Even with a scope and a suppressor, the author’s Wilson Combat NULA Model 20 in .358 Win. still weighed well under 7 pounds. (Photo courtesy of Sabastian "Bat" Mann)
August 22, 2024
By Richard Mann
In 1985 a West Virginia high-school shop teacher named Melvin Forbes introduced a bolt-action rifle weighing less than 5 pounds to the world. Between then and 2022, Forbes handcrafted and sold more than 7,000 of those rifles and set the bar for rugged, lightweight hunting rifles so high that no other maker—factory or custom—could touch it. But as Forbes aged, he knew he could not continue, so he sold his knowledge and the rights to his New Ultra Light Arms (NULA) rifle to Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat. The company tweaked the design and now offers a modernized version that builds on Forbes’ legacy of lightweight performance.
The Model 20 action is built specifically for cartridges in the .308 Win. size class and weighs just 20 ounces. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Combat) The Wilson Combat NULA Model 20 is a push-feed bolt-action design perfectly sized to the cartridge it’s intended to fire. There’s no excess metal in the action; it’s machined and EDM-cut from 4140 steel bar stock and weighs only 20 ounces, hence the Model 20 designation. It’s drilled and tapped for 8-40 scope-base screws and works with the Talley one-piece rings originally designed by Forbes. Fully machined from 4340 bar stock, the two-lug bolt features a Sako-style extractor and a plunger ejector. The action includes a special version of the Timney Elite Hunter trigger, which has a safety lever that locks the bolt handle down when placed in the safe position.
Wilson Combat makes its own barrels, and the NULA Model 20 can be had with a 16 1/4-, 18-, 20- or 22-inch, 416R stainless steel barrel that is button-rifled, honed and double-stress-relieved. Barrel-length options depend on chambering, and those offered are .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor, 7 mm-08 Rem., 308 Win. and 358 Win. Wilson Combat does NULA barrels a bit differently than most manufacturers, which utilize established contours. For example, a .243 Win. and a .308 Win. barrel from most makers will have the same contour, and because of the smaller hole in the .243 barrel, that rifle will weigh more than one in .308 Win. Wilson contours the barrel to the bore diameter, so each barrel has the same wall thickness at the muzzle. This keeps weight down and adds a sleek, custom touch.
Wilson Combat added a floorplate to the original Model 20 design. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Combat) Wilson takes extreme care to ensure the action and barrel are assembled on an exact and precise centerline, and once assembled, the bolt and action are coated with a black ArmorLube DLC coating. The barrel receives an Armor-Tuff coating. Then the barreled action is pillar-bedded in an AG Composites carbon-fiber stock, offered in two camo patterns or a speckled gray finish. Original Forbes NULA rifles had a blind box magazine, but the Wilson Combat version is fitted with a hard-anodized aluminum floorplate. A finished rifle with impeccable balance weighs 4.9 to 5 1/4 pounds, depending on barrel length and chambering.
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I took a Wilson Combat NULA Model 20 in .358 Win. to Africa in March. It had a 16 1/4-inch, threaded barrel because I wanted to hunt with a suppressor. The .358 Win. is a hard-hitting, moderate-range rifle cartridge that’s generally loaded with a 200- to 225-grain bullet. It’s suitable for big game all over the world, and I applaud Wilson Combat for offering it in the NULA Model 20. The downside to the .358 Win. is that there are limited factory loads to choose from, and I could obtain only three loads for testing.
The rifle, however, did not seem to care what load I put through it. I fired three, five-shot groups at 100 yards with each load, and the average size for all 15 groups was a scant 1.09 inches. Honestly, I was not surprised. During the last two years I evaluated four other NULA rifles from Wilson Combat. Every one of them functioned perfectly and shot incredibly well. In fact, the average for all the groups fired with all five rifles—and there are a bunch of them—is an amazing 1.17 inches. I don’t know of another factory rifle at any weight or price that will deliver such level of consistent precision across five examples with such a wide selection of random factory ammunition.
The AG Composites carbon-fiber stock is available in three finishes: Kodiak Rogue (above), Charcoal Gray (left) and Canyon Rogue. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Combat) Some hunters spend all their time in a treestand, shoot house or ground blind, where rifle weight is not an extremely important consideration. Others like to trek deep into public land where every ounce matters, especially when you’re bringing out a big buck. In Africa you also spend a lot of time walking; you carry a rifle a lot more than you shoot it. For those on safari or on a backcountry hunt, a lightweight rifle that will shoot like the Wilson Combat NULA Model 20 is a blessing.
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Most appropriately and somewhat sentimentally, for my safari I outfitted the Wilson Combat NULA Model 20 with an old Leupold VX-III 1.75-6X riflescope I’d purchased from Forbes. Amazingly, the rifle with the scope and a Silencer Central Banish 46 suppressor installed still only tipped the scales at an incredibly light 6.88 pounds. (The suppressor weighed 17.5 ounces.) During those 42 days in Africa I took 12 animals, from as small as a jackal to as big as a kudu bull, with the setup.
For two decades it’s been my opinion that the hand-built rifles from Melvin Forbes at New Ultra Light Arms are pound for pound the most accurate bolt-action hunting rifles ever made. That opinion has not changed, but everything else has. Forbes is no longer building his wonder rifles, but Wilson Combat, one of the top custom firearm manufacturers in the world, is skillfully producing the next generation of them. They carry just as light, shoot just as well and cost almost 30 percent less. The only question is which one—or how many—do you want.
ACCURACY RESULTS:
Load: Lehigh Defense Tipped Controlled Chaos
Load: Buffalo Bore Barnes TSX
Muzzle velocity is the average of 10 consecutive shots fired through a Caldwell G2 chronograph at 10 feet. Accuracy is the average of three consecutive, five-shot groups fired from a sandbag rest at 100 yards.
SPECIFICATIONS: Wilson Combat NULA Model 20
