Cooper Firearms of Montana was founded in 1990 by Dan Cooper and two other former Kimber of Oregon employees.

History

Cooper was created to build affordable custom-quality accurate rifles. As they put it "Rifles should shoot as well as they look and vice versa". All Cooper rifles carry an accuracy guarantee. The guarantee for rimfires is 5 shots in at , while for

centerfire Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A centerfire cartridge is a firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i.e. "case head"). Unlike rim ...

s it is 3 shots in at . Rifles are built mostly for hunting, with an emphasis on

varmint hunting Varmint hunting or varminting is the practice of hunting vermin — generally small/medium-sized wild mammals or birds — as a means of pest control, rather than as games for food or trophy. The targeted animals are culled because they are consi ...

. As such, a wide variety of calibers is supported, including many common and popular

wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

rounds. Cooper has achieved a reputation for high-quality accurate rifles. Gun writers have noted that the rifles are both good-looking and well-built as well as accurate. In 1993 Cooper created their first single-shot rifle in

.223 Remington The .223 Remington (designated as the 223 Remington by the SAAMI and 223 Rem by the CIP) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command ...

. This rifle later became their Model 21. In 2005 they made their first rifles that had synthetic stocks. Previously all rifles had wood in a variety of grades. In 2007 the first Cooper repeater (non single-shot) rifle was created - the Model 52.

Models

Rifles center on a few particular actions. In 2007 a centerfire repeater (Model 52) was added in a few calibers. * Model 7 (discontinued) - falling block action chambered in hornet and 223-based calibers. Less than 40 exist, and is considered the rarest of Cooper rifles. * Model 16 (discontinued) - single shot action for cartridges based on the WSSM family, as well as

6 mm BR 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

and

6 mm PPC The 6mm PPC (Palmisano & Pindel Cartridge), or 6 PPC as it is more often called, is a centerfire rifle cartridge used almost exclusively for benchrest shooting. It is one of the most accurate cartridges available at distances of up to 300 met ...

. * Model 21 - single shot bolt action for cartridges in the

family. * Model 22 - single shot bolt action for cartridges in the

.308 Winchester The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...

and family and similar. * Model 38 (discontinued) - single shot bolt action for cartridges based on the .22 Hornet and similar. * Model 40 (discontinued) - repeating bolt action for cartridges based on the .22 Hornet and similar. * Model 52 - repeating bolt action for cartridges in the

.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...

as well as

belted magnum The term belted magnum or belted case refers to any cartridge, but generally a rifle cartridge, with a shell casing that has a pronounced "belt" around its base that continues 2–4 mm past the extractor groove. This design originated with the B ...

families. * Model 54 - repeating bolt action for cartridges in the

family. * Model 56 (discontinued) - repeating bolt action for cartridges in the

.300 Winchester Magnum The .300 Winchester Magnum (also known as .300 Win Mag or .300 WM) (7.62×67mmB, 7.62x66BR) is a belted, bottlenecked magnum rifle cartridge that was introduced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1963. The .300 Winchester Magnum is a m ...

family. * Model 57-M - repeating bolt action for rimfire cartridges. * Model 51 - repeating bolt action for cartridges in the

family.

Political donation controversy

On October 27, 2008 a ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' article featuring executives supporting

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

for

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

was published naming Dan Cooper as a financial supporter of the

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

. Scandal soon erupted across gun-related web forums and blogs when it was made public that Dan Cooper supported a pro-

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

Presidential candidate and had donated several thousand dollars to his campaign. Gun owners and

blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

reacted to the news calling for a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

of his company. By October 28, 2008 Cooper Firearms released a message on their website, noting that the company itself had not contributed in any fashion, and clarifying Cooper's contributions. On October 29, 2008 Cooper Firearms updated the message on their website indicating the board of directors asked Dan Cooper to step down as CEO of the company. In an October 30, 2008 article from USA Today Dan Cooper confirmed that he did indeed resign as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper Firearms Of Montana Firearm manufacturers of the United States Manufacturing companies established in 1990 Companies based in Montana 1990 establishments in Montana

History

Models

Political donation controversy

See also

References

External links