L46 Singleshot?

[Guest]

Hello all. I just joined the group and it seems there's a wealth of knowlege here. The L46 guns really appeal to me - their simplicity, accuracy and workmanship. They seem to meet the scientific criteria of "necessary and sufficient." They don't have "unnecessary" gegaws, but the characteristics they do have are "sufficient" to get the job done.

I'll jump in with a question. Some years ago I traded into an L46 that was supposedly a retired benchrest gun. It has a laminated wood stock, approximatel 1.25" untapered barrel roughly 20" long in .222 Remington. I was told the barrel had been cut down from 28" or so. It has a solid bottom L46 action - no magazine cutout.

Can anyone offer some history of the L46 action? Were they made in single-shot configuration or was this one welded up in some manner? If it was welded, the workmanship is excellent. Were these common on the benchrest circuit in, I'm guessing, the late 50's or early 60's?

Thanks,

Wildey

 

[Guest]

Wildy, I have a 222 in singleshot. It was made in 1957. I just acquired factory scope rings and a factory peep sight is on the way. I found the receiver in a bunch of gun related stuff that I bought. I made the sear bar and bolt release lever and housing. I chambered a Shilen #2 barrel and built a stock from 50 yr. old black walnut. I haven't had an opportunity to shoot it yet.
Butch

 

[gordon440]

According to a 1971 article on Sako Rifles, the Single Shot L46 action was introduced in 1956-57 as a Benchrest Action. The bottom of the receiver was solid with no magazine well opening.
I will be scanning this article in the next week or so and placing it in the Documents section.
Gordon

 

[Guest]

I have a rifle built on the L46 Benchrest action-built by Harry Creighton of Nashville TN in the late 60's . It has a heavy Douglas barrel chambered for .222 in a Bishop Varmint style stock-equipped with Unertl 16X scope. As a previous poster indicated this is a true single-shot action, not a welded up job. They also continued to make the action in the L461 and Forester actiions for several years. They were sold as actions only as I recall -although you could buy barreled actions in the magazine style configuration. You could also buy barrels separately from Firearms International Mr Creighton said . However, I opted for the Douglas.
I do not know if these were common on the Benchrest circuit-but you never saw many in the hands of causual benchresters or varmint hunters. Probably because the out-of-the-box L46 and L461 heavy barrels shot so well.