My one 'do-it-all' non-DG hunting rifle

The rifle is a ‘Voere Titan 2’, known in the USA as Kleinguenther K-15, and later also sold by Mauser as a M99 and M225 (we pronounce Voere to rhyme with ‘food’ and ‘rim’ i.e. ‘food rim’ or ‘foo ruh’, and some English first language speakers I hear say ‘voo ruh’ – not sure how the Germans say it). It looks the same as the rifle pictured with Andries’ blog about ‘entering and travelling with guns in South Africa’ -- perhaps with a different stock shape. It was my first (and turned out to be the only) hunting rifle. I did not know much about hunting rifles but knew I wanted a .30-06. I remember standing in the gun shop in 1983 and deciding between a Brno and the Voere. If I knew then about ‘controlled round feed’ etc. I might have taken the Brno. But I did not like the single-set trigger (which I probably could have replaced later, anyway ….). The Voere had a double-set trigger, also not to my liking but more acceptable (I had the set-trigger removed later), and the Voere’s ‘Bavarian’ stock was much nicer in shape and finish, including front schnabel and Wundhammer palm swell, and fit me well. It had a magnum-length action with detachable magazine, thus the option to simply swap in a magnum-length magazine – which turned out beneficial later, although not apparent at the time.

It started out with a fixed magnification 4x32 Bushnell but for the last nearly 20 years is fitted with a Weaver Grand Slam 4.75x40 scope (also fixed magnification), which IMO is a great piece of optics.

I initially hunted with one bullet, namely Hornady 190gr BTSP Interlock at about 2700fps. It worked, but I never managed to recover a bullet even if it did not exit – perhaps due to breaking up. When Barnes-X came onto the scene and bonded lead core bullets became commonplace it made sense to me, including the advantage of no or very little lead contamination of the venison. Thus in 2001 I specifically geared up for it by re-barreling to .30-06 Ackley, long throated, 26”, with a 1:220mm (8.67”) twist rate (Erhard Bienedell / Thor Engineering made the barrel and did an excellent job). I also purchased two magnum magazines, which required the guide/stop groove in the bolt to be extended a few millimeters (the .30-06 magazine has a spacer at the rear thus the bolt does not have to travel back as far).

With the ‘magnum magazine’ the COAL can be up to 92mm (3.62”), but at 86.4mm (3.400”) which I load to the benefit is that the shoulders of the cases abutting against the internal vertical ribs in the magazine prevent the bullet tips from being battered. After installing the .30-06 follower into the magnum magazine it feeds smoothly and with total reliability, even though the follower is 8mm shorter than the original follower. The detachable magazine turned out to be very convenient when clearing the rifle. It also enables two magazines, filled with differently bulleted cartridges, to be easily exchanged in the hunting field (provided the zeroing is compatible of course).

How has the push feed turned out in practice? The cartridge is about half-way into the breech by the time it is released from the magazine lips so no risk of it falling out during the feeding stroke, no matter the bolt speed or orientation of the rifle – feeding is always flawless. Of course, one must complete the feeding stroke in order to extract and to prevent a double-feed. On the up-side, if the extraction stroke is not fully completed the case / cartridge will still eject as long as the bolt is retracted far enough for the front edge of the case / cartridge to clear the front ring. Obviously though, the bolt will not pick up the next cartridge unless the bolt is fully retracted -- in common with all action types. I have often found it useful to be able to simply drop a cartridge onto an empty magazine follower and close the bolt. As primarily a meat hunter I have not hunted dangerous game, have no desire to, and will not do so anyway with this caliber – so although the crf Brno I did not choose in 1983 might well be better in that respect, the caliber ruled it out for dangerous game anyway. In practice the push feed worked perfectly (feeding and extraction) and the non-crf was totally immaterial.

I did own a beautiful Musgrave President Model .243 once (Mauser type action), but never hunted with it and gave it to someone (long story …). And owned an ex-military .308 Mauser (ex-Israeli, I think), but sold that too, to not clutter up my licensing. Have only ever hunted with the Voere, and it has done the job on everything, from impala to blue wildebeest, up to 220 meters / 240 yds, the longest shots I’ve taken.