[Oklaboy]

I've been waiting to post this until I had a chance to really do some shooting with my new rifle(s).

I'm a bit of a nut about trading guns and stuff. This year I traded several out and ended up buying some higher quality stuff since I'm 34 years old and finally have a decent salary. Thus enters my Cooper 17 HMR.

I purchased a 57-m Custom Classic with several upgrades and paid over $3000 for the rifle. I shoot more 17 HMR shells in one year than I do in all other firearms combined. And I shoot a lot of shells. I wanted a NICE rifle and Cooper has a fantastic reputation (I did a lot of research and you have to do a lot of research to find out much about Coopers).

I now own a 243 Winchester and am considering selling every rifle I own and converting entirely to Coopers. That is how good they are.

Coopers can be bought for around $1500 for the base models, but recent price increases may have moved that to around $1700. They are available in several variations, but repeaters are only available in rimfire cartridges, 30-06, 270, 280, and 25-06 unless they've added some additional calibers. All the other rifles are single shot bolt actions.

All Coopers come with a factory test target to display their accuracy. The target will either be a 5 shot (.22LR and .22 Magnum) or 3 shot (all others), and will be from either 50 yards (for sure all rimfire) or 100 yards (I *THINK* all others). Maybe all the test targets are from 50 yards. The guarantees are 1/4 inch 5 shot groups in the .22's and 1/2 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yards from centerfires. I can't find a specific guarantee for the 17 HMR or 17 Mach 2, but I will guarantee them.

I finally had a calm day on Friday. I shot the 17 HMR. I put 5 rounds from 100 yards in the target that could be covered with a nickel. I put 4 rounds in a hole. It was a little ragged, but it was one hole. On the same day, my 13 pound target 22-250 with the 20 power Leopuld scope shot with good ammunition about a 1 inch 10 round group. This gun is now going to either be sold or accurized. I've found out how accurate a rifle CAN be. The Coopers do it over and over. They're fantastic. In order for my Remington 700 22-250 to get to Cooper's quality, it will have cost at least $1100 to $1500. Why not just buy the Cooper in the first place?

To put it bluntly, these rifles will shoot like custom made for about half the price or less. These rifles will out shoot almost any shooter with quality ammunition.

The bad: The rifles are relatively rare. You can go online to gunbroker.com or gunsamerica.com and find lots of them, but you might not be able to find the rifle you want. Then, if you do find the rifle, you'll have to pay to have it shipped to a FFL and then probably pay that dealer $50 or so to accept it. And don't think you'll just go order one. Waits can be up to 2 years for a new order.

If you are just getting into long range shooting and would like to buy a nice gun from the factory or want a really special rimfire gun to plink with, I can't endorse Cooper enough. The fit and finish are excellent, but the wood is so nice you'll hesitate to carry the gun in the field. I suppose that is a drawback, but someone once said that life is too short to hunt with ugly guns.

[birdman]

Nice post Oklaboy!!! I've heard a few things about the Coopers, but it's nice to have it put down the way you just did. It's quite the quality standard for them to put rounds on paper with every gun that goes out their door.

[Oklaboy]

Yeah, run over to gunsamerica.com or gunbroker.com and look up the Coopers. Lots of the guns have the test targets in their pictures. The guns are just fantastic, although I know they're expensive and with mostly only single shots, they don't offer a lot of variety.

One of the truly nice things about them is the ability to order a "custom" gun from them. If you want to buy a very special firearm, they'll put it together for you. It will cost you, but it will be less than a one of a kind from a gun smith and will shoot as well. The wood they have available is just fantastic.

[Oklaboy]

These are a couple of my favorite stocks I've ever seen.

GunBroker.com guns: Unbelievable Cooper 57M 17 HMR Exhibition Grade (item: 86748512 ends: Dec-06-07 05:30:38 PM)

GunBroker.com guns: Amazing Cooper 57M 17HMR Exhibition French (item: 86901711 ends: Dec-12-07 12:22:58 PM)

[birdman]

Man that walnut is one of a kind and the attention to detail in checkering is unbelievable!! I think in one of the pictures it shows the butt checkered with a plate outlining?? Is that what i'm looking at?

[Oklaboy]

Yeah, they're called skeleton butt plates. They also have skeleton grip caps. They're pretty, but I really wouldn't recommend them on anything with a "kick", if ya get my drift. It would beat you to death if you shot more than a few times...but the look beautiful.


There are some nice pictures of them on this page.

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