Cooey M82 – Canadian .22 cal Trainer

[Sentryduty]

The Cooey M82 was a contract built trainer rifle for the Canadian military during the Second World War, they have been discussed in various places around the web which suggest that upwards of 30,000 were produced. They are a single-shot, bolt-action, .22 calibre rifle, and are quite accurate.



The photos attached below contain a number of details such as,
Markings:
“Cooey M82 22 CAL” Top of Receiver Rear
“C /I\ 67” inside a lozenge shaped mark at top of chamber area
“B2326” serial number at heel of grip
“C/I\” forward of serial number at heel of grip
“C/I\” found on bolt handle

Action: The loading and extraction of a dummy .22 cal round, note there is no feeding ramp or guide, each round must be placed in the chamber by hand and the bolt closed on top. The extractor can be heard to “click” over the rim of the cartridge upon closing the bolt.
After loading the rifle must be manually cocked by pulling rearward on the striker knob when ready to fire. There is no dedicated safety on this rifle.

Once fired, the bolt is opened and drawn to the rear, the extractor withdraws the spent case and the spring loaded firing pin acts as the ejector, ejecting to the shooter’s right. Working the bolt very slowly can cause the round not to eject or fall back into the action, a quick, short snap, works best.

Sights: The rear open sight is intact with elevation adjuster, while the Cooey rear aperture sight is not present, but would fit at the rear of the receiver in place of the square plate and screw. The front sight is a blade type with a set of protectors held in place with a flat headed machine screw and hex nut.

Muzzle: The muzzle end of the stock is rough cut wood with no special effort to further finish it.

Stock: The stock is otherwise well made of hardwood with a pleasant pistol style grip that fills the hand well. The end is finished with an unmarked steel butt plate secured with two screws.

Details on this rifle:
This Cooey M82 Trainer is part of my shooting collection that I acquired a few years ago, it is in pretty good condition overall. It is almost 100% original with the exception of a Mossberg S-130 rear target sight and the bit of stock inletting to fit the mount.
I purchased this rifle privately for well below market value, about the same as typical civilian Cooey 75 rifle which shares the same basic design. Upon my purchase the Mossberg sight was installed but missing the sighting aperture and windage adjuster, and the bolt would bind in the action, but could be worked carefully by rocking the bolt.
The rear sight components were sourced as an entire replacement assembly from eBay for about $30, this sight does co-witness with the rear open sight and can be swung away without a loss of zero to provide unobstructed use of the original iron sights.
Addressing the bolt was another issue, inspecting other Cooey rifles made it obvious that someone had modified the bolt to automatically cock on closing. The poor workmanship on the modification, which entailed filing away the “bump” on the striker, caused the bolt to bind when operated with the knob. If the bolt was drawn to the rear by hooking a finger near the bolt head and pulling it would cycle and cock on closure.
I spent some time deliberating on the solution, whether I should attempt to smooth out and perhaps reprofile the crude modification to the bolt, with possible failure, or to source a new bolt. Searching online for a replacement was met with immediate luck as I was able to purchase a C/I\ stamped bolt for about $40. Changing the bolt resolved the issue without any fitting or fiddling, it was a simple 10 second swap.
Included in the photos are details of both bolts, the proper bolt has a smooth bump to prevent the sear from picking up the cocking piece on bolt closure, while the modified bolt has this section filed flat.

Shooting this rifle:
The rifle has a noticeable weight for the caliber and is easy to steady while shooting prone. The trigger is a long single stage which breaks at about 4 lbs, side loading of the trigger can cause it to drag on the stock, making it exhibit a bit of irregular creep. If pulled squarely and smoothly, the trigger released the shot well. Attached in the photos is a target that was shot prone, unsupported at 25m. I believe that with a full rest the rifle would turn in very tight groups and blame the flyers in the groups on my shooting.



Conclusion:
This rifle, while not the most exciting, is very satisfying to shoot, manually cocking the action each time does make the shooter slow down and generally be much more deliberate in firing. It functions flawlessly, works well with any 22 LR ammunition, and turns in very nice groups with standard velocity ammunition. The Canadian market on these rifles varies wildly, ranging from $150-$450 listings, in various condition, from excellent original to shortened, scope equipped sporters.

If there are any questions or comments on this rifle, or what I’ve written, please post below.

Thank you for reading.

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