A SurpriSe pAckAge - ANSCHÜTZ - Modern Sporting Rifles (MSR)

Testfire
By Scott traill
A SurpriSe
pAckAge
Brand: Anschutz Model: RX22 Semi Auto .22
The email from Dead Eye Dicks
advised me that the next rifle for
Testfire would be an anschutz .22
rimfire rifle, so naturally I thought
OK, another european bolt action
wood/blued sporting rifle to
review that would probably be
superbly accurate and nice to look
at: fine.
The package turns up at my
workshop, but inside isn’t an
anschutz bolt action .22 rifle,
it’s an fn SCaR 5.56mm tactical
rifle. Hang on though, what’s that
written on the side? anschutz. Oh
and it says cal .22LR as well. I heft
the rifle and drop the mag out, yep
definitely a .22 rimfire. neat.
The rifle didn’t come with any
supporting info, so a quick check
on the net told the story. The
anschutz MSR (modern sporting
rifle) RX22 is the product of a joint
development by three German
companies; anschutz, German
Sport Guns (GSG) and eSC ULM.
The result is a semi automatic,
magazine fed .22 rifle that has
a similar outward appearance,
at least to me, to the fn SCaR
which I’m slightly familiar with
anyway. Wow!
The rifle felt good in the hand
90 / rodandrifle.co.nz / jan/feb 2013
Rimfire rifles are great
to test as you can fire a
lot of shots quite quickly
without having to worry
about barrels heating
up and ruining potential
accuracy. And of course
since it’s a .22 autoloader,
I had plenty of ammo to
burn through.
and for those familiar with
operating an aR15 platform,
everything’s in the same place,
except for the cocking/charging
handle which is above the barrel
and forward of the receiver, similar
to the H&K G3, rather than behind
the bolt carrier.
already fitted was a Minox
3-9x40 Za3 scope in steel Millet
rings. It appeared to be mounted
quite high – which is normal on
these types of rifles due to the
cheekpiece being above the line of
the bore. When shouldered quickly
everything felt good, with the eye
central to the eyepiece lens and
a good cheek weld on the stock.
Tubular type rifles and aR15s are
the same, requiring higher than
usual scope rings. I noticed a set
of open sights was also attached
to the scope rail. The rifle looked
to have a folding stock, and even
had the locking clip fitted to the
receiver to keep the butt in place
Four rabbits and the RX22.
once folded. but everything was
locked solid, which was expected,
as a folder would have quickly
made it a restricted weapon in
this country.
The net also revealed that the
MSR comes in four different
versions, Desert and blackhawk
models, with the side folding stock
collapsible for length and cheek
weld, and Precision and Precision
black models with fixed wooden
stocks and fore-end components.
Our model was the Desert
model but had obviously had the
stock pinned to satisfy import
requirements. It did however have
the adjustable comb feature left
untouched. The colour also looked
more like Dark earth rather than
Desert Tan, but maybe German soil
is a different colour?
Most of the exterior components,
including the magazine, looked to
be made of an injection moulded
plastic polymer, which I’m a fan of
when it’s used wisely. It looked like
the sort of rifle that would be a lot
of fun to shoot so let’s have a look
inside and then shoot it. If it shot
as well as anschutz claimed, then
some local rabbits were going to
have their day ruined.

the upper receiver/
action
Like an aR15, the RX22 has
what’s commonly referred to as
an upper and a lower, the main
components that make up the
gun. The upper houses the bolt,
bolt carrier and barrel, while the
lower accommodates the trigger,
hammer mech and magazine.
both the upper and lower are
made from polymer on the RX22
– but alloy and steel are used
where it counts. anschutz call the
action a ‘force-locking, blowback
action with hammer lock’. I was
unsure as to what this meant
as it looked like a fairly simple
straight blowback type action
to me, locked by the weight of
the breech block and the main
springs – which is pretty normal
in autoloading .22s It did look
well-designed however with a
square steel bolt running in an
alloy bolt carrier secured into the
polymer upper – this ensures the
highest wear areas are built from
steel and alloy. and as with most
.22s the bolt featured a spring
loaded claw extractor on the right
and a cartridge retaining claw
on the left. The ejector is fixed in
the bolt-way.
Instead of a single large main
spring, the RX22 has two smaller
mainsprings opposite each other
which helps things wear more
evenly as the action cycles, quite
similar to the Remington 597.
a truly ambidextrous cocking
handle lets the user quickly
position it at six different positions
by simply pulling it from its detent
and placing it either right above
the bolt, midway along the foreend,
or right up front by the barrel,
on both right and left sides of the
upper. The cocking handle locates
into a cocking bar that contacts
the bolt carrier when the handle
is pulled rearward, cocking the
rifle. a light spring in the upper
receiver ensures the cocking bar
returns forward after cocking and
moves independently of the bolt
carrier. This is a good feature as it
means the cocking handle itself
isn’t moving with the bolt as the
rifle cycles, but stays stationary in
its detent in the cocking bar.
a two-piece alloy Picatinny
rail extends for the length of the
receiver, giving almost unlimited
sight-mounting options. These
are secured with screws into steel
inserts in the plastic upper, rather
than into the plastic itself. a quad-
rail arrangement of Picatinny rail
on the fore-end gives plenty of
options for mounting torches,
a laser or a bipod etc, although
these are made from polymer
rather than alloy like the scope
rails. The locking clip for the
folding butt was still attached to
the right side of the receiver but,
as mentioned earlier, served no
purpose on this rifle now.
the lower
It was obvious that the lower has
been designed to accommodate
both left and right handed
shooters, with both the safety
lever and mag release featured
on both sides of the rifle. The
safety is easily reached with the
thumb, and the mag release with
the trigger finger – and all without
having to take your master hand
off the pistol grip in true aR style.
The safety blocks the trigger only.
Down in the hammer mech, things
get very similar to a Ruger 10/22
to my eye, operating in much the
same way with a hammer, twin
torsion hammer springs and a
sear and disconnect lever.
a feature seldom found on
a semi automatic rifle is an
adjustable trigger, but the
RX22 has one that allows a
user adjustable pull weight of
1500 grams - 2500 grams and
comes set at 1800 grams from
the factory. This one let off at
1890 grams by my gauge, so
pretty close.
an eight shot polymer magazine
is housed in the lower and is
designed to give the appearance
of a much larger .223 or 5.56mm
magazine. This suits the style of
the rifle as it would have ruined
the appearance to have a tiny .22
rimfire magazine jutting from it.
The pistol grip is non-removable
and is moulded as part of the
lower in the style of an M16a2
grip, which most would agree
is well proven by now. a lot of
people hate this style of grip,
mainly for its appearance, but
if they spent a bit of time with it
they might find it hard to go back
to a conventional rifle grip. One
other feature the RX22 has in
the lower is a last shot bolt hold
open, actuated by the magazine
follower which pushes the hold
open lever into the path of the
bolt, holding it to the rear.
the Butt
not too much to go into here – it
Right side of receiver,
showing distinctive AR15
positioning of components.
ad
RX22 rifle.
jan/feb 2013 / rodandrifle.co.nz / 91

Testfire
would have been pretty neat if it
had been able to fold and retract
as it was designed to do, but
such are our laws. The only thing
left adjustable is the cheekpiece
which has two positions, the
high position being of not much
use except with extremely high
mounted optics, like a night vision
device perhaps. Like the upper
and lower, the butt assembly
is made from polymer and has
multiple sling attachments.
the Barrel
Housed inside the upper receiver
and fore-end is the barrel.
anschutz haven’t skimped here,
fitting the same button-rifled
match barrel they would fit to
any of their target or biathlon
rifles. They claim it has the same
chamber and rifling style as well,
giving match grade accuracy
from a sporting rifle. The taper is
straight and of a medium profile,
finished off with a square target
crown. barrel length is 420mm
with a right hand 1-16.5” twist
and finished in a blued satin
black colour.
Shooting the anSchutz
MSr rX22
Rimfire rifles are great to test
as you can fire a lot of shots
quite quickly without having to
worry about barrels heating up
and ruining potential accuracy.
and of course since it’s a .22
autoloader, I had plenty of ammo
to burn through.
Testing was done at 70 metres
with a very slight wind from 12
o’clock, so pretty good shooting
conditions. Shooting was done
with the rifle supported off a bag
at the front and with the pistol
grip supported with my left fist.
92 / rodandrifle.co.nz / jan/feb 2013
I started off with everyone’s
favourite subsonic ammo,
Winchester. This was the new 42gr.
The first test for the rifle was going
to be if it would actually reliably
cycle subsonic. no problem here,
and I could see through the Minox
scope that the rifle was accurate.
five shots measuring 28mm
centre to centre to start with. I
fired a second group with similar
results, and once again the rifle
cycled fine, although I noticed
the bolt didn’t hold back on the
last shot for the second group.
next I shot some Remington 36
grain Cyclone ammo which also
grouped very well at 25mm for the
best group, worst being 35mm for
5 shots.
Lastly, and to cover most
ammunition types, I tried some
CCI Stinger 32 grain hyper-velocity
ammo with a muzzle velocity of
1640 fps. Some auto loaders hate
this stuff as it can sometimes
cause the bolt to open too quickly,
rupturing the case and sending
gasses into the shooter’s face.
The anschutz however seemed to
just eat it up, and even managed
some respectable groups of 25
and 28mm. This is very good and
consistent accuracy from a .22
autoloader. I carried on shooting
with the Winchester subsonic, as
it was the most pleasant to shoot
with, and even managed a 22mm
group at 70 metres with it – not
bad. I finished up zeroing with
this ammo.
in the field with
the rX22
I took my daughter for a walk on
a calm morning before work with
the anschutz; she’s only four, so
it wouldn’t be a long walk. almost
straight away, we found a couple
of rabbits still out in the middle of
the paddock after a night’s feeding
and at around 50m. I managed to
despatch them both with the RX22
before they got back to the gorse.
Technical
The Anschutz stripped down.
Cheap open sights and full
length picatinny rail.
Bolt and bolt carrier group.
Results
Very respectable groups from the RX22 at 70m.
These are half inch aiming marks.
Hammer mech in
polymer lower.
Bolt and bolt
carrier assembly.
WE CAN BUILD YOU A .50BMG RIFLE
PRECISION GUNSMITHING / RE-BARRELLING / MUZZLE BRAKES / SUPPRESSORS / TACTICAL BOLT KNOBS / STAGGERED BARREL FLUTING
Scott (Dusty) Traill-Weapons Engineer, Wairarapa, SHOOTING SYSTEMS RESEARCH NZ LTD, Phone: 027 579 1047, Email: ssrnz@xtra.co.nz, See us at: www.ssrnz.com

The subsonic wasn’t too loud,
even without a suppressor. Ten
minutes later we had two more in
the hand, both at around 50m as
well. Once again the RX22 didn’t
miss a beat, and killed them both
cleanly with shoulder shots. We
carried the rabbits back for some
pics, and Lilly likes the tails so I
twisted a couple off for her. The
anschutz is quite a deep rifle,
from the top of the scope to the
bottom of the magazine, and
looks like it would be awkward
to carry. but in reality it felt
great to hunt with; comfortable
and natural to hold and fast to
shoulder. If we’d had longer, the
Up Close
The butt
completes a very
comfortable stock.
anschutz would have made a few
more bunny ghosts that morning
for sure.
concluSion
The anschutz certainly delivered
where it counted – accurate,
reliable, comfortable and well
engineered. a few people won’t
like its physical appearance, as
was evident during the time it
spent in my workshop. Most
mistook it for a .223 at first,
while a few just thought it was
ugly – until they picked it up and
shouldered it, then the comments
changed to “Oh... it actually feels
quite good”.
Personally I like firearms like
this; practical, well designed and
built from modern materials.
The only thing I didn’t like about
the RX22 was the set of open
peep sights supplied, which were
cheaply made as well as being
unusable as you couldn’t get
your head down low enough on
the comb to actually see through
them. One other thing Kiwis
would find useful would be a
factory-threaded muzzle in 1/2”
unf for a suppressor.
If you’re in the market for a top
end .22 rifle, even if it was a bolt
action you were thinking of, take a
look at the anschutz MSR RX22.
Adjustable trigger
Button-rifled
match barrel.
ad
Anschutz is
quite a deep
rifle, from
the top of
the scope to
the bottom
of the
magazine.
Specs
Anschutz RX22 Semi Auto .22
Calibre: .22LR
Action: force-locking, blowback
with hammer lock
Colour: Sand
Stock: Plastic
Length: 830mm-865mm
Barrel Length: 420mm
Barrel: button rifled 1-16.5”
Weight: 3.15 kg
Magazine: 8 rounds
AGENTS: Dead eye Dicks
jan/feb 2013 / rodandrifle.co.nz / 93