Before starting his own company in 1990, Dan Cooper worked for the original Kimber of Oregon. The first rifle built by the new Cooper Firearms Inc., the Model 36, was designed for the pressure-cooker world of international smallbore competition and was in .22 Long Rifle. The first centerfire rifle was built on that same action and it was chambered for the .22 Cooper Centerfire Magnum.

In 1993, the Model 21 in .223 Remington was introduced, and it was followed the very next year by the Model 22, the action of which was made long enough to handle cartridges up to .30-06 in length. In 1998, the name of the company was changed to the present Cooper Firearms of Montana, and rifles are presently available in a wide variety of factory and wildcat chamberings, all built around six different actions.

Latest edition to the Cooper family of fine rifles is the Model 52. Before this one came along, the Model 57M in various rimfire chamberings and a few Model 38 centerfire rifles built in the early days, were Cooper's only repeating rifles; even though other models had turnbolt actions, they were single-shots.

This was a satisfactory arrangement for most paper target punchers and varmint shooters due to the fact that eliminating the magazine cutout from the receiver of a rifle increases stiffness, which as any world-class benchrest competitor will tell you is a good thing to have when building a rifle that will shoot a handful of bullets into a single hole.

Big game hunters who believe the first shot is all important were also quite happy with their single-shot Model 22s, but as hunting seasons came and went, the demand for a big game rifle capable of shooting more than one time between loadings became too great for Dan Cooper to ignore.

The biggest challenge to overcome was designing a magazine-fed rifle capable of delivering the same level of accuracy as the Model 22 single-shot. Nothing less would do, not only for Cooper but for customers who have become spoiled by a rifle capable of consistently shooting three bullets into half an inch or less at 100 yards.

At first glance the Model 52 appears to have a hinged floorplate when in fact the rifle sports a singlestack magazine with a release that looks like a floorplate hinge.

What they basically came up with is a repeating version of the Model 22 with an improvement or two. Like the Model 22, the new Model 52 repeater has three locking lugs at the front of its bolt, and there is a reason for this. Dan Cooper is convinced that a three-lug locking system is inherently more accurate than two lugs, and several barrel makers--including Doug Shilen and George Wilson--agree with his opinion.

As Dan recently put it, "The three-lug bolt is the Cooper signature, and after having built over 30,000 rifles with a half-inch accuracy guarantee, I am convinced it is more accurate than a two-lug bolt."

Dan obviously has something there since the Model 52 repeater is proving to be every bit as accurate as the single-shot Model 22.