Lithgow rifles - anyone here besides the Aussies know much about them?

Joined
Feb 8, 2017
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798
Location
Australia
Hi all,

We have a firearm manufacturer here called 'Lithgow Arms'. They've been making rifles for over 100 years but mostly for our military. Over the last decade or so they've been making commercial rifles and they've brought out some new models in the last 12 months, and I know they're working on a few more.


I believe they mainly aim to compete with Tikka and some of the features of their centrefires are similar to Tikka, whereas some of the features of their rimfires share similarities with CZ.

I'm ordering a LA102 Varmint in .223 and putting a big ZeroTech scope on it, mainly to be a ute/culling rifle, but to also work into some light target work if I want to. I haven't bought a brand new rifle for a very long time as I normally buy used rifles, or I've been focusing most of my time on archery. However, I've been needing to write a lot more magazine articles about rifles over the last 12 months so I've started lifting my shooting level and now I'm really excited to get into this rifle and shoot some animals.

Do any of you blokes in North America see Lithgow rifles around much, or know much about them? They only have a handful of models and one of the criticisms of them down here is that they are fairly heavy, but the LA102 Hunter model was developed to satisfy some of that market. I believe there is more lightweight stuff in the pipeline.
 
I know the name and have seen FAL L1A1 pattern rifles from them. Most were a semi-auto rehash of L1A1 parts on a Lithgow receiver. First that I've seen or heard of them making a bolt action. They look interesting. My first thought looking at several models is a Ruger American Tikka lovechild. That is simply based on looks.

The crossover has some nice features with the stock design, integral rail, and options for muzzle thread. Looking at other options, I have to ask what's a Woomera?

Doesn't look like there is an importer to the USA at this point. Which is a bummer.

Update us as you get some trigger time with it.

Jeremy
 
I definitely will. I've had some experience with them before and I know some people who work there so I've had a tour of the factory. It was pretty cool, but I don't know much about rifle manufacturing so it was all very interesting to me and mostly went over my head.

'Woomera' is an Aboriginal device that was used to throw a spear. I believe similar to an atlatl.

All of their centrefires are built on their crossover action and the models are differentiated by barrels and stocks, like many other manufacturers.

The original term 'crossover' was given to the rifles are they were small enough to be hunting rifles but heavy enough to be target rifles. They've since mixed this up a bit as the market is trending towards lighter weight stuff, so I'm keen to see where it goes. They also have the 'Outback' model which has a shorter barrel with a brake on it and put in an SCSA aluminium chassis.

I should have the rifle in a few weeks so I'll try and put a lot of stuff together about it. There is plenty on YouTube about the LA101 rimfires, the LA105 Woomera, and some of the LA102 Crossovers. There is one video about the LA102 Outback which was put up by my magazine editor - Mick Matheson - on the Sporting Shooter website. There is nothing on there about the LA102 Varmint AT ALL so I'm keen to contribute something so people who want to have alook have something to reference.
 
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