Anschutz Rimfire Questions

[Troy G]

I am venturing into the realm of smallbore and have a couple of questions about Anschutz rimfires. I have been told conflicting things by many people and I am a bit confused. Here goes . . .

Is the 1712 and the 54.18 the exact same actions with different triggers?

If they are not the same what is the difference between the two actions?

[dave imas]

not the same action. not the same trigger. both equally capable of allowing you to shoot scores as high as your shooting abilities allow. i believe 40x40 have been shot with both. both were olympic actions and the best available in their time. both should be considered the best available now. there are other actions that can be equal or close but none better. beyond that there is really nothing more one needs to know.

now Ernie will tell you exactly what is different between the two or you can do a search on the site. there has been recent and significant discussion on the topic.
dave

[ter]

Rimfirecentral.com, has lots of info in the Anschutz forum. Here is a quick breakdown on the 54 rifles I had saved. Sorry I cannot credit the author.

Another way would be to talk of marks within the Match 54 series.

Mk I : 1954-196?, flat-backed bolt, single ejector, wing safety.

Mk II : 196?-1974-6, rounded bolt cap, twin extractor/ejectors, wing safety.
(still used on 17xx Sporter though with a different ejector system)
Mk IIIa : 1974/6-197?, newer tapered bolt cap, trigger safety, slot in bolt (early 16xx)

Mk IIIb : 197?-1986(?), newer tapered bolt cap, trigger saftey, no slot on bolt. (later 16xx and most 18xx)

Mk IV : 1986(?) to present, tapered bolt cap, trigger safety, flat bottomed (not grooved) bolt. (late 18xx, 19xx)

The 20xx uses the Mk IV bolt used since the mid-late '80s.

As Dave said, either are first class. From the factory, generally the 54MS (Super Match) (MKIV) family has lighter triggers, and is more suitable for the standard rifle class, and the 1700 series (MKII) is more applicable for the hunter class, and can pull double duty as a standard rifle with a 2 pound trigger. Of course you can customize either to make this generalization invalid. There are many trigger options for either 54 action. You can download the sporter and match catalogs from the Anschutz web page to look at some popular options. By the way, a good place to buy actions, complete guns, and triggers is Neal Stepp of ISS in Fort Worth Texas. Neal is a first rate guy that knows all the details of the actions and triggers.
If I had to choose one, I would go for the 54MS with the standard 5108 trigger first. I have both, and they are both super-duper nice.
Ter