Does anyone have any experience with these? I have an opportunity to trade for an action which is left handed. It appears to be in excellant condition. I just wondered if anyone had used them before and what the general consensus was. I am not left handed myself but have a few customers who are. Any guesses on what the action might be worth?

In Frank de Hass's book of Bolt Actions.
He said they were good actions and well made.

Hal

I have a little experience with these actions. Homer Koon had designed and filed for the patents in 1967. He came to me to barrel the number P1 action for him. He wanted me to move to Gainesville, Tx. and help set up the shop. He spent over 2 million trying to get this company started. The receiver was made out of 4340. Look under the Google patents search and you can find the pictures and patent info. This action had a very heavy firing pin spring. It had only 3/16 in. fall which made it one of the fastest lock time of all actions at that time. It has 3 notches for the cocking piece to ride on. This was needed to over come the heavy spring. New rifle manufacture is very hard to get going as you may notice most will fold after a couple of years. I spent about six months working with him trying to make him see that the design for the feeding ramp was not in the correct location. I was the person that had to make sure all parts would work as manufactured. Machinists made all the parts and at that time there were about 10 men on machines. After I left the company he decided that the ramp needed to rotate to create a higher ramp for the shell to load into the chamber. Larger cases like the magnum worked ok , but the 25-06 would not raise up enough to feed into the chamber. I don't know the ser. number where the change took place. Look and see if the bottom locking lug is located in the bottom. The early models didn't have the ramps.

Les,
Several years ago I had either an Alpha or Omega. Was that by the same people. It was a round action made in Texas.
Butch

Very interesting Les. As i'm moving the bolt for and aft, the locking lug is BDC and then rotates counterclockwise as it is LH. Now that you bring that problem up, I can see that the ramp is very short and could give feeding problems. This is an '06 boltface, so I may have issues with it? Thanks for the info on the company. Perhaps I'll pass on this deal.

Curtis,

If the locking lug is not in the bottom center position you need to stay with the 3006 or larger caliber for it to feed ok as the neck of the case will not raise the bullet high enough to load into the chamber. Do you know if the action is the short version? The short action which came along and I spent a couple of weeks making magazine boxes trying to get them to feed correctly. That is when he could see the design problems. These actions were made very strong for pressure with the type of steel and heat treatment. Homer had them tested and they set back at over 200,000 lbs in the push machine tests in a lab.

After I left Joe Dubiel worked for the company and I think he was there when it folded. There was a law suit between John Brandt Vrs Homer Koon over the design and patents. I can't remember all the details, but Homer won out. You can read the Brandt rifle design on the Google patent search.

I found a site that said rifle number 1 went to Mr Grayson. I don't know if that was the P1 or a number 1.

Butch,

The round one was either the Texas Ranger or the Alpha design by Koon. The Alpha was made in Dallas and I didn't have any experience with these actions. Look for the patent under Google search and see the design.

The Omega actions were of investment castings and again 4340 steel after the first couple of machined receivers were made. Homer came to me again to barrel the first proto action which he made from bar stock. I believe that was in 1970 at my shop in Ft Worth. I don't know why he didn't do the barrel work unless he didn't make the action. Maybe he hired others to do that work.

The one that I bought came from a gunsmith in Dallas. He said he took action parts in lieu of his pay. He said the company went out of business. As near as I can remember it had 3 lugs[I could be mistaken] and the receiver was almost like round tubing. It was made from barstock. When I bought it I was going to build a 6X284. He kept it a month to make it work. I was never real happy with it.
Butch

I have a love for the Texas Mags as my dad invested a few with Homer. If you want to sell the acvtion please let me know.
Aloha, Mark
A "Lefty" too.

It is a long action, I put a couple 30-06 rounds in it and they fit fine. So 30-06 35 whelen something like that will not be a problem, but 270 etc may give trouble?

Bohica, I or the current owner of the action may well sell it. If it goes that route I'll post on here so you can have a look at it.