In July of this year I had the good fortune of attending Lapua's annual sniper competition held in Lohtaja, Finland. The home of Simo Hayha, the highest scoring sniper of all time (he dropped some 542 Soviets during the Winter War before being severely wounded), Finland is known for being a land of hunters and shooters. Covering the event for our sister magazine Shotgun News, I was interested in seeing just how true my perception of Finland remains. I was not disappointed.

Despite teams in attendance from Germany, France, and Norway, the Finns easily dominated the competition. Carrying SAKO TRGs and an array of custom-built sniper rifles chambered for flat-shooting calibers, they dusted the 950-meter targets despite a brutal 25+ mph crosswind.

Calibers? The favorites were the big .338 Lapua Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, and scorching hot 6.5-.284. Why no .308s? Simply because they wanted as flat a trajectory and as little wind drift as possible well past 1000 meters. Plus, to be blunt, they wanted to slap the silhouettes hard.

The AR30's bolt features dual opposed locking lugs, and the bolt head is separate from the body.

So what's all this have to do with

ArmaLite's AR30?

Well, if long-range shooting with a .300 Winchester Magnum, or even bigger .338 Lapua Magnum, strikes your fancy, then one manufacturer to be aware of is

ArmaLite. When I, and I suppose many others, think of ArmaLite the first things that come to mind are AR10 and AR15 rifles. This is logical thinking because this type of rifle is ArmaLite's specialty. However, that's not all the company does.

In addition to the Stoner-based black rifles, they also offer a line of bolt-action rifles. The AR50 is chambered for the attention-getting .50 Browning Machine Gun cartridge while its smaller brother, the AR30, is chambered for the .308 Winchester, .300 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum. These rifles are built on beefy actions that feed from detachable box magazines and feature ArmaLite's trademark muzzlebrake.

ArmaLite AR30 Bolt-Action Rifle
Manufacturer:	ArmaLite Inc.
Model:	AR30
Operation:	Bolt-Action repeater
Caliber:	.300 Win. Mag.
Barrel Length:	26 inches
Overall Length:	48 inches
Weight, empty	12 pounds
Safety:	Two positions
Sights:	None
Stock:	Bedding block
Length of Pull:	13.5 inches
Rifiling::	6 grooves, 1:10-inch RH twist
Magazine Capacity:	5 rounds
Finish:	Matte black manganese phosphated steel, hard-anodized aluminum
Price:	$1460

In my opinion, the AR30 is the more practical design (although the AR50 has a higher cool factor). So with this in mind I obtained an AR30 in .300 Winchester Magnum for a thorough shooting review. Rather than shipping me a standard rifle, ArmaLite gave me the chance to work with a rifle that had been slightly massaged and modified by one of ArmaLite's engineers, Rick Clancy. Customers can also have any of the touches Clancy put on my rifle added to theirs upon request.

Technical Aspects
The AR30 is built on a hefty modified octagonal receiver some 9.5 inches long. Beefy is an understatement when referring to this heavy steel receiver. A long oval ejection port is machined into its right side, and a 15 MOA incline steel MIL-STD-1913 base is screwed to the top of the receiver.

Inside the receiver rides a 7.75-inch-long bolt with dual opposed locking lugs. The bolt head is separate from the bolt body and features a simple plunger-type ejector and SAKO-type extractor. On this example Clancy had squared the locking lugs and lapped them in. Like most turnbolt designs the AR30 cocks on opening. Other modifications made by Clancy to this rifle were to cut six coils from the striker spring and to extend the bolt handle approximately .5 inch. The handle was swept slightly to the rear to make it easy to grasp. Just to the rear of the bolt handle is a simple two-position safety.