THE pump-action rifle is extremely popular with American hunters. Its chief appeal seems to lie with pump-action shotgunners who find it easy to transfer their experience to their big-game rifles, even under the stress of intense excitement. But here in Australia, where very few of us have had access to pump-action shotguns since 1996, pump-action rifles have had limited success.
The Remington Model 7600 appeared to be the last of its tribe, but now there’s a new boy on the block — the Turkish-made Arttech Prima XP whose weight distribution and slimline design provide shotgun-like pointability and fast repeat shots on running game.
The Arttech is built like a battleship and does away with a major fault of early pump designs — the undesirable tendency of the forearm to twist and rattle. Happily, this criticism cannot be applied to the new Arttech because the forearm (pump handle) is as tight as a drum.
The Arttech’s forearm is different to anything that’s gone before. It’s a two-piece unit with the outer section sliding along a pair of rails, one on each side of the inner section which attaches firmly to a steel hanger. Unlike any pump handle I’ve ever seen, it is tightly connected to the operating mechanism and cannot twist or rattle.
The Arttech’s operating rod is
