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Advisory Panel
Originally Posted by
rcathey
Winchester surely had a 30-06 bolt action to compare with.
Model 70 I should expect...
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05-26-2018 10:45 AM
# ADS
Friends and Sponsors
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Deceased May 2nd, 2020
Sporting Rifles
There were some commercial bolt action sporting rifles available after WWI.
Circa 1921, Remington introduced The Remington 30. It was comprised of left over M1917 parts. With its spindly stock and cock-on-closing feature, it was not very popular. Later this evolved into the 30A with a better stock and a cock-on-opening modification. The final version issued circa 1930 was the 30 Special which had a decent stock and came equipped with the Lyman 48 rear sight. All of these Remington rifles were built using M1917 parts - even the late model 720.
In 1925 Winchester introduced its Model 54. It too had an unsatisfactory stock and introduced a different bolt stop set up using the trigger assembly . The trigger - bolt stop arrangement resulted in a poor trigger pull. Later the stock was improved and a speed lock version was introduced.
Both of these rifles, when equipped with the Lyman 48 were priced at practically double the price of a NRA Sporter.
Savage introduced the Model 1920, which was OK but was limited to 300 Savage caliber, when everyone was enthralled with the 30-06.This was replaced by the Savage Model 40 and 45, which was not in the class with the above rifles or the NRA Sporter.
Bannerman and Kimball Arms offered Sporters built using SHT M1903 receivers equipped with modified M1917 bolts and a mixture of parts from various other military rifles. They were cheap and I have no idea how popular they were or how safe thy were.
Then there were the modified Krags which were modified by the Armory and offered for sale to NRA members. Of course these were not commercial sporters.
The commercial companies raised the issue that the U. S. Government should not be in competitor with commercial industry and the sale of the NRA Sporter ended in 1932 - though some few were built after this time for various reasons. NRA Sporter parts were still available for a while then the Army decreed that Sporter parts would only be sold to previous punchers of the NRA Sporter.
The Winchester Model 70 was introduced in 1937, long after the demise of the NRA Sporter.
FWIW
Last edited by Cosine26; 05-26-2018 at 01:05 PM.
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Thank You to Cosine26 For This Useful Post:
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Deceased May 2nd, 2020
From the pictures , it looks as if the pictured rifle has a NS receiver and DHT bolt. I believe that the J5 bolt was before the NS receiver. According to VI's shooting page the J5 on top of the bolt handle came about the time of the change from DHT to NS, so I may be incorrect. I thought that all NS bolts had "NS" stamped on top of the bolt handle. Would the Armory have assembled a NRA Sorter this way?
FWIW
Last edited by Cosine26; 05-26-2018 at 01:36 PM.
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Legacy Member
I recall reading the demise of the NRA Sporter was due to complaints from Congressmen. It seems Remington/Winchester complained to Congress that Springfield should not be in direct competition with private business. I think it was during the Depression and the gun/hunting business was in terrible condition.
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Legacy Member
Originally Posted by
Calif-Steve
I recall reading the demise of the NRA Sporter was due to complaints from Congressmen. It seems Remington/Winchester complained to Congress that Springfield should not be in direct competition with private business. I think it was during the Depression and the gun/hunting business was in terrible condition.
This is mentioned in Lt. Colonel Brophy's book on the 1903 rifle.
Steve
NJ State Trooper #3936 (retired 4-1-1991)
NRA LE Firearms Instructor
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