Let me play devil's advocate for a minute and in no way does this post intend to besmirch Rod and the boys at Corlanes, just the marketplace they have targeted/built.
How in God's good name can a man pay 7K for some steel and plastic/fiberglass and a scope? I have paid this and more for several rifles, one of which has 2 barrels on the horizontal plane, one of which is in high condition and was made in 1873, and another which has a stunning piece of walnut, and which was the subject of another thread here just a couple weeks back. We need to put this in perspective, you are contemplating paying 7K for a rifle which is not an artistic masterpiece, is not specifically designed for any particular competition and holds no significant collector value.............WHY? What will this rifle do that I can't do with any number of my hunting rifles at less than 1/3 the cost including glass? I doubt it will shoot any farther or hit any harder than my 7 RUM, I doubt it will be any more accurate, in the practical terms of hunting rifles, than my 7 RUM or 257 Wby or 300 Wby or 375 H&H or.........well you get the idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably the most self indulgent individual on this forum, but I still have to see value for money paid in my self indulgent toys and I can't see it here. Is this rifle an outstanding, durable, sub MOA hunting rifle that can be dropped, dragged down the mountain, get rained on, get dust blown through it for days on end, be submerged for a couple minutes...........and so on and so on, and the answer is NO. These external turret scopes are fragile and subject to all manner of failure and monkeying with, the rifle is made to tolerances that do not allow for any significant amount of dirt or dust, their triggers are too complex and subject to rust and dust, to be used out in the real hunting world where I have hunted. If you require a muzzle brake on your hunting rifle, may I suggest a lighter recoiling cartridge that you can handle and reduce the OAL of the rifle by a couple inches. I will impart upon you some wisdom that has been handed down over the years and I think is very pertinent at this juncture.........Spend 2K on a good rifle and scope and 5K on ammo, when you have burned through that ammo you will be a far better shot than you will spending 7K on equipment. AND I have a news flash for you, your equipment won't make you a better shot and it won't bring home any more deer/elk/moose than a good reliable rifle with good rugged glass on it. If you really want the hunting experience get out and hunt, don't drive down the road and try to snipe animals at 1000 mtrs after you unpack your rifle and get your sandbags set up on the hood, tweak your scope, dope your wind, settle your breathing, lower your heart rate and then squeeze off your 2 oz trigger........AND MISS, or wound. Human beings are not machines and are subject to all kind of twitches, blinks, distractions and any number of other frailties that make us human, add to that the time-of-flight factor and unseen atmospheric conditions, such as mirage, winds, thermals and such. To successfully make a 1000 mtr shot takes way more than equipment, even highly specialized equipment doesn't guarantee success and the highly specialized equipment it does take is not terribly suited to hunting conditions.
I was shooting silhouette one afternoon on a very good range with flags every 50 mtrs and the mirage was running up and left to the point that we were not aiming for the rams, we actually had to aim below them to hit them, and this was only 500 mtrs, with not enough wind to have to adjust for. How did we find this out you ask? Because our very good spotters were telling all of us at the line we were shooting 1-2 ft over them, so after roughly 20 misses from the 10 guys on the line we got onto them. This is real life and it ain't what they show on TV, I don't care how much you paid for your rifle, it doesn't really increase your chances of making 600-1000 mtr shots. But I digress.........
Even if they guarantee 1/4 minute groups from this 7K rifle, what good is it to you? Do you realize 1 MOA groups consistently, will guarantee that you can theoretically hit a sheep every time, in the heart, at 500 mtrs and a moose at 700 mtrs, IN THE HEART!!!!! And this can easily be done with a 2K set-up, I have a dozen such set ups.
I'm not one to tell a man how to spend his hard earned cash, but I really hate to see a guy "led down the garden path" to the tune of 7K for something that costs less than 3K to build and where there is equipment available to him to do the same job for 1/4 the money, it's like gold plating wrenches.............why, do they wrench better?
So in conclusion let's put it all in perspective...........you are willing to pay 7K for a rifle that will not make you a better hunter, has no exceptional attributes for hunting, has no collector value, has no outstanding aesthetic appeal, won't shoot .123 groups to play with the bench boys and won't really do anything that I can't do with my $600 Remington 700 SPSS in 300 RUM with a $1000 Leupold 6.5-20 scope in $50 Leupold rings and base, in a hunting situation, does that about sum it up?
