Cooper Firearms of Montana

[Nature Boy]

Unfortunately, Matlab has never fired any round from any of my rifles....

I have PTSD from Matlab

 

[HowieG]

I have PTSD from Matlab

LMAO. Actually, all this stuff is off topic for a Cooper thread, but it's my thread so I can wander if I want.

Seriously though, I am gathering that there are not a lot of Cooper owners hanging out on the High Road and/or they don't really feel like talking about their rifles.

 

[mshootnit]

I am in group 2. I like piddling with match handloads and I like taking a gun out that might not shoot so good and try to make it right. I know some group 1A types who kind of zero their rifles and don't fire them again for years unless they take them out to hunt. The crooked scope hit a pie plate at 100 yards types.

A group 1A friend of mine made a comment to me about taking up handloading. I told him to just buy a box of 20 rounds and it would probably last him 10 years.

I had a friend with a 7mm Mag. He wants to go zero for deer season. While I am getting out my shooting bags, assuming he would want to use them, I see him briskly walk to a spot, drop to his belly in the weeds and tall grass and immediately fire three shots. We checked his target, and he says, yep, I'm good to go. I didn't even get a chance to get the shooting bags out.

 

[HowieG]

I had a friend with a 7mm Mag. He wants to go zero for deer season. While I am getting out my shooting bags, assuming he would want to use them, I see him briskly walk to a spot, drop to his belly in the weeds and tall grass and immediately fire three shots. We checked his target, and he says, yep, I'm good to go. I didn't even get a chance to get the shooting bags out.

I am assuming he did hit the target??

 

[mshootnit]

I am assuming he did hit the target??

Yeah, to his satisfaction anyway...hit a deer too.

 

[HowieG]

Yeah, to his satisfaction anyway...hit a deer too.

Okay. Not my preferred method, but I guess it works for him.

 

[mshootnit]

LMAO. Actually, all this stuff is off topic for a Cooper thread, but it's my thread so I can wander if I want.

Seriously though, I am gathering that there are not a lot of Cooper owners hanging out on the High Road and/or they don't really feel like talking about their rifles.

I always wanted one in 25-06. Ended up getting the Kimber in 270 WSM. It is a Classic that was made when they were still using nice American walnut. Discontinued now.

 

[HowieG]

I always wanted one in 25-06. Ended up getting the Kimber in 270 WSM. It is a Classic that was made when they were still using nice American walnut. Discontinued now.

Nothing wrong with Kimbers though I would bet a 1911 from them instead of a rifle. Does it shoot??

 

[Picher]

Who has a Cooper and what do you think about it?

I bought a 22-250 M54 Classic back in 2011. Nice looking rifle. I bought it for a coyote gun. It has a long magazine and a long throat, but a slow twist (1 in 14). Kind of hard to find bullets that I can seat out near the rifling and still have them stabilize good.

I had to send it back pretty soon after I bought it because it would eject the empty case right up into the bottom of the scope where it would bounce off right back into the rifle. Cooper changed the ejector spring to fix that.

The rifle likes Sierra bullets and hates Hornady VMax. Does okay at my altitude with the 50 grain Barnes TTSX.

I don't think much of their "3 rounds" accuracy guarantee either, but they aren't the only ones doing that. 3 rounds isn't statistically significant. Give me a 5 under an inch. If you really want to impress me, give me 10 under an inch.

View attachment 960229
Both of these groups are 3/4" center to center

When I had my .22-250 Rem 700, an accurate load was pretty much out of the Lyman manual: 34.5 grains of IMR 4895, pushing a Sierra 55 Spitzer. I was shooting 1/4"-3/8" groups with my bedded/floated ADL sporter at 100 yards. Won lots of 100 yard Turkey shoots with that load. JP

 

[mshootnit]

Nothing wrong with Kimbers though I would bet a 1911 from them instead of a rifle. Does it shoot??

Yes.

 

[HowieG]

Yes.

Well, you can't beat that.

 

[mshootnit]

Well, you can't beat that.

Out of the box I took it apart. I cleaned up the barrel channel and adjusted the trigger. It breaks clean and is floated. It came glass bed from the factory. I put on a set of Warne maxima bases and Leup. PRW rings. Really solid. I shoot a handload as well as 130 gr. Swift Scirocco II.

 

[Sniper66]

I have really looked for a Cooper in 17HMR and .223. In my search I ran across two Anschutz 1517s (5 years apart) and bought both of them. They are both scary accurate so my interest in a Cooper 17HMR has evaporated. Also lost interest in their 17Mach2 after I found an Anschutz 1502, also wicked accurate. So I'm still looking for a .223, but have bought 2 others. So, will I ever get off the pot and buy one already??? Who knows? I'll keep shopping and maybe desire, circumstance and pocket money may come together at the same time. That's how I bought everything else, so maybe it's not in the cards for me to own a Cooper.

 

[bdb242]

I'm of a different school of "What is an accurate rifle?" The most accurate rifle I own is an old Remington Model 788 in .223. I have a custom 6-284 that will shoot a 10" group at 1000 yards, still have the targets from a match that the gunsmith used my rifle in. I have a custom 257 WSM, not a SSM that will clover-leaf 3 shots at 200 yards, but they are not my most accurate rifles. Why you ask? Because that old M 788 has killed more varmints and pests than all the firearms I own put together. I always knew that when the crosshairs settled it was going to send a .223 bullet to hit that spot. Didn't matter the range out to around 300 yards, I knew that rifle and the loads it was sending downrange.

 

[Paul7]

People kill me with this nonsense about groups. Whether it's an average of three, three shot groups or ten is irrelevant. For one thing, context is critical. If we're discussing benchrest rifles, then more is obviously better. However, this discussion is about hunting rifles. How relevant is whatever someone thinks they can discern between three shot groups and five or ten? Does a tenth of an inch really matter in the field? We all make fun of the "crooked scope hit a pie plate at 100 yards types" but there's something to be said for folks who don't obsess about foolishness.

Agree completely, and so does Chuck Hawks: https://www.chuckhawks.com/practical_accuracy.htm

IMHO if your rifle shoots a 2" group at 100 yards you aren't going to miss any game animals. The average hunter has no business taking a shot over 300 yards. I was at an elk hunting ranch this past week where in the short time I was there a cow and bull were wounded and not found until the next day, meat spoiled. I'm pretty sure that happened due to poor shooting technique/lack of practice rather than because their rifle didn't shoot an extra half inch smaller group.