Just had my new 30A1 chambered in 338 Lapua to the range for the first and second time this weekend. Thought I'd post some quick impressions, which I'll update later once I have a load dialled in and more time with the rifle.
Fit and finish of the rifle is very decent, with only a little play in the bolt handle. Magazine fit is perfect with zero movement. I've read many complaints about the shape of the bolt handle, while it's not my favourite design, I have quickly adapted to it and now find that it works fine. The trigger breaks crisply at 4 pounds, and has no over-travel or creep, very nice for a factory trigger.
Reliability: Friday's trip to the range was extremely frustrating. Out of 55 rounds I had 14 fail to fire due to light primer strikes. I was cursing the name Armalite and about to call them to arrange for warranty work when I decided to do a little trouble shooting, and realized the embarrassing truth... When I got the rifle (before reading any the the manual, which tends to be something I skip) I had unwittingly loosened the bolt sleeve when I moved the safety lever from safe to fire with the bolt out of battery. After reading the manual carefully and finding the warning paragraph which specifically tells you not to move the safety lever the way I did, it was quick and easy to correct the problem :reface: The loosened bolt sleeve was preventing the striker from achieving full travel... The second trip to the range, today, the rifle functioned flawlessly. Feeding from the magazine is smooth, single shot feeding by dropping a round on top of the empty mag is excellent as well.
Accuracy: I have done almost no load development yet, but the initial results are promising. I am hoping to eventually see 0.5 MOA averages (Armalite claims .25-.75 from the glossy brochure). So far nothing I've fed it has been any worse than 1 MOA and the better groups are approaching 0.5. More to follow on that once the barrel is properly seasoned and I've settled on a load.
Shootability: When researching this rifle I was skeptical about the comment which said that it has virtually no recoil. I can now confirm this rifle has virtually NO FELT RECOIL. Seriously, my 223 Remington is about on par. The trade off of course is noise and muzzle blast, but for the shooter, wearing only standard ear muffs, it is not unpleasant at all. I would not recommend shooting this rifle on a busy line with anyone close by though, at least not without warning them, anyone standing beside you is going to feel this rifle fire, as much as the hear it.
This rifle is extremely pleasant to shoot and is quickly becoming my favourite.
Happy to answer and questions, I'll update this post when I have more to say.
The rings are Badger Ordnance 34mm High rings. While there is plenty of clearance at the front end, I wouldn't recommend anything lower, since you'd start to have interference with the bolt handle. The high rings give about 2.6" from sightline to bore line. This rifle is intended for medium to extreme range (600-1000m+) so the difference in parallax between high and medium rings is negligible. Also, for a good cheek weld with the fixed cheek piece, the high rings are about right. If you went the the target configuration buttstock, then you'd have options in that respect.
Cheers y'all.
Fit and finish of the rifle is very decent, with only a little play in the bolt handle. Magazine fit is perfect with zero movement. I've read many complaints about the shape of the bolt handle, while it's not my favourite design, I have quickly adapted to it and now find that it works fine. The trigger breaks crisply at 4 pounds, and has no over-travel or creep, very nice for a factory trigger.
Reliability: Friday's trip to the range was extremely frustrating. Out of 55 rounds I had 14 fail to fire due to light primer strikes. I was cursing the name Armalite and about to call them to arrange for warranty work when I decided to do a little trouble shooting, and realized the embarrassing truth... When I got the rifle (before reading any the the manual, which tends to be something I skip) I had unwittingly loosened the bolt sleeve when I moved the safety lever from safe to fire with the bolt out of battery. After reading the manual carefully and finding the warning paragraph which specifically tells you not to move the safety lever the way I did, it was quick and easy to correct the problem :reface: The loosened bolt sleeve was preventing the striker from achieving full travel... The second trip to the range, today, the rifle functioned flawlessly. Feeding from the magazine is smooth, single shot feeding by dropping a round on top of the empty mag is excellent as well.
Accuracy: I have done almost no load development yet, but the initial results are promising. I am hoping to eventually see 0.5 MOA averages (Armalite claims .25-.75 from the glossy brochure). So far nothing I've fed it has been any worse than 1 MOA and the better groups are approaching 0.5. More to follow on that once the barrel is properly seasoned and I've settled on a load.
Shootability: When researching this rifle I was skeptical about the comment which said that it has virtually no recoil. I can now confirm this rifle has virtually NO FELT RECOIL. Seriously, my 223 Remington is about on par. The trade off of course is noise and muzzle blast, but for the shooter, wearing only standard ear muffs, it is not unpleasant at all. I would not recommend shooting this rifle on a busy line with anyone close by though, at least not without warning them, anyone standing beside you is going to feel this rifle fire, as much as the hear it.
This rifle is extremely pleasant to shoot and is quickly becoming my favourite.
Happy to answer and questions, I'll update this post when I have more to say.
The rings are Badger Ordnance 34mm High rings. While there is plenty of clearance at the front end, I wouldn't recommend anything lower, since you'd start to have interference with the bolt handle. The high rings give about 2.6" from sightline to bore line. This rifle is intended for medium to extreme range (600-1000m+) so the difference in parallax between high and medium rings is negligible. Also, for a good cheek weld with the fixed cheek piece, the high rings are about right. If you went the the target configuration buttstock, then you'd have options in that respect.
Cheers y'all.
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