Henry Rifle Forums

Had a little time to go to the range and shoot with my friend and his new Cooper. It is nice but not worth $2400 in my opinion. Had to pick almost every fired round from the chamber with his pocket knife. The very rough painted solid green turns me off and it would look better in wood even if straight grained. He had a 6-18x44 Vortex scope on it and was shooting SK Match ammo and some SK+. It shot some decent groups at 50 yds. but nothing like some of his match rifles he shoots in competition at local matches around here. His Falcon action match rifle would clean the Coopers clock in a heart beat. I honestly feel he was as much impressed with my 1956 Remington 513T with a Leupold 3-9 scope I set my own parallax on for 50 yds for 22 shooting. The 513T was a gift from my father and it is pretty well mint condition and was one of Dads squirrel sniper rifles. The Weaver bases are glued on and can be removed. My CZ Ultra Lux was about the same accuracy as the 513 Rem. but that is probably because the 513T has a 3 lb. trigger and the CZ has a 8 oz. trigger. My CZ had a 2-7 Leupold that I also set the parallax on for 50 yd. 22 shooting. I had some very good targets with the CZ and Semi-auto Geco ammo. The first two shots with it were about 3/8" low left then I put eight in one hole the size of a .243 bullet. I had to set the tiny dots he had on his target in the intersection of my cross hair to see them but it worked well shooting them like that. The target was left on his target holder from the CZ. This is the target from the 513T and a couple of pics of my rifles. The Coopers groups were about the same with a few maybe .050-.075" smaller. He said he wouldn't bet against the old Remington if it had more powerful scope and a lighter trigger. I believe we can tune the Cooper to do better and after breaking in and it very well should shoot much better than a 63 year old rife that was probably $75 when new.

The CZ 452 Ultra Lux

The target from the 513T. Green dot was my bore sight target after putting the Leupld scope on. Then I moved the friction adjustments way to much right but left it there for several groups then moved it left to bring it in closer before having to leave the range. Will get it on before shooting spinner KYL target if I leave the 3-9 on this rifle.

Love those old vintage Remington bolts. Always have. Give yourself some credit, there, too. It takes some great shooting to realize the accuracy potential of such a gun.

I'm sure the Cooper is a fine rifle and as you say, it will benefit from some tuning. That, and like many new guns, it just needs some shooting to settle into its potential. Still, I've always found rifles to be much the same as optical equipment in that you reach a point where you have to pay MUCH more to get only small increases in performance and, even then, it may be hard to tell a difference. Is it worth it? Whether it is worth it or not is, as we all know, a very subjective call and, let's face it, most of us don't buy guns purely on the basis of performance. For sure, some of our favorite guns aren't our most accurate.

The very rough painted solid green turns me off

It would me also - for that amount it should have a pretty nice figured walnut stock. Quite frankly it's one ugly rifle.

in that you reach a point where you have to pay MUCH more to get only small increases in performance and, even then, it may be hard to tell a difference. Is it worth it?

This^
There is no doubt there are some guns that are typically reported as being 'moderately' accurate or varying degrees of accuracy from one to another of the same gun. A good example of this is the Ruger Mini 14.
Then there are some guns that are relatively moderately priced and are consistently very accurate. Two examples would be CZ and Tikka rifles.
Consistency in a product's performance is a selling point regardless of price.
There are obviously accessories, add ons etc. for a lot of guns that will improve ones accuracy with a particular gun and there is no doubt the high priced 'custom' guns are probably built with a different level of 'attention' during manufacturer but that is not to say many popular name guns are built with any lessor degree of quality.
It is often stated 'The gun is more accurate than I am' and in most cases this is probably the truth.
I have always been satisfied with the quality production guns I own and have owned and have never felt the need to spend 3-4 times the amount for one I doubt I will shoot any better.