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Paul Leverman

This guy wants me to trade a rifle for some work. It's a Cogswell & Harrison, chambered in 30-'06. They are supposed to be good rifles, well made in England by the longest surviving gun manufacturer there. But, he says, I can't hit the broadside of a barn door with it. So, let's have a look at it.

First off, I don't think it's been cleaned this century. After an overnight soak with WipeOut, and two subsequent cleanings, you can finally see steel down the bore. Patches are coming out clean, safe to assume it's good to go.

One locking lug is about 50% contact, the other, less than 20%.

He says that at one time, it had a "flip-off" scope mount, not sure what that is, and he says the scope flips off to the left so you can load it easier. He tells me he really didn't like that, so he has a "gunsmith" change it to a Weaver style, one piece rail, and he mounts a Vortex Diamondback. If you shoulder the rifle to the natural shooting position, the scope sits about 1" above the centre of your eye. In order to get a good sight picture with no ghost ring in the scope, there is no cheek weld whatsoever. Your chin barely touches the stock.

Using the cleaning rod method for determining COAL, it measures out (with a 208gr ELD-M) at 3.866" . With a 225 gr ELD-M, it's 3.933". Now we all know that book COALs don't mean a lot, just a guideline, but holy smokes, over half an inch difference? Oh, and the mag measures out at 3.327".

My assumption is that if this fellow was using factory ammo (guaranteed), and trying to maintain a clear sight picture with no cheek weld at all, not only was his head wobbling around, but when that bullet left the case, it looked like a limp dick in a lard pail.

It does however, have some nice furniture on it.

The next step is to see if I can find a load that it likes, see how it behaves, then decide whether I want another single-shot 30-'06.


Some further thoughts to all the above. Knowing that this rifle was built in the mid-'50s, is English made, has express sights, and a huge amount of free-bore, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was specific built for Africa. I don't have one of those huge 220gr bullets to measure, but it looks like it's a given that they would fit nice in the chamber, feed through the mag just fine, and flatten anything that got in it's way. How it ever made it to Northern BC would be an interesting story, I'm sure.