Phoenix from Cooper Firearms

[infantrytrophy]

I am glad you guys have better luck with your rifles than I did with the one I had. it was a 22-250, had a nice piece of walnut, etc. the test target was one of those little one hole jobs. I could never get it to do better than 3/4" groups. with the very, very rare occasional 1/2" group. most of the time the groups were up around an inch (3 shot groups). I have to say that was only one gun experience of my own. The rifling looked good, but I also was the second owner. The original owner said they had less than a couple hundred rounds thru it. They look great thou. I am always tempted when I see one to try again. I just like the nice wood. A pretty stock has cost me more than once...

Your experience was similar to mine, but there was a happy ending.

I bought a used .223 Cooper Montana Varminter (gorgeous wood stock) from a reputable local gun store. I don't know how many rounds had been fired through it, but the bolt face looked pretty good and I suspect that the round count was low.

I took the rifle to a good gunsmith/barrel maker (Clay Spencer). He borescoped the barrel and pointed out that there was moderate copper fouling and some damage to the crown. He re-crowned the muzzle and told me how to remove the copper - basically J-B bore paste and a good bore solvent.

After re-crowning and a good J-B treatment of the barrel, the rifle shot extremely well, with 100-yard 5-shot groups in the 0.2 to .04 inch range.

Since you bought your rifle used also, there could be problems similar to the ones I experienced, with an easy solution.

Coopers are not benchrest rilfes, but they are excellent hunting rifles. It's a tough choice whether to get a Cooper or a custom rifle, if you want a hunting rifle.

Randy

 

[k80skeet]

I have (3) Cooper Phoenix's They all shoot under 3/8'' 5 shot groups and my 6.5 X284 groups under 4" at 600 yards. Just one question why buy a 22-250 when you could have a 22BR or a 6BR in my opinion they are both a far better cartridge and the 22BR will do anything a 22-250 can and do it a lot better and barrel life is better to boot.