It was springtime in the Arizona desert just North of Phoenix when I met the deadliest Cottonmouth a man had ever laid eyes upon. I came upon the masterfully camouflaged serpent basking in the stifling sun. This snake was forty-two inches in length with a striking distance of well beyond 1200 yards. The serpent I speak of is not the creature you worry of in the swamp; it is one bad piece of steel from Venom Tactical.

I had the pleasure of teaching Lenny Bolton, owner of Venom Tactical, and creator of a full line of custom sniper rifles referenced by serpent names. Lenny attended a week long sniper course with Mark Flinn, an old shooting buddy and long time friend. Mark & Lenny had identical Cottonmouth sniper rifles as Lenny had built these snakes exactly the same for the two buddies to test during the sniper course. The only difference between the two shooter’s equipment was their bullet weight. Lenny was shooting HSM 175gr .308 and Mark utilizing Federal Gold Match 168gr .308 in their sniper rifles. These shooters were using completely different brands and grains of ammunition, but both held the exact same DOPE out to 1375yds. The DOPE developed over the weeklong course of shooting, resulted without the use of a holdover, was 60 MOA dialed with a 20 inch barrel at 1200yds. Typically, a Remington 700 with a 24inch barrel develops DOPE averaging 75 MOA at this distance, and only if you have that extra elevation on the top end to dial without hitting mechanical limits of the scope.

The ability to shoot that distance without a use of a holdover and keep the center crosshair on target is an additional asset the Cottonmouth brings to the table. A technical facet and original design built into the Cottonmouth is a proprietary procedure in which the barrel and action are threaded and coupled with a huge amount of torque that would destroy a standard barreled action. This also eliminates the cold bore shots, making they a thing of the past. Most shooters would laugh at the prospect of identical rifles shooting the same DOPE with different ammunition, but this is indeed the case with these Venom Tactical custom sniper rifles. This can only be explained by the amazing quality and precision machining built into the hand-made rifles from Venom Tactical, thanks to the skills of Lenny Bolton.

Having personally witnessed and preformed these actions with the Cottonmouth makes me a true believer that there are still some rifle builders out there who continue to focus on attention to detail, and quality craftsmanship.

Rob Pettorsson

Scout/Sniper USMC

Chief Instructor - Sniper Innovations

VENOM TACTICAL

COTTONMOUTH

Rifle Review

By Mark Flinn

My Venom Cottonmouth is the highest quality precision rifle I have ever owned. Where do I start? Everything about this custom hand-built rifle shows the innovative design and attention to the smallest of details that make up this rugged and reliable firearm. I took possession of my rifle in October 2009, and have been amazed by the performance and accuracy every time I press the trigger. So far, I logged 1684 rounds of Federal 168g Gold Match in my logbook.

Lenny Bolton is a Master Engineer and he hand-built my rifle exactly to the specifications I wanted, with the quality and precision that he demands of each Sniper rifle that leaves his shop. During the construction of my rifle, Lenny guided me through the many steps to produce an accurate, custom-fit “Bang Stick” that is compatible of extreme accuracy. Hell, the first three rounds out of this rifle were ¼ MOA at 100 yards.

This is my set-up:  (Check out the Venom Website to see HOW these rifles are built and the Specs)

Stock: I picked the Cottonmouth because I like the Manners T-3.

Barrel: Lenny & I talked about the “mission” of this rifle and WHAT I was going to use the rifle for? I picked the 20” Heavy in .308 with Lenny’s custom twist-rate and taper.

Scope Base: Badger – No brainer!

Rings: Leopold Tactical – Med height

Scope: Leopold Mark 4, M-2 Tactical

Color: OD stock and Tan action

I had the pleasure of shooting a sniper course with Lenny Bolton at GPS Defense. Lenny built a rifle identical to mine in every detail for himself, and during the week long course, we fired almost 500 rounds each. I was shooting Federal Gold Match 168g, and Lenny had the Federal 175g. What we found is very interesting . . . Our “dope” from 100 to 1200 yards was EXACTLY the same for both rifles. Chronograph tests showed that our rifles with 20” barrels were 40 feet-per-second faster than the same load out of a standard 24” rifle.

The Blue-printed receiver, Venom elliptical Bolt, Venom Custom barrel, Custom-fit, Stock bedding, etc, are a few of the many reasons I choose Lenny Bolton to build my rifle. Would I have Lenny build me another rifle? In a heartbeat! I recommend these rifles to anyone who wants a tool they can count on. I can truly say:

I CAN BET MY LIFE ON MY VENOM COTTONMOUTH! You can too!

Mark Flinn

Extremely satisfied customer