20 Australian Shooter

W hen the Thompson/Center Arms Company produced the Icon rifle, they knew they were on a winner. It is a superbly accurate and good-looking rifle - the one I reviewed back in 2008 certainly turned some heads during range testing at the Para rifle Range in South Australia. About the only problem for some shooters was that by the time you put a good scope and mounts on the Icon, the whole package was just out of reach financially. The people at Thompson/Center soon recognised this and just like Tikka, Sako, Remington and more, they released a reduced-price version of their flagship rifle. The easiest way to do this is to replace the high-quality stock with an injection-moulded copy, among other minor details. You still get a very good action and barrel, but with fewer accoutrements.

When I reviewed a Venture rifle in .30-06-calibre in February this year, I reported favourably on its performance. After all, a rifle that will shoot MOA or better with factory ammunition with apparent ease has got to be a good thing. There is no substitute for accuracy, no matter how much it costs.

The Venture PredatorThe Thompson/Center Predator is a Venture with an interesting ‘camo’ coating applied to it. It certainly stands out in a rack of rifles, but it is designed not to stand out in the bush. This coating is called Advantage Max-1 and is typical of the many ‘break-up’ camouflage patterns available - check out the photos to get the idea.

Interestingly, the Hogue side panels, pistol grip and recoil pad are left in matte black, as is the bolt. Some would say that

these should also have been coated, but I placed the rifle in some bushes and backed off to about 50m to see the effect; there were no real problems there and the color scheme blended in quite well.

The Venture action is a solid-looking unit that is cylindrical at the front and sculpted at the rear. Factory-installed Weaver-type bases are incorporated on top of the action. The bolt is a hefty .85"-diameter cylinder, which incorporates a three locking lug bolt head. It looks similar to an Omark (for those who remember them!), but with the Venture bolt, it is all one piece and the lugs lock into the action. The bolt head features a Sako-style extractor built into one lug and a plunger-type ejector. The bolt handle is the usual short, swept-back Thompson/Center type and handles may be changed to a different style at extra cost.

Combining a short bolt handle with a

The Thompson/Center

Venture Predator rifleby Technical Advisor Brendan Atkinson

There’s nothing complicated here. Note how the matte-black parts do not

detract from the camo finish.

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22 Australian Shooter

three-lug action (60-degree lift) guarantees a stiff bolt lift, but it is not too bad and prob-ably would not be noticed when out on a hunt. I really would prefer a slightly longer one for more lifting advantage. Certainly, when testing from a bench rest, the stiffer bolt lift can cause the rifle to move around a bit on the bags.

The trigger is of Thompson/Center’s own design and had a factory setting of just more than 3lb, but it can be adjusted by an experienced gunsmith.

The detachable magazine held three rounds of .308 ammunition and functioned without problems during our testing. Just a word of caution though regarding cartridge overall length. While factory loads fitted snugly into the magazine, it is impossible to seat the bullets further out (even a little bit) when handloading. In my experience, .308s seem to shoot their best groups when the bullet is close to or engraving the lands. Obviously, they won’t feed from the magazine if they are too long. But this is no

problem; just single load them if necessary.The fluted match-grade barrel was 22" in

length and featured the famous 5R rifling with a one turn in 10" twist rate. The term ‘5R’ refers to the angle where the rifling meets the bore. Instead of the usual sharp edges, 5R is more graduated and therefore gives non-symmetrical engraving on the bullet. Many top-accuracy firearms use this type of rifling, such as Remington’s superb M24 rifle. The barrel is of hunting weight and is .650 at the muzzle, with the crown recessed to prevent damage. There is no provision for open sights.

The composite stock is very lightweight and has no cheekpiece or ‘cast off’, so could be used by either a left- or right-handed shooter. Sling QD mounts are provided at the front and rear, as is a generous recoil pad. As previously mentioned, there are Hogue inserts on the fore-end and pistol

grip, which are textured to give a secure grip. There is no extra bedding under the action, but doing my usual tensioning checks seemed to indicate that the action was sitting comfortably in the centre of the stock.

Naturally, we needed to put a scope and mounts on the rifle, but it would not have looked right to have put a normal black scope and mounts on board. Chris Papps from the distributor Frontier Arms managed to source a Nikon Coyote Special scope in 3-9x40 with the identical camo pattern as the Venture Predator, along with a set of Nikon scope rings to match. This scope was equipped with a Bullet Drop Compensator (BDC) reticle and was an impressive piece of kit. It also had a diffuser for fitting to the front lens and those who know about military equipment will under-stand what this does. This scope was quite impressive and had remarkable clarity even late in the day. It was also excellent when spotlighting and the cross-hairs stood out very well against a dry grassy background.

So, with the rifle put back together, and the take-down screws set with a torque spanner, it was off to the range to see how this Venture Predator would perform.

Range testingThere is an enormous variety of factory rounds available for the .308 Winchester cartridge, from lightweight 110-grain plinkers right up to a couple of hundred grains for the more serious type of game. There should be something in between to suit the fussiest of shooters. If one does not like that, then the .308 would have to be one of the easiest cartridges to handload for. The Australian-made AR2208 is just perfect

This photo was taken through a borescope of the Venture Predator’s barrel - the 5R rifling with its sloping edges can be seen. The overall finish of the bore was excellent.

The Thompson/Center Venture Predator rifle

The camo pattern could not be matched up with anything local at the time of writing, but these leaves illustrate the break-up design.

The light weight of the Venture Predator outfit made it easy

to shoot in any position, particularly offhand.

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24 Australian Shooter

for this cartridge, so it is just a matter of picking a suitable bullet for the job at hand.

I set up a target frame at both 100 and 200 yards to see what the Venture Predator would do. Three five-shot groups were fired with each cartridge. The figure quoted in the accompanying chart is the average group size.

You will see from the loads and group results that this is an accurate hunting rifle. Fortunately, it was only 14C when I was doing my testing, as the barrel heated up rapidly over five shots, but I did not have to wait too long for it to come back to normal temperatures. There’s no sense in abusing the equipment! The rifle’s bore was cleaned after each three-group string, so that fouling would not cloud the performance of any brand. The 168-grain factory loadings were no doubt using the Sierra MatchKing BT bullets and performed accordingly.

I did some handloads for this rifle using purely hunting loads with Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets and AR2208 powder and could comfortably keep the groups to around MOA. For a relatively light-barrelled hunting rifle, this is outstanding accuracy and should make head shots on game out to sensible ranges quite achievable. No, it’s not a varminter, but game like goats, pigs and small to medium deer would be in serious peril. I believe that the secret to this rifle’s accuracy lies in the barrel, as

the interior finish was far better than the average of what I have seen of recent times.

The Venture Predator was quite comfort-able to shoot off the bags, as the buttpad soaked up a lot of the recoil. A .308 is not a hard kicker, but a prolonged session at the bench with a light rifle can wear a shooter down eventually.

There were several other shooters at Para Range when I was testing and I offered them a couple of offhand shots each to try the rifle. All commented on the light weight of the rifle, yet no-one complained about the kick - it’s that sort of gun.

SummaryAs with other Thompson/Center rifles I have tested, the Venture Predator shot accurately and with little fuss. Everything worked as it should and my only criticism of the whole package is the length of the bolt handle, but that’s just my opinion. Check one out at your local gunshop and be surprised at the price because for what you get, I reckon it’s a bargain. .

SpecificationsManufacturer: Thompson/Center Arms, USAModel: Venture PredatorCalibre: .308 WinchesterAction: Turn-bolt repeaterMagazine: Detachable, holds three roundsBarrel: Match grade fluted, 22"Stock: Composite, one-piece camo patternOverall Length: 41.5"Weight: 6.75lb bareRRP: $1250

Group sizes shot with the Venture PredatorBrand Type 100 yards 200 yardsRemington 150-grain CoreLokt SP 1.189 2.177Remington 180-grain CoreLokt SP 1.208 2.472Winchester 150-grain Ballistic Silvertip 1.142 1.943Winchester 168-grain HPBT .986 1.821Federal 150-grain PowerShok SP 1.009 1.987Federal 168-grain HPBT .879 1.886

The bolt is left matte black in contrast with the camo paint job. The trigger is Thompson/Center’s own design and is fully adjustable.

The Venture Predator uses a three-lug bolt with Sako-style extractor and cylindrical ejector.

The camo finish does not extend to around the muzzle, which is recessed to prevent damage in

the field.

The Nikon scope comes with a screw-on AFD (anti-reflection device). This prevents ‘glint’ from sunlight being visible from in front of the lens. It does not affect what ones sees through the scope.

The Thompson/Center Venture Predator rifle

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