The
European lines of the 455 FS are a large part of its appeal. Overall
length is just under 40 inches. The weight (unscoped) is between six and
6 1/2 pounds.
The .17 HMR and the Hornady Mach 2 made a huge splash several years back with rimfire hunters and shooters who felt the need for something above and beyond the old .22 Long Rifle. But as cute and efficient as they were, they never struck my fancy nearly as much as the original rimfire hotshot—the .22 Magnum Rimfire, introduced all the way back in late 1960. When you factor in bullet weight (admittedly, the .17s can top it on raw speed), it’s still pretty much the rimfire to beat in my book.
When I first starting fooling with .22 Magnum rifles back in the 1960s and ’70s, the basic load consisted of a 40-grain HP or FMJ at a velocity somewhere in the 1,800 fps range, with an accuracy potential—condescendingly described—as being less than that of your average .22 LR. But 11/2- to two-inch good at 50 or 100 yards seemed a pretty good trade-off for a hyped-up number capable of handling things larger than the squirrel and rabbit menu reserved for the Long Rifle. Not to mention stretching things out to a bit past 125 yards.
Back in those days, most .22 Magnum bolt actions—with the exception of some expensive Anschutz imports—were utilitarian Mossbergs, Marlins and Savages. They weren’t 50-foot smallbore competition rifles, but that was OK because the guys who used them hunted with them. And back then, five- or six-buck-a-box .22 Mags were considered too pricey to target-shoot with anyway.
Paired with CZ’s elegant, classic-Mannlicher look-alike, the .22 Mag is still capable of handling anything in its weight class. The new 455 FS—in terms of price, looks and performance—should shoot to the top two or three .22 Mag turnbolts in terms of desirability. It retails for a bit more than most American-made .22 Mag bolt actions, but considerably less than other Euro imports (i.e. Anschutz).
It features the somewhat humpy “Lux” stock configuration popular in Europe and serious, fully adjustable open iron sights. It also accepts the clamp-on CZ proprietary scope mounts that constitute a somewhat more attractive take on the old Weaver Tip-Off rimfire mount system. In keeping with the trim lines of the rifle, I let aesthetics overrule magnification and installed Nikon’s very trim, objective-less Monarch UCC 1.5-4.5X.
In rounding up as many different .22 WMR loads as I could, I quickly discovered there were more options available than the 40-grain offerings I’d remembered. Bullet weights ranged from 30 grains to 45 grains. As I quickly found out over the chronograph, average velocities ranged from nearly 1,540 fps on up to an impressive 2,143 (putting the .22 Mag into “close but no cigar” .17 HMR territory).
My situation was a bit different. I had the scope cranked up to 4.5X and did most of my shooting—between wind gusts—at 50 yards, trying only two of the better-performing loads at 100. The two best turned out to be 40-grain CCI Maxi-Mag and Hornady’s heavier 45-grain Critical Defense FTX (designed, oddly enough, for short-barreled handguns). Both loads shot just under an inch for five shots. Both managed to produce four-shot clusters of around a half inch.
Pesky flyers are overused as an alibi for pulling a shot. I’d question whether they qualify as an arbitrary act of God, but the trigger on the rifle—despite a relatively light 4.2-pound break—was rather creepy and tough to manage (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). The little Nikon provided plenty of magnification, particularly when I managed a 11/4-inch group at 100 yards—again with the CCI Maxi Mags. Besides, I like less magnification. Sometimes the illusion of steadiness is almost as good as the real thing.
I’m not saying the rifle can’t do better in better hands, but the results were considerably better than what I remember from my experience with the cartridge a couple of decades ago. Some of the features on the rifle make a lot of sense, such as the open “sun roof” hole atop the front sight hood and the excellent iron sights themselves.
Although I’d like a steel magazine instead of the polymer unit the 455 FS employs, it’s tough to argue with the ruggedness and cost-saving aspects of it. The wing-type safety pulls backward to put the gun in Fire mode, which takes a little getting used to. Most Americans are used to pushing forward to deactivate the safety. And somebody had enough sense to put a rubber buttpad on it so you can stand it in a corner.
T/C Venture Predator Review
The lightweight Predator and Trijicon variable made an efficient package for prairie dogs.
Varmint hunting requires specialized tools for all of its various forms. Stand hunters use ponderous rigs with long, heavy barrels, monster scopes with rangefinding reticles and cartridges that are capable of flipping a prairie dog in the air at obscene ranges. Predator callers may employ a midweight rifle that can be toted about (just not very far). Then there are the folks who slip through coulees, perhaps occasionally stopping to call, look and listen, before moving on. Rifles for this purpose are usually lighter in weight and feature camo finishes.
A prime example of such a “walking varminter” is the new Venture Predator from Thompson/Center. The Venture has been available for some time, but it has recently metamorphosed into a sleek, lightweight camo version that can be had in .204 Ruger, .223 and .22-250, and .308.
The Predator comes in Realtree Max-1 finish on the metal and stock. The action features what T/C calls a “fat” (.850 inch) bolt with three lugs that requires only a 60-degree lift to open. Aluminum pillar bedding anchors the barreled action in the stock, and the 22-inch free-floated barrel is fluted to enhance cooling and save weight. The Predator comes with a one-MOA accuracy guarantee.
Standard rifling twist for the .22-250 is 1:14, but the Predator’s barrel has a 1:12 twist. This theoretically makes it a little better suited to bullets heavier than 55 grains, which certainly doesn’t hurt accuracy with lighter bullets.
The Predator has T/C’s proprietary “5R” rifling with five grooves, so a groove opposes a land. The edges of the lands are also gently sloped on their edges. T/C claims that this decreases jacket deformation as the bullet screams down the bore, so there’s less jacket fouling and greater bullet stability from shot to shot. By contrast, most barrels have an even number of grooves with the lands opposite them, and the edges of the lands are usually at 90 degrees. T/C says that this creates a “sharp tension” between land and groove that can cause more jacket damage and hurt accuracy.
The Predator’s slim barrel mikes .651 inch at the muzzle and has a target crown to protect the rifling. The rifle has a user-adjustable trigger that’s advertised with a range of 3½ to five pounds (the trigger on mine broke at four pounds, one ounce at its lightest setting, but was crisp and creep free). The detachable box magazine holds three rounds in all calibers.
The bolt has a slippery black-nitride coating that makes for smooth operation with no break-in period. When the trigger is cocked, the striker protrudes slightly from the back of the bolt as a cocking indicator. A horseshoe-shaped extractor sits in the bolt face, and a plunger-type extractor flips empties out with vigor. A silver-colored bolt release sits at the left rear of the action.
The Predator features a Hogue Overmolded stock with “Traction” panels built in to provide a nonslip gripping surface should the weather turn foul. The rifle comes with camo-finished Weaver-style bases factory installed. T/C (and Nikon) offers scopes and rings with the Max-1 finish that perfectly match the Predator.
Last July I accompanied several other writers to the Spur Ranch near Encampment, Wyoming, for a go at white-tailed prairie dogs. This species doesn’t congregate in huge towns like its black-tailed cousin, but instead has individual dens scattered over vast areas. Setting up a bench and waiting would be inefficient, so we still-hunted, stopping to glass and occasionally pot an unwary dog.
Our test rifles were chambered to .204 Ruger and .22-250 Remington, and all were equipped with Trijicon scopes. My rifle was a .22-250 and wore a 3-9×40 Accupoint, which suited the lightweight Predator perfectly. We traded off between calibers, and both the .204s and .22-250s were quite accurate and totally dependable. I didn’t keep track of how many critters we got, but I did whack a couple at what was later ranged to be nearly 470 yards.
Back home, I ordered a duplicate model for range work and also fitted it with a new Trijicon 3-9X Accupoint. I fired a representative selection of factory loads.
All in all, the T/C Venture Predator turned in an excellent performance and functioned flawlessly. Most important, it was deadly in the field, and that’s the bottom line on any varmint rifle.
July 2007In the not-too-distant past, no one would have considered building a precision long-range rifle on a semi-automatic operating system. However, there is no doubt today that a properly built and tuned AR-style rifle can hold its own with bolt-action tackdrivers. The Army recognized this fact when it called for gun builders to submit samples of a Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) for testing.
ArmaLite did just that by modifying its already-accurate AR-10(T), an enlarged AR chambered in .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm NATO). Although the rifle chosen for the Army SASS was not ArmaLite’s entry, the company’s rifle was so impressive that ArmaLite decided to continue development and create the Super SASS. It is a good-looking rifle that caused a few heads to turn when I picked it up at the gun shop.
Packed in a Starlight case, the Super SASS comes standard with a web shooting sling, an Otis Technology cleaning kit for both 7.62mm and 5.56mm, a 10- and 20-round magazine, a Harris Series S Model L bipod with A.R.M.S. throw lever adapter and an Advanced Armament Corporation S3-R silencer, which mates with the gun by screwing onto a barrel sleeve adapter that is installed just aft of the birdcage-style flash hider. Instead of a real suppressor, though, the test rifle came with a mock unit that has no effect on the decibel level, but is supplied for display purposes only. For those who reside in jurisdictions where civilian ownership of suppressors is legal, or for military or law enforcement personnel, the suppressor is a very useful accessory for reducing injurious sound, felt recoil and for enhancing accuracy.
The Super SASS comes with an AR-10 flip-up rear sight assembly, but the standard sighting system is the Leupold Vari-X III 3.5-10×40 scope with illuminated mil-dot reticle mounted in A.R.M.S. quick-detachable rings. Curiously, a flip-up front iron sight is not included, but several are available from various manufacturers.
The fore-end is a free-floating quad rail with four MIL-STD 1913 rails on the top, bottom and sides that allow the barrel to float free. Rail covers are provided. With the flat-top receiver and the rail fore-end, an almost endless number of accessories can be hung on this weapon platform–including lights and various aiming devices.
This gun is not just a gussied-up AR-10(T). ArmaLite spent time refining its trigger, feed ramp, extractor, ejector and magazines to make them more reliable, and added an adjustable gas system to facilitate optimum operation with or without the suppressor.
I tested the rifle off the bench at 100 yards with four loads from Hornady, Black Hills, Winchester and Corbon. The Leupold scope and its external adjustment knobs made dialing a final zero easy. There were no malfunctions of any kind.
As for accuracy, the largest average group was 1.97 inches with Black Hills 168-grain Match BTHP, but the smallest was .86 inches with Cor-Bon 168-grain HPBT, proving that with the right load, this rifle lives up to its reputation.
The Super Varmint in .264 LBC-AR is one serious varmint-whacking machine.
March 2010
You probably know of Les Baer as a 1911 guru, the guy who makes delectable 1911s in the classic mode. Super-tight and reliable, they have an enviable reputation for accuracy, reliability and durability. Well, he makes ARs, too. And he does so not just by assembling ARs from parts shipped in; he machines his own uppers and lowers, his own carriers, bolts, carrier keys and extractors.
He machines his own barrel extensions, profiles his own precision barrel blanks and then mates the two and reams the chambers to varmint/match standards. If you want a folding front sight, you can have a Les Baer-made folding front sight/gas block as well. In fact, of the critical parts that go into an AR rifle, Les makes all of them that go into his rifles. Pins, springs, things like that he doesn’t make. The rest? He sweats over them.
Where Les doesn’t make the parts, he uses the best he can find. The triggers on his top-end rifles are Geissele two-stage target triggers that allow for a very crisp, precise, repeatable let-off. Now, this is not the trigger for your M4 clone or the one you will be using for defense around the house or traveling thousands of miles in the rack in your pickup. Especially if you are planning on using a polymer-frame striker-fired pistol as backup. The trigger pull between the Les Baer and your plastic sidearm will be too great.
I have seen police officers using two-stage triggers on their ARs have ADs on the line, having transitioned from their DA-trigger handguns. Of course, if you’re using a Les Baer 1911, with an equally precise trigger pull, then the transition is not a problem. And behind that trigger is a Les Baer-made pistol grip, your choice of three types.
The rifles Les sent me are a selection of his M4-style and Super Varmints. The two Super Varmints are just the ticket for long-range, heavy-thumping varmint rifles or medium-bore hunting rifles. One is chambered in6.5 Grendel, the other in 6×45. The ammo for the 6.5 came in Black Hills boxes, and the headstamp is “.264 LBC-AR,” indicating it was made by Hornady just for Les and his rifles and custom-loaded by Black Hills. The two loads sent were topped with Hornady 123-grain A-Max and Sierra 123-grain MatchKings. Fed from CProducts magazines, the .264 LBC-AR ammo fed without fault, both in the Super Varmint and the M4-style carbine.
The rifles were all assembled on Les Baer matched upper/lower combos. Since he machines his own, Les can tend to the dimensional niceties of things like the fit of the radius between upper and lower at the rear and the distance between the takedown pins and the mating edges of the upper and lower. They are not off mil-spec; they are simply made to be perfect with each other. If you want such a set, Les would be happy to provide you with a bare upper and lower, machined to fit perfectly with each other, to build your own AR. As a final lure to using a Les Baer matched set, they are given a Bear Coat finish–a Teflon-based, baked-on finish that is more durable than plain old anodizing. And it also offers extra lubricity that mil-spec anodizing doesn’t.
On top of the rifles, Les had mounted Nightforce scopes. In keeping with the long-range varminting potential of these rifles, they were 5.5-22X power and the reticles were designed for long-range work.
The Super Varmint rifles have 20-inch heavy barrels and a Les Baer-made aluminum free-float handguard slotted at six o’clock for the bipod mount. The bipod is a Versa-Pod, with a built-in hand stop as the bipod mount. If you wish, you could slide the bipod mount to any location along the handguard, use a tight sling, lock your hand to the stop and be so tightly wedded to the rifle that you can track your heartbeat in the moving reticle (maybe an indication that I should be cutting back on the caffeine). The scope is mounted in scope rings that are Les Baer-made, cut from bar stock with an Electrical Discharge Machine for precision. Les and I have had some fun with scopes through the years. I’m more than a foot taller than he is, and when he sends a rifle, he has to position it for me. If he doesn’t, when he test-fires and zeros it, the scope, locked down for him, would be too far back for me to even shoot. The Super Varminter comes with a standard A2 stock, but if you really wanted one, you could prevail upon Les to install a five-position M4 stock on your rifle.
Les Baer makes his own barrels. A few years ago, tired of trying to get barrels of the quality he needed in the volume he needed, he simply bought the equipment to make his own. So he takes top-quality barrel stock, deep-drills, reams, hones and then single-point cuts the rifling. Single-point-cut barrels, while superbly accurate, are also slow and expensive to make. So Les also makes button-rifled barrels for his more standard ARs. Don’t think because they are buttoned, or for less expensive rifles, that Les lets them out the door as anything but brilliantly accurate. They are top-notch.
The M4 carbine uses the same-quality barrels as the Super Varmint, just shorter at 16 and change. Also, in addition to the gas block having a 1913 rail for a front sight, the M4 has a railed free-float handguard on which you can mount whatever you desire (or local game laws permit) without changing zero, accuracy or barrel harmonics.
The CProducts magazines are the same length as 20-round .223 magazines, but hold 14 rounds of .264 LBC-AR ammo. Once uncommon, .264/6.5 magazines can now be had in all the normal sizes and in capacities from five rounds to 25. So feeding your new Super Varmint won’t be a problem.
The 6×45
The second Super Varmint, in 6×45, is a wildcat of long standing. Soon after the .223 Remington appeared, benchrest shooters were popping open the cases to 6mm for heavier bullets. In the end, the 6×45 lost out on the benchrest ranges to more specialized cartridges, but it is a fine varmint/light deer round.
Les has provided Black Hills with a test barrel in 6×45 for load work-up, and by the time you read this he’ll have all the loading data he needs to provide you with the ammo you’ll need. On the light side, there’s an 85-grain varmint load that will deliver just a bit more drop than a 52-grain match bullet in .223, but with half-again the mass. For deer hunting, a 100-grain bullet will have a point-blank trajectory out to 200 yards, plenty flat enough for any wooded hunting locale. If you’re hunting in the wide open, the drop at 300 yards will be less than a foot and a half, so holding on the back-line will get the job done. And if you are going to do just one but not the other, you have a choice in barrel twist in the 6×45 1:8 and 1:91/2. The 1:8 will get you the maximum accuracy out of the 100-grain bullets, while the 1:91/2 lets you wring a bit more velocity out of the 85-grainer without causing bullet-destroying over-rotation.
The 6×45, being a necked-up .223, uses standard AR mags of all the usual capacities. So you can simply use a regular five-shot mag for hunting (where required) or load up 20- or 30-round mags for prairie dog hosing. If you want a 6×45 varminter or lightweight deer rifle, Sporting Products of Florida will be making production-grade ARs in an agreement with Les Baer.
For both the .264 LBC-AR and the 6×45, Hornady makes loading dies, and Les will have lots of empty brass on hand to load up your own ammo, as well as all the loaded ammo on hand you might want.
It didn’t take long to determine that all three of these rifles shot better than I did. The single-point, cut-rifle barrels are a joy to shoot, and the trigger makes the job easy. The Nightforce scopes are clear and sharp–at 22X, the 100-yard bull is nearly as big as a barn. Obviously, the bullets selected are top performers when it comes to precision, and the end result is a set of rifles that can shoot under an MOA all day long. How much under? I don’t know. As I said, they shoot better than I can, and when the limiting factor is technique I have to admit I’m not a competitive benchrest shooter. To make things worse, just as I was getting a handle on these rifles the weather changed from a mild fall to the first wintry blast. Fourteen-degree temperatures and a 20-mph wind switching across a quarter of the compass does not help precision shooting. Still, I managed some very nice groups indeed before the onset of glacier season.
Reloaders will be happy to know that neither rifle was hard on brass. The tightly reamed chambers kept expansion to a minimum, and the rifles did not attempt to toss the empties into the next range. They were politely deposited six to seven feet to the right, a little to the rear–evidence of a well-tuned gas system and ejection cycle.
Given the weight of these rifles, recoil was not an issue. On a lightweight M4-type AR, the recoil of a mil-spec 5.56 load can be a bit brusque. Nothing oppressive, mind you, but snappy. Despite the greater power of the .264 and the 6×45, the weight of the Les Baer rifles tames the recoil, making for a push instead of a jolt.
Les Baer knows what works, and he makes “what works” to the highest level of precision he can. You want something less, there are people who will make it for you.
Merkel SR1 Review
June 2008Log onto the Merkel website and you immediately see a swarm of wild boar stampeding toward you. That image, more than any other, sums up the purpose of Merkel’s SR1 semiautomatic hunting rifle. It is a fast brush gun, made for shooting moving game at close range, where accurate snap-shooting is an absolute must.
Everything about the SR1 is designed with this goal in mind. Available in six different calibers, from 7x64mm to .300 Winchester Magnum, the SR1 has a 20-inch barrel and weighs seven pounds. There is not a sharp edge to be found on it anywhere, which means it won’t snag on clothing or branches.
The rifle is also designed to be handled easily with gloves on. The triggerguard is generous, as is the cocking lever. The bolt release and safety catch are both large, easily accessible and easy to operate. The detachable magazine is released by a large catch that is built into the front of the triggerguard and readily operated by a gloved thumb from either side. Ergonomically, the SR1 gets top marks.
The rifle is designed to be dismantled easily for carrying in a compact case (or one that does not look like a guncase). The fore-end is quickly removed by pressing a button and sliding it forward. A stout steel pin holds the barrel and gas piston assembly to the receiver. Remove the pin, detach the barrel, and the rifle is now in three pieces.
Except for its steel pin, the rifle comes apart in a manner very similar to any double shotgun or rifle. This appeals hugely to European hunters but is also useful for Americans. It makes the rifle very portable. It also makes it easy to clean, dry and oil after use.
The most noteworthy single feature, to my eye, is the rifle’s iron sights. That’s right–iron sights. This is a rifle made to go into action quickly, and I have never seen an iron sight design faster than this one. The front is a red fiber optic that practically glows in the dark, while the rear is a long, sloping ramp when seen from the side but a V-notch with a guiding line when viewed from the rear. This rifle slides into place under your eye and comes on target like lightning, with the glowing red ball nestled in the V-notch.
For those who prefer a scope, the rifle is drilled and tapped for a Weaver-style one-piece base. When the scope is removed, the base lies flat against the receiver and allows unimpeded use of the iron sights.
For the purposes of this test, I installed one of the fastest scopes I have–a Trijicon 1.25-4×24 with a tritium-tipped post reticle. In failing or low light, at close range, there is no faster rig for getting onto a moving target.
With the scope, the rifle delivered a three-shot, 100-yard group that was a neat .86 inch, and subsequent groups averaged a little over an inch. With the scope removed, using the iron sights the rifle fired a 10-shot group that measured 4.2 inches. All test firing was done with Federal Gold Medal Match .308 Winchester ammunition loaded with 168-grain Sierra MatchKing bullets.
My overall impression of this rifle is very positive. It is not a super-long-range rifle by any means, although with a scope it would certainly be fine out to 300 yards. In the longer-range calibers, such as .300 Winchester Magnum, it might reach a little farther, but I really question a seven-pound .300 Winchester Magnum with a 20-inch barrel.
Of the calibers offered, the most suitable for a rifle of this configuration and intended use are the .308, 9.3×62 and 8x57JS.
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