Lawton Actions

There’s an old saying: “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” In the field of custom precision rifles, building a better mousetrap is not an easy task, as there are a great many action and barrel makers these days, many of whom are making products are of such unprecedented quality that it doesn’t seem there’s much room for further improvement. A master machinist and gun enthusiast named Barney Lawton didn’t see things quite that way, however. Though his barrels and actions haven’t been available for very long, they’ve already piled up an impressive record of competitive wins and records, and have earned the endorsement of some very big names in the world of long-range shooting. And, in the case of his actions, he has made innovative design and precision manufacture available at a price that is up to 40% less than that of his competitors. Now that’s a better mousetrap!

WHO IS BARNEY LAWTON?
Since his is a relatively new name among premier barrel and action makers, you might think that Barney Lawton is some green kid only a few years out of gunsmithing school. You’d be wrong on both counts.

Born in Montgomery, Pennsylvania in 1946, Barney Lawton focused on industrial arts in high school, gathering valuable experience in metalworking and machine shop operations. After graduation, he took a job with an automotive machine shop that built race-car engines. He spent the next 30 years of his working life in that field, eventually owning his own company, Lawton Machine, which specialized in motors for the demanding sport of dirt-track racing.

   Although automobile engines occupied his professional life, guns and shooting were an important part of his recreational activities. He came to a love of guns in his boyhood, when he often went bird-hunting with his father. But it wasn’t until after high school that he discovered the discipline that came to dominate his shooting interests: long-range riflery. Lawton also found time, while working in the race-car-engine business, to do a bit of gun work for himself and his friends, and even built some experimental actions.

   The Lawton saga might have ended there—with Barney Lawton building engines and just doing gun work on the side—had not a trick of fate intervened. On a hunting trip out west in 1989, he made a detour to visit his old industrial arts teacher, Al Troth, who had moved to Montana. When Lawton got his first glimpse of Big Sky Country, he immediately knew that that was where he wanted to live. He sold his engine-building business and his house, and he and his wife and family moved to Dillon, Montana in 1991.

   Initially, Lawton worked for an automotive machine shop, then purchased a bowling alley; but his heart was in gunmaking. In 2000 he opened Lawton Machine and, as they say, “the rest was history.”

LAWTON BARRELS
The first official products of the new Lawton Machine were barrels. Barney Lawton long had an interest in barrelmaking, which resulted in his purchase, in 1999, of a Pratt & Whitney barrel rifling machine, as well as the equipment for deep-hole drilling and bore reaming. Not long after, in 2000, he began producing barrels. He quickly mastered the process, thanks in large part to his intelligence, his natural mechanical aptitude and his extensive machine-shop experience. Lawton also credits the assistance and advice of folks like legendary barrel-maker Boots Obermeyer and long-range gurus Bruce Baer and Howard Wolfe.

Lawton sent one of his early efforts, a hunting-profile barrel in 6.5 mm caliber, to Baer, who chambered it up and attached it to an action for testing. The barrel’s performance strongly impressed the long-range competitor, gunsmith and cartridge designer, who reported groups well under 0.5 m.o.a. Very good performance indeed for a first effort, and Lawton’s barrels just got better from there.

   To make a barrel, Lawton starts with the industry-standard 416R stainless at a hardness of 28-32 Rc. The barrel blanks at the “softer” end of this hardness range, Lawton says, are somewhat easier to machine and thus can be rifled a bit more precisely, but may not have quite as much longevity. The blanks are deep-hole drilled and reamed, and then either button rifled, or cut-rifled using cutters and cutter boxes of Lawton’s own design and manufacture. Cut-rifling in particular is a time-consuming process. Each cut is only a few ten-thousandths deep; thus, to cut a six-groove barrel to a depth of around .004” per groove, for example, it may require as many as 200 total passes through the barrel.

   Lawton Machine is notable as being one of the very few quality barrelmakers producing both button- and cut-rifled barrels. While many shooters and gunsmiths express a strong preference for one method over another, Lawton feels that both rifling processes can produce barrels capable of performing to the very highest level of accuracy.

   After rifling, each barrel is hand-lapped and inspected for uniformity and straightness. Lawton does not use an air gauge, which simply shows the uniformity of bore dimensions without indicating exactly what those dimensions are. Instead, he uses special gauges that give precise readouts of bore diameter all the way through the barrel. Dimensions are commonly held to 0.0001” throughout the bore, and held just as closely to nominal bore measurements for each caliber. This level of consistency means that all Lawton barrels in a given caliber, twist, and land/groove configuration are essentially identical. The target shooter who goes through one or more barrels a season can thus be assured of consistent performance as well as minimal load testing each time a new barrel is installed (assuming, of course, the same care in threading, chambering, contouring and crowning). Lawton does not straighten his barrels, preferring to simply consign those not up to snuff to the trash bin.

Lawton barrels are also stress-relieved, but with a vibratory method originated in the welding industry, rather than more familiar temperature-based processes. Measurable increases in accuracy have been noted with this method.

But the story does not stop there. Lawton can optimize barrel specifications for a particular use. For example, he will employ subtle variations in bore dimensions, depending upon whether the barrel is to be used for with high-B.C. boattail bullets for long-range target shooting, flat-base bullets for short-range benchrest competition, or thick-jacketed projectiles for hunting. He has also been able to figure out how to make the ultra-high-B.C. Lost River bullets group, something that, according to many, has been historically difficult to accomplish. Thus, anyone ordering a barrel from Lawton Machine shouldn’t be surprised if they’re asked some pretty specific questions about what the barrel will be used for, and what type of bullet will be fired through it.

At present, Lawton barrels are made in pretty much every standard bore size between .20 and .40 caliber, and some .50 caliber barrels are on the horizon. Any twist from 1:8" to 1:72" can be had, in 1/4" increments. A variety of lengths and profiles are offered; non-standard dimensions, as well as fluting, stress-reliving and engraving, may be ordered at extra cost. Prices start at $250 for 28"-long, 1.250"-diameter chrome-moly barrel blanks and $270 for stainless-steel blanks of the same length and diameter. Larger-diameter or longer blanks, of course, are priced somewhat higher.

LAWTON ACTIONS
Not content to be only a maker of superior match-grade barrels, Lawton brought out a line of precision actions in 2005. Lawton’s actions are a combination of the traditional and the innovative. They’re traditional insofar as they follow the familiar and proven Remington pattern: round receiver, Remington-style bolt with two massive lugs, and (except in the largest action size) a 1 1/6-16 tpi barrel thread. They’re innovative, however, in a variety of novel features, as well as in their price.

All Lawton actions have round receivers of 416R stainless or 4142 carbon steel, heat treated to 42-44 Rc. Bolts are of 4140 or 4150, hardened to 38-40 Rc, with the bolt head and bolt body machined from a single piece of steel and the bolt handle attached by silver-soldering or welding. Features of the bolt head include two beefy lugs, a Remington-style inch protruding bolt nose; a plunger ejector; and a novel extractor arrangement, with a small Sako-style claw located in the middle of the right-side locking lug. This placement has two functions. First, in the event of a ruptured case, it helps keep propellant gases contained in the receiver ring. Equally important, it flattens the ejection trajectory of fired cases, allowing a smaller-size ejection port as well as preventing cases from dinging low-mounted scopes. Several bolt handle options are available, and spiral bolt body flutes can be had on any of the actions. All Lawton bolts utilize a Remington-style firing pin assembly with a choice of an aluminum or stainless-steel bolt shroud.

   Lawton actions can be had in short- or long-action versions, as well as right-hand and left-hand configurations. Standard features on all models include a spring-loaded lever-type bolt release in the left receiver wall, four 8-40 scope base mounting holes in the top of the receiver, and a 0.250”-thick recoil lug with a 0.125”-diameter pin that engages a slot in the receiver face for easy indexing.

   Basically, there are five action models currently catalogued by Lawton machine. The smallest is the Model 7000, a repeater action with a 1.360”-diameter receiver designed to be a drop-in replacement for a Remington 700 action. A choice of .480”, .545” or .595” bolt faces is available, as well as a .380” bolt face (on short actions only) for cartridges with a .223 Rem. head size. Although the .595” bolt face will accept .30-.378, .378 or .460 Weatherby cartridges, Lawton recommends only the .338 Lapua for that size action, due to that cartridge’s shorter length and somewhat lower working pressure. The bottom of the receiver is cut out to accept a standard Remington magazine box, and on the receiver underside, to the rear of the magazine opening, are holes for mounting a Remington trigger (or other trigger unit using the same hole spacing).

   For those desiring a single-shot action that is a direct Remington replacement, Lawton produces the 400X, which has the same diameter, overall length and stock screw spacing of the famed 40X action. The 400X is essentially a single-shot version of the Model 7000, with similar specifications, and thus embodies several improvements over the venerable Remington 40X, including larger 8-40 scope base mounting holes, a Model 7000-style bolt release and pin-indexed recoil lug, and a smaller ejection port cutout (which increases receiver rigidity). Furthermore, the 400X receiver is a true cylinder its entire length, rather than the stepped profile of the 40X with a lowered, flattened contour in the bridge area. As on the Lawton Model 7000, the 400X locking lugs have essentially the same dimensions as those of the Remington 700.

   The next step up, the Model 7500, shares many of the same features of the Model 7000 and 400X, but with some additional refinements. Available in two diameters—1.360” and 1.450”—the Model 7500 is produced in a single-shot version only, for varmint hunting, benchrest or high-power competition. Both diameters of the 7500 have been used for 1,000-yard benchrest, with the 1.450”-diameter version being perhaps better suited to heavy-gun applications.

While the receiver ring has the same 1 1/16-16 barrel thread, the thread length is increased to about 0.95”—roughly a 38% increase in length over the 0.69” tenon of the standard Remington 700 barrel. This requires that the recoil lug shoulder in stocks designed for Remington actions has to be moved forward around ¼”—no difficult task, as just about all serious target rifles are either glass- or pillar bedded, or glued in, and with any of these techniques, it’s easy to change the position of the recoil shoulder.

Another unique feature of the 7500 action is its oversize twin locking lugs, which provide extra action strength. At 0.565” long, they are some 25% longer than the lugs on a Remington 700 or 40X. An additional feature geared for competition use is a 0.069” firing pin tip.

It’s also worth noting that the 7500 can be ordered in any of several bolt/port combinations. In addition to the standard right bolt/right port and left bolt/left port configurations, right bolt/left port, left bolt/right port, and dual port versions are produced. Dual-port models can be had in two ways: one with an ejection port sized for the 6mmX47 or 6mm Dasher, and the other with a larger ejection port that can accommodate short magnum cases.

The Models 7000, 400X and 7500 are essentially used for conventional hunting and target chamberings, with the short-action version suitable for cartridges of the length of the .308 Winchester or .300 Winchester Short Magnum, while the long-action versions are used for cartridges having a case length of 2.5” to 2.8”, such as the .300 Winchester and .300 Weatherby Magnums. These three action sizes all feature bolts having a 0.700” body diameter, a 0.985” lug circle, and a 0.15” protruding bolt nose.

The next step up the ladder takes you to the largest Lawton action, the Model 8000. With the Model 8000, the terms “short action” and “long action” take on a totally new meaning. The Model 8000, available in both single-shot and repeater versions, is a big action in every way, with a receiver diameter of 1.600”, a bolt diameter of 0.75”, and twin lugs measuring 0.150” high, 0.5” wide and 0.75” long. Also larger is the barrel tenon thread, which measures 1 3/16”-16 t.p.i. with a length of 1.25” . The “short” Model 8000, the 8000S, is designed for cartridges of the .378 Weatherby and.416 Rigby size, while the standard length Model 8000 is intended for big boomers such as the CheyTac cartridges (more on that in a moment). Like the other Lawton actions, however, the Models 8000 and 8000S come with indexed recoil lugs, left-side bolt stops, trigger hangers and six 8-40 scope base mounting holes.

   Lawton considers the Model 8000 to be suitable for the biggest magnum cartridges such as the .30-.378 Weatherby, the Lazzeroni cartridges and, of course, the CheyTac rounds. But it is not big enough for the .50 BMG. Lawton is planning on introducing a turnbolt action for fans of that powerful round sometime in the next year or so. Also on the drawing board is a 40X-style rimfire bolt action.

   Of course, the mere fact that someone is making actions says nothing about their quality—the soundness of their design and the closeness of their tolerances. Lawton actions have been evaluated by some very exacting authorities on precision actions. Kirby Allen, well-known builder of long-range hunting rifles, gauged the breechface squareness of Lawton 7000 and 7500 actions along with models from B.A.T. and Nesika Bay. His comparison (available on www.longrangehunting.com) showed the Lawton Models to be fully the equal of its well-known competitors. In all cases, the breechfaces were true to within a few ten-thousandths of an inch—about 1/10 the thickness of a sheet of typing paper. Even the hunting Model 7000 compared well to the top-level B.A.T. and Nesika actions.

      In my own humble evaluation, the Lawton actions are well-designed and extremely well made. I admit that initially I had some reservations about the position of the extractor in the right-hand locking lug. This has no effect on the lug bearing area (which has an influence on bolt lug setback) but may reduce the shear area (which relates to the absolute strength of the lugs in relation to high-pressure loads). When I whipped out my calipers and calculator and did some measurements and calculations, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the oversized lugs on my 400X and my two 7500 actions had about 12.5% greater shear area than the lugs of a Remington 700—even allowing for the extractor cutout in the Lawton’s right lug.

Considering the high ratings they’ve earned from experts such as Allen and Bruce Baer (see below), and the success that they’ve enjoyed in 1,000-yard matches, it’s pretty clear that Lawton actions are as good as the best of their competitors, and better than most. But where they really stand out is in the realm of price. While most top-grade custom actions run from around $1,000 to as much as $1,400 or so, the Lawton actions are priced significantly lower: $745 for the 400X and Model 7000, and $775 for the base Model 7500. Only the Model 8000, at $1,100, breaks the four-figure mark, and that’s still a bargain compared to other custom actions of similar size. It’s important to note that these are Lawton Machine’s standard action prices, not “introductory” prices that will be sharply increased as demand for the actions inevitably grows.