Back when the earth was young, I had occasion to admire and use a wonderful Steyr SSG69, with its moderately heavy barrel, rear locking bolt, ###y spiral-hammered barrel, proprietary Steyr QD rings and of course its magazines molded from pure unobtainium. The mags weren't that hard to get, but they cost so much that to my early-20's self the idea of actually owning the gun and its attendant hardware was a pipe-dream. A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to finally fill a gaping hole in my ownership experience by getting my very own SSG69 off the EE. It's been one of my all-time favourite range rifles since then, especially since equipping it with the wonderful Styria aftermarket steel triggerguard/magwell unit that allows the use of AICS mags, removing the well-known concern for the fragile plastic OEM magazines and bottom "metal". I shoot this gun a lot, but haven't really hunted it aside from smoking a bunch of coyotes over the years.
But every time I picked up the SSG69, I was reminded of another classic Steyr rifle from the good old days that I never owned, and in this case never before fired or even handled: the more hunting-oriented Professional Model M. One of the first synthetic-stocked rifles on the market back in the day, standard-weight iron-sighted barrel (again, with spiral hammer-forging marks intact), and of course those ultra-cool but problematic rotary Steyr plastic mags with the transparent rear window. I lusted after one of those for years...decades...
So when one showed up in stock maybe 75km away, I rushed to check it out. A quick drive down to Hermann's Firearms in Lockport, Manitoba saw me stumbling into the shop with a couple of rifles in cases and my wallet clutched in my paw; a bit later I stumbled out with fewer guns, less money...but a Model M Professional clutched to my bosom! It was in terrific shape, no marks, rust, cracks, etc. and came complete with 4 (!) Steyr magazines and even two sets of Euro-style QD rings, in 1-inch and 30mm.
It was chambered in .30-06, a cartridge that I don't particularly love and which I haven't owned or used in many years. I picked up a set of dies for it, and knew that I still had a couple boxes of 1F brass...somewhere. Best of all, while digging around looking for the brass, I found a box of loaded factory Remington ammo, letting me try out the gun immediately. I cleaned the gun and barrel carefully; it had obviously been well-cared-for by the previous owner. I puzzled out the unknown-brand QD rings and got a 30mm Zeiss Duralyt scope mounted up and laser bore-sighted. It was getting dark out but I just had to make some noise, and carefully fired off a few of those precious factory rounds, perching on the edge of a Muskoka chair and resting on my deck railing. Four shots into just under an inch at 100 yards, about 4 inches off POA. I had to walk halfway to the target to actually see the holes, and it was definitely too dark to shoot any more when I got back, but I was encouraged.
I've got a lot of shooting to do before I can make many worthwhile observations. Just off the top of my head, I'll say that the double-set triggers are a joy to use either set or unset, but they take up a fair bit of room in the triggerguard and would be problematic if even light gloves are worn. A shooter with short stubby fingers would not like the reach to the front trigger, but I love it. The 2-position safety can be manipulated quietly, a big plus, and is easily accessible to the thumb. Stock ergos are good but not great, as the fairly low Monte Carlo comb is perfect for the iron sights but will require me to get a lower scope mount for comfort. The apparently-stock ventilated rubber butt pad works okay, and the recoil is very light and controllable. The stock itself is fairly shiny and could be slippery but is equipped with plenty of molded "checkering" to afford a very positive grip. The pistol grip is quite vertical, a foretelling of today's trend to vertical grips on AR's, chassis- and other types of modern stocks. I like the look of a shallow curving pistol grip on a nice walnut stock; on a chunk of plastic, the vertical grip doesn't look any worse than any other design and is definitely more comfortable and also allows better recoil control.
My biggest concern is the rings; they are typically Germanic in their approach to scope-mounting. They are full of springs and set-screws and adjustments and camming surfaces, and probably have as many moving parts as the rifle itself does, but I have never cared for the vaunted claw-mounts and side-swinging mounts and other over-engineered contraptions that are near and dear to the Teutonic engineering mind. IMHO, using a precision optical aiming device as a crowbar to attach and remove some goofy look-at-me scope ring set-up is just silly. I will be looking at replacing the bases and rings with a simple picatinny or similar base/ring arrangement and selling off the stuff that's on there now. While I will hunt this rifle, it'll never be going much further than the back 40 and so I don't care about QD return-to-zero mounting; if the scope screws the pooch while hunting, I'll just walk back to the house and grab another gun.
I'll probably update down the road when I have more experience with this new toy but I am not expecting any surprises. I'm really hoping our resident SteyrSteyr detractordetractor doesn't feel the need to point out how dumb it was to buy this gun, and how many things are wrong with it...as he tends to do whenever one of these old Steyrs is discussed. I know it's not perfect, not even close, and certainly not superior to a modern rifle...but it's not a modern rifle, it's a 50+ year old design that makes me smile. I didn't get it because I particularly need it, and if it's even remotely similar to my SSG69 it will still shoot with many more modern guns, and will still best some of them. It's just a case of "I've always wanted one of those!", which is as good a reason as any to buy a new gun.
But every time I picked up the SSG69, I was reminded of another classic Steyr rifle from the good old days that I never owned, and in this case never before fired or even handled: the more hunting-oriented Professional Model M. One of the first synthetic-stocked rifles on the market back in the day, standard-weight iron-sighted barrel (again, with spiral hammer-forging marks intact), and of course those ultra-cool but problematic rotary Steyr plastic mags with the transparent rear window. I lusted after one of those for years...decades...
So when one showed up in stock maybe 75km away, I rushed to check it out. A quick drive down to Hermann's Firearms in Lockport, Manitoba saw me stumbling into the shop with a couple of rifles in cases and my wallet clutched in my paw; a bit later I stumbled out with fewer guns, less money...but a Model M Professional clutched to my bosom! It was in terrific shape, no marks, rust, cracks, etc. and came complete with 4 (!) Steyr magazines and even two sets of Euro-style QD rings, in 1-inch and 30mm.
It was chambered in .30-06, a cartridge that I don't particularly love and which I haven't owned or used in many years. I picked up a set of dies for it, and knew that I still had a couple boxes of 1F brass...somewhere. Best of all, while digging around looking for the brass, I found a box of loaded factory Remington ammo, letting me try out the gun immediately. I cleaned the gun and barrel carefully; it had obviously been well-cared-for by the previous owner. I puzzled out the unknown-brand QD rings and got a 30mm Zeiss Duralyt scope mounted up and laser bore-sighted. It was getting dark out but I just had to make some noise, and carefully fired off a few of those precious factory rounds, perching on the edge of a Muskoka chair and resting on my deck railing. Four shots into just under an inch at 100 yards, about 4 inches off POA. I had to walk halfway to the target to actually see the holes, and it was definitely too dark to shoot any more when I got back, but I was encouraged.
I've got a lot of shooting to do before I can make many worthwhile observations. Just off the top of my head, I'll say that the double-set triggers are a joy to use either set or unset, but they take up a fair bit of room in the triggerguard and would be problematic if even light gloves are worn. A shooter with short stubby fingers would not like the reach to the front trigger, but I love it. The 2-position safety can be manipulated quietly, a big plus, and is easily accessible to the thumb. Stock ergos are good but not great, as the fairly low Monte Carlo comb is perfect for the iron sights but will require me to get a lower scope mount for comfort. The apparently-stock ventilated rubber butt pad works okay, and the recoil is very light and controllable. The stock itself is fairly shiny and could be slippery but is equipped with plenty of molded "checkering" to afford a very positive grip. The pistol grip is quite vertical, a foretelling of today's trend to vertical grips on AR's, chassis- and other types of modern stocks. I like the look of a shallow curving pistol grip on a nice walnut stock; on a chunk of plastic, the vertical grip doesn't look any worse than any other design and is definitely more comfortable and also allows better recoil control.
My biggest concern is the rings; they are typically Germanic in their approach to scope-mounting. They are full of springs and set-screws and adjustments and camming surfaces, and probably have as many moving parts as the rifle itself does, but I have never cared for the vaunted claw-mounts and side-swinging mounts and other over-engineered contraptions that are near and dear to the Teutonic engineering mind. IMHO, using a precision optical aiming device as a crowbar to attach and remove some goofy look-at-me scope ring set-up is just silly. I will be looking at replacing the bases and rings with a simple picatinny or similar base/ring arrangement and selling off the stuff that's on there now. While I will hunt this rifle, it'll never be going much further than the back 40 and so I don't care about QD return-to-zero mounting; if the scope screws the pooch while hunting, I'll just walk back to the house and grab another gun.
I'll probably update down the road when I have more experience with this new toy but I am not expecting any surprises. I'm really hoping our resident SteyrSteyr detractordetractor doesn't feel the need to point out how dumb it was to buy this gun, and how many things are wrong with it...as he tends to do whenever one of these old Steyrs is discussed. I know it's not perfect, not even close, and certainly not superior to a modern rifle...but it's not a modern rifle, it's a 50+ year old design that makes me smile. I didn't get it because I particularly need it, and if it's even remotely similar to my SSG69 it will still shoot with many more modern guns, and will still best some of them. It's just a case of "I've always wanted one of those!", which is as good a reason as any to buy a new gun.
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. Years ago I was eyeing up a SSG69 at Farmers Supply but didn’t buy it. I recently scratched my Steyr itch with a Zephyr II rimfire.
