blixen
05-30-2016, 02:04 PM
In a pawn shop, I saw a nice Weaver B4 scope that happened to be attached to a obscure rimfire single shot. The bolt was almost frozen from old oil turned to varnish. Owner wouldn't split pair, so I bought both for less than a C-note.
Turns out the rifle is a Jefferson, which is the company that made the Colt Colteer line, and is oddly marked as ".22 Magnum Rimfire." In tracking that info down I saw a .22 Mag. Colteer on Gunbroke for $400 starting bid (which means almost nothing, i know.)
Anyway, under the grime was a nice walnut stock and the rifle is all steel. I sprayed the guts out with brake cleaner, lubed, and cleaned the bore (a few tiny lead flakes came out) and put an trusted airgun scope on the Jefferson. We went to the range with five partial boxes of ammo i had laying around.
Backstory: I've always liked the .22 mag and have owned several old ones. NONE of them shot especially well. The Mossberg Chuckster (love that name!) was the worst and had an impossible-to-tune trigger. My fav was a tube-fed Marlin with a walnut stock--but it shot mediocre. I couldn't afford a CZ so, i gave up on WMR.
But this Jefferson is a shooter! The trigger is really good, but has a microscopic creep that almost makes it a two-stage.
Long story short. Ol' Jeff was humming them in at 50 yards in cloverleafs. Groups ranged from 3/4", a worst, down to 3/8" (Fiocchi and Hornady VMax) --depending on ammo and my concentration on the trigger pull. I got 1 1/2 groups at 100 and one 3/8" 3-shot fluke group. I had to deal with some wind shifts and would have done better with a flag on the target.
I'm going to polish the trigger surfaces a little and maybe put a trigger over-travel screw in the trigger guard. Jack rabbits beware!
Does anyone know anything about Jefferson Arms or the Colteers (a stupid name)? I think they were Wyoming based.
Turns out the rifle is a Jefferson, which is the company that made the Colt Colteer line, and is oddly marked as ".22 Magnum Rimfire." In tracking that info down I saw a .22 Mag. Colteer on Gunbroke for $400 starting bid (which means almost nothing, i know.)
Anyway, under the grime was a nice walnut stock and the rifle is all steel. I sprayed the guts out with brake cleaner, lubed, and cleaned the bore (a few tiny lead flakes came out) and put an trusted airgun scope on the Jefferson. We went to the range with five partial boxes of ammo i had laying around.
Backstory: I've always liked the .22 mag and have owned several old ones. NONE of them shot especially well. The Mossberg Chuckster (love that name!) was the worst and had an impossible-to-tune trigger. My fav was a tube-fed Marlin with a walnut stock--but it shot mediocre. I couldn't afford a CZ so, i gave up on WMR.
But this Jefferson is a shooter! The trigger is really good, but has a microscopic creep that almost makes it a two-stage.
Long story short. Ol' Jeff was humming them in at 50 yards in cloverleafs. Groups ranged from 3/4", a worst, down to 3/8" (Fiocchi and Hornady VMax) --depending on ammo and my concentration on the trigger pull. I got 1 1/2 groups at 100 and one 3/8" 3-shot fluke group. I had to deal with some wind shifts and would have done better with a flag on the target.
I'm going to polish the trigger surfaces a little and maybe put a trigger over-travel screw in the trigger guard. Jack rabbits beware!
Does anyone know anything about Jefferson Arms or the Colteers (a stupid name)? I think they were Wyoming based.