canoeguy
US Veteran
Lever "Scout Rifle", Browning 1895 30/06 with Leupold 2X Scout Scope (pics)...
Picked up another lever rifle today, a 1984 vintage Browning Model 1895, 30/06 caliber with a forward mounted, long eye relief Leupold fixed 2X "Scout" scope:
Bought it from a friend of mine who bought it new in 1984, who later mounted the Leupold scope as his eyes got worse, yet never fired it. He had lots of other rifles to use, so let this one sit in his safe. As he has gotten older, he's decided to sell a few guns, and gave me a crack at this one.
This deal took two months to come to fruition, I didn't want to pay his first price because the rifle had been drilled for the scope mount. He wanted full price because it was a quality (Burris) mount and Leupold scope. We both met in the middle, and he threw in two boxes of factory 30/06 ammo and 150 empty cases. I'm going to take the scope off and use the iron sights (which he kept) until my eyes get too bad for iron sights, then put the scope back on. I'll fill in the screw holes with blank off screws...
So today, I took this unfired rifle to the range and tried it out. What a neat piece of machinery! Smooth action, nice trigger, nicely accurate. Best group off a rest at 100 yards was 1.5". I tried out the "Jeff Cooper" Scout Rifle concept, placed one target at 50 yards, one at 100, fired one round at the 50 yard target and two at the 100 yard target as fast as I could acquire the target in the scope, work the lever and squeeze the trigger, fired from the prone position. Actually got better results than shooting off a rest:
Teddy Roosevelt had one of these in .405 caliber which he used with great success on African game. The Russians had these in 7.62 X 54 caliber which they used during the 1917 Revolution and wars against the Finns...
So, my lever rifle arsenal grows, I now have enough lever rifles to arm a small posse, in calibers .22, 30/30, .35 Remington, .357, 45/70 and now 30/06:
I'm looking forward to casting some lead bullets for this Browning 30/06, probably something in the 180-200 grain range at 1800 FPS or so...
Picked up another lever rifle today, a 1984 vintage Browning Model 1895, 30/06 caliber with a forward mounted, long eye relief Leupold fixed 2X "Scout" scope:
Bought it from a friend of mine who bought it new in 1984, who later mounted the Leupold scope as his eyes got worse, yet never fired it. He had lots of other rifles to use, so let this one sit in his safe. As he has gotten older, he's decided to sell a few guns, and gave me a crack at this one.
This deal took two months to come to fruition, I didn't want to pay his first price because the rifle had been drilled for the scope mount. He wanted full price because it was a quality (Burris) mount and Leupold scope. We both met in the middle, and he threw in two boxes of factory 30/06 ammo and 150 empty cases. I'm going to take the scope off and use the iron sights (which he kept) until my eyes get too bad for iron sights, then put the scope back on. I'll fill in the screw holes with blank off screws...
So today, I took this unfired rifle to the range and tried it out. What a neat piece of machinery! Smooth action, nice trigger, nicely accurate. Best group off a rest at 100 yards was 1.5". I tried out the "Jeff Cooper" Scout Rifle concept, placed one target at 50 yards, one at 100, fired one round at the 50 yard target and two at the 100 yard target as fast as I could acquire the target in the scope, work the lever and squeeze the trigger, fired from the prone position. Actually got better results than shooting off a rest:
Teddy Roosevelt had one of these in .405 caliber which he used with great success on African game. The Russians had these in 7.62 X 54 caliber which they used during the 1917 Revolution and wars against the Finns...
So, my lever rifle arsenal grows, I now have enough lever rifles to arm a small posse, in calibers .22, 30/30, .35 Remington, .357, 45/70 and now 30/06:
I'm looking forward to casting some lead bullets for this Browning 30/06, probably something in the 180-200 grain range at 1800 FPS or so...
