked by hand in the desired color combination. From there they are placed in a gigantic, multi-layer hydraulic press with heated platens that accommodate 20 blanks at a time. The stacks are compressed under 20 tons of pressure, while the heated platens speed the curing of the epoxy.

The Laminate Advantage

As touched upon earlier, laminated stocks are not only highly distinctive and colorful, but are far stronger and more stable than one-piece stocks. You can, for example, take a wood chisel, orient it parallel with the layering of the veneers, and whack it all you want with a hammer; the stock will not split along a seam. I’ve also seen a laminated stock that was turned and treated by Boyds with its standard stock finish, submerged in a swimming pool for 5 days, after which there was no measurable swelling or warping.

Once the log is trued and the blade is making total contact with the spinning log, the veneer peels off in an unbroken sheet at 15 mph.
Once the log is trued and the blade is making total contact with the spinning log, the veneer peels off in an unbroken sheet at 15 mph.

Bottom line: A laminate is just flat-out better at being a gunstock than the traditional one-piece chunk of wood. Not only is it much stronger and stable, it has a tactile warmth about it that no synthetic can match. It feels like wood because it is wood. Me, I like them as much as ever.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Top 6 Shooting Myths And Half-Truths

What’s fact — and what’s fiction — when it comes to some commonly held shooting and hunting beliefs? You might be surprised.

Straight shooting on these common shooting misconceptions:

As in any pastime, there are myths and half-truths that seem to have a life of their own, and the world of hunting and shooting probably has more than its share. Because internal and external ballistics can be so … well, intimidating to those who are simply hunters and not technically oriented, it’s understandable. Then there are terminal ballistics and cartridge/rifle performance, which can be quite subjective.

As a boy hanging around the little sporting goods store my buddy’s dad owned on 131st Street in Cleveland, we overheard all kinds of stories that, as impressionable pre-teens, we took as gospel. After all, some of the men who hung around the store had big game experience in Pennsylvania, West Virginia — even exotic places like Wyoming and Colorado, so they had to know what they were talking about!

Shooting Myth No. 1: Long barrels are more accurate than short barrels

Actually, the reverse is more often the case. Short barrels are stiffer, and, thus, the amplitude of vibrations — or barrel flex — is less. Benchrest rifles sport short, thick barrels. It’s true, however, that where iron sights are concerned, a long-barreled gun can be aimed more accurately because the sight radius (distance between the front and rear sight) is longer and the margin of aiming error is less.

Where iron sights are concerned, the longer the sight radius, the more accurate the gun can be aimed. The use of an aperture sight also maximizes the accuracy potential of iron sights.
Where iron sights are concerned, the longer the sight radius, the more accurate the gun can be aimed. The use of an aperture sight also maximizes the accuracy potential of iron sights.

That’s why accurately shooting a handgun with a sight radius of just a few inches is so much more difficult than shooting a long gun. Conversely, using an aperture or “peep” sight further increases the sight radius of a rifle, so it provides the most precise non-optic aiming system. Of course, the use of a riflescope negates barrel length and sight radius having anything to do with aiming accuracy.

Shooting Myth No. 2: A bullet rises as it leaves the muzzle

This is a myth to be sure, but there are a couple of caveats. For one, though a bullet begins to fall the moment it exits the muzzle, it does “rise” in relation to the line of sight (as opposed to the bore line, which is an imaginary line down the center of the bore out to infinity).

Whether utilizing iron sights or a riflescope, the line of sight — which is also a straight line out to infinity — starts out above the bore line, so if the two are to merge (zero) at any distance downrange, the sights (iron or optic) have to be angled downward to intersect the bullet’s trajectory. Normally, this first occurs out at 20-30 yards if one is zeroing in a typical centerfire rifle at normal distances. This is where “the bullet rises” comes from because beyond that first intersection the bullet is now traveling above the line of sight. As the bullet continues falling beyond that first intersection point, the two converge again at the desired sighting-in distance — your zero.

This illustration shows why a bullet supposedly rises when it leaves the muzzle. It “rises” only in relation to the line of sight.
This illustration shows why a bullet supposedly rises when it leaves the muzzle. It “rises” only in relation to the line of sight.

As for the other caveat, a bullet can, in fact, rise very slightly after exiting the muzzle. This seeming contradiction of Newton’s Law can occur if, at the moment of departure, the barrel is flexed so that its attitude sends the bullet out on a line slightly higher than the bore line. The longer and/or thinner the barrel, the greater the divergence can be, but it’s so miniscule as to be purely academic. It all makes sense if you just imagine giving a violent up-and-down shake to a garden hose and watch how it undulates. That’s what a gun barrel does as a bullet accelerates down the bore. It’s also why, when zeroing in or testing loads on a 100-yard target, a load pushing a heavier bullet can impact higher than a lighter one.

Shooting Myth No. 3: ‘Enough gun’ means dropping animals immediately

More a belief than a myth, it’s held primarily by “low information” hunters — to use a recently coined term for describing voters. Far too many hunters believe that if an animal doesn’t virtually drop in its tracks, “more gun” is needed. Such determinations are often the result of ego, especially if the animal is wounded and not recovered. “I can’t understand it; it was a perfect shot.”
Sure it was.

The truth of the matter is that the typical hunter today is over-gunned, and it’s especially true of whitetail deer hunters who comprise the vast majority of our ranks. If it were possible to shoot 10 identical animals under identical circumstances using the same cartridge and load, there would be 10 different reactions. With all being hit with a perfect heart/lung shot, some would drop where they stood, others would run anywhere from a few to a hundred yards or more.

Almost every magnum-class cartridge, whether commercial or proprietary, introduced in the past 20 years has been based on beltless cases. The entire Dakota family of cartridges shown here are all in the magnum class — but not identified as such.
Almost every magnum-class cartridge, whether commercial or proprietary, introduced in the past 20 years has been based on beltless cases. The entire Dakota family of cartridges shown here are all in the magnum class — but not identified as such.

The fact is, most hunters armed with 7mm and .300 magnums would be better served — and better shots — using a .260 Rem. or 7mm-08. Either is enough gun for all but the biggest bears and long-range elk hunting. And the .270 and .280 even more so.

Shooting Myth No. 4: Mystical ballistics really do exist

Back in the ’50s and early ’60s, the Weatherby Magnum rifle was more or less the Holy Grail for aspiring gun weenies like me, and apocryphal tales of Weatherby Magnum cartridges were quite common. Most often heard was that you could hit a critter in the foot with a Weatherby, particularly the .257, and it would drop on the spot as a result of “hydrostatic shock.” You don’t hear that one too much these days because we have so many cartridges that match or exceed Weatherby ballistics — and far too much empirical evidence to the contrary.

Shooting Myth No. 5: Handloads are more accurate than factory loads

Twenty-five years ago that was a fairly safe, though not certain, wager — assuming hunting rather than match bullets, and a modicum of handload development. Today, with premium loadings put together with superior components using more stringent quality control standards, it’s often difficult to match, let alone exceed, the performance of a premium factory load with a roll-your-own.

Assuming sufficient load development, a handload will almost always provide an accuracy edge over a factory load because it is tailored to a specific firearm. Today’s premium ammo, however, can make it a difficult and time-consuming effort.
Assuming sufficient load development, a handload will almost always provide an accuracy edge over a factory load because it is tailored to a specific firearm. Today’s premium ammo, however, can make it a difficult and time-consuming effort.

Ultimately, the handload will always win because the customization possible in developing a load for a specific rifle can’t be duplicated in factory ammo, but the amount of load development and range time required might not be worth what might be only a minimal difference.

Shooting Myth No. 6: There are magnums … and there are magnums

There are too many examples that defy accepted lexicon to list all of them here, but here are a few magnums that aren’t, and some non-magnums that are:

The .256 Win. Magnum, now obsolete, was a pipsqueak of a rifle cartridge based on a necked-down .357 Magnum pistol round, and the .25-06 Rem. is a magnum-class cartridge without the belt and title. Both are .25-caliber cartridges, but the .256 can’t carry the .25-06’s water.

There are magnums, and there are magnums (left to right): .256 Winchester, .257 Weatherby, 6.5 Rem., .264 Win., .350 Rem. and .358 Norma.
There are magnums, and there are magnums (left to right): .256 Winchester, .257 Weatherby, 6.5 Rem., .264 Win., .350 Rem. and .358 Norma.

The 6.5 Rem. Magnum, which was rolled out in 1965, had the moniker and the belt, but it couldn’t match the ballistics of the existing .264 Win. Mag. Both carried the magnum designation, but one was and the other wasn’t.

The .220 Swift was introduced in 1935 and — despite lacking the official magnum designation — has been king of the .22 centerfires ever since, tremendously outperforming the .222 Rem. Magnum introduced in 1958.

It wasn’t all that long ago that if a cartridge didn’t have a belt, a lot of folks figured that it couldn’t be a magnum. Today, virtually every magnum-class rifle cartridge that has been introduced these past 20 years or so are sans belt. Go figure.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

5 Noteworthy New Fat-Bolt Sporting Rifles (2018)

Checkout these great choices when it comes to rifles with tri-lug full-diameter actions.

What are some of the top choices in accurate and relatively affordable fat-bolt rifles?

For the better part of the bolt-action rifle’s history, the twin-lug design has dominated. But in recent years there’s been a new kid on the block challenging the time-tested configuration’s supremacy.

The tri-lug full-diameter actions, what Jon R. Sundra calls “fat-bolts,” have been sweeping over the rifle world. And why not? They’re stout as sycamores and tend to run well less — due to less machining — than more traditional designs. And, best of all, there are about a metric ton of options available to match nearly any shooter’s pocketbook.

With that in mind, here are five notable fat-bolt rifles worth a look. No matter if chasing deer or punching bullseyes, these guns will get the job done.
Merkel
This iconic
German rifle manufacturer’s least expensive rifle prior to this year’s introduction of the MHR-16 was the RX Helix, which starts at $3,295. This is an unabashed fat bolt rifle, which is how Merkel is able to produce it at a cost that’s not that much more than our domestic equivalents. I’ve tested this gun, and considering its quality and heritage, it’s pretty amazing they can offer it at a price of $799.

Sauer 100 Classic XT

Sauer
Although this 100 Classic XT was introduced in 2016, it has become readily available just this year, so I’ve chosen to include it here. Another member of the fat-bolt genre, this rifle is noteworthy for the same reasons stated for the Merkel: It’s of German quality, yet it carries an almost unheard of price of $699. And except for the subtle Schnabel forend tip, its stock would look right at home on any American-built rifle.

Lithgow LA102

Lithgow
Yet another fat-bolt tri-lug design, this Australian-made bolt-action imported by Legacy Sports (which also handles Howa rifles) is the work of that country’s military armaments supplier and represents its first venture into sporting rifles. The example I tested was quite impressive, but then its MSRP of $1,255 takes it well out of the “value-priced” market. It does, however, offer a few upscale features to justify the price.

E. R. Shaw Mark X

Shaw
Announced more than 2 years ago, this controlled-round feed version of a Savage 100 series-type action is now available. It makes my list because, with a starting price of $1,399, it offers what is probably the highest degree of customization for the price. I’m talking choice of barrel length; contour and fluting; length of pull; metal finish; and a choice of more than 100 calibers. Unlike the Savage action, the Mark X features an integral scope mount rail and recoil lug, and no barrel lock nut.

Barrett Fieldcraft Rifle

Barrett
Known for its .50-caliber sniper rifles used by our U.S. Armed Forces, as well as many other countries in the world, Barrett has thrown its hat into the sporting rifle arena with its ultra-light Fieldcraft. Nothing new here; it’s a Remington 700-type action — but it’s beautifully machined and finished to tight tolerances. Despite a soda straw barrel and a weight of just 7.25 pounds with scope, the example I tested in 6.5 Creedmoor was a genuine MOA rifle.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Winter 2017 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Gun Review: E.R. Shaw Goes Long With The ERS-10

The new E. R. Shaw ERS-10 splits the crosshairs exactly where exceptional performance and exceptional value meet.

What to know about the new ERS-10:

  • The ERS-10 is an AR-10-style rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor or .308 Win.
  • The test gun weighed in at 9.62 pounds and had a 20-inch stainless 1:8 twist barrel.
  • The bolt and bolt carrier are 9310 alloy steel and are Nickel-Boron coated.
  • During testing, the largest group was 1.5 inches, the smallest .5 inch.
  • The ERS-10's MSRP is $995.95.

In early 2017, E. R. Shaw, America’s largest independent gun barrel manufacturer based in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, introduced through its Shaw Precision Guns division its own version of the AR-15. Dubbed, appropriately enough, the ERS-15, Shaw Precision Guns (SPG) became one of many sources of AR-platform rifles. It was really a no-brainer for the company because, for decades, it had been producing tens of thousands of AR barrels in every configuration for dozens of OEMs and gunsmithing supply houses.

As tested the ERS-10 chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor with a Leica ER5 4-20x50 scope in a Weaver MSR mount weighed 11 pounds, 6 ounces.
As tested the ERS-10 chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor with a Leica ER5 4-20×50 scope in a Weaver MSR mount weighed 11 pounds, 6 ounces.

If that made sense, then the manufacturer’s announcement this past September that it was adding an AR-10 platform to its product line should not have surprised anyone. Predictably, the new gun is designated as the ERS-10, and it’s being offered initially in 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Win. chamberings.

With the “Creed” basking in what has turned out to be far more than its 15 minutes of fame, how could I not opt to request that flavor for my T&E? What drew my interest as much as anything was that its MSRP is $995, which for an AR-10, is very attractive.

From The Ground Up

The first thing I always do upon taking a new rifle from its box is to weigh it and see how close it comes to the nominal spec, which SPG claims is 9½ pounds in the .308 Win. chambering — sans the 20-round magazine it comes with. As it came from the box, my ERS-10 test gun weighed in at 9.62 pounds, so when you consider the thicker walls of a 6.5 barrel, this claim is right on the nose. I’ve yet to receive a test gun that weighed less than claimed, but I have seen many that weighed more — as much as a half-pound in some cases.

The muzzle brake is of E. R. Shaw design, having a solid bottom, vented top and angled side ports. All in all, it’s about as good looking as a muzzle brake can be.
The muzzle brake is of E. R. Shaw design, having a solid bottom, vented top and angled side ports. All in all, it’s about as good looking as a muzzle brake can be.

Anyway, one of the first things I noticed — and it’s but a minor detail — is that the left side of the lower receiver, where all the identifying roll markings are usually found on the side of the magazine well, is absolutely void of any such information; it’s all on the right side. As for the buttstock, there’s not much you can say about it other than it’s the familiar Magpul MOE Carbine mil-spec six-position job, of which there are several variations. This stock is compatible with MOE and other sling attachments and accommodates 1.25-inch sling loops.

The upper and lower receiver measurements of the ERS-10 are about a half-inch longer and a half-inch deeper than Gen II versions of the AR-10 — as exemplified by the current DPMS and Remington R-25. Both are machined from 7075-T6 aluminum forgings and hard-coat anodized. One feature I particularly like is that the shell deflector houses the bolt assist, so you have both functions integrated into one relatively small unit, thus saving an ounce or two in weight.

It’s but one of several variations seen in various AR-10s and AR-15s in that some designs call for the bolt assist at the rear of the receiver, some at the front, some with no bolt assist, and with or without a shell deflector. Others still don’t have a bolt assist, shell deflector or dust cover. The integral Picatinny rail up top has 18 T-Marked slots for a wide assortment of scope and accessory mounting positions. When mated with a cantilever-type scope mount, you have all kinds of mounting latitude. My choice was Weaver’s MSR.

Ample Features Abound

On the lower receiver, the magazine well is machined using the precision wire EDM process, which precludes distortion, and the entrance to the well is flared to help align magazine insertion. The lower receiver hosts an A2-style grip, which is fine unless you have very large hands.

A multi-finned barrel nut serves to anchor the free-floating handguard.
A multi-finned barrel nut serves to anchor the free-floating handguard.

The bolt and bolt carrier are beautifully machined from 9310 alloy steel and are Nickel-Boron coated, which provides a high degree of lubricity and wear resistance. It’s also easier to clean. Just holding the bolt assembly in your hand it actually feels slippery, and, of course, it looks great — with its stainless-like finish contrasting the black anodized receivers. Its slick surface also makes it easier to clean.

The 20-inch stainless-steel barrel, which has a 1:8 twist, is of course an E. R. Shaw premium grade; it measures 1.180 inches at the receiver, then it tapers down to a straight section measuring .875 inch in diameter to where it meets the low profile gas block of the rifle-length gas system. From the front of the block to the muzzle brake, the barrel measures .735 inch, and it, along with the brake itself, carries a non-reflective matte finish, which again contrasts nicely with the black anodized handguard.

Carl Behling Jr., president of E. R. Shaw, and Matt Challis, factory manager, designed the brake. For a muzzle brake, it exhibits some rather complex machining compared to most. It of course has a solid bottom and is vented at the top, the combination of which reduces muzzle rise. There’s a forward rake to the two different vented slots at either side, which overall makes it as attractive as a muzzle brake can be. This brake is available as an accessory item — the stainless version goes for $59.95; the stainless variant with black Melonite finish is $65.

A multi-finned barrel nut serves to anchor the free-floating handguard.
A multi-finned barrel nut serves to anchor the free-floating handguard.

The free-float handguard is 15 ½ inches long and extends some 1½ inches beyond the front of the low-profile gas block, which qualifies it as being of “extended rifle length.” Three continuous M-LOK slots occupy the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions, with the other 10 flats (facets) hosting either round or elliptical cooling/weight reduction vents. A multi-finned barrel nut serves as the base for the handguard, which slips over it and tightens with a clamshell or C-Clamp arrangement using transverse Allen-headed machine bolts. Up top, the Picatinny rail takes up where the receiver’s 18 slots ends, going from a white T-marked T-20 position to T-54.

Performance, In Spades

To ready the test gun for a little range work, I used the already mentioned Weaver MSR mount to secure a Leica ER5 4-20x50mm scope. Talk about a great piece of glass! A tactical-type scope might have been more appropriate, but I’ve used this scope, which has a simple Duplex-type reticle, for other gun evaluations, and it proved to be such a stellar scope that I take any opportunity to use it again.

ERS-10-tenth

With Hornady having developed the 6.5 Creedmoor back in 2007 and now offering 10 different loads for it, I thought it appropriate to use at least three of them in testing. As it turned out, I actually used four. Besides, Hornady fodder has proven to be so damn accurate in every other of the 9 or 10 6.5 Creeds I’ve tested over the years. I also learned in late September that Sig Sauer had just introduced a match load, and I was able to get a sample of it in time as well.

As evident from the accuracy results, when the largest among 25 three-shot groups measures 1½ inches, you could say the test gun performed very well indeed. There was one failure to feed among the very first shots fired, but none after. The trigger pull was a bit hitchy, but being a mil-spec trigger you can only expect so much. It did, however, break predictably at 6 ½ pounds, so it was better than most. The fact that the two 140-grain match loads proved to be the most accurate was no surprise, but the 120-grain A-Max almost matched them. It seems all 6.5 Creedmoor ammo is uncannily accurate, but in my experience, the heaviest bullets usually shoot the best.
ERS-10-ninth
I should mention that, with the bolt carrier being Nickel-Boron treated, I ran the test gun bone dry just for the hell of it. No problems whatsoever. That of course is not advisable, and less than 100 rounds fired this way doesn’t mean much, but a Nickel-Boron-treated bolt carrier obviously doesn’t hurt!

The Parting Shots

All in all, I have to give the ERS-10 high marks, especially when you consider its attractive price, as there are not a lot of AR-10s out there for less than a grand. Moreover, this gun carries the same limited lifetime warranty that covers all E. R. Shaw rifles, including the Mark VII and Mark X bolt-action rifles, both of which offer the highest level of customization for the money.

The Impressive Rise Of The Fat-Bolt Rifle

A new wind blowing across the sporting rifle landscape is delivering a dominating combination of affordability and accuracy — the rise of the fat-bolt rifle.

What are the fat-bolt rifle's benefits compared to traditional twin-lug bolt guns?

  • Bolt thrust or axial forces are more evenly distributed to three points than two.
  • Components require less machining, so tolerances between bolt and raceway can be much closer.
  • Tri-lug actions require only 60 or so degrees of bolt rotation.
  • This makes them faster to operate than standard 90-degree dual-lug actions.
  • Most fat-bolt rifles are less expensive than standard dual-lug bolt actions.

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you probably know that the age of the twin lug '98 Mauser-type bolt-action rifle is history. Now, there is no question that the twin-lug action has had a helluva run these past 120 years — we’ve only to look at the popularity of the Remington 700, Savage 100 series, Winchester Model 70, Ruger M77 or Mossberg Patriot to prove it.

But if starting with a clean sheet of paper, I’m saying that no established or start-up rifle manufacturer is likely to come out with a Mauser-type action because there are simply better and more efficient ways to produce a rifle. As always, there are and will be exceptions — Barrett’s recent introduction of its Fieldcraft rifle is a good example, it being a Remington 700 clone. But like I said, generally speaking, the days of the twin-lug action are over when it comes to new rifle introductions.

fat-bolt rifles -11
From left to right is the 9-lug Weatherby, the 6-lug Roessler Titan 6 and the 3-lug Ruger American, tri-lug actions all because the lugs are all oriented on 120-degree centers rather than being twin-opposed as on a Mauser-type action.

So what growing trend is it that’s relegating the twin-lug bolt action to the dustbin of history? That’s easy; it’s the tri-lug full-diameter action as exemplified by the Ruger American and Winchester XPR, to name just two of a growing family of turnbolts sharing the same basic design characteristic.

I believe it was me who coined the term “fat bolt” in an article I wrote nearly 50 years ago describing the Weatherby Mark V Magnum, for it was Weatherby who, in 1957, introduced the concept. In a nutshell, the defining characteristic of the fat-bolt tri-lug action is a bolt body that’s large enough in diameter that the three (or multiples of three) locking lugs oriented on 120-degree centers can be formed by removing metal at the head of the bolt.

In other words, the locking lugs do not protrude beyond the outside diameter of the bolt body behind. There can be three rows of three, as in the case of the nine-lug Weatherby, two rows of three, as in the case of the six-lug Sauer 202 and Roessler Titan 6, or just a single row of three lugs as employed by the Ruger American and Winchester XPR. In every case, the lugs are of less depth than on a twin-lug action, but the shear surfaces are greater.

In addition to the five rifles already mentioned — the Browning A-Bolt III, Thompson/Center’s Venture and Dimension, the German Sauer 100 and Steyr SM-12, the Austrian Roessler Titan 3 and 6, and the Australian Lithgow — all comprise the 13-member fat-bolt tri-lug family. And I may have missed a few.

Having no protruding locking lugs for which raceways must be broached or otherwise machined into the inner walls of the receiver, only a round hole is needed to accommodate the bolt. Inherent, however, in all fat-bolt actions is that the bolt stop/release also serves as the bolt guide by engaging a lengthwise slot on the left side of the bolt body.

Without this arrangement, if the bolt stop is disengaged and the bolt out of battery, it would be free to rotate 360 degrees if it were not for the bolt handle hitting either side of the stock. It’s an academic point but one that one must be aware of.

fat-bolt rifles -2
The basic difference between a fat-bolt tri-lug and a Mauser-type twin lug action can be seen here in this pic of a T-C Venture bolt and that of a Remington 700.

Machining Efficiency
Well, for one thing, bolt thrust or axial forces are more evenly distributed to three points than two; it better ensures a bolt face that’s square with the barrel bore. Also, there’s less machining of the components required, so the tolerances between the bolt and its raceway within the receiver can be much closer than for a twin-lug action with protruding locking lugs. This translates into smoother bolt glide and less lateral play in the bolt when fully withdrawn against the bolt stop.

fat-bolt rifles 9
All tri-lug actions have shorter bolt rotations which leaves more clearance between the bolt handle and the ocular bell of a scope. They’re faster to cycle, too.

Quick Operation
All tri-lug actions require only 60 or so degrees of bolt rotation (handle lift), as opposed to a twin-lug action which requires 90, so another advantage of falt-bolt rifles is that they are faster to cycle for a follow-up shot, and there’s more clearance for the hand as it slides past the scope’s ocular bell.

fat-bolt rifles -1
The Ruger American series of rifles is one of the most affordable out there right now — mostly due to its three-lug design and injection-molded stock. Photo by Eric Conn.

Minimized Price Tag
Bottom line: When mated to inexpensive injection-molded stocks, the typical fat-bolt rifle like the Ruger American and Winchester XPR can be produced for far less than their pricier siblings, the Hawkeye and the Model 70, respectively.

How much less? Consider: The Ruger M77 Hawkeye Standard rifle has an MSRP of $979, while the American goes for $489! The Model 70 Sporter commands $1,049, while the XPR can be had for $549! I use Ruger and Winchester here as examples because they are the most typical and familiar manifestations of the fat-bolt genre in the American marketplace, but in all other cases the same price disparity exists if a given rifle maker has two distinct lines.

fat-bolt rifles -6
The economy of production makes the new generation of fat bolt rifles far more affordable without compromising performance. Indeed, this Ruger American in 6mm Creedmoor delivered these groups for Sundra using Hornady factory ammo.

Affordable Accuracy
But there’s an even better aspect than the affordability of these guns, and it’s that they’re easily as accurate as their more expensive siblings, and in my experience having tested dozens of them, even more so. The only compromises are those of aesthetics. The degree of machining and polish on these $500 guns is a mite less than on rifles costing twice as much, but the growing number of owners obviously could not care less. Ditto for the injection-molded stock, which can be just as elegant of line and dimension as the most classic masterpiece handcrafted in French walnut.

The current Remington Model 700 SPS is a perfect example. Replace the existing rubberized grip panels with a classic checkering pattern (molded of course), and you have a stock that visually can rival that of any custom stockmaker. The only compromise is a tactile one: These stocks do lack the warmth and solid feel of real wood, but again, it’s a compromise value-conscious owners are more than willing to accept.

fat-bolt rifles -8
The Ruger American’s “Power Bedding” system is unique, providing consistent bedding that better maintains zero, yet is less expensive to produce.

Impeccable Bedding Consistency
One advantage the injection-molded stock brings to the table is one of bedding consistency. Every stock is exactly like every other dimensionally, and in high-volume production, manufacturing tolerances can be held at much higher standards than with wood. Whatever bedding dynamic a manufacturer chooses to employ — pillar, partial or full barrel float, tip pressure, V-block … whatever — every stock is exactly the same.

One of the most innovative bedding systems is found in the Ruger American, where two massive steel V-Blocks are embedded into the stock fore and aft of the magazine mortise to cradle and center the receiver. What’s more, these V-blocks engage grooves milled into the underside of the receiver to double as recoil shoulders. It’s a system that guarantees a perfectly consistent bedding dynamic.

As to how well this system works, I recently tested a Ruger American Predator chambered in the new 6mm Creedmoor that, with factory ammunition, proved to be one of the most accurate sporter-weight rifles I’ve ever tested. Three-shot 100-yard groups with Hornady’s 108-grain ELD Match ammo were incredibly consistent, ranging from .52 to .66 inch, with a five-group average of .59 inch!

More simple variations of the Ruger’s “Power Bedding” as they call it, can be found in T/C’s Venture, the Finnish Tikka and Winchester’s XPR. All employ a steel plate embedded in the stock to mate with a groove on the underside of the receiver ring. It does the job of transferring recoil forces to the stock as well as any other system, and it’s far easier to produce than having a separate washer-type recoil plate a la Remington 700 and the like, or a receiver with an integral lug like on the Winchester Model 70.

fat-bolt rifles -5
Unitized polycarbonate magazines like this Ruger rotary reflects the new technology that is gradually replacing both blind and fixed box types.

Magazine Evolution
Another trend we’re seeing is the ascendency of the detachable magazine over the traditional fixed box with hinged floorplate. What has evolved is the virtual one-piece polycarbonate magazine which weighs less than half of a sheet metal version; it can’t rust, it’s virtually indestructible, it has integral feed lips which can’t be bent, and a natural lubricity that makes cartridge feeding incredibly smooth and effortless. Tri-lug rifles have no monopoly on this trend, as there are many excellent examples out there, tri-lugs or otherwise.

The perennial gripes against a detachable magazine is that they can be lost, or due to heavy recoil, release and drop out of a rifle at the most inopportune time — like when you’re being charged by a wounded Cape buffalo! Over the course of my 50 years as a gun writer, I’ve encountered only one big-bore rifle whose floorplate opened during testing.

Today’s detachable magazines are designed so that inadvertent release is virtually impossible. And for sheer convenience, a detachable magazine makes it so much faster and convenient to empty. I swear that with a hinged floorplate, at least one cartridge will likely fall to the ground every time you try to empty the box with one hand. And with a blind magazine, each cartridge must be partially cycled to unload, which is a real pain when you’re hunting out of a vehicle and where the law requires the chamber and magazine be vacant.

A Lot More, For Far Less
As I see it, there’s no question but that there’s a new wind blowing across the sporting rifle landscape — a wind that brings better, more advanced designs, a higher level of accuracy, and at prices within reach of more hunters and shooters than ever before.
How can that be bad?

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the Winter 2017 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Gun Debate: 7mm vs. .30 Caliber

Which is superior in the 7mm vs .30 caliber argument? One veteran gunwriter weighs in on the subject.

In the 7mm vs 30 caliber debate, which reigns supreme?

  • Any .30-caliber cartridge delivers more energy than a comparable 7mm cartridge.
  • However, this increase in energy comes with an increase in recoil.
  • The increase in recoil can be as much as 30 percent, according to the author.
  • The author also feels there are more bullet weights offered with the 7mm than the .30.
  • Both will get the job done in appropriate applications and with good shot placement.

There was a time when there was little argument among America’s hunters about calibers. For deer hunters it was the .30-30, and for larger game it was the .30-06. Oh there were other calibers to be sure—like the .270 Winchester that emerged in 1925 — but there’s no question that the .30 caliber dominated from the turn of the last century to the mid-1960s.

Today the .30 can still be called “America’s caliber,” but it is being seriously challenged by that upstart metric, the 7mm. It all started in 1957 when Remington introduced the .280, a cartridge they hoped would sway those prospective buyers contemplating either the .270 or .30-06.

7mm vs 30 caliber -2
The .28 caliber is as diverse as the .30 as far as performance levels are concerned. Here’s how they stack up (left to right): 7mm-08, 7×57, .284 Win., .280 Rem., 7mm Rem., 7mm Wea., 7mm Rem. SA Ultra Mag, 7mm WSM, 7mm Dakota, 7mm STW, 7mm Ultra Mag and 7.21 Lazzeroni Firebird.

It wasn’t that the .284 bore was unheard of on these shores at the time. The 7×57 had been around since 1892 and had been adopted as the martial cartridge by nine foreign countries. And it had been chambered for sporadically here in America, most notably by Winchester in its iconic Model 70.

7mm vs 30 caliber -5But by and large the 7mm was still considered a “foreign” caliber. While the .280 could in no way be considered a commercial success even today, it did pave the way for the 7mm Remington Magnum that was to emerge five years later in 1962. Since then there have been more 7mm commercial and proprietary cartridges introduced than any other caliber.

I acquired my first 7mm in 1965, and over the half-century since, it’s been my caliber of choice for everything but Cape buffalo, lion and elephant. I’ve taken game on five continents using just about every commercial 7mm, from the 7×57 to Remington’s Ultra Mag., as well as several proprietary and wildcat cartridges, so I can speak with some authority on the subject.

It’s not that I haven’t had experience using other calibers. I have. I’ve been on many industry hunts, both here and abroad where I didn’t have the option to bring my own rifle or choose a specific cartridge. On most of those occasions I was handed a .30-06 or a .300 magnum, and every time it performed just as well as any 7mm I could have used.

7mm vs 30 caliber -1
If you compare 7mm and .30 cal. cartridges of similar capacity, driving bullets of comparable sectional densities and ballistic coefficients, it requires about 30 percent more recoil to match the trajectory of a 7mm with a .30. Shown here are pairings of 7mm-08 Rem. and .308 Win.; .280 Rem. and .30-06; 7mm STW and .300 Weatherby; and 7mm Ultra Mag and .300 Ultra Mag.

And why wouldn’t it? It’s indisputable that a .30 caliber delivers more energy than a comparable 7mm. I’m talking 7mm-08 vs. .308; .280 Rem. vs. .30-06; 7mm STW vs. .300 Wby.; 7mm Ultra Mag. vs. .300 Ultra Mag. That’s not the point, or at least it shouldn’t be whenever one hears the 7mm vs 30 caliber argument. The only logical reason for choosing a .28 caliber over a .30 has to do with the question of how much ballistic performance you need to get the job done, and what you are willing to pay for it in terms of recoil.

Again, from a purely ballistic standpoint, everything the 7mm can do the .30 can do better. By “better” I mean a bigger hole and more energy delivered, all other things equal.

If you push a .308 bullet of comparable sectional density and ballistic coefficient over the same trajectory as a .284, it will arrive with about 15 percent more energy. But doing so generates almost 30 percent more recoil, assuming rifles of equal weight.

Now there are many who feel that an extra 15 percent is worth it. I don’t. With a magnum 7mm of one variety or another I’ve shot from every conceivable field position, many times from prone, with the toe of the butt on the ground and with just the bony top of my shoulder backing the gun up. In such a position there’s a tendency to crawl up on the scope, yet in 50 years I’ve never suffered a magnum eyebrow. I can’t say the same for several .300 magnum guys I’ve shared camps with or witnessed shooting.

7mm vs 30 caliber -4An experienced hunter who shoots often and year round won’t have an issue with shooting a .300 magnum, even off the bench where 27 to 28 ft.-lbs. of recoil can be … well, less than fun. But for the average hunter, that’s a lot of recoil — enough to affect one’s ability to shoot the gun up to its accuracy potential.

To back up that statement, all one has to do is look at competition shooting. Regardless of the specific discipline, whether it’s benchrest at 100 yards or F-Class at 1,000 yards, every shooter will be using the heaviest rifle the rules allow with a cartridge that gets the job done with the least amount of recoil.

There are those who contend that a .30 caliber simply provides more margin of error in case of a poor shot. If we’re talking strictly in terms of the theoretical, one might make a case for the .30, but in the real world that’s pure bull-pucky. A bad shot with a .30 is no better than a bad shot with a 7mm. Period.

7mm vs 30 caliber -3Another thing I particularly like is the fact that, for the handloader, there are more bullet weights offered in 7mm than in .30. Consider: among the various manufacturers, handloaders can choose 7mm bullets of 100, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 139, 140, 145, 150, 154, 160, 162, 168, 170 and 175 grains. If you’ve got a particularly finicky rifle with regard to its shooting a specific bullet weight better than others, you’ve a better chance of finding it if you’ve got a .284-inch hole in the barrel.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that, based on my experiences over the half century I’ve been hunting, I’ve never been disappointed or felt the need for anything larger than a 7mm. Regardless of where I’ve hunted — from Alaska to Zambia, South Africa to Siberia, the South Pacific to the Arctic Ocean — there’s been a 7mm in my hands. And I’m talking about hunting the world’s largest non-dangerous game: eland, zebra, gemsbok, kudu, roan, sable, elk, red deer … you name it. And whenever I feel I need something more potent than a 7mm, I want something a lot more potent, like a .375 or a .416.

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the May 2015 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

How Does Barrel Bedding Affect Accuracy?

Not all barrel bedding is equal. Bedding dynamics can increase or decrease a rifle's accuracy.

What are some things to know about bedding dynamics and accuracy?

  • Today, generally the most common bedding method is to bed the receiver and free float the barrel.
  • To get the best accuracy from a rifle, you need the pressure dynamic between the barrel and stock to remain constant, or as constant as possible. This can sometimes vary quite a bit in a traditional wood-stocked rifle based on things like temperature and humidity.
  • Pillar bedding and V-Block bedding are two alternative bedding systems that are growing in popularity among manufacturers.

There are many factors that affect accuracy, but next to the barrel itself, none is more important than the bedding dynamics between the stock and the barreled action. Accuracy can be looked at from two different perspectives: 1) pure grouping ability and 2) a rifle’s ability to maintain zero.

The two are not the same. Pure grouping ability refers to how tight the average group measures, regardless of where that group is on the target, while a rifle’s ability to maintain zero refers to the point of impact (POI) relative to where we as a shooter expect it to be. In a hunting rifle, consistent POI is more important than pure accuracy.

There are a number of ways a bolt-action rifle can be bedded. Bull barrels and heavy varmint/target barrels vibrate less violently upon the fall of the firing pin, ignition and bullet movement than sporter-weight versions, and generally shoot just as well when free floated as they do when bedded.

Barrel Bedding - 2
Most production rifles with one-piece wood stocks are factory bedded using a pressure band at the forend tip, which is the only contact between forearm and barrel. It can either be filed away to float the barrel or shimmed to apply more pressure.

The most common method employed today by production rifle manufacturers is to bed the receiver and free float the barrel. This practice has evolved over the past generation or so, as one-piece stocks of walnut (or other hardwoods) have been replaced by much more stable synthetics and wood laminates. This method is not used because free floating has proven superior in all cases, but rather, it’s because it’s easier from a manufacturing standpoint.

Generally speaking, slender, lightweight barrels shoot best when there’s dampening pressure being exerted by the stock either at the forend tip or by contact over the entire length of the forend. Most light carbine and sporter-weight rifles are bedded using the former approach.

By hogging out the barrel channel to where it’s 1/16-inch or more deeper and wider than it has to be, but stopping an inch or so short of the forend tip, the remaining raised band provides the dampening pressure at the tip. When the forward action screw is cinched up, the stock is actually bowed inward, and that is what produces the tension against the barrel.

Dampening barrel pressure can also be exerted the entire length of the barrel channel, but to accomplish that you must have perfect surface contact the entire length of the forearm, which is best achieved through glass bedding.

For a rifle to group its best and maintain zero, the pressure dynamic between the barrel and stock must remain constant, particularly in the case of lightweight barrels that are being dampened only at the forend tip. Traditional one-piece stocks of walnut have proven to be fairly good at keeping this pressure relationship constant, as long as the wood is thoroughly sealed not only on the outside, but on all inlet surfaces as well.

If truth be told, though, all wood stocks have at least a 5 percent moisture content, so it’s pretty rare for a one-piece stock to maintain a constant tip pressure against the barrel from season to season, or when the rifle is transported to a region where the humidity is vastly different. Then, too, the thinner the barrel, the more POI and accuracy are both affected by the forend position, whether on a sandbag or held in the hand, whether a shooting sling is being used to apply dynamic tension to steady the rifle, or if a bipod is attached to the forend.

Barrel Bedding 1
Wood laminated stocks are virtually inert if properly sealed. The consistent gap shown here on either side of the barrel channel is not likely to change regardless of environment.

Stock Swell
I know it’s difficult to believe that a chunk of wood like a rifle stock can swell, contract and warp, but they all do to some degree depending on seasonal humidity, or when subjected to drenching rain or wet snow. As to just how much a stock can warp, that can be seen only on a rifle that has a fully floated barrel, that is, with a visible space along the seam line on both sides of the barrel.

I have owned some walnut-stocked guns in which the barrel would be perfectly centered in the channel during the low humidity months of winter, and in the summer the forend tip would be touching the barrel on one side with a 1/8-inch gap on the other. Depending on the direction of the warp, imagine how much pressure such movement exerts or removes from a barrel.

Believe me when I say there can be as much as 30 to 40 pounds of pressure on the barrel at one time of year, and zero at another. That, of course, is an extreme example, but changes of just a few pounds of tip pressure against or away from the barrel can bring about significant shifts in POI.

Can accuracy and consistency of zero be achieved with a one-piece wood stock? Sure, but several conditions have to be just right, and the thinner the barrel, the more difficult it becomes.

It’s far easier to achieve with a wood laminate or a synthetic stock, with the barrel either fully or partially floated. A wood laminate that is properly sealed inside and out with a urethane-type finish is virtually immune to warping, and a laid-up stock of fiberglass or Kevlar is definitely so. If the bedding is right, it stays right.

Like I said, the most common bedding approach used today is to glass bed the receiver and float, or partially float, the barrel. I prefer the latter, in which the receiver and the chamber portion of the barrel are bedded, stopping at the point where the barrel begins its straight taper to the muzzle. Placing a small shim the thickness of a matchbook cover at the forend tip prior to the bedding procedure will ensure a fully floated barrel.

Slender barrels — say less than .575-inch at the muzzle — tend to group best when the stock is exerting dampening pressure. If after range testing you’d like to see how the rifle shoots with dampening pressure, simply place two shims at the forend tip.

Barrel Bedding - 4
H-S Precision pioneered the aluminum bedding block chassis around which the U.S. Army’s M24 sniper rifle is designed. The concept has since been copied.

A couple of alternate bedding systems we’re starting to see more manufacturers take advantage of include pillar bedding and V-block bedding. With a true pillar-bedded rifle, the receiver actually sits on two “stilts” of aluminum or steel, and there is no actual contact between the stock and the receiver or barrel.

The pillars are nothing more than steel tubes through which the action screws pass and are just slightly longer in length than the action screw holes. The pillars are flush or slightly below the bedding surface of the receiver and serve primarily to preclude stock compression.

The V-block system, which was developed by H-S Precision for the Army’s M24 sniper rifle, consists of a hardened aluminum bedding chassis permanently molded into the company’s hand-laid Kevlar/graphite-reinforced fiberglass stocks. The latest twist to the V-block principal can be seen in Ruger’s American and Savage’s Axis rifles.

Steel blocks are embedded into the injection molded stocks and serve to support the receiver and act as recoil lugs by engaging grooves on the underside of the receiver. Either makeup is meant to provide economy of production, but more importantly, consistency to that critical relationship between a rifle’s stock and its barreled action.

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the May 2015 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Review: New Savage A22 Rimfire Rifle

Building off the success of the cutting-edge A17, the Savage A22 is the semi-auto rifle A-series' .22 LR variant and proves to be one fun plinker, decked out with unique features.

It was in 2002 that the Hornady folks set the rimfire world on its ear with the introduction of the .17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire), a cartridge based on the .22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire) case necked down to .17-caliber. Launching a diminutive 17-grain V-Max poly-tipped bullet at 2,550 fps, it opened a whole new world of possibilities for rimfire hunters and shooters. Actually, the development of a tipped jacketed bullet that wasn’t much bigger than a grain of rice was an achievement in and of itself, let alone launching it at centerfire-cartridge velocity.

To produce that kind of speed, the little bottlenecked cartridge operated at a MABP (Maximum Average Breech Pressure) of 26,000 psi, only 2,000 more than that generated by the .22 LR and the .22 WMR. With just an 8-percent increase in pressure, many existing bolt-action rimfire rifles proved stout enough to handle the cartridge. But semi-autos were a different story entirely. It wasn’t just the modest increase in operating pressure that posed the problem, but complicated dynamics with regard to bolt velocity and the low resistance of a super-light 17-grain bullet made the simple blowback action used in .22 rimfire semi-auto rifles unsuitable.

The Savage A22 has a straight comb stock and a 13.75-inch length of pull.
The Savage A22 has a straight comb stock and a 13.75-inch length of pull.

Savage was one of the first to solve the problem with its A17, a semi-auto designed expressly around the .17 HMR. However, it turned out to be more of a project than Savage envisioned. Though developing a totally new rifle was discussed as early as 2005, it would be seven more years before the company decided to go ahead with it, and another 2½ years to make it happen.

The key to solving the problem was to employ a delayed rather than a simple blowback action for the A17. Neither system has a bolt that “locks up,” per se, with the barrel or receiver; rather, the combined mass of the bolt and the spring(s) that power it provide enough resistance to delay the rearward movement of the bolt long enough for the bullet to exit the barrel and the pressure to drop before the bolt opens. Simply stated, with a delayed blowback, the system is designed so that the bolt has to overcome more resistance before it can begin its rearward movement.

In other words, the action stays closed a few milliseconds longer before the bolt can move rearward. This can be accomplished several ways, none of which are germane because the subject of this article is Savage’s newest addition to the A-series, the .22 LR Savage A22, which employs a simple blowback mechanism. About the only visible difference between the A17 and the Savage A22 in .22 LR is in the bolt handles, but internally the latter’s bolt and inner receiver are quite different.

Like many of the company's rifles, the Savage A22 comes with the AccuTrigger.
Like many Savage rifles, this one comes with the AccuTrigger.

The vital stats for the rifle sent to us for review had the gun weighing in at 5¼ pounds and measuring 41 inches in length with a 22-inch tapered barrel, which, interestingly enough, is threaded to the receiver and headspaced using a barrel lock nut, just like Savage’s centerfire rifles. That cannot but help the accuracy potential of this gun. Most inexpensive rimfire rifles sport non-tapered barrels that are press-fit to the receiver. A surprisingly stout and fully adjustable rear sight, and a towering front blade are standard. Also standard is the presence of pre-installed Weaver bases to greatly simplify the mounting of a scope.

The Savage A22 is fed courtesy of a 10-round rotary magazine that fits flush with the belly of the stock. The magazine is under mild spring pressure, so when the release latch is pulled, it pops out into your waiting hand regardless of the gun’s orientation — a nice feature. The straight comb on this classic-style stock is only ¾-inch below the bore line, and some shooters may find it difficult to cheek the stock low enough to use the iron sights. I was just barely able to use the irons, but then most shooters will opt for a scope. Length of pull is 13¾ inches, which makes it a full-size stock.

The barreled action is mated to its injection-molded polycarbonate stock by two Allen-head machine bolts; one is exposed forward of the magazine, but the rear bolt is accessed from above once the plastic cowling at the rear of the receiver is removed. That accomplished, the receiver can be reduced to its basic components for routine maintenance. The entire fire control system — the cross-bolt safety, hammer, hold-open button, AccuTrigger and sear — are contained within a poly module, which is integral with the trigger guard bow.

A 10-round, flush-fitting rotary magazine feeds the Savage A22. No malfunctions were experienced with the magazine during testing.
A 10-round, flush-fitting rotary magazine feeds the Savage A22. No malfunctions were experienced with the magazine during testing.

To ready the test gun for a little range work, we mounted a Bushnell 3-9×40 Rimfire scope using Weaver’s Grand Slam all-steel rings. The scope comes with three elevation turrets, one calibrated in standard ¼-inch graduations, while the other two are BDC-calibrated to the trajectory of the .22 LR and the .17 HMR. As it comes from the box, the standard turret is installed, and it’s the one we chose to use.

The .22 LR turret is calibrated to a 75-yard zero, which I feel is stretching the capabilities of that round. I prefer a 50-yard zero, which leaves me about a couple inches low at 75 and is easily compensated for with my hold.

In addition to the BDC turrets, this scope is built on a one-piece, 1-inch tube; has multi-coated lenses; is waterproof/fogproof; has tool-less finger adjustments, a Euro-style fast focus eyepiece and a side parallax adjustment from 10 yards to infinity. This scope is a far cry from the cheap ¾-inch rimfire scopes I had when I was a young man!

The diet I chose for the test gun consisted of three Federal loads — the 40-grain solid, 40-grain Match HP, 40-grain bulk Value Pack — and CCI’s Green Tag Competition 40-grain. Over the course of firing some 220 rounds, there was not a single malfunction, which is impressive for one of the first production examples of a new design.

Obviously, the rotary magazine had to work flawlessly; however, charging the damn thing is a royal pain in the rear. If there’s a secret to it, I failed to discover it. I actually wanted to shoot a bit more because it’s really a fun gun, but after 22 loadings, my fingers were so sore I couldn’t continue.

I tried everything, and the only method that worked for me was to orient the cartridge 90 degrees to the right, and with the base of the case push the top round down and to the left, then rotate the cartridge to align with the loaded top rounds and push very hard on the case rim while trying to slide it rearward under the feed lips. Sometimes it actually worked, but most of the time it didn’t, hence the sore fingers. They have to make charging that magazine easier!

Pre-installed Weaver bases for scopes are standard on the Savage A22.
Pre-installed Weaver bases for scopes are standard on the A22.

The AccuTrigger broke at 52 ounces as it came from the box, and checking it with the little wire-like adjustment tool showed it to be at its lower limit. There was noticeable creep to the pull, but it was smooth and not a problem. Actually, for a swinging hammer ignition, it was a pretty decent trigger. The hold-open lever at the front of the trigger guard bow is conveniently located, but the action does not lock open after the last shot.

Accuracy was OK, but not phenomenal. The best-performing load was the Federal Premium 40-grain HP, which averaged right at 1 inch at 50 yards. The others averaged from 1-1/4 to 1-7/8 inches. With the addition of this .22 LR version, Savage now has a complete rimfire family: a .17 HMR, a .22 WMR (Magnum) and the LR. The Savage A22's MSRP is $281.

Editor's Note: This article is from the Spring 2017 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

Gallery: 10 Most Influential Rifle Designs

[imagebrowser id=469]

Over the years, the rifle has undergone significant changes as technology and our understanding of the physical processes at work within firearms have improved. We have come a long way, and today's assortment of highly reliable, and highly accurate rifles prove this fact.

Certainly, every rifle produced advances the craft in some way, revealing what works and what doesn't and introducing new designs to build off of in the future. But what are some of the most influential rifle designs ever devised, creations that helped to revolutionize the rifle platform — and whose influence we can still see in guns produced today?

When asked what I thought were the 10 most influential rifle designs, I figured I could come up with the answers fairly easily. However, after a good deal of rumination, it seemed an especially difficult undertaking, given all the phenomenal rifles out there that have influenced current development. But, following a fair amount of research and thought, here's the list I've put together.

The Scoop on Straight-Pull Rifles

Shown here Merkel’s RX-Helix action is fully open, yet the bolt handle is nowhere near as far back as in other ST rifles. The bolt moves almost twice as far as the handle.
Shown here Merkel’s RX-Helix action is fully open, yet the bolt handle is nowhere near as far back as in other ST rifles. The bolt moves almost twice as far as the handle.

While incredibly popular in Europe, straight-pull rifles have never caught on in the states. Here’s an inside look at the straight-pull action and several modern straight-pull rifles currently available.

The Blaser R8 is the most popular hunting rifle in Europe. Shown here is the Professional Success model with its highly stylistic thumbhole stock.
The Blaser R8 is the most popular hunting rifle in Europe. Shown here is the Professional Success model with its highly stylistic thumbhole stock.

Why is it that the newest rifles coming out of Europe are straight pulls, yet not a single American manufacturer offers such a gun? In centerfire rifles, I’m talking the Blaser R-8 and R-93, the Heym SR-30, and the Merkel RX Helix; and in rimfire, the Anschutz 1727 and Browning T-Bolt. All are of foreign manufacture and differ greatly in mechanical details, but all share the basic characteristic of having a simple pull/push bolt cycle.

The straight-pull concept is not a new idea. There was the Austro-Hungarian Steyr-Mannlicher M95, the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin, the Canadian Ross and our own Lee-Navy—all straight-pull military rifles—and all came on the scene during a 20-year period spanning the onset of the 20th century. Reducing the four movements required to cycle a conventional bolt action to just a simple pull/push motion is simply intuitive.

The uplift of the handle on a conventional bolt action when shouldered is not only awkward, but the muscles involved are rarely used. If a fired case is even slightly sticky on the upstroke of the handle, it can range from difficult to impossible. That’s why so many hunters lower the gun to the port arms position to reload; it’s the only way they can get enough leverage to initiate primary extraction.

The best known and established of the current straight pulls is the Blaser R8 with its radial locking system. Lock-up is achieved via a steel tube, the front portion of which is comprised of 13 splines. Each of these splines, or fingers, has a small bulge at the forward end, which together form a radial locking lug that engages an annular groove within the barrel extension to provide a 360-degree lock-up. Instead of the barrel threading into the receiver, it simply lays in a V-block of aluminum that’s embedded in the stock and held there with two threaded studs that extend downward from the barrel and are engaged by two Allen-headed nuts held captive within the stock.

The barrel’s only connection with the bolt is when the bolt head enters the barrel extension and locks up with it. The bolt itself does not rotate at all; it simply reciprocates back and forth. In fact, the bolt handle is not even attached to the bolt, but rather to a bolt carrier. The handle rotates rearward in a short 5/8-inch arc before the bolt actually starts moving. It is this initial rearward rocking motion of the bolt handle that contracts the circular locking lug, unlocking the action. Conversely, the last 5/8 inches of the bolt handle’s forward movement expands the lug into battery.

The Blaser is the most unconventional and complex of the straight pulls.
The Blaser is the most unconventional and complex of the straight pulls.

The bolt locking up directly with the barrel makes possible two important features: First, the receiver becomes a non-stressed component allowing it to be made of aluminum, and second, it allows barrel/caliber interchangeability. On the Blaser the bolt can be removed from the carrier in about five seconds without tools and replaced with another of a different head to accommodate caliber changes across cartridge families. Bottom line is that you can go from, say, a .204 Ruger to a .338 Winchester Magnum in about two minutes.

Related Video:

The newest straight-pull on the scene is Merkel’s superb RX Helix. Like the Blaser, the Merkel’s bolt head locks up with the barrel rather than the receiver, so barrel/caliber interchangeability is one of its features. But unlike the Blaser, there is no rocking of the handle. In fact, the handle does not pivot at all; it simply moves back and forth, and in so doing rotates a multi-lug bolt head in and out of battery. Not only that, the bolt carrier and the handle are connected by a rack and pinion arrangement whereby there is almost a 1:2 ratio of handle-to-bolt movement. While the handle moves only 2½ inches, the bolt moves 4¼ inches! You can’t believe how fast this action can be cycled from the shoulder. Switching barrels/bolt heads/magazines on this gun can be done in about 30 seconds without tools. Reassembly is just as fast.

A feature the RX shares with the Blaser is that it must be manually cocked, but only for the first shot. By forcibly pushing a deeply serrated cocking lever up an incline at the rear of the receiver, the action is cocked. Depressing a small button embedded in the thumbpiece allows it to be eased back down to de-cock. This system allows the gun to be safely carried with a live round in the chamber—a great safety feature.

The least-known straight-pull rifle is the Heym SR-30 produced by a German company situated in the tiny village of Gleichamberg in Thuringia. Heym is best known for its superb double rifles, but this small company also makes a diverse array of other gun types, including box and sidelock drillings, O/U shotguns and rifles and three bolt-action rifles.

The Browning T-Bolt employs a unique locking system. Two holes at either side of the receiver serve as abutments for the circular locking lugs.
The Browning T-Bolt employs a unique locking system. Two holes at either side of the receiver serve as abutments for the circular locking lugs.

The two most distinguishing features of this gun is that the bolt handle pivots on a horizontal plane aligned with and parallel to the barrel bore, as opposed to the Blaser’s vertical pivoting movement. The other is that the locking “lugs,” for want of a better term, consist of six floating ball bearings oriented on 60-degree centers around the bolt head that engage an annular groove inside the receiver. With the closing of the bolt, these ball bearings are supported from beneath by a steel tube within the bolt body. As the bolt closes, this inner tube cams the ball bearings outward to engage the annular groove inside the receiver. It’s a slick and highly innovative design.

The basic mechanics as to how the handle moves and activates the locking system on the Heym SR-30 is similar to that of the Browning T-Bolt rimfire rifle. The specifics as to the locking system itself, however, couldn’t be more different. Essentially, the locking lugs consist of two circular “ears” on either side of the bolt body which, when in battery, fit into corresponding holes at either side of the receiver. The bolt handle is of a shallow L-shape and pivots on a vertical pin at its apex. The initial rearward movement of the bolt handle pivots the forward tip of the L outwards, pulling the circular locking lugs out of their recesses. It’s difficult to put into words, but a photo of the open action is the next best thing.

The Anschutz 1727 is a sporting rifle version of the company’s Biathalon rifle.
The Anschutz 1727 is a sporting rifle version of the company’s Biathalon rifle.

Lastly, we come to the Anschutz 1727, which was originally designed as a Biathalon rifle but is now offered as a sporter. Because reloading speed is essential to that Olympic sport, the Anschutz folks felt a straight-pull action would be just the ticket. And because the bolt travel needed to cycle the .22 LR was so short, they also concluded the action could be operated with just two fingers. Toward that end, they designed a bolt handle in the shape of an inverted “L” that extends downward along the right side of the stock to where the forefinger alone can open the action—and the thumb close it—without disturbing one’s grip on the rifle. Seeing videos of Olympic competitors using this rifle in competition is absolutely amazing; they get off shots about every two seconds!

One of the downsides to the straight-pull rifle, regardless of the design, is that none of them can offer the powerful camming force of a manual turnbolt to chamber and/or extract a recalcitrant cartridge or case. For that, nothing can match the conventional bolt action. But in all honesty, that’s mostly a problem with handloads rather than factory ammo.

Another is that all the aforementioned centerfires are much more complex than a conventional turnbolt and thus expensive to manufacturer. With the exception of the Browning T-Bolt, which goes for $749, all the others start at around $3,000.

Other than that, it’s hard to fault the straight-pull concept. The operational movements are more ergonomic and natural; the motions required are cut in half, as is the time needed to complete them. Sooner or later we’re going to see an American straight-pull rifle; I just hope it’s the former rather than the latter.

This gun review appeared in the October 2015 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine

Related Video:

Do You Really Need Premium Ammo?

Eastern Whitetail hunters need look no further than good old Power Point, Core Lokt and similar “standard line” ammo.
Eastern Whitetail hunters need look no further than good old Power Point, Core Lokt and similar “standard line” ammo.

Once upon a time, hunters did just fine with standard bullets. Find out how bullet designs have changed over the years and whether you need premium ammo for your next hunt.

When on a hunt of a lifetime, one can’t afford to use anything but the best bullet/ammo for the job.
When on a hunt of a lifetime, one can’t afford to use anything but the best bullet/ammo for the job.

There was a time—a very long time in fact—when the making of a hunting bullet was a fairly simple operation. Disks or planchets were punched from copper alloy sheet or strip stock then drawn in dies in successive steps to form a deep cup. Then a slug of lead wire is placed in the cup, swaged to tightly fill the cavity, then forced into forming and sizing dies, leaving some of the lead core exposed at the very tip to initiate expansion. This process, referred to as cup-and-draw, was (and still is) the most common method of bullet production. Heated debates about bullet design and construction are a relatively recent thing because back then a bullet was a bullet, and there wasn’t a lot to argue about other than, say, round nose versus spitzer.

Today, however, there are several different methods being used to make bullets, to say nothing of the dozens of different bullet types, construction and composition. Any departure from the cup and draw process just described usually results in bullets that are more expensive, whether as reloading components, and as used in factory ammunition.

Some of the pioneers in the design and manufacture of what we have come to refer to as “premium” bullets were John Nosler, who began production of his Partition in 1948, and Lee Reed, founder of the Swift Bullet Co. and designer of the A-Frame, to name just two. Both bullets are actually quite similar in that they are what are known as H-mantle bullets consisting of a jacket that has two separate lead cavities separated by a partition—like the letter H. Both are designed with nose sections that reliably expand at a wide range of impact velocities, but the mushrooming stops at the partition, so that the bullet retains a high percentage of its original weight, which of course provides deep penetration. Jack Carter’s Trophy Bonded bullets have a solid base with just the nose section filled with lead that’s bonded to the jacket.

Nosler started the poly-tipped bullet thing, which has since been copied by everyone else.
Nosler started the poly-tipped bullet thing, which has since been copied by everyone else.

Initially, these and similar premium bullets were available only as components, so only reloaders could take advantage of them. However, the real impetus for technologically advanced bullets and ammunition was the introduction in 1977 of Federal Cartridge’s Premium ammo. It was a real gamble by Federal to think that hunters would be willing to pay as much as 50 percent more for ammunition manufactured to tighter tolerances, more stringent accuracy requirements and higher quality control standards.

But the biggest difference was that the company’s Premium line was initially loaded with Nosler and Sierra bullets, which up to that time were only available as reloading components. Currently, Federal Premium uses bullets from just about every established bullet maker. Essentially, it’s a tacit admission by a major ammunition manufacturer that a company other than itself could possibly make a better (or different) bullet than they themselves did.

The Nosler Partition was the first premium bullet to be loaded by a major ammo manufacturer. Now everybody does.
The Nosler Partition was the first premium bullet to be loaded by a major ammo manufacturer. Now everybody does.

That was almost 40 years ago, and yes, America’s hunters and shooters have since proven that they are indeed willing to pay extra for ammo that offers better accuracy, ballistics, terminal performance or combinations thereof. Today, every major ammo company—Remington, Winchester, Federal, Norma, Black Hills—all offer loaded ammunition featuring Barnes, Hornady, Sierra, Swift, Nosler, Woodleigh and Speer bullets. In addition, Hornady, Nosler and Barnes—once companies that made only bullets—now manufacture their own SuperFormance, Trophy Grade and VOR-TX ammo, respectively, loaded with their own bullets.

There’s such an emphasis on premium ammo these days, that to hear some pundits tell it, if you’re not hunting with top shelf ammo or handloading some premium bullet, you might as well stay home. This kind of makes you wonder how the plain old cup and draw jacketed lead bullet accounted for so much game for so long! I know I’ve certainly taken my share of critters using them.

So just how important is it to hunt with a premium bullet? Well, like any honest answer, it depends…on the game, the terrain and the tactics. Does the eastern Whitetail hunter who typically takes his deer at distances under 100 yards, need anything more exotic than, say, a Remington Core Lokt or a Winchester Power Point, both of which are excellent bullets? The answer is no, of course not. Even if we extend the range to 150 yards, you simply do not need benchrest accuracy, a super flat trajectory, high weight retention or deep penetration. In fact, the latter two are of arguable value. Personally, for deer hunting I prefer to use a bullet that’s designed to expand quickly and expend most or all of its energy inside the animal, i.e., no exit hole.

Nosler’s AccuBond and Hornady’s Interbond are just two examples of taking the polycarbonate-tipped bullet to another level by bonding core and jacket together.
Nosler’s AccuBond and Hornady’s Interbond are just two examples of taking the polycarbonate-tipped bullet to another level by bonding core and jacket together.
Federal started loading other peoples’ bullets in 1977 and today offers more custom bullet loadings than anyone else. These are just a few.
Federal started loading other peoples’ bullets in 1977 and today offers more custom bullet loadings than anyone else. These are just a few.

Now I know there’s a very credible school of thought that believes there should always be an exit hole, which guarantees a second and much better blood trail in case of a wounded animal. But I have to say I’ve experienced and witnessed more lightning-like kills on deer (and deer-size animals), with bullets like the Nosler Ballistic Tip (the one that started it all), Hornady SST, Winchester Ballistic Silvertip and similar poly-tipped bullets. Though only marginally more expensive than promotional and standard-line ammo, these bullets provide string-flat trajectories as well as quick and reliable expansion at a wide range of impact velocities.

The tipped bullet concept is nothing new. Remington’s Bronze Point and Winchester’s Silvertip go back decades before Nosler’s Ballistic Tip. The idea was the same: A nose tip or meplat of a hardened material protected the tips from deformation in the magazine, and also acted like a wedge to initiate expansion. The only thing different today is that bullet tips are of polycarbonate, which is lighter, and moves the bullet’s center of mass more towards the base, which helps accuracy.

The Swift A-Frame and Scirocco bullets are among the very best game bullets extant and are offered in loaded ammo by several manufacturers.
The Swift A-Frame and Scirocco bullets are among the very best game bullets extant and are offered in loaded ammo by several manufacturers.

The tipped bullet has since metastasized to where it is now seen in virtually every bullet type—bonded core, dual core, varmint, match and monolithic. If the Nosler folks were instrumental in popularizing the polycarbonate-tipped bullet, Barnes is responsible for the monolithic solid copper bullet. Their TSX and TSX-Tipped bullets have since been copied by every one of their major competitors. Terminal performance-wise, this type bullet provides reliable, double diameter expansion, deep penetration and virtual 100-percent weight retention. They also provide superior ballistics in that they all have very high ballistic coefficients, which means they are about as flat shooting as you’ll find in a game bullet. And they’re accurate.

Bottom line: Do you need premium-bullet handloads or premium ammo using premium bullets for anything but extreme range shooting and dangerous game? Not really. But for what little extra cost is involved on a per shot basis, why not tip the scale as much as possible in our favor? There is simply no downside to a better mousetrap.

How The Savage A17 Revolutionized The .17 HMR Rifle

Fed with CCI’s new Varmint Tip ammo, Savage’s new semi-auto A17 in .17 HMR is a varmint hunter’s dream.
Fed with CCI’s new Varmint Tip ammo, Savage’s new semi-auto A17 in .17 HMR is a varmint hunter’s dream.

In this Savage A17 review, Jon R. Sundra explains how the first delayed blowback semi-auto action chambered in .17 HMR rimfire operates and performs at the bench.

Why The Savage A17 Is A Different Kind Of Rimfire:

  • First successful .17 HMR semi-auto rifle
  • Delayed blowback action makes it possible for the AR17 to relyable cycle
  • Feeds from a 10-round rotary magazine
  • Extremely accurate shot to shot
  • Suitable as a target rifle or a hunter

Savage A17 review.When the .17 Winchester Super Magnum (WSM) rimfire cartridge debuted two years ago, it did so not in a Winchester, but in the Savage B-Mag, a rifle designed from scratch around this hottest of rimfires. This year Savage pulled a similar move by working with CCI to come up with the first affordable semi-auto rifle chambered for the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire (HMR).

Savage and CCI, as you may know, are among the dozens of firearms-related companies now under the Vista Outdoor family. For this cooperative project, the CCI people developed a special load, A17 Varmint Tip, which boasts a 2,650 fps muzzle velocity for its 17-grain polymer tipped bullet—that’s 100 fps faster than all other similar loads offered by Hornady, Winchester, Remington, PMC and even CCI.

The .17 HMR was introduced back in 2002, so why did it take 13 years for someone to come up with a self-loader for this highly popular cartridge? Good question. The answer lies in the fact that no existing semi-auto rimfire rifle of sporting configuration could handle it. Even though the cartridge had a maximum average breech pressure (MABP) only 2,000 psi more than the .22 LR and .22 Magnum (WMR), and the fact that a few existing semi-autos were successfully adapted to the latter, the .17 HMR posed special challenges.

All existing semi-auto rimfire rifles employ straight blowback actions, which are not capable of handling high-intensity centerfire pistol and rifle calibers. With a blowback there is no locking mechanism per se, and only the spring(s) that power the bolt keep the action closed. Upon ignition, the equal and opposite reaction of launching a bullet forward has the cartridge case pushing backwards.

The mass of the bolt itself and its spring provide enough resistance to keep the action closed the few microseconds it takes for the bullet to exit the muzzle and the pressure to drop.

Savage A17 review.With the .17 HMR, however, things become more complicated because we’re talking about a bullet weight range of 15.5 to 20 grains—that’s half the weight (and half the resistance) of the 40-grain payload of the .22 LR or .22 Magnum. As a result, the higher pressures, higher bullet velocity and greater bolt thrust were different enough that existing actions were not safely adaptable. To do it right required a new action, and apparently no major American arms manufacturer thought the demand for a semi-auto .17 HMR was enough to warrant the investment…at least not for 13 years, anyway.

Enter the A17, which is based on a delayed blowback action. There are many ways to keep the action closed a few microseconds longer, but all delayed blowbacks employ the same principle: The bolt performs some other operation before it can overcome the inertia of the bolt and spring and begins its rearward movement.


Get Even More Savage:


With the A17 there’s a collapsible lug housed in the top surface of the bolt that engages a slot in the ceiling of the receiver. The rear surfaces of the lug and the recess it bears against are angled to form a cam surface, which acts like an ordinary door latch. The rearward force exerted on the bolt forces the lug to collapse, allowing the bolt to open and move to the rear. It’s really quite a complicated mix of mass, resistance and timing—enough that it took the folks at Savage 2½ years of R&D to get it right.

Savage A17 review.The A17 sent to us for review weighed 5.4 pounds and measured 42 inches in length. It feeds from a 10-round rotary magazine that fits flush with the belly of the stock. The free-floated, 22-inch barrel is button-rifled with a 1:9-inch twist and tapers to .610 at the muzzle, making it fairly stout for a .17 caliber. The safety is of the cross bolt type, housed in the forward portion of the trigger guard bow and therefore similar to those found on most pump and semi-auto shotguns. The injection-molded polymer stock is of the straight comb classic style with just a slight ¼-inch drop from the point of the comb to the rubber butt-padded heel. Pre-installed Weaver-type scope ring bases are standard, as is Savage’s AccuTrigger, which is user-adjustable down to 2.5 lbs.

Another member of the Vista Outdoor Group is Weaver, so it was not coincidental that along with the A17 we received a KASPA (an Indian word meaning “clear vision”) 3-9x40mm rimfire scope and Weaver rings. This particular scope comes with three elevation dials calibrated to the 40-grain trajectories of the .22 LR and .22 Mag., and for the 17-grain polycarbonate-tipped bullets of the .17 HMR. Zeroed-in dead on at 100 yards, the 17-grain bullets will impact about 2 inches low at 150, and 6½ inches low at 200, which is really about the practical limit of this little cartridge. Of course with the HMR turret installed, you simply dial those respective distances and hold dead on. With the slightly flatter trajectory of the A17 Varmint Tip load, we found those respective points of impact to be about ½ inch higher at 150 and 1 inch higher at 200—not enough to worry about for general pest-shooting purposes. It should be noted that all existing .17 HMR loads, which range from 15.5 to 20 grains, are safe to fire in this gun.

Savage A17 review.All told we put nearly 200 rounds through the test gun, which, if not a pre-production example, was of the first production run. As such, we had three failures to feed. Two magazines were provided, and if there is a trick to charging them, I failed to discover it. I consider myself rather dexterous, but I found stuffing 10 rounds into these magazines rather challenging.

Also, on several occasions, firing the first shot had the magazine drop out of the rifle. This is in spite of the fact that, after the first such occurrence, I really slapped it home and got an audible click doing so. Again, this was early production for both rifle and ammo, so I fully expect such teething glitches to be addressed. Accuracy was more than acceptable, though the two standard loads proved slightly more accurate than the A17 ammo. The best group (.75 inches) came with Hornady’s 17-grain V-Max load.

Savage A17
Type:    Delayed blowback,
semi-automatic
Caliber:    .17 HMR
Barrel:    22 in., 1:9-in. twist,
button-rifled
Overall Length:    42 in.
Weight:    5.4 lbs.
Stock:    Injection-molded polymer,
black matte finish
Sights:    Drilled and tapped for optics
Trigger:    Savage AccuTrigger,
adjustable to 2.5 lbs.
Capacity:    10 rounds
MSRP:    $465
Manufacturer:    SavageArms.com

This gun review appeared in the October 2015 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine

Related Video:

MUST READ ARTICLES