Bolts of Genius: The History of the Bolt-Action Rifle in America

The history of the bolt-action rifle in America isn’t really as long as one might think, especially when couched in terms of its popularity as a hunting rifle. Since we have to start somewhere, I don’t think I’d get much argument when I say it started with the U. S. Army’s adoption of the M1903 Springfield. While it’s true that the Krag-Jorgensen chambered in .30-40 Krag had served as the U. S. martial arm since 1893 and was indeed a bolt action centerfire rifle, its magazine system was too weird to be representative of what we came to envision as the archetypal bolt-action rifle.

Bolt-Action Rifle History in America

The Early Days

To say the ’03 Springfield was heavily influenced by the Mauser would be an understatement, so much so that our government paid about $3 million to the Mauser people for copying it. The ’03 had a head start here because if you were an NRA member you could pick up a Springfield starting in 1910, whereas ’98 Mausers (and earlier variations thereof), didn’t become generally available until the 1920s.

It was a time when the lever action rifle reigned supreme with America’s hunters—a trend that would continue until the 1950s, despite the fact that even the most potent lever gun cartridges paled in both power and trajectory when compared to the .30-06. Our boys returning home from the Great War, introduced to the superior power and accuracy of the bolt-action .30-06, started the slow transition.

In the meantime, the first American firearms manufacturer with the prescience to recognize that there just might be something to this bolt action thing was Savage, who in 1920 introduced its Model 1920. Designed around their own .250 and .300 Savage cartridges, the action was too short to handle the .30-06, which surely had something to do with it being discontinued nine years later.

The Rise of Big Green

Hot on Savage’s heels was Remington, which in 1921 rolled out its Model 30. This was a rifle that had to happen. Why? Because when the Great War ended in November 1918, Remington was turning out some 4000 Model ’17 Enfield .30-06 rifles for Uncle Sam every day! Suddenly they found themselves with literally thousands of complete rifles and parts on hand. By making some cosmetic changes in the action, shortening the barrel, and dropping the barreled action into a sporter-type stock, it became a successful rifle for Remington, being produced right up to the start of WWII.

As for Remington’s prime competitor, the Winchester folks found themselves in the same boat at the end of the war in that they, too, had been cranking out beau coups ’17 Enfields for the war effort. But with Remington having acted so quickly with their Model 30, the guys in New Haven figured that coming out with another ’17 Enfield-based rifle was, well, beneath them. Do keep in mind that at the time the Winchester name had far more cachet than Remington.

Anyway, starting with a clean sheet of paper, the result in 1925 was the rolling out of the Model 54, Winchester’s first venture into the commercial bolt action arena. Though the 54 was a completely new design, it borrowed all the major features of  the ’98 Mauser—dual opposed locking lugs up front, non-rotating extractor, controlled-round feeding, inertia ejection, staggered column internal box magazine, and a wing safety mounted on the bolt shroud. The 54 was well received, and helping that reception was that it was being offered in the equally new .270 Win., the hottest, flattest-shooting cartridge to come on the American scene up to that time.

Moving Along

So as we entered the 1930s, we had the aforementioned bolt guns—the Savage 1920, Remington Model 30, Winchester Model 54, along with surplus, sporterized and customized Mausers, Springfields and Enfields—all doing their part to woo America’s hunters and shooters. However, the most seminal event on the bolt action scene prior to Pearl Harbor was Winchester’s unveiling of its Model 70 in 1936. Here was a rifle that wasn’t really all that different from its predecessor, the Model 54, but every change that had been made worked together to make it the most desired rifle of the time. It was, in fact, the rifle against which all others were judged until 1964, when it was discontinued in favor of a replacement that was easier and cheaper to manufacture. Resumption of the original began in 1992 and continues to the present day.

Post-War Bolt-Gun Renaisance

After the war–the late 1940s and early ’50s–more and more hunters embraced bolt guns. Hunters came to understand that the only advantage the reigning lever-action maintained was rapidity of fire. Even then it wasn’t really that much faster in getting off a follow-up shot. Bolt guns, on the other hand, were strong enough to digest the most powerful cartridges, were more accurate, better suited for handloading, and had the camming force needed to chamber and extract recalcitrant cartridges.

The next seminal event was the debut of Remington’s Model 722 in 1948, and the 721 that followed a year later. Here was a rifle that virtually dictated the basic design for countless other marques that would follow. Forget the current and phenomenally successful Model 700 introduced in 1962 and still going strong. It comprises nothing more than a refined iteration of the basic Models 721/722. The defining features of this design come via a tubular receiver, twin-opposed, forward locking lugs, a recessed bolt face with a plunger ejector, and a washer-type recoil lug sandwiched between the barrel shoulder and receiver ring.

Weatherby Revolution

The year 1957 was a big year for the bolt action because Roy Weatherby unveiled his Mark V Magnum and Savage its Model 110. The Mark V ushered in the age of the tri-lug fat-bolt, but it took about 50 years for other gun makers to pay attention. Actually, the Weatherby action incorporates nine locking lugs. It marks only a minor variation from the current spate of tri-lug action introduced since the turn of the century. It makes no difference whether it comes via three rows of three lugs, two rows of six lugs, or one row of three lugs.

Each pattern orients on 120-degree centers, making for a shorter bolt rotation (handle lift). They also share commonality in that production calls for removing material at the head, forming the locking lugs on a larger-diameter bolt. The lugs do not project beyond the bolt diamter and thus require only a round hole in the receiver in which to reciprocate. Combined with other cost-saving measures, including injection molded stocks, tri-lug rifle production can price far more economically than a Mauser-type rifle. However, not all tri-lug rifles make a budget gun by any means.

Tri-Lug Bolt Design

Since the Millennium, 13 tri-lug rifles made their introductions, mostly European in origin like the Benelli Lupo, Merkel 16, Sauer 100, Franchi Momentum, Sabatti Saphire, Mauser M18, Sauer 202 and the Steyr SM12, to name just a few. Of course, the most familiar members of that impressive list come via our own Ruger American and Winchester XPR. Both rifles carry MSRPs nearly half of their own flagship rifles–the Model 77 and Model 70, respectively. Despite their entry-level price points, both are embarrassingly accurate and, therefore, somewhat problematic for their makers. Thompson-Center is also aboard the tri-lug train with its Icon, Venture and Dimension.

As for the Savage 110, it showed just how economically a company could produce a bolt-action rifle. In concert with the economy derived by starting with a tubular receiver, Savage came up with a bolt that also starts out as a simple tube. It features a separate bolt head, complete with a recessed face and plunger ejector. Savage uses a cross pin to keep it in place. Then Savage simply collars the rear of the bolt handle onto the body. The cocking cam notch is a closed hole at the rear of the bolt, and the cocking cam is a rivet-like thingy that slips into a hole in the bolt body. And it’s all held together by a threaded nut at the rear. It’s an innovative design and it’s been the heart of the Savage centerfire lineup to the present day.

Chassis Rifles

Without question the latest craze is the chassis rifle. Essentially, this genre owns characteristics of a more-or-less conventional barreled action, dropped into an aluminum chassis. The chassis often comes modified to accept AR-10-style magazines, grips and adjustable buttstocks. Integral forearms that free-float the barrel come ventilated with M-LOK or KeyMod slots for mounting accessories. In other words, the chassis system makes a bolt action rifle look like an AR, but it also affords a more stable bedding system that’s more conducive to accuracy and point-of-impact retention.

Within the last five years, every major manufacturer (and most minor) of bolt action rifles is offering chassis-style rifles. And there’s no shortage of after-market accessory companies that offer chassis-style stocks that offer drop-in capability. Either way, it’s a system that’s more popular with long-range recreational and competitive shooters than with hunters, but who knows where it might lead…like perhaps the Sig Sauer Cross rifle?

The Cross comprises a gun that, as far as I know, becomes the first designed from scratch as a chassis-style rifle. It’s a tri-lug action that locks up with the barrel, so the receiver, being a non-stressed component, can be an aluminum alloy. The weight of the gun is 6.2 pounds with its 16-inch barrel. Employing its folding buttstock results in an overall length of 25 inches. It is chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win. and the new 277 Sig Fury—a .270-caliber cartridge that launches a 140-grain bullet at over 3,000 fps in that 16-inch barrel! Designed as a hunting rifle, the highly innovative Cross might well change our concept of what a ”bolt action rifle” looks like!

This story originally appeared in the August-September 2001 issue of Ballistic Magazine. Get your copy today at OutdoorGroupStore.com.