and controlled-round feed. Plunger-style ejectors had replaced mechanical kickers. In 1968 when Bill Ruger announced his Model 77, the aggressive claw reappeared, but it only looked the part. Those first M77 extractors were made to hop the rim of a chambered round, not suck it from the magazine. The Ruger 77 Mark II, first available in 1992, featured controlled-round feed. It joined a new Winchester Model 70 that had sprouted in the New Haven custom shop under the eye of Winchester engineer Ed Var-tanian and custom rifle maker David Miller. This Model 70, while retaining some post-64 features (notably the anti-bind bolt rail), had a Mauser claw extractor that worked like the original but was beveled to jump the rim of a chambered cartridge. In 1990 Winchester put this action into its production line, cataloging the rifles as Super Grades. By 1994 most Model 70s had controlled-round feed. The Mauser-style extractor is now the visible mark of a Model 70 Classic in its various forms.
Savage and Weatherby have stayed with the externally-mounted snap-over extractors, and Remington 700s still wear a clip in a bolt-face groove. Browning, which in 1972 abandoned its lovely High Power series based on Sako and FN Mauser actions, equips its popular A-Bolt with a three-lug push-feed bolt and plunger ejector. Sako has switched from a two-lug to a three-lug bolt, retaining the mechanical ejector and a claw extractor that has earned such plaudits that some gunsmiths routinely install it on Remington 700s. (I don’t see any merit in that because the Rem-ington works fine and actually has more claw surface.) Kimber Model 770s had a three-lug bolt and a plunger ejector. As on the Weath-erby Mark V, 770 bolt body and lug diameters are identical. Kimber installs a Mauser claw on its followup to the 770, the Model 84M.
Arnold Arms offered a choice of feeding in its Apollo action. The bolt featured a two-lug head with a split in the left lug for a mechanical ejector. Instead of a Mauser extractor, the Apollo made only for controlled-round feed had no separate claw. The cartridge slid up against the open lower section of the bolt face (per the Mauser 98) then into a groove machined inside the righthand locking lug. Single loading into the chamber was impossible. For that, Arnold manufactured a "combination" bolt. Its extractor was similar to a Sako’s except that it slid at an angle instead of pivoting to accept the case rim. The design offered controlled feeding and the option to close the bolt on a cartridge in the chamber.
Controlled-round feed remains a strong selling point for some shooters. The Dakota 76, a refined and handsomely-stocked rendition of the pre-64 Model 70, includes the Mauser extractor. So does the round-action Dakota 97. Little-known, relatively high-cost bolt actions such as the Olympic Arms BBK-01 and the Belgian Fortress Herstal have the feature as well. But hanging a long slab of spring steel on a bolt and listing controlled-round feed as a selling point don’t guarantee smooth, reliable bolt operation. Under pressure to build rifles that will profit the company, designers and assemblers must compromise. It’s not economical to fashion separate magazines for the 308 and 257 Roberts, or for the 7mm Remington and 300 Winchester magnums, though Mauser doctrine would so dictate. Neither can mass production be delayed for rigorous function testing—or stopped because one rifle sticks a bullet nose from the left rail once every 30 cyclings. Shooters who want sure-feeding guarantees won’t get them from any factory, though mechanical integrity is commonly assumed for every rifle shipped.
I recently returned to the maker a new rifle with controlled-round feed. It jammed almost every time from one side when I stroked the bolt gently. It needed work on the feed ramp and rail. I can’t say if every rifle of its type behaves that way. I doubt it. Small irregularities in individual rifles can cause malfunctions.
When short magnums appeared in the late 1950s, Model 70 magazines for these rounds accepted only three. Winchester’s early magazine boxes had been tailored to Holland &Holland rounds, but the new short-magnum guns got 30-06 boxes minus the rear rib. Some shooters still insist on a pre-64 70 in 300 or 375 H&H Magnum as the basis for a custom rifle chambered for a long case. But D’Arcy Echols, who designs and builds his own magazines in the Paul Mauser tradition, says you’re better off with a 30-06: "Pre-64 Winchesters have pretty short ramps when they’re hogged out for long magnum cartridges. But when you machine the rear of a box recess back to the center guard screw hole, you get more ramp up front. If you start with a ramp already shortened for a box Winchester extended forward, there’s no advantage to moving it back." The new Model 70 magnums may be best of all. They’re about .187 of an inch longer than early 70 magnums.
The current trend toward detachable box magazines would give Paul Mauser the willies. Stamped steel feed lips cannot guide cartridges as surely as machined rails. Detachable boxes are also more susceptible to damage. In truth they feed as smoothly as many fixed magazines on modern rifles because few match the slick feel of an early Mauser or M70 or 1903 Springfield.
Rifles without controlled-round feed seem to hold their own at market, partly because this feature matters little to most hunters and partly because bolt-face extractors keep a lid on prices. That beefy claw offers an extra measure of confidence when the game is big and close and dangerous, but most of the time it isn’t. Over the years I’ve found push-feed mechanisms as reliable as controlled-round designs, if not as smooth. There’s no accuracy advantage to a Mauser bolt. In fact, the smallest groups come from rifles with puny extractors and recessed bolt faces. A Mauser magazine and extractor simply cost more.
About as many Model 700 Remingtons as Model 70 Winchesters fill my rack now. It is also peppered with Savage, Ruger and Weatherby rifles and a couple of Mark X Mausers. I used to have some custom-built 98s, which I foolishly sold. One of them, a 300 H&H, collected my first bull elk. A 270 kept me in venison during college. Another 270 reached across a deep canyon to down a bighorn ram. I don’t miss these rifles so much for their fine accuracy or handsome lines or smooth function as for their character. They showed a genius that perhaps only John Browning among gun designers has matched and in modern rifles hides beneath many refinements—only some of which qualify as improvements.
Paul Mauser got a good thing going.
Big Three: Top to bottom, Winchester M70, Remington M700, Ruger M77.
An American to Match Mauser: The Charles Newton Story WvZ
You may have seen this proverb: Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out. One of the most gifted gun and cartridge designers of the 20th century put that notion to the test.
His name was Charles Newton. Born in Delavan, New York on January 8, 1870, he worked on his father’s farm until finishing school at age 16. He taught school for two years, and then applied his quick mind to studying law. He was admitted to the state bar at age 26, but his heart was not in the courtroom or library. After a 6-year stint in the New York National Guard, Newton devoted his spare time to firearms, and to high-performance cartridges using the then-new smokeless powders. His early association with Fred Adolph may have prompted Newton to abandon law for the uncertain fortunes he faced as an inventor and entrepreneur.
Adolph was an accomplished German riflesmith who immigrated to the U.S. in 1908. Six years later, he issued a catalog from a shop he’d established in Genoa, New York. It listed a wide range of sporting rifles, shotguns and combination guns. Some Adolph probably imported; but others he built. The rifles were chambered for a variety of potent cartridges, among them at least 10 designed by Charles Newton. The best known of these included the 22 High Power, fashioned in 1905 from the 25-35 case. Kicking a 70-grain, .228-inch bullet out at 2800 fps, the "Imp" earned a bigger-than-life reputation on game as formidable as tigers.
In 1912 the talented Newton became perhaps the first man to experiment seriously with the 25-06. He called it the 25 Newton Special. Another of his cartridges, the 7mm Special, foreshadowed the 280 Remington by half a century—as did the 7x64 Brenneke developed across the Atlantic at roughly the same time. Also in 1912, Newton developed for Savage a short rimless 25. It followed the 22 High
