NEW Lazz Lightning - RifleShooter Magazine

NEW LAZZ
LIGHTNING
John Lazzeroni Jr. (l.) and Sr. enjoyed a fine
hog hunt with Craig Boddington, a great way
to test the new Lazzeroni 2012 rifles.
John Lazzeroni is back
with a new rifle lineup:
the 2012 series.
­-By Craig Boddington -
I
t was late in the morning, and we were working along a ridge hoping
to glass some pigs that
might still be moving. We
cleared a little patch of oaks and
gained a view to the next grassy
ridge. No pigs in sight, but there
were two coyotes on the ridge a
long ways out.
John Lazzeroni jumped out
of the truck, extended his bipod and lay prone. I called the
range—515 yards—and the rifle went off. I saw dust, but the
bullet went through, not over;
the coyote crow-hopped a few
yards, then rolled out of sight
behind the hill. I hadn’t hunted
with “Lazz” for several years,
and I was glad to see he could
still shoot.
We were hunting wild hogs in
California’s Central Coast with
Frank Hook on the Jack Ranch
(jackranchwildpighunts.com),
76,000 acres in the Parkfield
Valley.
We weren’t there altogether
for a social gathering. John
wanted to show his now-teenage
son, John Jr., some of the great
pig hunting he’s told him stories about. And, joined by Chub
Eastman, retired from Nosler
Bullets and now a darned good
gun writer, he wanted to show
off his new L2012 rifle and talk
about Lazzeroni today.
John Lazzeroni is a very
bright guy who holds a hatful
of patents in inter-helmet communications for bikers, and in
fact his primary business is J&M
Motorcycle Audio (he’s the “J”),
but he has long been a serious
shooter, hunter and wildcatter.
In the 1990s Lazzeroni Arms
burst onto the scene with a full
line of ultra-fast, fat, long-cased
proprietary cartridges, followed
quickly by a short magnum line
based on the same cases cut
down to fit short actions.
At first, I thought Lazz was
a dangerous crackpot because
he is, well, passionate, outspoken about his cartridges and
his rifles. I have described him,
in print and to his face, as a
zealot—a description he agrees
with.
Against my better judgment,
I decided a long time ago that I
liked him. I also like his rifles
and his cartridges because, almost uniquely in my world, they
have always done exactly what
John Lazzeroni says they will
do.
Just as Roy Weatherby was
at least partially responsible
for the belted magnums introduced by Winchester and Remington in the late 1950s and
1960s, Lazzeroni had much to
do with the amazing spate of
unbelted, fat-cased magnums
we have seen from Remington,
Winchester and Hornady from
the late 1990s.
It might be a simpler world
if the majors had just adopted
some of his cartridges, but since
his basic case has a full diameter (not rebated) rim that measures .577-inch, it was difficult
to impossible to house these in
many commercial bolt actions.
So the majors went their way,
and Lazzeroni has stayed the
course. Using extra-heavy brass
and essentially custom-loading
his ammo in small batches, La-
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NEW LAZZ LIGHTNING
zzeroni loads his ammunition to a
maximum average pressure of 66,900
psi—exactly the same average pressure that most of the Weatherby magnums, the Remington Ultra Mags and
the 8mm Remington Magnum are
loaded to. To this day the Lazzeroni
cartridges still remain the fastest in
the world in their respective classes.
It’s no great secret that the economic downturn has been hard on
many small manufacturers of sporting arms. For the last few years, Lazzeroni has concentrated on his motorcylce communications business.
So the biggest news for 2012 is that
the Lazz is back: He has resumed
personal control of Lazzeroni Arms,
focusing his passion and enthusiasm
on a product line that he genuinely
believes in. With this comes a brand
new Model L2012 rifle in several configurations and a simplified line of
Lazzeroni cartridges.
In years gone by, Lazzeroni offered both long- and short-magnum
cartridges in almost every popular
bullet diameter from 6mm to .475.
I would not suggest that Lazz ever
listens to me, but I told him many
years ago this was nuts. Ammo is still
available by custom order for all the
cartridges he ever offered, but he has
officially dropped all the short magnums. This is a sensible move. Most
popular of the line, the 7.21 (.284)
Tomahawk and 7.82 (.308) Patriot
were considerably faster than comparable Winchester Short Magnum,
Remington Short Action Ultra Mag
and Ruger Compact Magnum cartridges, but that market suddenly
became very full, and in all calibers
there were longer cartridges that
were faster.
Today he is focusing on a truncated and simplified line of five long
magnum Lazzeroni cartridges, all
of which are the fastest cartridges in
five popular bullet diameters. The
chosen five are: 6.53 (.257) Scramjet,
7.21 (.284) Firebird, 7.82 (.308) Warbird, 8.59 (.338) Titan and 10.57 (.416)
Meteor.
All are full-length 2.80-inch cases,
which require a magnum-size action,
John Lazzeroni is a big fan of thumbhole stocks, so it’s no surprise that the
2012 lineup includes this option. All 2012 stocks are custom-molded and handbedded and feature a LimbSaver recoil pad.
ACCURACY RESULTS
LAZZERONI L2012LLT
.308 Warbird
Lazzeroni LazerHead
Lazzeroni LazerHead
Lazzeroni Sierra HPBT
Lazzeroni Swift A-Frame
Bullet Muzzle StandardAvg.
Weight (gr.)
Velocity (fps)
Deviation
Group (in.)
130
150
168
180
3,916
3,760
3,782
3,543
8
12
11
15
0.95
0.85
0.70
1.10
Notes: Accuracy results are averages of three three-shot groups at 100 yards off X rest. Velocities are averages of 10
shots measured on a Shooting Chrony Master 10 feet from the muzzle. Abbreviations: HPBT, hollowpoint boattail
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NEW LAZZ LIGHTNING
and all except the Scramjet (which
has a .530-inch base and rim) have
big, fat cases with .577-inch base and
rim diameters. These dimensions
allow awesome case capacity, and
while other cartridges come close,
since the mid-1990s no factory or
proprietary cartridges have equaled
Lazzeroni’s long magnums.
In the 1990s, the original Lazzeroni rifle provided awesome performance, but it was extremely heavy if
not downright clunky. I carried one
in the big Warbird cartridge on a couple of serious sheep hunts. In 1999, I
used it in the Yukon to make the longest shot I’ve ever attempted at a wild
sheep, and I used it again in China in
2001.
The performance was awesome,
but carrying that thing darn near
killed me. Again, I would never hint
that Lazzeroni might listen to me, but
the later Model L2005LLT was introduced with an American classic stock
style, was slimmer, trimmer and a
whole lot lighter.
It seems almost impossible that
this rifle came out 12 years ago, but
indeed it did. So it’s time for a new Lazzeroni rifle, and we have that in the
Model 2012. The standard version has
an American classic graphite/composite stock with molded checkering,
26-inch barrel, removable Vais muzzle brake with thread protecting cap,
and it weighs just 7.3 pounds. The action is a CNC-machined chrome-moly receiver with diamond-fluted bolt
shaft, three-position (Model 70-style)
safety and Jewel trigger.
Bottom metal is aluminum alloy,
with the floorplate release in the trigger guard. The fluted barrel is 416R
stainless steel. Despite the power level, the rifle is slim, trim and easy to
carry. That’s the L2012LLT, the Long
Magnum Light, which is available in
left and right-hand versions.
As I’ve said, Lazz has his passions,
and one of them is for thumbhole
stocks. Being a lefty, I don’t know
much about them, but another version is the L2012LTH, the Long Magnum Thumbhole. With a 25-inch barrel, this version weighs 7.7 pounds,
and unlike all other version, has the
safety within the trigger guard. This
is John’s favorite and, as illustrated at
Lazzeroni has jettisoned his short
magnums (although he still offers
loaded ammo for them). The current
lineup includes (l.-r.) .257, 7mm, .30,
.338 and .416 offerings.
A sampling of groups fired with the 150-grain Lazzeroni LazerHead bullet,
essentially a Barnes TSX made slightly undersize and then brought to full
diameter with a lubricating coating.
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the beginning of this article, he can
make it talk.
There are also two sporter/tactical
versions with detachable box magazines and heavy barrels: the Long
Magnum Sporter with a rollover
cheekpiece; and the Long Magnum
Tactical with fully adjustable stock.
I didn’t have a chance to see either
of these rifles, but we spent a good
day on my range with both the classic and thumbhole-stocked versions,
and then we did our best to make life
miserable for the Jack Ranch pigs.
For the hunt I used an L2012LLT in
.308 Warbird, while Chub also used
an LLT but in the powerful .338 Titan. The ranch is located in California’s condor zone, which means unleaded bullets are mandated, so we
would hunt with Lazzeroni’s LazerHead bullets, essentially a boattailed
Barnes Triple Shock (or X in .338) that
has been made slightly undersized
and then coated with NP3 lubricant.
John Jr. used a thumbhole Firebird
with a 139-grain LazerHead. John
Sr. and I both used Warbirds with
150-grain LazerHeads; Chub used a
fast 185-grain LazerHead in the .338
Titan.
In the Warbird, which is easily Lazzeroni’s flagship cartridge, we tried
several other loads as reflected in the
chart but, to be honest, our primary
focus was to get ready for some serious pig hunting.
Accuracy was quite good, which
should and can be expected from a
semi-custom rifle in this price range,
with precision-loaded ammunition.
The big surprise was that recoil off
the bench wasn’t all that bad. I have
long believed in the straight-combed
American classic stock as the best
way to attenuate recoil, and these
rifles absolutely bore this out.
That said, having never seen a
left-hand thumbhole, I can only accept the Gospel of Lazzeroni , which
preaches that the thumbhole stock
brings the recoil back on even more
of a straight line, with significant
energy going into the shooting hand
rather than the shoulder. This much
I can tell you: Nobody complained
about the recoil, including Chub,
who signed up to shoot the Titan.
John’s rifles were all mounted
with Schmidt & Bender scopes, his
favorite, with far greater capability
than we expected to need (except for
John’s spectacular shot on that coyote), but John believes in front focal
plane mil-dot reticles and/or precise
dial-in capability for longer shots, so
we spent quite a bit of time getting
our zeros exactly perfect.
Over the next three days we took
six good pigs and two coyotes. (When
we went to go check on John’s coyote,
we spotted another coyote. I jumped
out, got steady, and flattened him at
235 yards.) All but one of the hogs
were one-shot kills; my lone pig required a second round. John Jr. accounted for two hogs with a single
round apiece.
Overall I’d say we were quite
pleased with how the rifles worked
in the field. In the grand scheme of
things we probably needed to shoot a
hundred pigs to have definitive data,
but what isn’t known about what
super-fast 7mm, .308 or .338 caliber
cartridge loaded with good bullets
will do?
SPECIFICATIONS
LAZZERONI L2012LLT
bolt-action centerfire
6.53 (.257) Scramjet, 7.21 (.284)
Firebird, 7.82 (.308) Warbird (tested),
8.59 (.338) Titan
CAPACITY: 3+1 in chamber; hinged floorplate
BARREL: 26-inch stainless, button-rifled,
fluted; removable Vais muzzle brake
standard with protective thread cap;
1-in-12 inch rifling
OVERALL LENGTH: 46.13 in. without muzzle
brake
WEIGHT: 7.3 lb.
STOCK: Graphite/fiberglass synthetic,
American classic style, molded checkering, Limbsaver recoil pad, sling swivel
studs
FINISH: black nitride
TRIGGER: Jewel; 2.5 lb. as tested
SIGHTS: none; receiver drilled and tapped
PRICE: $5,999
MANUFACTURER: Lazzeroni Arms, lazzeroni.com, 888-492-7247
TYPE:
CALIBER:
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