Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Anybody shooting bolt action pistols?

Took a couple of bolt action pistols to the range yesterday. They're both great shooters, but highly specialized and not altogether suited for hunting in their current configuration. I've got them set up for IHMSA competition in the unlimited centerfire and rimfire categories.

The laminate stocked gun is a Remington XP100 in 7 TCU, factory trigger, no safety, BoMar rear sight and hooded post front sight. The load I was shooting was my standard match load of a 139gr Hornady over 25gr of H335. It'll take down the rams at 200 meters, but sometimes they fall slow. On the other hand, it doesn't kick too badly which is a big consideration when shooting an 80 round match.

The scoped gun is my Anschutz Exemplar 22lr, basically an Anschutz M64 action mated to a short barrel and serial-numbered as a pistol. It's got a very smooth two-stage trigger that breaks at about 8oz in the second stage. The scope is a Leupold 2.5-8x EER with target knobs mounted on a Ken Light extension mount, when shooting from the Creedmoor position the scope mount brings the scope up so I don't have to crane my neck, or raise the gun up my leg, both of which detract from stability.

All in all it was a fun morning of practice with a couple of unique guns. Anybody else shooting their bolt-action pistols this summer?

I owned this one a few years ago. Wish I still had it, too...



The .22-250 does not work well with 15" barrels, however. I was losing 600 fps off the velocities in a 24" barrel.

I have this one now, that someone semi-bubba'd. It is an XP-100R, one of the rear grip repeaters, in 7mm BR. The previous owner had jury-rigged the scope mount, and removed the magazine follower and turned it into a single shot, for some unknown reason. He'd then added a heavy barrel, which seems of decent quality even though the chambering is not marked. I've confirmed it is a 7mm BR, and shot it a little.



Oh yeah, he removed the safety, and tuned the trigger down to about a 2 oz pull. 'Fraid I'm not taking this one hunting, with a hot chamber That reminds me I need to order a new trigger, with safety. Depending on how it shoots, I may eventually have it rechambered to 7mm IHMSA, or even the full size 7mm-08. 7mm BR brass is difficult to find anymore.

I like the rear grip models, as the eye relief fits me well. The rear grip repeaters, the XP-100R's, are built on Model 7 actions and are desirable, IMO.

My wife shoots a 7BR Wichita bolt action pistol for IHMSA (she's been shooting for 15 years, long before we met) and we've been making brass by necking up Lapua 6BR brass in two steps using a Sinclair neck mandrel set. It's working well.

One nice thing about the 7BR is case life, we've got old Remington 7BR brass that has been loaded, fired and neck sized over 20 times. Our match loads are comparatively mild, though, so that helps with case life. We're running 24gr of H322 under a 139gr Hornady BTSP. It'll hammer the rams at 200 meters and isn't too bad for recoil.

Not a bolt, but one I wished I hadn't sold.

Lone Eagle in .308 Winchester.

My buddy had a Savage Striker in .22/250 for awhile. It was a real shooting machine. I saw him shoot some phenomenal groups with it, down around a quarter=inch, at times.

I DID chrono that rascal, it was down to .223 velocities, but hey, you gotta hit 'em before you can kill 'em, and it would hit 'em.

What ever to those lone eagles ?

I never could get more than about 3050 fps with 50gr bullets, out of the XP in .22-250. That was with the same load of Varget that shot so well in my #1, at 3700+. I tried faster powders, and tried moving the chrono screens, thinking maybe the blast was fooling them, but no dice.

I have a couple of Remington XP-100s and a couple of Savage Strikers, but only shoot the Savage in 17HMR very often. Kinda fun for shooting pdogs.

If you ever want to get rid of an XP100 let me know...

I shoot an XP-100 Silhouette model in 7mm BR. Nice accurate piece with nice looking factory walnut center grip stock. I removed the original sights and use a 2.5-8X Leupold on it. I have taken a few deer with using the old 130 gr Hornady SSP bullet.

My father in law shoots a factory XP100 7BR with a Leupold 2.5x-8x for IHMSA, he routinely shoots 40x40's in the half-size category with factory brass and 150gr bullets. They're accurate guns and barrel/brass life is excellent. Chamber dimensions are generous however, and we've found that brass fired in his gun won't chamber in my wife's Wichita 7BR.

Thanks for the tip on the 6mm BR brass, I'll have to look into that, if I leave it a 7mm BR.

bought a savage 516 in 308 but never end up hunting it.Always end up carrying a revolver for hunting.I think it is the pack ability issue.

I'm shooting an Anschutz Exemplar in a 22 league this summer. It is one shooting handgun. Mounted a BSA 36x fixed on it. What a combination for 50yd outdoor range.

I drag this old Savage out once in a while. Mostly for the Grand Kids to play with.

17 HMR with a Bushnell 2-6x32. And it shoots every bit as well as the Savage HMR rifle it is based upon.

Those left-bolt, right-eject actions are nice. The only thing I don't like about my Anschutz Exemplar is that it ejects to the left so that when I'm shooting in the Creedmoor position I end up with brass on my lap.

Never could get into bolt action pistols, altho I tried. (The muzzle blast was just too excessive, an XR in 35 Rem.)

I do appreciate the fact that these unique designs brought us the 221FB. I tried for many years to find an XP100 action to build a cool little single shot rifle but it never happened.


DMc

Just sold this one a little while ago...





Shot a ton of deer with it, and it grouped a bit over 1" @ 100 yds, and 2-5/8" @ 200 yards.

350 Rem Mag with 62 gr of 4064 pushed a 180 gr Speer to an average of 2606 out of the 14" bbl.

It certainly was a hell of a hand full of thunder with a 2' fireball, but it got the job done nicely

They now allow rifles in most of NYS, and I like to hunt with my Savage 99 in .308, so down the road it went...