Cooper Rifle Owners.....Interested In Your Reviews

Dogleg said:
One other thing that bugs me is there is no way on God's green earth that any test target ever got shot with that rifle. Never happened.
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That's an interesting comment. I've only had 1 Cooper, bought new from PR~a model 51 in .204R. Everything I've read about fit/finish/action/magazine/trigger~spot-on. The finest gun I've ever owned, period. It was, however, very difficult to find a load that approached the accuracy guarantee. At least 4 powders/4 bullets before I got 39gr. SBKs and Reloader 10X living-up to Cooper's accuracy claims. About 3/4 of the way through that...I requested the 32gr. V-Max load data from Cooper thinking "why didn't I start with that?!?". They wouldn't email it, but said they'd give it to me if I called. Loaded ammo up to their specs~didn't shoot well at all. Now...maybe the data was off...not sure, but Dogleg's comment about the test target made me think about my own experience.

Anyhow, Coopers are beautiful guns, Cooper are great to deal with, Clay @ Prophet River sets the bar for great customer service...so I can honestly say I think they're a good choice. Me? I got too paranoid about the pretty wood to really enjoy the gun to it's fullest...so I only kept it about a year.

Doing what it did best for me...

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Loaded ammo up to their specs~didn't shoot well at all. Now...maybe the data was off...not sure, but Dogleg's comment about the test target made me think about my own experience.
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Many people assume that the test target was shot at 100 yards, but all Cooper test targets are shot at 50 yards. That being said, I have equaled the test target group size at 100 yards, with several of my Cooper rifles.
 
stubblejumper said:
Many people assume that the test target was shot at 100 yards, but all Cooper test targets are shot at 50 yards. That being said, I have equaled the test target group size at 100 yards, with several of my Cooper rifles.
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The test target on mine was promising to be honest and yes, I knew it was shot @ 50 yards. By the time I got my loads sorted out, my best 100 yard groups were better than that on the test target...but the target on mine listed Hornady 32gr. V-Max as the bullet used...and 4 powders later (AND using their supplied load data) I couldn't get 32gr. V-Max shooting well no matter what I did. With the number of charges tested, time spent letting the barrel cool down, cleaning between powder changes...it got me wondering a bit about the bullet they claim printed that group. Not suggesting anything dishonest here...maybe the air is just thinner down there or something. :)

Anyhow, fine gun...shot as promised, but I patted myself on the back allot for finally sorting it what it wanted to eat. I always wished the 32gr. V-Max shot best, but I learned the where the POI was @ 100 yards and kept a few on hand for close groundhog shots. Talk about some un-post-able photos.
 
stubblejumper said:
Many people assume that the test target was shot at 100 yards, but all Cooper test targets are shot at 50 yards. That being said, I have equaled the test target group size at 100 yards, with several of my Cooper rifles.
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So Cooper's guaranty is really <=1 MOA at 100 yards?
 
I have a 280 cooper excalibre. never touched the trigger or bedding just used it. shoots almost any load or bullet well. the ones it likes shoots better than me. well under an inch I'm just not capable of doing it all the time.
 
The range was 47 yards last I heard, indoor and groups shot with a 36X Leupold. Size of their basement. Something I've wondered is what "guaranteed to shoot a 1/2" group at 100 yards" means. "a" as in one? one once in awhile? Not that hard. All of them under 1/2"? That's a pretty good trick, you'd have average about 1/4 MOA for that. 1/2" average? Easier for sure, some bugholes and some 3/4" would average out. Lots of room for interpretation if a guy wanted.
 
stubblejumper said:
The targets are less than 1/4" at 50 yards, usually considerably less,so if you understand geometry, it's not that difficult to figure out that they are sub 1/2moa.
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Yeah, I get that. I've never seen a test target. I seemed to get the impression from previous posts that test targets had 1/2" groups at 50 yards or 1 MOA and not 1/2" groups at 100 yards or 1/2 MOA. Or did some people think they had sub 1/4 MOA rifles (1/4" groups on test targets at what they thought was 100 yards)?

Sub 1/2 MOA is good.
 
If the test targets on display with each of the rifles are truly fired from those rifles then most I have seen at PR in the display cabinets are probably 1/4" or less. There has been a few almost single holers there. One thing in common is the name of the tester and each I have always seen stated they were accomplished with a 36X scope as Dogleg suggested.
 
the spank said:
If the test targets on display with each of the rifles are truly fired from those rifles then most I have seen at PR in the display cabinets are probably 1/4" or less. There has been a few almost single holers there. One thing in common is the name of the tester and each I have always seen stated they were accomplished with a 36X scope as Dogleg suggested.
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The test targets are shot indoors with a 36x scope, because the point of the test target is to test the rifle, not the shooter. Pretty much all of the test targets for my rifles are smaller than .200". Actually there is a new name on some more recent targets, after several years with the same name.
 
stubblejumper said:
The test targets are shot indoors with a 36x scope, because the point of the test target is to test the rifle, not the shooter. Pretty much all of the test targets for my rifles are smaller than .200". Actually there is a new name on some more recent targets, after several years with the same name.
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I guess the question I have is how a rifle with an obvious extraction issue made it past shooting the test target?
 
Dogleg said:
The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. They never shot it.

How many of yours went back to Cooper? Just the one?
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Just the very first one, it was an honest sub moa rifle, it averaged around 3/4" with the load it shot best, but it wouldn't average 1/2" with any load that I tried, and I tried several. It did function flawlessly though, as did everyone of my Cooper rifles. All of my other Cooper rifles were excellent accuracy wise.
 
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