Review of cooper M21 phoenix in .204 ruger (long)

[craigyboy]

 

I got it in I think about late feb/early march and have over 700 rounds through it. I bought it from Brian Fox of Fox firearms who was great to deal with and sorted everything out for me including getting it threaded and reproffed and posting to my RFD. It a right hand in .204 Model 21 action and phoenix stock. 26 inch barrel.

 

The rifle is kitted out with a pes moderator which was cut down to about 6 1/2 inches as I wanted to keep it compact as I already had the 26inch barrel and to be honest it does a fine job of cutting noise down. I asked that the rifle be threaded by steve kershaw as I have had dealings with him in the past and he has always done the job for me, Brian was more than happy to take it down to him for threading, steve also cut down the mod and re threaded it for me to 17mm which is about as big a threda you can get on the barrel diameter.

 

mod

 

I have a swarovski 6-18 X50 Tds 4 plex set in burris signature rings and leupold windage adjustable bases.

 

scope

 

First impression:

 

I had of the rifle when I opened the box where that it was very nice looking and very well finished off, immaculately finished infact no blemsihes in the barrel or action finish, nothing I could fault with it. Also I though the weight wasnt too bad at all considering its a heavy barrel and has an alloy bedding block in the stock.

 

Mounting the scope:

 

This was the first time I have ever had any experience with leupold windage adjustable bases or burris rings, I wanted to use the bases so I could get the scope set up as close as possible to centre without using up adjustment, and I used burris rings as they have the plastic inserts to save marking the scope but also as you can swap out inserts to change scope height so you can get a little closer to centre or if youre shooting at long range and need extra elavation adjustment. After about an hour of tweaking at getting crosshair level and bore sighting on a clock face which is about 20 metres away in my shed, I was ready too go, I wont say this was really easy as it was fiddly as hell the burris rings made getting the scope level a pain as they just spin around with it and setting the windage was a case of tighten both screws and see how close you get then lossen and tweak some more.

 

Shooting the rifle:

 

First shots indicated I was only 4 clicks out on the windage adjustment which I was very happy with, elavation was about 10 clicks low, not too bad then. The first day of shooting I ran in the barrel in the normal way with some factory 32 g v-max and 40g v-max. It wasnt ideal conditions with a gusty 10-15mph wind but groups showed some promise with 1 inch 5 shot groups being normal with 32g v-max but she didnt like the 40 g v-max at all.

I continued to use factory ammo for a while and got some decent groups but consistency just wasnt there so I knew I had to get some handloads sorted.

 

Action:

 

The action on the rifle is very smooth and all bolt lugs are all in contact which is a good sign, the trigger is very nice and you always know when you are about to let one rip. As the rifle is single shot there is no question of feed problems, if you drop one on in the loading bay she will feed it just fine. The ejector works very well but is a touch strong and spits the cases a fair distance away, I still havent got around to trimming that ejector spring!

 

 

Saftey:

 

The saftey is is a good place and does its job but still allows you to cycle the bolt even if its on which I have found a couple of others makes dont. Its placed similar to a remmi but is a lower profile sort of toggle with a red dot facing you to indicate its ready to rock.

 

saftey

 

Stock:

 

Now heres where I have a problem, the stock is great fits well in almost all areas the trigger is a tad further away from my finger than I would like but then being only 5ft 4" ill just have to live with that on most rifles, the stock shoots great rested bipod or bags etc and is managable for freehand shots but my biggest problem with it is that typical of a lot of american stocks there is no cheek piece so when running in high mounts like I am eye allignment can be a problem especially when shooting on high mag, I have got around this by using an eagle cheek piece bag which I needed anyhow as I need ammo on hand due to single shot, I have also been looking into getting the cheekpiece modified to make it adjustable, it would appear that this is doable as for the most part the inside of the stock is solid fill. But for now the cheek piece is fine with the bag on it not a big problem but one I encountered. On taking the action from the stock the action is a very tight fit and for some reason there is a bit fo bedding done for about the first inch of the barrel, maybe for extra support as this is a heavy barrel, doesnt effect poi or grouping though, also the stock has swivels front and rear so no need to worry about fitting them.

 

Chamber:

 

This is another area where I discovered a slight problem, once fired brass showed a slight bulge just where it came out of the chamber, this indicated that the chamber was very losse a new piece of brass at its widest point will measure .372 where as me once fired brass at its widest point measured .379 so thats .007 of excess space in the chamber, I contacted cooper on this matter and they checked it out and have since changed reamer manufactuers, they asked did i wont my rifle sent back and re-barrelled as they were happy to do it, but due to export times it could take six months so I declined as its not dangerous but a just losse on tolerances and at the rate I shoot ill probably be looking a new barrel put on at some point anyhow and I would prefer a nice pac-nor! Headspace is good in this chamber also with once fired brass only growinfg about 0.001. As typical with all .204's there seems to be a lot of freebore in the chamber the brass length for .204 is 1.840 but when I meausred my chamber it come out at 1.867, getting the lighter bullets to touch the lands is impossible they would have to be out of there cases but I have got 40g beregrs to within 0.010 pity they didnt shoot worth a damm. It doesnt seem to matter though as with my pet loads the rifle is easily getting that under 1/2 moa gurantee from cooper.

 

brass

 

 

Cleaning the barrel:

 

For cleaning the barrel I got lucus bore guide which has a extended rear bush 0.010 bigger than the cleaning rod so as not too allow the rod to bow as much, its made specific to my action, calibre and cleaning rod. I am using dewey once piece coated rods. The barrel cleans up very easy and copper fouling is very light, I was using bucthes bore shine to start but found that wipeout is plenty to clean this bore, I still use something stronger on the range for shooting groups though as wipeout takes too long, my current one is montana extreme 50bmg (this stuff is strong)

 

I continued to use factory ammo for a while and got some decent groups but consistency just wasnt there so I knew I had to get some handloads sorted.

 

 

Where am I now with this rifle:

 

At the moment I still playing with different loads but I am having a hard time getting 32g vmax heads which will shoot 3/8 5 shot groups all day so I have been trying 35g bergers (which I can mail order) and have gotten some good groups with r10x again in the 3/8 area but theses loads still needs tweaks in the coal department and probably fine tuing with powder charges so I think I may be able to get a consistent 1/4 load with these. Funnily enough these are something around 0.080 off the lands (puts that get them close to the lands for best accuracy idea in doubt, but i still cant help thinking its best myself) I am going to book the rilfe in with steve bowers for a rebarrel to tac 20 with a pac nor 1-11 twist, he also going to bed and possibly get the cheek piece done for me (still pondering this one) I like the 204 ruger but the freebore in the chamber and case bulge just annoy the hell out of me even though they are not effecting accuracy, also steve can not do the job until february so I expect by that time ill have about 2000 rounds down the tube and be wanting a change. I have also bought a weaver rail for it from us optics as I wanting to run a nightforce scope on top and think that the standard setup is a bit light for a big heavy scope like the nightforce. I have shot plenty of quarry with it and all foxes have dropped dead on the spot, this includeds a few long range ones at close to 300 yards, I have shot rabbits at 320 yards and again spot on and crows out to 250 yards (havent seen any further out yet but you can bet when I do ill be taking a pop at them) ill do a proper review of the .204 ruger sometime soon.

 

So to sum it up, great rifle very accurate, looks good, is built right (bar that loose chamber) and customer service back up is spot on from cooper, the cheek piece thing is just a difference from the american market to ours so you cant really blame anyone on that one if you shoot a low scope youre fine but like a lot of us do in these parts big scope are the only ticket for lamping. I would throughly reccommend this rifle to anyone looking for a rifle that will shoot good and needs no modifying out of the box (unless youre like me and cant help yourself messing around with something that is already spot on)

 

Sorry for the long review but theres no point in doing a quicky, you need to get all the facts.

[Alycidon]

That is an excellent review, thanks for that . Been thinking of one myself in BR but will probably go semi custom or even full custom.

 

A

[craigyboy]

pics now actually work!

[Vermincinerator]

First class review Craigy (there again i am biased)

Seriously a very well written and informative piece.

 

Ian.

[6mmBR]

An excellent review, I highly rate Coopers and Brian Fox is excellent to deal with.

Cheers

Dave

[varminter]

Quite agree with the boys here - a fantastic review :D

I like reviews like this because they are unbiased and give you a true picture of things - so well done craigyboy :(

All the best...................

RAY..................... :(

[charles1]

Hi craigboy in N.I.

 

It's a while since you wrote your review about the .204 I am attempting to buy the same rifle you wrote about, am having some problems but I wondered if you are still in possession and do you have any advice to pass on.

 

Regards

 

charles1

[17 Rem]

This is a very old thread now. If memory serves, Craig no longer shoots and the rifle was sold. Not before it was re-barrelled as a 20 tac after it transpired that a chambering cock up at the factory meant the brass was trashed after it was fired.