Like most of you riflemen, I have shot most of my deer with a bolt-action, all but a handful. So when I got the chance to carry the new Winchester Super X Rifle (SXR) autoloader in .270 WSM last fall, I felt a bit out of sorts, but I also looked forward to it.
First thing you notice is the rifle’s “international” styling. I have heard it called “Euro-trash,” but it's not that bad. The dark walnut stock looks good and fit me well. Checkering is basic, but okay. I do not care for the gray, gaudy SXR logo below the bolt handle, but the W checkered into the wood fore of the aluminum-alloy receiver is sort of cool.
Looks wise, the strange thing is the inch of gas-operating mechanism that protrudes out the black-tipped fore-end. One guy I ran in to in a camp said, “Man, got something sticking out your stock.” When I told him it was supposed to look like that he laughed. I attached a tan leather sling, which was my bad and looked awful; a black synthetic one would have fitted the rifle’s hip styling better.
To me a deer rife is a tool. I don’t care what it looks like (within reason) so long as it is dependable and accurate. My SXR was both. After bore-sighting the 2.5-10X scope, a buddy and I fired 15 shots with Winchester 150-grain Power Point loads. Look at the last 3 in the picture—super-tight and awesome, as good as any bolt gun out of the box. Factory trigger was good and crisp, better than I had expected. Action was super smooth.
The 7-pound rifle (24” barrel) carried well in the Nebraska hills, and once I got back in the swing of using a detachable-box magazine, it loaded and unloaded smoothly.
I am confident I could have killed a buck at 300 yards with the rifle, but I didn’t have too. The big muley I stalked and drew down on was only 100 yards away. I thumped him good and he tried to run. I pulled the trigger again for a fast finisher. I hadn’t done that in a while with an autoloader, and it felt good.
As I packed up my test SXR to send back, I felt a little sad to see it go. It’s different, but a shooter and I’d recommend it.