I recently picked up a heavy barreled Wildcat off the EE here to check out and tune up for a buddy who's getting into the sport. I was looking forward to seeing the rifle and was especially interested to try the fit and feel of the gun to see how it compares to my trusty Savage Mark II BV.
Taking it out of the box, I was pleased with the weight of it, but thought that the stock could be slightly larger, which would in turn improve the balance marginally. Not that the balance was offending, but it is a little nose-heavy at first feel. I had some experience with the standard version of the Wildcat, and was not very impressed with the action, and this one was similar, somewhat rough with noticeable friction present due to an undersize bolt body. That feature would need work. The trigger, surprisingly, was a very pleasant two stage, and felt to be about three pounds or so, but with an unexpectedly crisp break. It has a similar feel to the Savage trigger when breaking... a sound and feel that bring to mind one word 'thunk!'. Not like an Anschutz 'tick'... this thing means business.
Out of curiosity and impatience, I dove into the rifle before taking it out to the range and testing its 'out of the box' capability. I had plans for this thing, regardless, so off I went. First thing I did was dive into the trigger mechanism and back off the stop nut as far as I reasonably could. With this complete, the trigger pull tested between 9.2 and 9.6 Newtons, or, 2 pounds give or take an ounce or two. Again, the break is crisp, and the two stage design is a welcomed feature. I stoned the sear minimally, but didn't get too carried away, as I have heard some manufacturers use sintered parts with an exterior hardening treatment, which can be ground off via stoning. Taking the roughness off the sear seemed to make a slight improvement to the overall feel of the break, but it could be my imagination.
Next up was bedding the action. I bedded the areas around the action screws with a fast setting steel-epoxy resin, and had it bedded in one evening. The bedding took out about half the rotational slop that was present pre-bedding, and by my unholy opinion, was satisfactory. The barrel, of course, was very well free-floated care of TOZ.
While the bedding was setting, I took a few minutes to disassemble, clean and polish the bolt. After re-installing, it felt a little better, but I have a feeling it might be mostly to the cleaning and removing grit, then lubing. Movement was fairly smooth, but it was easily felt that if the bolt was dry, binding would occur easily.
Reflecting on the work so far, my next task with the rifle was to leave the bedding to set for another 24 hours (while 60+ hours would be preferred for a centerfire, I reckoned that between the quick-set resin and low recoil factor the lost time would not make much of a difference), then take it to the range and give it a whirl.
Arriving at the range with a couple boxes of cheapie ammo, and two Lapua flavors for contrast, the first thought that crossed my mind was that I severely misjudged the windchill! After sighting it in against the snow (handy!), I put it through some basic paces off the bench at 100 yards. Upon chambering the first round, I was reminded that the barrel has a 'semi-match' chamber- its a tight fit! The bolt was a little firm in the action, and the ejection works best with a little red enthusiasm associated, both of which are detractors, but both livable, and if I was shooting off a bipod instead of a makeshift rest, operation would be much more pleasant. I burned a couple rounds off offhand, and the bolt's firmness is much less noticeable in that position.
Performance, as always, will 'make or break' the opinion, but the Wildcat met every expectation and then some. I was expecting 1.5 MOA accuracy with mid-quality fodder, and it showed that and better in some cases. This time the performance eventually became a point of frustration, effectively bursting my bubble about how my BV can keep pace with an Anschutz Match 64. With the right ammo, the Wildcat showed very, very consistent performance, and could easily give the BV a run for its money on paper. As follows, groups are best 4 over best 5, except in the case of Scoremaster, where its best 6 and all ten.
RWS Target Rifle: 1.41"/ 1.67" - not too bad for the particular flavor.
Federal 714: 2.275" and 2.258" on two separate targets- it grouped when sighting in, but choked when it counted.
PMC Scoremaster: 0.445"/ 1.785"- this cluster was surprising, and the flavor shows great promise. Sorting may help.
Eley Pistol Match: 1.390" - better than some, but not stellar compared to expectation.
Lapua Super Club : 0.920"/ 0.960"- this is where its at- consistent and accurate- keeps pace with reasonable expectations! This wasn't a one off, either, as seen below with Standard Club, it will go sub-inch with Lapua.
For an idea of how it would do in an informal match, the following was shot with greasy old Lapua Standard Club- 98-1x isn't too shabby.
All in all, I was very impressed with the value of the rifle. Coupled with its shorter barrel and lighter weight, it could reasonably give the BV a run for its money in performance. If it keeps up its current performance with the Lapua ammo, I might have to find 'another' rifle for my bud...
Still searching for the holy grail...
Taking it out of the box, I was pleased with the weight of it, but thought that the stock could be slightly larger, which would in turn improve the balance marginally. Not that the balance was offending, but it is a little nose-heavy at first feel. I had some experience with the standard version of the Wildcat, and was not very impressed with the action, and this one was similar, somewhat rough with noticeable friction present due to an undersize bolt body. That feature would need work. The trigger, surprisingly, was a very pleasant two stage, and felt to be about three pounds or so, but with an unexpectedly crisp break. It has a similar feel to the Savage trigger when breaking... a sound and feel that bring to mind one word 'thunk!'. Not like an Anschutz 'tick'... this thing means business.
Out of curiosity and impatience, I dove into the rifle before taking it out to the range and testing its 'out of the box' capability. I had plans for this thing, regardless, so off I went. First thing I did was dive into the trigger mechanism and back off the stop nut as far as I reasonably could. With this complete, the trigger pull tested between 9.2 and 9.6 Newtons, or, 2 pounds give or take an ounce or two. Again, the break is crisp, and the two stage design is a welcomed feature. I stoned the sear minimally, but didn't get too carried away, as I have heard some manufacturers use sintered parts with an exterior hardening treatment, which can be ground off via stoning. Taking the roughness off the sear seemed to make a slight improvement to the overall feel of the break, but it could be my imagination.
Next up was bedding the action. I bedded the areas around the action screws with a fast setting steel-epoxy resin, and had it bedded in one evening. The bedding took out about half the rotational slop that was present pre-bedding, and by my unholy opinion, was satisfactory. The barrel, of course, was very well free-floated care of TOZ.
While the bedding was setting, I took a few minutes to disassemble, clean and polish the bolt. After re-installing, it felt a little better, but I have a feeling it might be mostly to the cleaning and removing grit, then lubing. Movement was fairly smooth, but it was easily felt that if the bolt was dry, binding would occur easily.
Reflecting on the work so far, my next task with the rifle was to leave the bedding to set for another 24 hours (while 60+ hours would be preferred for a centerfire, I reckoned that between the quick-set resin and low recoil factor the lost time would not make much of a difference), then take it to the range and give it a whirl.
Arriving at the range with a couple boxes of cheapie ammo, and two Lapua flavors for contrast, the first thought that crossed my mind was that I severely misjudged the windchill! After sighting it in against the snow (handy!), I put it through some basic paces off the bench at 100 yards. Upon chambering the first round, I was reminded that the barrel has a 'semi-match' chamber- its a tight fit! The bolt was a little firm in the action, and the ejection works best with a little red enthusiasm associated, both of which are detractors, but both livable, and if I was shooting off a bipod instead of a makeshift rest, operation would be much more pleasant. I burned a couple rounds off offhand, and the bolt's firmness is much less noticeable in that position.
Performance, as always, will 'make or break' the opinion, but the Wildcat met every expectation and then some. I was expecting 1.5 MOA accuracy with mid-quality fodder, and it showed that and better in some cases. This time the performance eventually became a point of frustration, effectively bursting my bubble about how my BV can keep pace with an Anschutz Match 64. With the right ammo, the Wildcat showed very, very consistent performance, and could easily give the BV a run for its money on paper. As follows, groups are best 4 over best 5, except in the case of Scoremaster, where its best 6 and all ten.
RWS Target Rifle: 1.41"/ 1.67" - not too bad for the particular flavor.
Federal 714: 2.275" and 2.258" on two separate targets- it grouped when sighting in, but choked when it counted.
PMC Scoremaster: 0.445"/ 1.785"- this cluster was surprising, and the flavor shows great promise. Sorting may help.
Eley Pistol Match: 1.390" - better than some, but not stellar compared to expectation.
Lapua Super Club : 0.920"/ 0.960"- this is where its at- consistent and accurate- keeps pace with reasonable expectations! This wasn't a one off, either, as seen below with Standard Club, it will go sub-inch with Lapua.
For an idea of how it would do in an informal match, the following was shot with greasy old Lapua Standard Club- 98-1x isn't too shabby.
All in all, I was very impressed with the value of the rifle. Coupled with its shorter barrel and lighter weight, it could reasonably give the BV a run for its money in performance. If it keeps up its current performance with the Lapua ammo, I might have to find 'another' rifle for my bud...
Still searching for the holy grail...
