Thread: Omark .308 target rifle

Ok, now for something a little different to my normal smaller caliber varmint rifles.

I got given this old Omark target rifle about 15 years ago.



Didn't know anything about them at the time, so hit Google and did some research. The book "Bolt Action Rifles" by Frank de Haas was also a good reference.

This thing was HEAVY; the receiver walls are 8mm thick, and the barrel is 650mm long and 22mm diameter just behind the front sight (the muzzle it machined down to fit the Parker Hale front sight).

I had no idea of whether it would shoot, and didn't want to spend too much to find out. I obtained a rear peep sight to fit and purchased some 144gn FMJ target rounds from the local big bore rifle club.



The results were quite promising so I bought a pic rail and some rings and had the action D&Ted. The stock had been shortened so I added a Blackwood spacer and rubber grind-to-fit pad (grinding just exposed the steel insert in one place - bugger). Picked up some Lee collet dies, opened up some of my Win .243 brass and set about developing some loads. Scope was just a Simmons Whitetail Classic 6.5-20x50 that had been on my .22-250. Again it seemed to shoot well.

Over time the scope got replaced with a second hand Zeiss Conquest 6.5-20x50, then the Sightron 5-25x50 it currently wears. I picked up a two stage Davies trigger shortly before their production ceased - it's a beauty.





For quite a few years it got an occasional use at the rifle club shooting F class at anywhere between 300 to 1,000 yards.



My brother and I were so impressed with how it shot that we purchased another second hand one and set it up for dad to shoot at the club; it too has proven to be quite accurate. It seems to be an earlier model with the lighter profile barrel similar to the one in the Frank de Haas book.



More recently it's had a couple of weekend trips to a property New South Wales with member L461 where rabbits abound and shots on warrens out to 800m are possible.

These old rifles can provide a very cheap basis for a custom HB single shot. While I replaced the trigger on mine the factory trigger is very similar to a Rem M700 and can be pretty good. The bolt lugs engage in the back of the barrel so rebarreling requires an adaptor. One approach I have read about is to use the stub of the old barrel as the adaptor. This is an example from an Aussie forum of an Omark that has been rebarrelled to .22-250 and fitted into a synthetic Winchester Sharpshooter (I believe?) stock.



Marcus