Actions by Defiance, stiller etc... Vs a remmy action that's trued up

Barnard should be mentioned as: you can change the firing in in seconds with no tools; perfect concentricity; tough CM steel; easy bolt lift; fast lock time; 3 locking lugs and P comes with fine 2-stage trigger; S has R700SA footprint(mostly) with longer tenon. Popular in F and TR circles.
 
I've been contemplating a custom build 6.5 Creedmoor for the last year or so. I keep bouncing back and forth between the Defiance, Surgeon and Bighorn TL3. I plan on getting Insite to do my build when I finally decide and have enough money.

Surgeon and Defiance both feature integral lugs and rails. The bighorn has an integral lug and pinned rail. Right now it seems like the bighorn is the hottest action out there with controlled round feed, mechanical ejection, floating bolt head, and the ability to run AW mags. Right now that's the way I'm leaning but I bounce back and forth between it and Surgeon. Honestly I don't think we'd be disappointed in any of the three, I just like to have my mind made up before I do decide on one.
 
If I was looking at building a custom rifle right now, I would take a hard look at the Insite Arms actions (I would also highly recommend them to build your custom - they are the only gunsmith in Canada that I would trust with my money).

Other solid options are the Defiance action and Surgeon. The Defiance feels great, I run it on my match rifle. If you do get a Defiance, I recommend getting the bolt turned down if you plan on shooting in dusty/dirty conditions. Defiance's are built to tight tolerances, and can cause issues in the field. I had to clean my action out twice a day while shooting the Shoot for the Green PRS match in Oklahoma this year. Other Defiance shooters had the same issue, however Surgeon shooters had no issues. If you are just shooting on a square range, then the tolerances of the standard Defiance will suit you fine.

I hear good things about the bighorn actions, but have never handled one so I can't say much about it. The Ultimatum action has an incredibly heavy bolt lift, so I definitely wouldn't recommend them. BAT's feel really nice, really tight tolerances, but again not great for field use. Stillers feel cheap and gritty, but I guess that's why they are on the cheaper end of the spectrum for actions.

Give the guys at Insite Arms a call, they will get you sorted out. They have a lot of experience with different actions, and shoot competitively as well.

+1 for this! They are Shooters that promote PRS Shooting. And their products are great to boot.

Their customer service is top notch. I screwed up my rifle and they fixed it quickly and even brought it to match so I'd have something to shoot with.

Even if their actions are not up and running, they do great work with surgeons
 
Defiance and Surgeon are in a different league vs Stiller. Add Borden, Nesika and Kelby to the D & S groups for "better/best" in the custom action world. For price point, I would suggest Pierce. There are also a couple of new Cdn manf actions .. one is a Rem clone and seems to be working well. The other is offering some neat features but has teething pains.

My current PRS 223 trainer is based off a Savage and all in, is less then the cost of a bare Definance/Surgeon/Nesika action.

So you can have great performance on a moderate budget

Pick your tasks, figure out your budget, decide how much bling you want... build it.

Jerry

More than a couple Canadian options now Jerry, I know of 4 that are available. Insite Arms 3-lug action(pending), Ultimatum, KS Arms 3-lug action, and ATRS Infidel/ Maverick actions. Anyone know of any others?
 
Right! Almost forgot about about them. I guess Cadex also makes their own actions so technically that's 6 available but I don't think you can buy a cadex action separately for a build.
 
I have had custom tactical rigs built (by ATRS ) on Defiance and Stiller - in my view Defiance is much the better of those two and I would not use a Stiller again.

I have customs built (Tac Ord and NSB ) on Rem 700 and they are excellent shooters but, yes, they do lack the prestige of a custom if that is important to you.

I have had F-Class built on RPA and they are fine but not really my cup of tea and, currently, have a F-Open on a Barnard P and a F/TR on a Barnard S - built by M. McPhee (RIP) and the Chou Bros these are excellent rifles and I'd have no hesitation in recommending Barnard actions again for any single shot F class rifle.

I know someone else said they would only trust Insite with their money but, for me, there are a number of other choices and at present the Chou Bros are in possession of my Surgeon action and I have every expectation that the 6.5x47 they are building me will be as excellent and fine an instrument as the Barnard S they built me.

Of course, PGW are always good choices and Ross will provide superb customer service.
 
More than a couple Canadian options now Jerry, I know of 4 that are available. Insite Arms 3-lug action(pending), Ultimatum, KS Arms 3-lug action, and ATRS Infidel/ Maverick actions. Anyone know of any others?

AFAIK, ATRS will not sell you the action alone.

Insite is not in production .... but likely very soon.

PGW may sell you an action... they did a fantastic job with their Titanium ones but not sure if they are offering actions at this time.

Same with Cadex so...

I think we are back to 2 where you can fill out a spec sheet, send money and .... enjoy.

Jerry
 
I know a guy in Quebekistan, Mr Gerard Gaulin.
He's a very reputable gunsmith and a good shooter.
He make his own actions with 4 lugs bolt.
I think he have a brother which was also a gunsmith.
He did/still do alot of job for Fierce.

He only make small batch/limited runs of his actions.

He rebarreled one of my rifle recently and I had the chance to see his actions.
I'm sure these are very good actions, they are very well made.
He had a complete 6ppc rifle built around his action and I saw one group on a target. It was well under 1/4 at 100y.
He also have a black powder rifle built with his action that shoots around half MOA at 100y.

I don't know if he have a couple actions for sale as we speak.
But that is another option.
 
AFAIK, ATRS will not sell you the action alone.

Insite is not in production .... but likely very soon.

PGW may sell you an action... they did a fantastic job with their Titanium ones but not sure if they are offering actions at this time.

Same with Cadex so...

I think we are back to 2 where you can fill out a spec sheet, send money and .... enjoy.

Jerry

That is a good point, I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of all the Canadian options out there. But, yes, not all can be bought without having the maker do the build.
 
and in the Short Range BR circles a custom action is still NOT good enough.

For the price that is paid in US dollars (the current hottest being BATS) many of the TOP actions used in registered matches are worked over by top BR builders. You want to win, they are checked over, measured and worked. Sometimes even sold without ever having a barrel screwed on because they are felt to not be good enough to make a winner.
 
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