Recoil lugs on .22 target rifles

[Cumbrian]

It has just struck me that my newly acquired BSA Martini International Mk V does not have a recoil lug, unlike the Anschutz 1800 series rifles with which I am much more familiar. Of course the difference in stock and action design probably explains this fact but leaves me wondering whether the BSAs might suffer from the absence of a recoil lug. I fully understand the purpose of the latter when found in the actions of shotguns or the mounts for telescopic sights on centre fire rifles but am not so clear about their purpose on .22s with their very small recoil. Are recoil lugs found only on wooden stocks? My Gemini stock, made for round action Match 54s , has a lug, even though it is aluminium. Anyone able to enlighten me?

[Tim S]

Cumbrian,

I think you have it when you mention the difference in action and stock, and smallbore recoil. A bolt action sits on the bedding surface, so without a recoil lug, there would only be the bedding bolts, or the inletting around the tang to take the recoil. In comparison the Martini has a nice flat section at the back (square to the recoil) that bears against the buttstock. There isn't really anywhere you could put a recoil lug on a Martini International action, it would have to go on the barrel.

Anschutz Match 54 rifles have the bar in the stock, but this is more to locate the action, than absorb the force of the recoil, which is why Nibbs just fits a pin his Gemini stocks.

[Cumbrian]

Tim,

Thank you for your reassuring reply and explanation. I shall cease to worry about that aspect of my BSA.

Roger

[Andre]

FWIW, my coach built a prone stock for his anschutz, and when he bedded it never bedded the recoil lug plate. It shot like crap until be rebedded it with the lug.

[Tim S]

Andre,

it could be that the first bedding job wasn't quite perfect. The British Gemini alu stocks shoot well with just a round stud instead of the lug.

Anyway, the question of recoil lugs is largely irrelevant to BSA Martini rifles. These are built more like a shotgun that a bolt-action rifle. The action is box-shaped, and stock is made of two pieces; the butt is bolted onto the back of the action, and the fore-end is bolted directly onto the barrel*, there is a gap between them. The recoil is taken where the action bears on the butt section; this is a flat surface perpendicular to the bore line, so effectively acts as a lug. There isn't anywhere that you could put a conventional (i.e downwards protruding) lug, as the breech assembly forms the bottom of the action.


*The 1960s Mk III employed an alu strut bolted into the action to cantilever out the fore-end, so the barrel was free-floated.

[Martin H]

As a matter of interest FWB 2700's and Bleiker's have no recoil lugs. I think is Tim S is correct, with smallbore actions, recoil lugs are mainly to help locate the action when you assemble them.
Martin H

[KatoomDownUnder]

As a matter of interest FWB 2700's and Bleiker's have no recoil lugs. I think is Tim S is correct, with smallbore actions, recoil lugs are mainly to help locate the action when you assemble them.
Martin H

The Walther KK300 Alutec and Anatomic only use the action screws plus slight recesses in the stock to hold it all together.

[Bob Smalser]

The Remington 40X and Winchester 52E had recoil lugs, but for different reasons. The Remington's merely being an artifact of an action originally designed for high-power cartridges, and the Winchester's designed to replicate the bedding advantages of a flat-bottomed action (very likely copied from Swiss service and target rifles having free-floated actions).







Obviously on a high-powered rifle a lug is needed to prevent recoil from applying stress on the action screws. Rimfires don't have quite the same problem, but the high-end target rifles are usually designed to fire hundreds of thousands of rounds in their lifetimes (far, far in excess of any high-powered rifle), hence most have some sort of lug or index device for longevity of bedding.

[corning]

Bob Smalser: Is that a Kenyon trigger on the Winchester? Nice.

As mentioned, the 52E has a recoil lug. Coincidentally, I have a 1952 Hammerli .22 free rifle that does have a recoil lug. It is a bit different from the 52E.

[Bob Smalser]

Yes, that's a Kenyon trigger on the 52E. Another rimfire action having a recoil lug is the Kimber 82 Government, probably copying the 52E, as the rifle design used 1950's-era scantlings and balance taken from the old, muzzle-heavy 40X's and 52's.

This one is mounted with a dovetail locked by a set screw, but I suspect that's merely a manufacturing shortcut to allow the receiver to be machined from plain pipe as opposed to an investment casting.