Thread: What is the rifle that has surprised you the most

Howa mini in 6.5 Grendel. Just so easy to shoot

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.270 when it blew up with wrong powder in a reload.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

.270 when it blew up with wrong powder in a reload.

Pics?

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

.270 when it blew up with wrong powder in a reload.

Yeah. That would have been a surprise alright.

Originally Posted by MB

A mate's rusty, mistreated 10/22 with a shitty cheap scope that made one hole at 50 metres with 10 shots.

Yeah my 10/22 surprised me when I got it .
Having used a number of them over the years ( other peoples ) Accuracy wasn’t their strong suit , but still OK for Possums etc .
The one I have now shoots very well with CCI subs and has had zero function / reliability problems .
It has genuinely surprised me .

One of the worst I have had was a Norinco JW15 semi .22LR. Went ok when it was new, but went to the pack not long after. Cleaned up the bolt, the trigger, resecured the plug at the back of the action, did nada. Recrowned the muzzle, made it worse. Went to useless, 6" groups at 50m.

Went to retire it and couldn't even bring myself to sell it, when I heard someone else mutter about the stock drying out on theirs and the wood shrinking. Hmm, didn't think of that.

Took it apart again, and had a head scratch as these things are single-point secured to the stock, and not really an easy thing to do anything with but had a crack with the good old Devcon D10110 and bugger me, 1/2" groups at 50m and after the rest of the work it basically ate everything thrown at it and virtually the whole lot to within a useable point of impact that at up to about 50m I never found anything that I needed to resight it for. From impressed at the cost, to very unimpressed to actually quite impressed again.

Another was the AUG Steyr, the only rifle I've ever seen have a bolt and bolt carrier separate in the receiver after being fired. I still don't know how or what the armourer's did to fix that one - talented people. Remain unimpressed overall with those.

Everything else tends to have its good points and bad I've found.

Sako 222 wood stock iron sights from 1985.
Sako 85 Finnlight 7mm 08 from now.
Both brilliant rifles.


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Originally Posted by Mrfants

Sako 222 wood stock iron sights from 1985.
Sako 85 Finnlight 7mm 08 from now.
Both brilliant rifles.


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And that is a surprise because.....?

Benelli Lupo 308 nicest rifle I have ever shot

Mossberg MVP patrol in 308.

Mate got one after 2019. Even with a ranger 1-8 and flash hider it would not shoot over a inch(most being half inch or better)with 5 different types of factory ammo.

Suprised the heck out of me as to its lack of recoil.

Made me re think mossy rifles that's for sure!

A 1920's Rigby .275 Mauser that only grouped about 3" so I agreed to sell it to an American mate. I trimmed and recrowned the muzzle 3mm and it started grouping below 1"! Bugger!

Two rifles I bought for my youngest boy. Norinco copy of Browning take-down 22 with a cheap scope. Absolutely loved CCI ammo but would shoot most brands into small ragged groups at 50 metres. Second one was LH Savage Axis 223 scoped bundle from Gun City. Gray shooter out to 300 metres, could hit mini clay targets with monotonous regularity. Both these rifles surprised me how good they were and my boy probably still doesn’t realise how lucky he was to get them.

Originally Posted by woods223

Two rifles I bought for my youngest boy. Norinco copy of Browning take-down 22 with a cheap scope. Absolutely loved CCI ammo but would shoot most brands into small ragged groups at 50 metres. Second one was LH Savage Axis 223 scoped bundle from Gun City. Gray shooter out to 300 metres, could hit mini clay targets with monotonous regularity. Both these rifles surprised me how good they were and my boy probably still doesn’t realise how lucky he was to get them.

I had one of those Norincos (which I foolishly sold) and it displayed the same sort of accuracy. I had a 2.5x Hiburtus? long eye relief scope on it so I could take it down and assemble it again without loss of zero, and it worked a treat.

About 25 years ago I was preparing two brand new cz in 7x64 for some French hunting guides. ( bedding them , installing scopes and sighting th3m in )
The rifles were equipped with meopta scopes and were shooting sellier and bellot ammo, just to keep things in the Czech theme. One was shooting around an inch or just under , the other one was printing 3rounds clover leaf. Not once but repeatedly.

Have found new price is often an indicator of quality - but not necessarily of peak accuracy in sporter rifles.

I also got a real surprise testing a Norinco about 18 years ago - great wee shooter and cost very little. Have had/polished heaps of them since and surprisingly many shoot well - esp after a little polishing. Best of them averaged down into 0.3s for groups set at 50. You could pay five times as much for a nice 22LR hunter and get alot less. GC and Polytech variants were often poor.

Another surprise was the Marlin 60 semiautomatic 22LRs. Two of mine averaged 0.3" and just under this for group sets at 50m - with hunting ammos!. That really got my attention. Cured me of the old idea that semis can't shoot well...like the little norinco takedown above.

Another real surprise was a Remington 600 (about 1964) in 243 which I bought for northern bush work and NZDA comps. Unusual little firearm for its time, but excellent, compact wee hunter and very good on range. Why on earth did I sell it??