I have to admit to having a certain fondness for Cooper rifles. So when I was able to acquire this one at what to me was a very attractive price (good enough to buy a rifle with the bolt on the wrong side) I did.





Cooper Model 21, Varmint Extreme, 223 Remington.

The targets that accompanied the rifle were what originally attracted me. The date on the targets indicate that this is an older Cooper. I tend to believe the older vintage Coopers had better wood, whether they shoot better is a matter I’ll leave to others.







Anyway, although I probably can’t shoot as good as the original owner, I thought that these groups would serve as a benchmark for what the rifle was capable of.
So with that in mind I thought I might do a primer test. I cleaned the barrel, shot two five shot groups for foulers. The following groups were shot with about 5 minutes between groups. The barrel was not cleaned between the groups. I did clean the barrel before the second attempt and again fired ten foulers. Five shot groups for the most part. Distance was 100 yards off bench rest.

For some reason, I’ve gravitated to Federal Primers in just about everything I load between 17 and 45 caliber. Typically the match grade at that.
The groups in the first instance were shot using 40 gr. Nosler Ballistic tips and the same load density of 27 grains of H-335 that were thrown, then trickled for consistency.
I decided to go back last weekend and try the same test with H-322, but didn’t get to finish as the wind came up and I got a call saying my 3 year old grandson wanted to come see me. A man’s gotta know his limitations. However, it would tend to reinforce the CCI-400 primers in this instance.





I prepared a chart that shows the average velocity and the velocity spread for both sessions.

Test 1

223 primer test 27 gr. h-335 40 gr. nosler B/Tip

6-1/2 7-1/2 400 cci BR-4wsr 205m

3461 3468 3491 3488 3460 3439
3460 3448 3491 3438 3457 3456
3455 3439 3500 3463 3475 3465
3488 3474 3481 3496 3440 3485
3463 3460 3487 3475

3465 3458 3490 3472 3458 3461
33 35 19 58 35 46



Test 2 (not complete)

223 primer test 27 gr. h-335 40 gr. nosler B/Tip

205m 400

3598 3619
3572 3606
3605 3613
3599 3608
3606 3627

3596 3614.6
34 21

In both instances the CCI-400 primers had the highest velocity and lowest velocity spread. Groups were not too shabby either.
Looks like I may be changing to the CCI-400 primers. Seem to give a higher velocity and lower deviation.