right bolt-left chamber?

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Axis II

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I was at a local shop yesterday and they had a used savage 223 with a stainless bull barrel that was the diameter of a baseball bat. one thing that I didn't understand was the bolt was on the right side of the rifle and the chamber on the left. this was by far the oddest thing I ever seen.

why is this set up like this?
 
the chamber was probably in the center. i assume you mean the ejection port was on the left.

it's a popular configuration for people who shoot from a fixed position, such as off a bench or prone with bags and mechanical rests. you can use both hands, see in the port, etc
 
I'm a RH shooter, but I have to admit that my son's LH rifles work BETTER for me on the bench than my RH guns. It's just more convenient to keep the trigger hand in place and work the bolt with the weak/support hand. And as taliv said, you can see into the chamber area more easily from your bench position. But take a LH gun off the bench and it's just weird. :)
 
Yeap, what they said, that Savage was a bench rest single shot set up. I owned one for awhile. They made them in two different rifling twist rates. Mine was not the right twist rate for me so I sold it. It was SUPER accurate.
 
I'm left handed, so all of my bolt guns are left hand. I picked up a left hand Rem 788 in 6mm Remington and the chamber is on the right.
 
Right-hand bolt with left-hand port is generally a competition set-up (also the large diameter barrel). The left-hand port config allows the shooter to keep their firing hand positioned on the stock while allowing for rapid reload of the chamber. Some competitors shoot on the wind changes during their match and want to shoot all of their rounds as quickly as possible while wind conditions are to their liking. These shooters are referred to as 'runners'. Most of these ports are oversized to allow longer than standard length (SAAMI Spec) cartridges to be used to get bullet the preferred distance from the lands as determined through trial and error by that shooter.

... Larry S.
 
it was pretty odd for me as I have never seen anything like it before. thanks for the replies guys.

as far as buying it for $900 ill have to pass. plus that thing weighs like 50lbs.
 
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