1,000 Yard Hart Benchrest Rifle in 7x61

[SlumberingBear]

Just picked this up.  Bought from 70 plus year old benchrest shooter.  Charter member of the Williamsport PA 1000 range back in the day Health failing no longer can shoot so he sold his pride and joy to me. Nobody to pass it along to.  

1980's era 1000 yd competition rifle.

Custom made with Hart #4 Barrel, 29 in stainless, 1.35 in diameter, 1in 9 twist.

Hart action serial number 487.

Remington 722 bolt, and trigger assy, Sako extractor  

Hart Bench Rest Stock.  

Rifle weighs 26 lbs.

Howard Wolfe was gunsmith.

Rifle won several matches at Williamsport PA 1000 range.  Former owner has trophies to prove it.

Bullet is  7mm x 61mm Sharp and Hart  (S&H).

Shoots any 7mm bullet  150 -160 gn. /  approx 65  grains  H4831 powder

Came with reloading  dies and 100 cases. 











Bottom of butt with bar resting on bag..

[Dannyboy53]

Holy Cow, that's impressive! 1000 yds...I can't even see that far. Beautiful rifle Mr. SlumberingBear.

[Blicero]

Holy Toledo that gun is wicked. I'd never even heard of 7x61 until Travis told me about this rifle.

[Dannyboy53]

Neither have I Blicero, maybe one of those "wildcat" cartridges? But if it wins at a thousand yards that bad-butt!

[Blicero]

It's amazing, all the little niches of shooters and what they consider long range or accurate. I'm giddy as a schoolgirl when I can hit a 6" square at 100 yards. Then there's the emblazoned target shooters who think 300 yards is a short poke and a 3" group at 500 yards is a poor performance 

[jd?]

Hey Weldon, I'm glad to see some better pics of that thing.  I was thinking that the blued back portion of the barrel was a long receiver sleeve or sumpthin..  I get it now. 

Good God, are you gonna need a gun bearer to pack that thing around for ya?

I guess you can fireform brass from 7 Rem Mag if you need more.  Can't wait to see some targets.  jd

[SlumberingBear]

Jd, you are correct the long tube provides mounting/bedding surface so barrel is free floating.   The 7 x 61 (S&H) was developed by a Philip Sharpe who wrote the first real book on reloading called the "Guide to Handloading"  back in 1930's.  During WWII his job in the Army was go investigate weapons and ammo of other countries.   He found the first 7x61 as an experimental machine gun cartridge.  He developed the rifle version of the round with the help of Richard Hart ,  Norma made the brass and Schutz and Larsen built long range hunting rifles for the bullet.  It was originally developed as a long range hunting cartridge for use out west where hunters needed greater range than a 30-06 could deliver. It holds more powder than a 30-06 and will send a 160 grain Sierra down range at 3100 fps.  It was the rage of bench rest shooters  in the 1950/60s.  It was so successful that in 1963 Remington improved it and came out with the 7mm x 64mm magnum.  The brass is still available from Midway, loaded Norma rounds can be found on GB.  I got all this info from an article in HANDLOADER magazine. April 2010 page 265

[jd?]

You didn't mention what the pedigree on the scope is.  Kind of looks like "old school" state of the art. 

I Wikied what little I know about that cartridge this morning before I left for the salt mines.  Looks to me like one of those rounds that even though old, hasn't really been improved upon by all these more modern types. 

I do think that the old H-4831 powder has been improved with a more temperature stable recipe though.  Might be kinda important for the guy that wants thousand yard consistency.

[SlumberingBear]

The scope is a Balvar 6 x24   Bausch and Lomb.  Unusual variable power, externally adjusted old school long scope.  These scopes were made from 1955 to 1969.  If a Unertl was the Cadillac  of long scopes. The Balvar was the Rolls Royce.  B &L quit making them in 1969 because they  were too expensive to make and sold for $240 which made it the most expensive scope made in U.S.   B&L  sold design  to Tasco who made a cheaper version in Japan.  Scope weighs 36 oz and is 22 in long.  So big it only looks right on big rifles like Winchester 52D/E's , Anchutz 54 Super Match,  H&R M-12s and other big single shot target rifles.  They were preferred scope of old school long range shooters because they had wonderful glass, great tapered cross hairs, and could withstand tremendous recoil and  abuse.  The rotating disc elevation and windage adjustments are works of art and engineering and will make precise 1/6 minute of angle adjustments. 

[jd?]

That's pretty fascinating.  Just looking at those finely graduated dials makes me wanna grab them and start tuning and twisting.   

I wonder if the technology and performance of this rifle and scope would still be competitive against the equipment that thousand yard shooters are using these days. 

I also wonder if basic bullet tech has improved to any degree, giving better scores these days compared to say forty years ago.  jd

[SlumberingBear]

The man I bought the rifle from said that 20 years ago a 6 in group at 1000 yds was good.  Now days 4in groups  are competitive.  The down side is that a competitive rifle runs about 10 grand. I think now days they are shooting 6mm bulllets. Not sure about the case

[Phosphorus32]

That is one awesome rifle and glass    I'm glad it was passed on to someone who truly appreciates it's beauty and power.  24x sounds incredible but I suppose at 1000 yds 24x seems barely adequate; like 2.4x at 100 yds.

[SlumberingBear]

Yeah,  It has to be a challenge just to get the bullets on paper at 1000 yds.   1000 yds is just too much for me.  Hours of driving to an organized event just to get off  10 to 15 rounds is just not my thing.  I plan to shoot this rifle at 300 yds once I get some loads worked up and the weather is good.  It has been cold and windy for past few days in PA.