Rifles

J

John Sukey

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Tucson, Arizona
Does anyone here shoot a SPORTCO? Have a model 44 in .308. Rawson sight, and heavy barrel.
Best trigger pull I have encountered You just have to THINK about it going off.
 
I have one, never shot it, not sure why I have it, oh I know, in case I have to inlet for one.
Good guns in their day, problem is the lugs lock into the barrel so you either need factory barrels or make or buy an adaptor to use any barrel, and competitive shooters do go through barrels. The trigger was meant for the 1.5kg neighbourhood.
 
I grab upn every one I find and resell them to the boys in our club!
They are great irons sighted match rifles for palma shooting, but sadly have becoame obsolete after the handloading was alllowed in DCRA.

But I am certain that if a shooter that wins often showed up at a match with a M44, they would do well with it instead of their fancy new rangewizzer 2000 match riflee with the gonzo action and the custom barrel by Bud Tackdriver!:D

We have at the moment about 8 of them in the club, and of them many will go
lass than.5MOA when shot from the bench .
This one belongs to my Son, given to him by his Uncle.
The barrel is a Kreiger, the trigger a Canjar, Tiger sight up front and Centrals in the rear, and it is D&T'd for a scope as well . Stock by Bob Todd, aftermarket extractor ( Sako?).
He shoots it very well.
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Cat
 
This is the cool part!
The Sportco /Omark M44 is the 870 wingmaster of the centerfire match rifle world!
They typically run between $400 and $500 with a set of sights!:)
Cat
 
As mentionned, the catch is the rebarrelling situation. Lloyd Nielsen used to make an adapter which screwed into the receiver, and was itself threaded for installation of any barrel. There have been issues with primary extraction. Not a problem with service ball rounds, but there can be difficulties with handloads. The last season the Cadets used the Sportcos at Connaught, you could hear hammering from the line, as tent pegs, mallets, etc. were used to open the bolts.
The action looks very much like a Remington, but it uses a 3 lug bolt head, which is pinned to the bolt body, like a Savage.
Cat is right on with the pricing. And sometimes they don't move very fast at those prices. The sights alone are worth $150.
 
John, your Sportco was designed in Australia to FEEL like an SMLE No1 MkIII. The stock is slim in all the right places. It is a forty-year old design. The action is tubular with front lugs. Not all the triggers were as good as yours. For reasons I don't understand, it was competitive to a point and then other rifles like Musgraves, Swings, Angels and RPAs took over.

Jim Dugan in Saskatoon figured out a way to sleeve the front end for easy rebarrelling and accuracy. His .223 conversions were a treasure. Some of the SPRA shooters were, shall we say, unfairly advantaged against other bigger provincial associations.
 
tiriaq said:
As mentionned, the catch is the rebarrelling situation. Lloyd Nielsen used to make an adapter which screwed into the receiver, and was itself threaded for installation of any barrel. There have been issues with primary extraction. Not a problem with service ball rounds, but there can be difficulties with handloads. The last season the Cadets used the Sportcos at Connaught, you could hear hammering from the line, as tent pegs, mallets, etc. were used to open the bolts.
The action looks very much like a Remington, but it uses a 3 lug bolt head, which is pinned to the bolt body, like a Savage.
Cat is right on with the pricing. And sometimes they don't move very fast at those prices. The sights alone are worth $150.
Click to expand...
Up here we fireform them and then load up with Varget and 155 Palmas or 150 Alberta Wildcats, and have never had a problem using Winchester or Lapua brass, with the exception of the odd case that doesn't get trimmed properly!!:redface:

For the most part , they are a very affordable, trouble free and accurate action.
My son's has a Neilson adapter , as ddo several of the others up here, but there are also a few with factory barrels that will stilll shoot V's....
Cat
 
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