Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/528216
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 4 0 manufactured by Legendary Arms Works in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. B uilt around the highly respected Ed Brown-designed, controlled- feed 704 action, the Legendary Arms Works Professional bolt-action rifle represents what is increasingly becoming the standard, all-around, all-American, big-game hunting rifle. It's no longer walnut and blued steel, but synthetic and stainless with enhancements that make it more accurate, durable, and weather-resistant than our old 20th-century standard. And all of it, every spring and screw, is made in the USA. Legendary Arms Works is a brand within Trop Manufacturing, LLC, but the gun-building talent behind the operation is Mark Bansner, machinist and 30-year veteran of custom-rifle building at Bansner's Ultimate Rifles and High-Tech Specialties stocks. Dave Dunn of Trop Gun Shop in nearby Elizabethtown had the insight to bring Bansner, High Tech Specialties, and the Brown 704 action together. The result is Legendary Arms Works. Like so many up-and-coming American gun companies, it's building some impressive rifles at an impressive price. The LAW Professional, for example, which retails for $1,828, is a classic "new-school, new technology" hunting rifle. The Bansner-designed stock is trim and sleek with an open grip that accommodates a variety of hand sizes for a natural, controlled grip without pinching. There is no checkering anywhere on the stock, but the splatter paint finish enhances grip and the narrow forend has just enough tumblehome to provide finger wraparound, while the bulging sides and rounded bottom fill the palm. The gel-coated, fiberglass shell is foam-filled fore and aft, but the center around the action and recoil lug is solid, reinforced, and molded around aluminum bedding pillars and an aluminum bedding block under the front receiver ring. The recoil lug butts against this aluminum block, too, for a solid, no-crush anchor and a torque- consistent, metal-on-metal mating of stock and action. The unique 704 action consists of a one-piece, spiral-fluted bolt body and handle milled from bar stock. The action and action face are precision built for concentricity with the bore. There's no need to blueprint this action. An M1 Garand-style claw extractor is inset within the bolt head. This claw, activated by a coil spring hidden within the lug, grabs cartridges as soon as they spring free of the magazine and holds them against the bolt face for straight-line feeding into the chamber. This extractor is wide enough to encompass .305-inch of cartridge rim, almost equal to the .375-inch gripped by a Winchester M70's claw, but without the long, external spring along the bolt body. The 704 extractor is designed to snap over cartridges single-fed directly into the port, too. The ejector is a hinged, steel blade at the left rear of the action. It slides up through a groove in the bolt face just under the left locking lug, much like the M70 Winchester's does. The three-position wing safety is also like the M70's. In the rear position, it blocks the trigger and locks the bolt handle. The middle position blocks the trigger while letting the bolt handle open for safe unloading, and the forward position unlocks the trigger. Unlike the M70, the 704's shroud/cocking piece/firing pin assembly comes out for maintenance with less than a quarter turn to the right, thanks to dual locking lugs on the firing-pin shaft. This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" features. The stainless-steel, match-grade, free-floating, fluted barrels are 24 or 26 inches long, depending on the caliber, with an additional inch of removable muzzle brake. The rifle's floorplate is hinged to a one-piece, aluminum-alloy frame/trigger guard, which protects the fully adjustable Timney trigger. The barreled action is coated with matte gray Cerakote for additional rust protection. Out of the box, the weight of the Professional in 6.5mm Creedmoor is 6 pounds, 12 ounces, which includes the Picatinny-Weaver style scope bases affixed with oversized 8-40 screws. With a Meopta MeoPro 4.5-14x44mm scope, four rounds of Hornady 140-grain Superformance SST ammo, and a nylon sling, field- ready weight comes to 8½ pounds, almost exactly what Townsend Whelen recommended as the ideal hunting weight. A t the range on a blustery afternoon with winds gusting 8 to 15 miles-per-hour, I broke in the new LAW 6.5 Creedmoor by shooting eight three-shot groups at 100 yards from a portable bench using factory loads from Hornady, Nosler, and Winchester. With its straight stock and muzzle brake, the rifle recoiled about like a standard .22-250 Remington. A real pussycat. A Hornady 120-grain A-Max load registered a ¾-inch group at an average velocity of 2,938 fps. That would be a light-recoiling, flat-shooting, deadly round for deer, pronghorn, and sheep. Hornady Match 140-grain ammo went into ¾-inch at 2,804 fps. A Nosler Match Grade 140-grain HPBT was hot on its heels at 2,768 fps, clustering right at MOA. Both of these rounds would fly flat enough to group inside an 8-inch circle at 800 yards and arrive with more energy than any 140-grain .270 Winchester. Another great hunting load would be Hornady Superformance 129-grain SST bullets at 3,032 fps.