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Badger went shopping on Saturday.

Well before dawn he was up, fed and trundling down the M1, M42 and M5 in the Orient Express’s heated leather seat towards Somerset. Dawn rose over the Cotswolds and soon after the early morning sun was raising the mists over the Somerset Levels as Badger traversed Ashcott Ridge towards Glastonbury. The Tor rose high above the Isle of Avalon, its base shrouded in mist and mystery. At 10:00 Badger arrived at Ivythorn Sporting where a nice shiny Schultz and Larsen Traveller was awaiting his attention. As Badger sipped coffee and perused the shelves laden with shiny stuff, Louis carefully fitted Badger’s 6x42 Meopta scope to the rifle. Scoping complete, Badger pocketed a box of 7.92x57 ammunition and followed Louis up the hill to the testing range. Targets were set out at 50 and 100 yards and the rifle bore sighted by Louis. Badger pawed over three rounds and Louis filled the magazine, slotted it into the receiver and took careful aim.

KABOOM ! Boom……boom…

As the echo reverberated around the Somerset hills, Louis made a couple of adjustments to the scope.

KABOOM ! Boom…boom…

A hole appeared in the centre of the 50 mard target.

KABOOM ! Boom…boom…

The hole increased in size slightly.

Louis withdrew the bolt from the rifle an placed it on the bench. “That’s pretty close. Let the barrel cool for a few minutes and then have a try yourself.”

Louis slipped out of the shooting cabin and wandered off back down the hill. There were other guns to fettle, other customers to serve. Lots of them. Ivythorn is a popular place. Badger was soon joined in the cabin by a ooman testing a Blaser. A nice .243 Blaser with awesome, almost exhibition grade, woodwork and a very expensive scope. Comparisons were made, test groups shot. The Schultz and Larsen / Meopta combination excelled.

For the next couple of hours Badger tweaked the sights, fired a three shot group, tweaked again, fired again until he was satisfied. The S&L’s bolt slid back and forth like ice upon ice, rounds fed cleanly from the magazine, the barrel returned to zero reliably when removed from the action and replaced. Badger was happy, even if his groups weren’t quite so small as the one Louis made: they were still minute of mouse at 50 yards.

The box of ammunition empty, Badger toddled back down the hill to the gunroom and pawed the treasures whilst Louis made out the receipt and filled in the paperwork to satisfy Mr Plod.

As the sun set and darkness enveloped the Vale of Evesham, Badger trundled northwards, the Shultz and Larsen cradled in a nice protective box in the Orient Express.




Ivythorn Sporting: Purveyors of Fine Firearms to the Sett www.ivythornsporting.co.uk

Did you opt for S&L or Apel mounts and rings?

Well oomans, the today dawned bright and crisp and so we scraped the ice off the Badgermobile and trundled off to Kingsbury Range. We took the Schulz and Larsen Traveller in 7.92 to see what it will do at 300 mards - far, far more than the range at which we intend to use it but a useful test of its capabilities.

With a 50 yard zero we calculated that us needed to aim fractionally above the second hold over point in the Meopta 6x42 scope’s reticle. There was almost no wind so we didn’t try to correct for windage. The first round, fired from a prone position, was a V bull. The second overlapped it and the third hit just above the other two to form a cloverleaf. Us fired a fourth round did we and it was just above the cloverleaf - about 1/4”. The barrel was warming up at that point and so we let it cool down for 20 minutes before firing 3 more shots. They gave another cloverleaf in the V bull. In short, the Traveller is superbly accurate as a stalking rifle and will even do duty as a target rifle if allowed to cool between shots.

Anyone buying one of the heavier barrelled actions and dropping it into GRS type stock will certainly have a rifle capable of holding its own on the 300, 600 and maybe even 1,000 mard ranges dependent upon calibre. Maybe we can feel a 6.5x55 Swe heavy bull barrel coming on for the Traveller too once the piggy bank has put some weight back on. Barrels can be swapped in 20 seconds or so...

Welcome to the world of S&L, there barrels are absolutely superb and the action is a work of art.

S&L were building lightweight alpine sporting rifles with GRS stocks a few years ago and I was staggered at just how light they were when I picked one up. Sadly they were destined for mainland Europe and Morten said he would not be shipping them to the UK as there was not enough interest. It is rather disappointing to consider what he is making and what we are seeing, two very different things.

BTW, has anyone explained the S&L barrel cleaning philosophy to you?