A precision bolt action “bullpup” on a mission! By Gary Paul Johnston aving first appeared dur - sarmoury.com). The term “bullpup” mean to use on the poor little myrmi - ing World War I in bolt ac - is now all but a household word. dons of the “religion of peace,” have tion rifles, the style called Throughout this time, bolt-action declared it a “weapon of war,” and “bullpup” consists of a bullpup rifles continued to take a have made using it on sub-ho - Hrifle that has its magazine and re - back seat. But they finally began to mosapien barbarians by our heroic ceiver behind the trigger and pistol find their niche almost a century later, warriors punishable by spending the grip. This arrangement puts the rifle’s appearing as precision rifles for com - rest of their lives in prison…really! butt right behind the magazine, with petition, hunting and military appli - Yes, the .50 BMG long-range rifles can the operator’s cheek on the stock right cations. Such rifles are now usually only be fired at materiel targets, such over the bolt, thereby removing offered in mainstream calibers, in - as vehicles and supplies. What if the roughly 10–12 inches from the overall cluding .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm ride is full of “pull-starts?” Well, OK, length of the weapon. NATO), .300 Winchester Magnum, our troops can shoot at it (I think), but Interestingly, self-loading bullpup .338 Lapua Magnum, and others. A if the driver stops and they all un-ass rifles also first appeared near the end few of these have been designed with the truck with RPGs and AKMs, of the Great War, such as the 6.5mm quick-change barrel systems in these using the .50 on them is a big no-no! French Faucol-Meunier fielded in calibers. This means that an operator The folks whose asses we saved from 1918. However, both the bolt-action can quickly convert his or her Hitler have even gone so far as to out - and self-loading “bullpup” were all bullpup to .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag. law any cartridge based on the .50 but forgotten until World War II. They or .338 Lapua Magnum for the in - BMG casing from being used against didn’t enter serious testing or produc - tended use. enemy personnel. Ah, but don’t get tion until after the war, with such me started. models as the British EM-1 and EM-2, Fifty is OUT! and continuing with the Steyr AUG, What about the .50 BMG, you ask? A Happy Compromise French FAMAS and British bullpup Well, the 21st century European com - In the meantime, in 1983, Research that became the L85A2. All of these munity, quivering in their way too Armament Industries had begun de - were capable of selective fire (see The tight shorts over John M. Browning’s velopment of a new long-range car - World’s Assault Rifles from collector - magnificent .50 caliber being just too tridge case based on the .416 Rigby Top: DTA’s .338 Lapua Magnum Stealth Recon Scout Rifle is right at home in any terrain against any enemy you can see at any distance. 4 SOLDIER OF FORTUNE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS case necked down to .338 caliber. detach sling then be exposed. Hornady made cases with reinforced mounts. On these Being of the interrupted multi-lug walls to handle the extra pressure rails can be type, the bolt of the Stealth Recon and the late Macomb Cooper of Ac - mounted a variety Scout has three sets of two lugs for a curacy International did significant of excellent lights total of six locking lugs. It is also development of the cartridge, along and lasers from abbreviated, with the bolt with the Finnish company Lapua. such compa - handle located directly be - Called the .338 Lapua Magnum nies as hind the lugs, a necessity (8.58x71mm), this cartridge has es - SureFire, with the bullpup design sentially been standardized as the Laser De - to achieve overall short - optimum anti-personnel round for vices, In - ness. The modular military use. Carrying a 250-grain sight trigger group is bullet that leaves the muzzle at a ve - Tactical quite simple, locity in the range of 3,000 fps and a and others. with an am - range out to 1,800 yards, the .338 Once again, bidex - Lapua Magnum will likely be mili - reminiscent of the trous tary’s the long-range sniper rifle car - Steyr AUG, the safety tridge for the foreseeable future. rear portion of the that is logical, i.e., Stealth Recon push forward to The Stealth Recon Scout Scouts’ upper re - allow bullets to go Gaining momentum around 1990, ceiver carries forward and pull back the .338 Lapua Magnum began to the rotating to keep bullets back. appear chambered in a variety of bolt and slides No need to stop and bolt-action rifles, a trend that contin - into the rear look at this safety. Al - ued for almost two decades. More portion of the though it is easily ad - recently, however, with the advent polymer stock, justable, the trigger of modern 21st century bullpup which covers it Sgt. Joe Scott on our sample SRS holds the Stealth bolt-action rifles, the cartridge seems and forms the Recon Scout as he was set to perfec - to have found a new home in repeat - cheek piece, with scans the rugged tion at about two ing rifles. The latest is from Desert the polymer acting terrain. The ballistic pounds with slight Tactical Arms, of Utah, USA. It is fit - to protect the face knee guards he’s take-up. wearing proved tingly called the Stealth Recon Scout from heat and quite valuable. (SRS), a catchy name, but one that freezing cold. On Premier Reticle Scope also fits. the right side is a Our sample Desert Tactical SRS The simplest way to describe the channel in which the bolt handle came with the factory 34mm scope construction of the Stealth Recon moves fore and aft, and underneath mount, which held a Premier Reticle Scout is that it uses a hard-coat an - the stock is the magazine well with 5–25x56mm illuminated reticle odized aircraft alloy monolithic re - an ambidextrous magazine release scope using a 34mm tube. This scope ceiver component similar to that of that is pressed in to release the uses the USMC Gen IIXR MilDot ret - the self-loading 5.56x45mm NATO formed metal magazine. All maga - icle, which we found totally impres - caliber AR-type rifle introduced by zine bodies use the same exterior sive. Premier’s LeverLock system Lewis Machine & Tool several years with modifications made to the in - requires only the rim of a spent car - ago. The main difference is that side to fit the various calibers in tridge to unlock the turret to make Desert Tactical designed this compo - which Desert Tactical offers the SRS. fine adjustments to windage and ele - nent to use a bolt-action repeating These include .243 Winchester, .308 vation. system of operation. The other dif - Winchester (7.62x51mm NATO), .300 ference is that the SRS’ receiver Winchester Magnum, and of course Quick-Change Barrel group is housed in a robust, glass-re - .338 Lapua Magnum. The bolts The Desert Tactical Stealth Recon inforced polymer stock somewhat themselves are also essentially iden - Scout can be had with all four cal - similar to that used in the Steyr tical and have conical knobs, making iber barrels, two of which (.243 Win. AUG, but being comprised of right them easier to operate. And .308 Win.) use the same bolt and left sides held together by hex The SRS’ bolt is installed/re - and magazine. The .300 Win. Mag. cross bolts. moved by first depressing the butt and .338 Lapua Magnum calibers Integral with the top forward por - plate lock (located at the toe, or bot - use their own bolts, but use the tion of the receiver is a long MIL- tom of the butt) forward while push - same magazine. To change a barrel STD-1913 style rail running to the ing down on the butt plate. Because to another caliber, after removing front end of the handguard. On the the rails holding the butt plate in the magazine and bolt and making section that creates the fore end are place are interrupted, the plate sure the chamber is empty, use the three additional integral rails at 3-, needs only to be pushed down an supplied torque wrench to loosen 6- and 9 o’clock, and at the fore and inch or so in order to remove it rear - four barrel locking screws in the aft ends of both side rails are quick- ward. The channel for the bolt will right side of the stock; then turn the SOFMAG.COM JUNE 2011 5 DESERT TACTICAL’S STEALTH RECON SCOUT Continued barrel lock on the left side of the stock 180 degrees counterclockwise. The barrel can then be removed out the front of the rifle. With the initial barrel removed, a different barrel is then carefully in - serted from the front of the receiver, making sure the feed ramp is posi - tioned correctly. Final reassembly is in reverse order using the furnished 68 foot-pound torque wrench. The proper bolt is then inserted and the butt plate replaced, all in less than two minutes. Total field-stripping simply requires the removal of the The Stealth Recon Scout disassembles as shown in about four minutes. Barrel remaining stock bolts using the pro - changes take less than half that long. vided Allen wrench, but is seldom necessary.