This belongs to a friend but will probably be mine shortly. The metal work was done many years ago by L.E. Wilson. Competition shooters have used his reloading products for many years. When the metal was done Wilson sent it to Tom Shelhamer to stock. It came out of the Wilson estate years ago after the old man died.

In 1947 L.E. Wilson was one of the founders of the Snipers Congress, held in the Pacific Northwest, and which is one of the first benchrest matches ever.

The gun is chambered in 220 Wilson Arrow, Wilson's own cartridge, which is a (much) improved 220 Swift.

A few years ago, after the current owner bought it, he asked me to shoot the rifle. It took some fiddling with, but after I shortened the FL size die .005", everything worked very well. Not having any load data, I asked ballistics experts at Sierra Bullets for advice. Rich Macholz told me to use .220 Swift data and that I could probably exceed their maximum loads a bit but to do so very carefully. He suggested I use 3031 powder to start with.

I soon found that 36.4 gr. of the 3031 gave me really amazing accuracy. (According to the manual it also gave me 3900 fps.) Then the owner, another friend and I spent half a day shooting it on my 100 yd. range. All three-shot groups were one-holers and averaged less than 1/4".

I then wrote an article for Precision Shooting describing the entire process. We were quite amazed at the accuracy but artibuted it to the modern benchrest bullets we were using. I'm sure today's BR bullets are much better than they had back in the day.

The rifle is currently here and,if another deal works out, will soon be mine. In the meantime, I intend to shoot it in a benchrest match or two just to see how it stacks up against today's rifles.

Now thats a Classic, I assume Wilsom made a set trigger of some type as seen in the pic

Beautiful rifle! IMHO more attractive than the multi colored "plastic marvels" one sees nowadays. Let's see, you've got the barrel and the bullets, but haven't mentioned the "short and fat" cases that came into vogue. Sorry I don't know what the Wilson Arrow cartridge looks like!
Peter.

Dick any other pics ???

who says that mauser actions cannot make rifles sufficiently accurate for benchrest shooting?

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
who says that mauser actions cannot make rifles sufficiently accurate for benchrest shooting?

Agreed. I think it's a Win 54 though.

quote:

Originally posted by DArcy_Echols_Co:
Now thats a Classic, I assume Wilsom made a set trigger of some type as seen in the pic

It's a set trigger. I had the gun apart a few years ago and I have never seen another trigger like it. ????? where it came from.

thanks for sharing this picture Dick. When I saw the title of the post, I immediately thought of pre-64 Target or maybe a 52, but this is very nice. And sometimes I think we're snookered a bit when folks say the 70s, 98s, and 54s can't be made to shoot. I also really like the re-worked bolt handle.

quote:

Originally posted by DArcy_Echols_Co:
Dick any other pics ???

I have some. Will post a couple more. There seems to be some interest. I'm trying to get it ready for a match Saturday. I'll take more pics there if I can.

Very cool.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
who says that mauser actions cannot make rifles sufficiently accurate for benchrest shooting?

Sorry... it is a 54. I was going from memory when I said "Mauser".

On the left is a 220 Swift case. On the right is a 220 Wilson Arrow. It's an improved Swift, a really good thing, but the headspace is a tad shorter. You can't chamber a factory Swift round in the chamber.

Every time I've shot a Swift, the case grows .010" in length. Shoot it again, it grows another .010". I sold a great and perfectly cherry G & H Swift after it happened a third time.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
who says that mauser actions cannot make rifles sufficiently accurate for benchrest shooting?

Lindy, only in the olden days.

A different view of the rifle with me shooting it. I didn't find any of the close-ups that show individual parts of the gun.

Dick, that was 25yrs ago wasn't it?
It is a great rifle!

Butch , 25 yrs ,or last month , it all seems like just yesterday .
Beautiful rifle . Good luck with it .

quote:

Originally posted by Gary MacDonald:
Butch , 25 yrs ,or last month , it all seems like just yesterday .
Beautiful rifle . Good luck with it .

Yeah Gary,
It does seem that way sometime.

I checked and the pictures were taken in 2010. It was seven years ago.

The best close-up I have of Old Tom's checkering for which he was justifiably famous.

Back in the day I got a call from Russ Haydon. At that time I was operating Whitetail Design & Eng. Ltd. (Carbide reloading tools) and Russ and I did a lot of business together.

Anyway Russ said he had a rifle from the L.E. Wilson estate... "Was I interested?"

For some reason or other I wasn't. I think this very well could have been the gun Russ was selling. If I knew for sure, I would stoutly kick myself in the rear.

I'm sure this gun has been shot very little. It has only a very few minor handling marks. More convincing, it is extremely accurate. The Wilson Arrow is a high intensity cartridge and barrel life is predictably short.

When I shot it a few years ago, it was very easy for me to make it shoot 1/4" or better on my 100 yd. range. There had to be very few rounds down the barrel when I got my hands on it.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
who says that mauser actions cannot make rifles sufficiently accurate for benchrest shooting?

Me... that's who. This gun is wonderfully accurate for what it is. I've competed seriously in benchrest matches for over forty years. A 1/4" gun of this vintage is quite wonderful.

However, if you want to compete today, you need a gun that will "agg." around .150". That's five five-shot groups that average .150".

Take your Mauser and make a "Jack O'Conner mountain rifle" out of it. I've done it a few times. However, if you seriousy want to compete in benchrest, get a BAT.

Right Butch?

That IS nice. I like rifles of this general type; the 1950 varmint/target rifle. While many of today's customs surpass these old rifles in the quality of the detail work, the old rifles seem more individual, more "custom".
I shot with Sam Wilson in 1980 at the Issaquah range. I was sitting on the trunk of my car, at the range gate, eating a bowl of Wheaties when he drove up, very quickly, in a bright yellow VW Sirrocco. He was shooting his unlimited gun which featured a Hart barrel he had set back and rechambered five times. Shot pretty good too. Regards, Bill.

Check your PM's Mr Wright.

John

John,

I found and answered your PM. For some screwy reason I can't get my answers to go out... they bounce back. Sorry about that.

Email me at "writer1937a@gmail.com". I don't seem to be smart enough to answer PM's.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Leeper:
That IS nice. I like rifles of this general type; the 1950 varmint/target rifle. While many of today's customs surpass these old rifles in the quality of the detail work, the old rifles seem more individual, more "custom".
I shot with Sam Wilson in 1980 at the Issaquah range. I was sitting on the trunk of my car, at the range gate, eating a bowl of Wheaties when he drove up, very quickly, in a bright yellow VW Sirrocco. He was shooting his unlimited gun which featured a Hart barrel he had set back and rechambered five times. Shot pretty good too. Regards, Bill.

Me too. That's why I'm making this to shoot in matches this summer. This is currently in Colorado getting checkered and rust blued.

I don't expect to win anything with a gun of this type. My goal is not to make a complete arse out of myself. Being a little bit competitive would be great.

I was a serious competitor in benchrest for many years, starting in 1977. I'm now 80 years old and just like to shoot in matches. I sold all my serious bench guns a few years ago. I'm just very happy to be able to go and compete.

Like you, I've loved these guns for a long time.

I envy your meeting Sam Wilson. This is definitely his gun but he couldn't possibly have shot it much. It's too accurate and this caliber has got to be a barrel burner. There's no way it would shoot like it does if it had 1,000 rounds thru it.

Sam Wilson was, at this time, in his early eighties, I think. I was 30 and was, frankly, somewhat star struck at being able to shoot with the guys there. Sam's rifle was then chambered in 223 and as I recall, he shot an agg right around .2 for first place at 100. I shot fairly well that day and was second shooting a 6x47 sporter. At 200, the wheels fell off for both of us. I think I shot close to .9 moa. That was the first time I ever saw a wind flag point straight up!
I asked Sam how many shots had gone through that barrel and he said he wouldn't say because people would think he was lying.
I think shooting rifles like your Ruger helps to put the fun back into the game. I recently built myself a 30/30 based on a Ruger 77 with a solid bottom soldered in and hope to shoot it some this year if I can find the time. Enjoy your summer. Regards, Bill

Whilst we are discussing old bench guns, this one probably represents the next generation after the Wilson/Shelhamer rifle. It was built on a Rem. 700 action with a huge sleeve and a solid fiberglas stock. DNK what it weighed... my postage scale only goes up to 25 lbs.

I bought it at a Nationals from a guy who was shooting it very well but who said he was tired of carrying the heavy mutha around. He said every time he shot it in a match his shoulder hurt for two weeks.

When I got it home I took it to Dwight Scott who took a real interest in it. He set the barrel back and chambered it for my favorite BR cartridge, the .22 PPC, .100" Short. He spent quite a bit of time fiddling with the action making sure the timing was perfect, etc. When I got it back I spent some time re-shaping the stock to make it a tad prettier.

When I got the gun from Dwight, he told me it deserved a good paint job. However, by the time I got done messing with it, it was shootin' season and I wanted it to go "Bang!" I squirted it with some flat black primer and applied a couple of coats of clear coat. (I caught 'ell from Dwight for that one.)

It turned out to be the most accurate rifle I have ever owned.

This is the best target I have ever shot in competition. It is a five shot group fired in a local 100 yd. five-shot Unlimited match. It measured .063".

I shot it with the big black gun (above). The load was 26.1 gr. H 322 and Bart's 52 gr. .22 cal. benchrest bullets in the .22 PPC Short.

All my competitors that day were shooting contemporary rail guns... I won with a .161" agg. (Five, five shot groups at 100 yds.)

After I carted the gun around to a couple of matches, I decided it's name was "Fatso".

I sold Fatso to a good friend a few years ago. Of all the guns that have come and gone in a lifetime of target shooting and collecting custom rifles, this is probably the one gun I would like most to get back. There was something very special...