Chapuis ROLS Classic Rifle: Full Review

Straight-­pull rifles rule the roost among many European hunters, though not so much in the United States, yet. It’s not for lack of merit, but because of differences in politics and hunting culture. Lacking our amazing Second Amendment, firearms ownership is somewhat restricted across much of Europe. Most European straight-­pull bolt-actions are switch-­barrel designs, making it easier to own additional barrels rather than multiple firearms.

Equally important and popular throughout continental Europe is the driven hunt. Yes, they stalk and hunt from stands as we do, but large, organized drives for boar, deer and moose are a huge tradition — and a major management tool. Rules are tight as to what might be shot on any given drive, but the shooting is fast, and usually at moving game. Europeans are far better at this than we are because they do it all the time, and because they practice. Most European ranges have moving targets on tracks.

It can take a while to get the hang of the straight-­pull, but it is much faster than a turnbolt, with less movement and less disturbance to the aim. Politics again: Many European countries don’t allow semiautomatic rifles. So, again, the faster straight-­pull is preferred among European hunters. I understand the speed because I started using a straight-­pull 15 years ago. They are strong and accurate, as well as fast.

I don’t know if straight-­pull rifles will ever approach the popularity of turnbolts here, however, there is history. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines adopted the Lee straight-­pull rifle in 1894. There were others back then, but the Savage Impulse was the first American straight-­pull centerfire in a century when it appeared in Guns & Ammo’s April 2021 issue, and the German Blaser R8 has been marketed since 2008.

So, meet the ROLS, arriving to the U.S. in 2019 from the prestigious firm of Chapuis in the Loire Valley of France. Since the early 1900s, its arms have been passed from father to son to grandson. Today, Chapuis is under the umbrella of Beretta Holding, imported through Chapuis USA.

France still has a strong and active hunting culture for boar, deer, chamois, birds and small game. Like Americans, most French hunters pursue their passion close to home. The straight-­pull ROLS is purely French in design. It is slim, trim, light and elegant, handling like a dream.

A Tale of Two ROLS

The ROLS is offered in three production versions: Classic, with a one-­piece AAA walnut stock; Deluxe, with an engraved receiver and two-­piece fine walnut stock; and Carbon, with a one-­piece carbon-fiber stock. Chamberings include 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester, .30-­’06 Springfield, .300 Winchester Magnum and .375 H&H. I have no experience with the Carbon or Deluxe, but I have spent time with two ROLS Classics: In 2024, I tested a Classic in .30-­’06 for several weeks, including most of a month in Africa, and recently the .375 H&H illustrated here.

They are not identical, though. The .30-­’06 has a 24-­inch barrel, and the .375 H&H has a 251/2-­inch barrel; it weighs 9 ounces more. It’s 6.6 pounds for the ’06, and 7.2 pounds for the .375. The most significant difference between the two rifles I used is that the .30-­’06 came as a left-­hand bolt option, while the .375 arrived in a right-­hand configuration. A great benefit of the ROLS, as well as most other straight-pull rifles, is that it is quite simple to produce both left- and right-hand bolts, and any model of the Chapuis ROLS Classic can be ordered with the desired bolt option.

That is not to say the .30-­’06 is a left-­hand model. Both have straight buttstocks with a right-­hand cheekpiece. Since I knew I’d be hunting with the .30-­’06, I asked my old friend Tom Leoni at the Maryland headquarters for Chapuis to substitute a left-­hand bolt. My mission with the .375 H&H was simpler: Spend time at the range, make sure of the photography, and no “.375-­suitable” hunt in the offing. Hey, we lefties aren’t that picky. The ROLS stock is straight and has no right-­hand cast. Even though the cheekpiece was useless for my left-handedness, both rifles felt good and handled well, quick and lively.

Just one last comment on the right-and-left issue: Like most lefties, I’ve used right-­handed turnbolts all my life. We are accustomed to reaching over the receiver to find the bolt. (It’s quicker than you might think.) A straight-­pull rifle requires different motion and leverage. A straight-­pull with the bolt on the wrong side is awkward. So, if you take the plunge to straight-­pull, do yourself a favor and get a bolt on the proper side for you. If you live in a house divided, with both right-­ and left-­handers, get it with two bolts; one right, another left.

Feature Rich

The ROLS has a drop-­down floorplate/triggerguard assembly that houses a polymer rotary magazine. It appears the trim must be in-­line, but it is not. In rimless cases, it houses four cartridges plus one in the chamber. With belted cartridges, it’s three-­plus-­one. That capacity is normal in magnum bolt-­actions. As a personal aside, I’m comfortable with a double rifle’s two shots, but I’d just as soon not go after a wounded buffalo with a bolt-­action and a two-­shot magazine. This bugaboo does not apply to the ROLS.

Both rifles had excellent AAA-­grade wood with a satin finish and laser checkering. The Classic comes with simple but excellent iron sights, with highly visible fiber-­optic front nestled in a slim rear notch. I didn’t use them on either rifle. The barrel has recesses for the Recknagel clamp-­on scope mounting system. If you’re familiar with the Blaser saddle mount, it is somewhat similar, which means “fast and repeatable.” Although the testing was months apart, I put an older Zeiss Victory 2.5-­10x50mm on the .30-­’06 barrel and a Swarovski Z8i 1-­8x24mm on the .375.

Operation

The ROLS comes in a nicely fitted hard case with the barrel and bolt separate from the stocked receiver assembly. The barrel shank simply slips into the receiver and tightens with a supplied Allen key and a large bolt forward of the magazine. Make sure that bolt is plenty tight. That’s it for removing the barrel for cleaning or switching barrels. If barrels with different head diameters — as in .308/.30-­’06 family and belted magnums — are desired, the bolt head can be switched out.

Loading, unloading, and removing and inserting the bolt is slightly more complicated. For loading and unloading, press the large flush-­mounted round button on the floorplate assembly. It drops the floorplate down, freeing the magazine, which is then easily top-­loaded and reinserted. With the magazine empty but locked in place, there’s plenty of room to easily single-­load into the chamber, and the magazine can also be top-­loaded or topped up.

To insert or remove the bolt, it’s important to remember that you must press that button and drop the floorplate/magazine assembly. To insert, just guide the rails into opposite sides of the receiver. For removal, the bolt-­stop is a small plunger at the rear left of the action, sort of underneath the bolt head when the bolt is open. Forget to drop the floorplate and you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to get to the bolt release. 

Unlike rotating bolts with lugs that are literally turned into place, straight-­pulls lock up with lugs surrounding the bolt head, cammed into matching recesses in the barrel shank when the bolt is fully in battery or retracted as the bolt handle is pulled rearward. Accustomed to Mauser’s massive dual-­opposing locking lugs, straight-­pulls don’t appear as strong. Actually, the opposite is true. The multiple concentric lugs of the straight-­pull offer more bearing surface. The ROLS is tested to 123,000 pounds per square inch (psi), almost double the pressure of the hottest modern cartridges, which typically top out at 65,000 psi.

As with all bolt-­actions, loading the chamber is accomplished by pushing the bolt handle forward, stripping a cartridge from the magazine and carrying it into the chamber. It is essential to be certain the bolt handle is snapped all the way forward, as it is that last bit of travel that cams the lugs and ensures lockup. Whether the cartridge was fired or not, moving the bolt handle rearward removes the case or cartridge from the chamber. Right-­hand bolts eject to the right, and left-­hand bolts to the left.

The “safety” central at the rear of the bolt assembly is not a safety per se, but actually a cocking/decocking lever. It is similar to the Blaser R8 system and the decocking lever on Krieghoff double rifles and the slide-­action Semprio. It’s safe and positive, but if you’ve never used a “safety” like this, you may flub it a couple of times as you get the hang of it. With the thumb of your shooting hand, press the lever up until it locks. You are now ready to fire. In the top-­center of the lever is a smaller square button. To decock (and make safe) put pressure on that button and the lever will slide back down, making the rifle inert, but it does not automatically decock between shots.

Field & Range

The first ROLS I used, in .30-­’06, was extremely accurate and a pure joy to shoot. I did not group it for score though; I wish I had because it grouped just under or just over 1 minute of angle (MOA) with everything I fed it.

At the time, my purpose was getting ready for a lengthy African sojourn; first, 10 days in Mozambique and then 3 weeks in South Africa. It was a joy to carry. The Professional Hunters (PHs) I showed liked the look and feel, as did I. Unfortunately, for most of the trip, the main goal was buffalo. There was little time for — or interest in — .30-­’06-­suitable game. Along the way, I shot a couple animals for the pot, though. No surprise, the ROLS performed perfectly and there are few better choices for plains game than the good old .30-­’06.

At the tail end, I spent the last week in the Eastern Cape with Fred Burchell at Frontier Safaris. There, I was joined by my young friend and intern, Richard Charlton. Medically retired from the U.S. Army, Charlton is completing his Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise (WOEM) degree at Kansas State University. Although a widely experienced hunter, including guiding in Alaska, this was his first African trip. I was more than happy to share the ROLS with him for field work. After a quick range session, he had no problems. It seemed like everything he pointed the rifle at fell over nicely.

One of the animals he wanted most was a zebra; big, tough, wary and rarely easy. With time growing short, we heard zebras calling and spotted them up on a huge, brushy ridge. We managed to get ahead and had them stopped 300 yards above us, milling back and forth in thick stuff on a near-­vertical slope. Trying to pick out a stallion, Burchell had Charlton on sticks. One of many times I’ve been delighted that it wasn’t my shot.

It seemed to take forever, but finally a correct zebra stepped out and the shot went. Hit hard, the animal lurched to the right and vanished into a little cut. Watching through binoculars, I was sure it had gone down there. It had. It was not the easiest recovery, but Charlton made a hell of a shot. 

Fast forward six months to the ROLS in .375 H&H; same fantastic fit and finish. The craftsmanship was obvious. It sported a crisp, clean trigger, though I’m not sure why the .375 carries 11/2-inches more barrel. It eked out more velocity, with all three loads coming in a bit over specs, but there was no appreciable difference in its handling.

There was one difference, though. As a traditional hunting rifle, the ROLS barrel isn’t threaded for either a brake or suppressor. At 7.2 pounds, it’s light for a .375, so it kicked. Add a scope and mount, and it’s slightly less than 8 pounds; it’s still gonna kick. I had all manner of odds and ends of .375 loads on hand, but few with enough ammo for zeroing and five five-­shot groups.

I did have some Hornady Outfitter with 250-­grain CX, Hornady 300-­grain DGX Bonded and Federal Premium Safari with 300-­grain Woodleigh Hydro Shok solids, an eclectic mix.

I started with the 250-­grain Hornady CX. Even though the lighter bullet is faster, 17-­percent reduction in bullet weight reduced recoil quite a bit. I shot that series over sandbags with a PAST recoil shield on my shoulder. For me, whether rational or not, I tend to get my best groups when shooting with sandbags. The results were consistent, averaging just under 11/2 MOA. I’ve seen .375s do better, others worse, but I felt that was solid, certainly minute-of-buffalo or -lion at any distance. The only problem: At that gun weight, the recoil was sharp. At the end of the first series, I had a splitting headache. It was time to clean the barrel and start over. From that point, I wimped out and used a Caldwell Lead Sled for the remainder of testing. The second load, the 300-­grain DGX Bonded, stayed consistent at 1.63 inches for five five-­shot groups. Remember, flukes can be good or bad; this series was skewed by the best group of the entire session at less than three-quarters of an ­inch.

The third series was Woodleigh Hydro Shok solid, as loaded by Federal Premium. Some big-­bore rifles shoot better with solids; for whatever reason, this is rare in my experience. Perhaps, by the end of the session, I was getting jumpy. In any case, the load had the largest average group size at 1.93 inches; still easily minute of elephant, hippo or rhino.

The Schnabel forend gives it a bit of European flair, but the straight comb is American, exactly the way the ROLS Classic handles. Fast and sure, light and lively. I like the look and feel of the ROLS. Like all straight-­pulls, with a bit of practice, it’s as fast as greased lightning. 

Chapuis ROLS Classic

• Type: Straight pull, bolt action
• Cartridge: .375 H&H (tested)
• Capacity: 3+1 rds., rotary magazine
• Barrel: 25.5 in.,1:12-in. twist, steel
• Length: 43.3 in.
• Weight: 7 lbs., 3 oz.
• Stock: AAA Circassian walnut
• Finish: Bronze anodized (receiver, aluminum); gloss blued (barrel, steel)
• Trigger: Single stage, adjustable; 2 lbs., 10 oz. (tested)
• Sights: Bead, white (front); U-notch, red fiber-optic post (rear)
• Safety: Manual decocker button
• MSRP: $6,399
• Manufacturer and Importer: Chapuis Armes USA, 800-264-4926, chapuis-usa.com 

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