Review & Range Report Anschutz 1730 - 22 Hornet

[Glock4ever]

I thought I would share a review and range report on the Anschutz 1730 D 22 Hornet (discontinued). After an extensive search for another 22 Hornet to try, I had narrowed the field to a Ruger 77/22 Hornet, CZ 527 Lux, and an Anschutz 1730. After asking the fellows here about the hornet, I decided against the Ruger (but I am reconsidering this rifle now based on my recent experience with the 77/17) and almost picked up a 527 Lux. As fortune would have it, the EE offered me a chance at an Anschutz 1730 without having to pay over 2k for it. It was an extremely low round count used rifle but I was willing to take a chance on it. When it arrived I put a Bushnell 4200 2.5-10x40mm scope on it and put her away until this weekend. So the actual review of the rifle:

The rifle fit and finish to say the least was spectacular, when you pull it from the styrofoam box, you can see that the inletting and wood is fantastic. The bluing is beautiful and the rifle is a definite eye grabber. What I did notice off the hop was that there were no sling studs mounted onto the stock. I was not overly impressed that a rifle marketed as a match grade "hunting" rig did not have such a basic feature. I did notice that the ones Prophet River sell do have the studs but that didn't help me so I went to the gun store and picked up a set and glass bedded them into the stock. Except for the sling studs, I would say this rifle definitely qualifies as a premier factory produced rifle. Here is a pic of the rifle:

I quickly loaded various loads of lil gun and 3 different types of bullets and hit the range last Friday. When I got to the range, I pulled the loading box, which had tipped over during the drive, out of my range bag and discovered that all of my carefully prepared loads were mixed. After taking 10 mins to calm myself down, I decided to use the ammunition to at least zero the scope. I quickly discovered that the range of powder charges and bullets made for holes all over the target - in short Friday was a bust. All I knew about the rifle was that it could hit paper at 100m (sometimes) and that the ejector/extraction system on the model 54 was a bit on the lame side, sometimes rounds would fly out, sometimes rounds would fall back into the ejection port, and other times the bolt would not pull the round all the way out of the chamber. I was not overly impressed with the action on such a high end rifle.

Friday evening, I modified my loading boxes by adding Styrofoam to the lid to hold the rounds from falling out of the box and proceeded to reload the same data as I had used on Friday. I cleaned the bore and rifle and eagerly went to bed. Saturday morning, I went to the range and set up - the winds were blowing mildly and it was spitting a little bit of rain. I proceeded to fire every load and in short, I was furious with the results. Not 1 load would group better then 1" at 100m (I have over 12 different mixes), the best load was a Hornady Vmax 40gr over 12 gr of lil'gun at about 1.5" which I had to singly load. It was total s***, when I got home I was fuming. To have spent the kind of money I did on this rifle and seeing the crappy results really ticked me off. After watching a bit of "The Simpsons" to calm me down, I decided to review my load data and look at the rifle. The load data lined up with everything that Hodgon recommended and what every i-net site webpage recommended, so I knew that the data couldn't be bad. I decided to look the rifle over carefully, the crown checked out as clean, the barrel looked straight, the action wasn't stressed, and the barrel was freefloating. Compared to the test target, this rifle was out to lunch, I then undid the action screws and pulled the barreled action. I then discovered that Anschutz didn't bed the rifle. WTF? Bedding is pretty common practice and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why a wood stock action had no glass or pillar bedding. So last night I cleaned up the stock and glass bedded the action with a kit that I picked up in Edmonton during Thanksgiving. Today, I loaded the same data and went out and shot it again this morning. This was the results:

In short, the rifle is shooting very well. I found that as the lil'gun load approached 13 grains the rifle would shoot better. So what do I have to say about this rifle?

For the price that you are paying, I don't feel that you are getting a product that is worth the price. Maybe I am spoiled by custom gunsmithing but if you are going to drop over 2k for a factory rifle, it should shoot and function right out of the box. I realize that my sample is impossibly small but to me that is the whole reason you are paying more so it isn't a crap shoot. It is quite obvious, that Anschutz pays a great deal of attention to their workmanship. Quality of manufacture is there, the barrelling and action are well mated. What I don't understand: Is why simple things which affect accuracy weren't done and why is the ejector/extractor system so cheesy? Almost every other rifle I owned (some which cost significantly less) would throw spent brass with authority, this rifle dribbles them out, leaves them in the chamber or flings them at other times - I am going to troubleshoot that tonight but from what I am reading it is a pretty common issue with the 54 actions. In total, I am happy that this rifle can shoot but I am not happy that I had to do any work on it. Sorry for the long post but hopefully somebody looking at an Anschutz finds this review useful.

 

[cyclone]

For what it's worth :

http://www.gun-tests.com/issues/14_8/features/5027-1.html

August 2002
.22 Hornet Buzz: CZ’s 527 Lux Varmint Rifle Is Our Pick
Ruger’s 77/22 and the costly Anschutz bolt guns are OK; but Don’t Buy Ruger’s heavy No. 1 for this kind of field work.

The .22 Hornet cartridge evolved out of the black-powder .22 WCF, which originated in 1885 for the Winchester single-shot rifle, and was also chambered in the 1873 Winchester. The tiny Hornet first saw the light of day as Winchester-loaded ammunition in 1930. Yes, that’s right, Winchester loaded Hornet ammunition before any commercial rifles were available for it. Commercially made rifles were produced by Winchester, and then Savage and Stevens, beginning around 1933. The first experimental rifles for the Hornet, for which Winchester made the ammo in 1930, were built at Springfield Arsenal in the 1920s. …

http://www.gun-tests.com/performance/dec96hornet.html

Bolt-Action .22 Hornets: Ruger’s Got A Winner

We tested the $535 Model 77/22VHZ against a Cooper Arms Model 38 that cost three times as much, and the cheaper gun won. But both get our recommendation for varminting.

Performance often comes at a high price, and as shooters who are primarily concerned with how well rifles and pistols shoot, we’re willing to pay extra dollars for smaller groups. When an expensive gun clearly outshoots a less expensive gun, we will almost always recommend the product that wins, irrespective of the dollars. But what happens when the less expensive product wins against a pricier rival? In that case, as we found in a head-to-head match-up of two .22 Hornets from Ruger and Cooper Arms, we rejoice. Finding guns that shoot well for not a lot of money is a difficult and uncommon experience these days. And when a relatively expensive gun performs on par with a product that triples its suggested retail, then we sit up and take notice.

That’s what happened when we recently matched up .22 Hornet bolt actions from Ruger and Cooper. The Ruger gun, a $535 Model 77/22VHZ, shot within a tenth of inch of a Cooper Arms Model 38 that carries a $1,675 MSRP. Also, the Ruger functioned flawlessly, while we had trouble with the extractors on the Cooper. There were other things we liked and disliked about the two products, which is related in the material below:

How We Tested
We collected all our accuracy range data at 100 yards, shooting the guns from a solid concrete bench in a Ransom Master Rifle Rest and Protektor Bags. We shot 10 five-round groups with each gun, alternating guns every five shots to reduce problems associated with barrel heating. We used Leupold and Weaver 36X riflescopes during the accuracy testing. Also, we used a Nikon Field Spotting Scope to check our shot locations downrange.

The guns were cleaned and then fouled between each load tested. We cleaned the guns with Pro-Shot Solvent delivered by a Parker Hale Cleaning rod and jag. Also, we used 10-shot strings to collect our chronograph data, using both factory and handloaded ammo shot through the skyscreens of an Oehler 35P Chronograph.

We were able to find only four factory loads for the .22 Hornet. Remington offers a 45-grain pointed soft point (R22HNI) and hollow-point (R22HN2) rounds, and Winchester loads 45-grain soft points (X22H1) and 46-grain hollowpoints (X22H2). Since the factory loads were limited, we worked up our own, using James Calhoon’s custom 42-grain hollow-point bullets. We used a Dillon RL550 press with Redding dies to load our custom rounds, pouring in 11.5 grains of Accurate Arms 1680 powder into new Winchester brass we bought from Sinclair International. We used a Dillon D-Terminator Powder scale to measure the charges. We used CCI BR4 primers and set the OAL at a SAAMI-spec 1.723 inches. Fine-tuning this load by changing the bullet-seating depth, prepping case necks, and using other techniques could pull down the group sizes in both guns, we think. As it was, the handload shot 0.60-inch groups in the Cooper Model 38 and 0.77-inch groups in the Ruger.

Ruger Model 77/22VHZ:
A Good Value
To make the Model 77/22VHZ, Ruger took its successful Model 77/22 .22 Long Rifle action and lengthened the receiver, then barreled it for the efficient .22 Hornet centerfire round. Ruger offers three models in this caliber, the Model 77/22RH, which sells for $489, the Model 77/22RSH ($499), and our test gun, the 77/22VHZ, which has a suggested retail of $535. Our test gun came without iron sights. The 77/22RSH is the only model that comes with iron sights.

The metal on our Ruger test gun was stainless steel. The metal’s dark-satin finish reduces glare while keeping rust at bay. We think this metalwork is an excellent choice for a field gun suited to taking varmints. Our test gun had a 24-inch heavyweight barrel with an OD of 0.650 inch at the muzzle and 0.915 inch OD at the chamber.

The gun’s trigger pull was crisp at 3.75 to 4 pounds and showed no creep, but it had too much overtravel. Adjustments screws on this trigger aren’t available, so it would be helpful to have a competent gunsmith reduce the trigger-pull weight and install an overtravel stop screw.

The stock on our test gun was laminated wood in a two-tone tan color. It had a half-inch black rubber buttpad and satin stock finish. The action showed good wood-to-metal fit in the action area. We noted that there was space between the barrel and the stock in the barrel channel, except for a pressure point at the end of the channel. The action wasn’t bedded. Quick-detachable swivel studs were included. The overall length of the Ruger was 44 inches. It weighed 81/2 pounds with scope. Using the supplied 1-inch rings that mount to the receiver, we fitted a Leupold 6.5X to 20X riflescope on the gun.

The three-position safety was smooth and easy to work with the right thumb. It was located on the right rear end of the receiver. One removable rotary magazine, which holds six rounds, comes equipped with the gun. Though we thought the stock felt good in most shooting positions, we would like to see a slightly larger forend or a flatter bottom on the gun. That would help a shooter control the gun on a bench, a common situation when varminting. Length of pull on the stock was 13.75 inches.

The Winchester 46-grain hollowpoint shot the smallest five-round groups in the Ruger at 0.44 inches. Winchester loads averaged 0.98- and 1.04-inch groups respectively at 100 yards. Remington rounds averaged 1.23-inch and 1.49-inch groups. The Calhoon reload gave us our best average at 0.77 inches.Overall, the Ruger’s groups were only 0.08 inches larger than the Cooper’s clusters at 100 yards. We had one malfunction in the gun using Remington ammo. One round blew back some gas after the shot. When we extracted the round, we noticed the cartridge case had a flat primer and black residue on the headstamp that indicated the round was loaded a little hot.

Cooper Arms Model 38
The single-shot Cooper test gun is a custom-made bolt-action rifle. The receiver is blued steel with a heavy stainless-steel barrel. The muzzle OD measured 0.760 inches and 0.965 inches at the chamber. The rifle barrel itself and the receiver had a satin, non-glare finish.

We thought our test item was a very sharp-looking gun that showed a lot of attention to detail. We found the trigger pull to be crisp at 3 to 3.25 pounds, and it exhibited very little overtravel. The Cooper trigger is completely adjustable and can be tuned to break between 1.75 and 2 pounds.

The stock’s length of pull was 13.75 inches, including a 0.25-inch-thick Pachmayr rifle pad. The stock was A to AA walnut with a satin, nongloss finish. It was beautiful. Checkering on the pistol grip and a tasteful metal grip cap indicated that this was a custom-made rifle, as did the Cooper’s 38’s excellent wood-to-metal fit. The barrel was free-floated inside the barrel channel, and the front action area was glass bedded. The forend included a swelled, flat bottom, which made shooting in the Ransom Rest a joy.

Overall length of the Model 38 was 41.5 inches with a 24-inch barrel. The receiver came drilled and tapped, and included with the gun were Warne bases and rings. We used them to fit a Weaver 36X scope on the test gun. Its overall weight, with the scope, totaled 8 pounds.

We had some extraction problems with this gun. Consistently, fired rounds wouldn’t be bulled from the chamber when we worked the bolt. We called Cooper, and the company supplied a new extractor with a stronger spring.

We also experienced another problem with the bolt. When the bolt was in the open position, the firing-pin notch would rotate to the fired position, which meant we had to remove the bolt from the gun and manually reset the firing pin into the notch on the bolt. This is a major inconvenience that Cooper needs to resolve, in our estimation.

At the range, the Cooper 38 shot overall average groups of 1.03 inches with all five ammunitions. Factory groups ran from 0.78 inches for Winchester soft points to 1.68 inches for one of the Remington rounds. Our reload gave us a 0.60-inch average and a best-group size of 0.45 inches.

Performance Shooter Recommends
In real-world accuracy, we think the Ruger Model 77/22VHZ, which sells for at $535 MSRP, ranked on par with the Cooper Model 38 at $1,675. Though both guns would make excellent prairie-dog poppers, the Ruger is unquestionably the better value, in our view. We would buy it. The Cooper shot well and was great to look at, but the extraction and bolt problems shouldn’t have occurred on a high-end rifle, in our estimation.

http://www.gun-tests.com/pdfs/1-2-hornetaccuracy.pdf

 

[Glock4ever]

Cyclone: I read both those articles prior to getting the Annie but if you keep looking up more information re: 77/22 you will see a lot of reviews indicating that there are some QC issues. I didn't feel like gambling on a hornet; I guess in the end I did.

 

[lejarretnoir]

The Hornet is finicky to begin with, but Lil' Gun powder brought it back to life and the 40gr V-Max or Nosler BT. Everyone I know with a CZ 527 has easily done 1" or better at 100yds for 5 shots let alone 3 with that load combo.

I read all the forums also about the Ruger and it's hit or miss whether it's a shooter or not. The Annies, Coopers, Kimbers are all higher end guns and you get a better chance at a shooter, but even some of those are lemons and I've talked to Varmint smiths who have changed barrels on all of them because of that. Once a new custom barrel went on, the cure was in.

For factory guns in .22 Hornet, CZ 527 is hard to beat, IMO. For pure looks though, that Annie you have is beautiful.

 

[SakoAlberta]

The Annies, Coopers, Kimbers are all higher end guns and you get a better chance at a shooter, but even some of those are lemons and I've talked to Varmint smiths who have changed barrels on all of them because of that. Once a new custom barrel went on, the cure was in.

The Coopers are guaranteed to shoot 1/2" @ 100 yd, 'even' in the HNT. If not, Cooper will rebarrel or fix. We've had a lot of hornets go through and all made that standard.

 

[lejarretnoir]

The Coopers are guaranteed to shoot 1/2" @ 100 yd, 'even' in the HNT. If not, Cooper will rebarrel or fix. We've had a lot of hornets go through and all made that standard.

I've heard that Cooper will rebarrel, but some guys just go the custom route to get better than 1/2" and have those nice Cooper actions.
I do like those Coopers. Very nice.

 

[Glock4ever]

Clay: You don't know how close I came to buying your Meistergrade 1730, I must have drooled over the pics for days. I was literally ready to pick up the phone and call an order in when I got this one but it is hard to drop $2300+tax+shipping for a rifle sight unseen and this was an excellent bargain. I am confident that the seller didn't misrepresent the rifle, I am inclined to believe that in shipping that something occurred to loosen the rifle up, and in all fairness it has delivered some pretty excellent groups. Never having taken apart an Anschutz or Cooper (for some reason retailers don't like it if you take apart their rifles in the shop ) I didn't know that Anschutz doesn't/didn't bed their actions. I am pretty certain that Cooper does but to be honest I have not cracked one opened and looked. I just assumed it was common practice. Ref the ejection issues: Check out this link it was on the main page for an Anschutz forum.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282988

Not to say that I am unhappy with my rifle but in all honesty, I don't know if I would buy another Anschutz again. It is nice but not enough to justify the ass-pain of bedding and playing with the rifle, like I am forced to do now.

Lejarrettnoir: I agree that lemons can happen but isn't the whole point of paying big bucks to ensure you don't get a lemon?

 

[SakoAlberta]

Clay: You don't know how close I came to buying your Meistergrade 1730, I must have drooled over the pics for days. I was literally ready to pick up the phone and call an order in when I got this one but it is hard to drop $2300+tax+shipping for a rifle sight unseen and this was an excellent bargain.

LOL, you should see the classic grade that just came in. Even nicer than the meister.

Cooper does bed the actions;free float in wood, pillar bed in syn.

 

[cyclone]

Cyclone: I read both those articles prior to getting the Annie but if you keep looking up more information re: 77/22 you will see a lot of reviews indicating that there are some QC issues. I didn't feel like gambling on a hornet; I guess in the end I did.

No worries......I felt bad enough as-is about quoting that site....