Sportco

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sportco was an Australian manufacturer of rifles and shotguns in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1947 until the early 1980s. Founded by Jack Warne, also known by its full name Sporting Arms Limited, began by converting surplus Martini Cadet rifles to .22 calibre.

Soon they began producing their own designs of bolt action and 'Sportomatic' semi automatic rifles as well as single shot shotguns followed by semi automatic shotguns and pump action rifles. They also started to export to Great Britain, Rhodesia, Borneo, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America.

Sportco supplied the British military with a blow-back action self-loading training rifle with a ten round capacity. Sold in Australia as the Model 71S the British dubbed it Rifle,L29A2. An example is to be found in the Enfield Pattern Room collection^[1]. Sportco also supplied Winchester with actions for their Model 320 10 shot bolt action repeater and Model 310 single shot.

Sportco also sold ammunition under its own brand name that was manufactured by Riverbrand and Winchester Australia^[2].

Their longest lasting model was the Model 44 target rifle which would later would be known as the Omark Model 44 and would be produced by MAB Engineering when Sportco would close its doors^[3].

Sportco was sold to Omark Industries and shut its doors in the early 1980s.

Jack Warne would later leave Australia for the United States and found Kimber of Oregon.