Sportco 62A rifle - Scope and magazine help

[Sagerat22]

Greetings from the US,
I collect Kimber of Oregon rimfires, a product of your former countryman Jack Warne. I stumbled onto a Sportco 62A recently, an extremely early one, in outstanding condition, that actually may have a provenance connecting to Mr. Warne. They are extremely rare here, with information about them even more so. So my question is where would I find some information about it? What would be a contemporary brand of scope rings to use in mounting a scope? I assume a Leupold would be appropriate.
It came with a very long 16 round magazine which is pretty unhandy. I assume they were supplied with a shorter one? A ten round or 5? What few vendors in your country that seem to show them in their inventory only show 10 round but say they can't export them to the US, however I found a vendor in the UK that is sending me one.
Thanks for your time.

[safeshot]

I had a sportco m63. Loved it. There are several S sites on the net go to Sportco rifles and you will find them.
all the best from Australia.

[Over The Hill]

Welcome to the world of Sportco, a great Aussie gun from a better era. There used to be a webpage with a lot of the company history and the exploded views and parts lists for most of their models however I can no longer locate it. Possibly removed after Jack Warne's passing?

I have a bit of experience with models 62 & 63. They share a lot of common interchangeable parts but I have seen some differences so no guarantee.

In your search for Sportco 22's you will likely come across the Winchester 320 which is a Sportco made receiver that was exported and fitted with a barrel and stock in the USA. These also share some common design and parts however there are differences.

Regards Magazines, I have seen 5, 10 & 20 rd here in Oz and they do come up for sale occasionally. Many are interchangeable between different models including some of the semi autos.

Take a look at the ejector on top of the alloy magazine holder. Does yours have a steel ejector screwed to the to of the mag base or is it all one piece with the ejector part of the casting? The ones with the steel ejector take a narrower magazine than the mags for the cast ejector. Although the magazines look the same they are not interchangeable.

My 63 was having issues with misfires from light primer strikes. I managed to obtain a new firing pin spring years ago which helped however it also had a headspace issue and needed the bolt head shimming to reduce the headspace to within spec.

For your scope and period fixed low power scope should look the part. Mine came new in the 70's with a Nikko Strirling Gold Crown 4x40 on unbranded rings. Measure your dovetails to make sure you get rings that will clamp up tight as there are differences between imperial & metric dovetails.

Good luck with your 62, hopefully you get to use it and love it. I still use mine for club Field Rifle competitions, it's light, easy to use, reliable and still shoots better than I can hold it. My ammo of choice is CCI Std 40g RN

Here's a pic of my 63 (with a more modern scope)

[safeshot]

Note the high quality 'iron' sights on the barrel.
My 63 was part of a re-vamp of the product line with better stocks as you show and I could hit a 5 cent piece size target at 25 metres with ease.

[Sagerat22]

Thanks for the replies. I received my magazine from the UK which is a 10 round and is narrower as Over the Hill suggested. The dealer I bought it from only carries the 10 round, which fits perfectly and is well made, not the norm for third party vendors here. I should have mentioned that this rifle came with a 16 round magazine.
I have a Win 320 and while they are very close, they are a little different.
I have an additional question, the serial number on this gun has an RA prefix and the few that I’ve seen pictured online also have that. Does anyone have an idea what that means?

[deanp100]

The sportco history site has vanished which is a shame. It would have answered most questions you had about the history and what accessories they came with,

[Over The Hill]

Thanks for the replies. I received my magazine from the UK which is a 10 round and is narrower as Over the Hill suggested. The dealer I bought it from only carries the 10 round, which fits perfectly and is well made, not the norm for third party vendors here. I should have mentioned that this rifle came with a 16 round magazine.
I have a Win 320 and while they are very close, they are a little different.
I have an additional question, the serial number on this gun has an RA prefix and the few that I’ve seen pictured online also have that. Does anyone have an idea what that means?

Mine starts with AA + 3 digits

I can only assume a factory sequencing system but apparently there was no rationale to the Sportco sequencing that made any sense. There was a write up on the now lost Sportco web page that went into this in more detail.

[safeshot]

Re theWin 320.
When Sportco stopped production I believe Winchester bought all the receivers/bolts and put their own barrels on them. I have seen one of these on a range and it shot very well.
cheers and i hope 2025 is kind to you.

[Bugman]

Gold Coast Shooters Supplies in Queensland may be of assistance. Worth a look anyhow.

[rossfrb]

The sportco history site has vanished which is a shame. It would have answered most questions you had about the history and what accessories they came with,

If you know what the URL of the Sportco site was then perhaps Wayback Machine might help?
https://web.archive.org/
https://help.archive.org/help/using-the ... k-machine/

regards

[rossfrb]

bingo - thanks to someone having posted the URL on this site viewtopic.php?t=11744
https://web.archive.org/web/20240803225 ... istory.htm