Stan,
$1,250.00 is high. I purchased mine through a somewhat local dealer (75 miles) for around a $1,000.00 with a strap, swivel posts installed, scope bases, and tax. The kicker was that it was sitting on the self. I had one on order, for seven months (Feb through Sept), through a dealer in my town but he didn’t order many guns from the distributor that handles Anschutz and wasn’t getting much cooperation (the distributor was giving priority to his “regular” buyers).
As far as comparisons between Cooper and Anschutz, if you do some digging on the net you’ll find that most people either love or hate Coopers with not many in between. Some say they’re the greatest, but there are also quite a few complaints that if there is a problem with a Cooper that it can be very difficult to get it corrected. This is not personal experience but rather what I read while deciding which brand I wanted to buy. Another thing that I found interesting is that the ALL of the Cooper test targets are one ragged hole (3 shot group at I believe 50yds) and are worded something like “what this rifle is capable of”. What they don’t say is how many groups had to be shot before the test target group was produced. My Anschutz came with a 5 shot test target shot at 100 meters (110yds), that can be covered by a dime, with the heading “Original grouping of your rifle”. It’s splitting hairs since either gun will shoot better than I can but for that much money….. .
My decision was based on:
1) I wanted a heavy barrel and the Anschutz had a heavier barrel than the cooper LVT
2)I preferred the sporter style of the Anschutz as opposed to the beaver tail on the LVT
3) The Anschutz cost about $400.00 less
4) Based on what I read, the Anschutz had a better reputation for consistent accuracy along with a time proven action.
I’m not overly familiar with the Anschutz line, but they do have a 1517, that is similar, but has a different action that I believe is in the $600.00 range that you mentioned.
As far as competition goes, someone else will have to answer that, as I have no idea. I bought mine for an accurate and relatively quiet chuck gun here in my ever growing community where gunfire noise can alarm the new comers. So far, I am extremely happy with the performance of both the rifle and the 17 HMR.
Yeah, I know it’s an expensive gun for chucks, but that’s one benefit of being single.
