Custom action bolt lift

[2343]

Hello all this is my first post on this forum, I've been hijacking reloading tips and recipes off this site for some time now and figured I should join in on the fun. Anyways Iam looking at purchasing a new action, i'd like to keep this one around the $1000 mark. There are a number of quality actions available today which makes the decision that much harder. My main question here is out of all of the actions available today which of these have the lightest bolt lift?

 

[Northridge]

Hello all this is my first post on this forum, I've been hijacking reloading tips and recipes off this site for some time now and figured I should join in on the fun. Anyways Iam looking at purchasing a new action, i'd like to keep this one around the $1000 mark. There are a number of quality actions available today which makes the decision that much harder. My main question here is out of all of the actions available today which of these have the lightest bolt lift?

in that price $ point:

1. defiance tenacity
2. stiller predator Long or short

all though spring plays a role in this both these options have a nice feel when re-cocking with out sacrificing firing pin fall or repeatable ignition. there are other options out there as well but most will have a higher price point.

Shawn Williams

 

[2343]

Thanks Shawn, I was looking hard at the tenacity, atlas and origin. At the same time still considering ponying up another 100 and going curtis. I've ran the curtis axiom and defiance deviant, but the newer budget actions I have no experience with.

 

[22DASHER]

If you go up just a little bit more you could get a Borden. You won’t regret it

 

[Drop Port]

Kelbly Atlas Tactical

 

[Tim Singleton]

An old Panda. Find one in classifieds 10 years old or so well used

Awesome!

Owned 3 Bats and a couple Borden’s. Down to 3 Pandas

 

[Puzzaz01]

If you go up just a little bit more you could get a Borden. You won’t regret it

As what 22Dasher stated, if you add a little more cash to that action purchase and get you a Borden I promise you'll love it. The bolt lift and close is effortless.

Darrin

 

[muleystalker]

Its worth the little extra for a Borden like was said above, you wont be sorry. Smooth like silk and the timing is impeccable.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Kelbly. It comes in under your budget and is twice the action as those flavor of the weeks

 

[1shot]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What Dusty said!!

Lloyd

 

[Alex Wheeler]

For $1k Kelbly's will have the lightest bolt lift because they are designed to have considerable cock on close to achieve the needed pin fall. The tenacity will feel like a deviant which you have handled. Curtis are not designed to be light, they are designed for no cock on close with proper ignition energy, but they are light for a 3 lug. Light should not really be a main goal, a little technique will over come any bolt lift. Too many have gone down the road of simply trying to make an action that feels nice in hand but sacrificed accuracy and reliability I dont mention those actions. Bolt lift is mostly a function of spring and cocking cam angle. If you like a smooth bolt close and accuracy you need enough of both.

 

[expiper]

2432,,,there is a difference between the feel of an action opening and closing with no ctg in the chamber and closing on a loaded ctg and then extracting a fired case in live fireing conditions ,,,,for your budget I would get an Atlas,,,or as someone said ,,,"a used Panda-Kodiak",,,these Kelbly actions cant be beat ,,,and neither can the service and back up advice you get from Kelblys either in person or on the phone,,,,Roger

 

[Larryh128]

Hello all this is my first post on this forum, I've been hijacking reloading tips and recipes off this site for some time now and figured I should join in on the fun. Anyways Iam looking at purchasing a new action, i'd like to keep this one around the $1000 mark. There are a number of quality actions available today which makes the decision that much harder. My main question here is out of all of the actions available today which of these have the lightest bolt lift?

Check out the American Rifle Company Nucleus action. There are youtube vids available. Index finger opens it. I have 1 and it is awesome.

 

[Preacher]

The new Curtis custom AXIOM with the 3 lug is as easy as any ....

 

[2343]

Thanks for the input guys, I think I am going to try an atlas. Ill try to report back with results, maybe do a quick comparison with the curtis thats full DLC coated and the defiance thats cerakoted. Im interested to see the difference between the 3 different coatings and how they perform.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Dont forget the nucleus and even better the mausingfield. They have been the flavor of the week before but are very nice actions

 

[2343]

Something about the nucleus I just cant warm up too. I felt a mausingfield a couple years ago at a Prs club shoot and will say if I wanted to drop 1600 I would consider one

 

[Alex Wheeler]

The Curtis has an excellent ignition design. .250" pin fall, 21lb spring, full weight firing pin, no cock on close and good firing pin guidance. They were running a 19lb spring and I finally got them to switch to a 21. I feel the ignition design is almost as good as it gets for that style action. Its a tactical/hunting action so tolerances are looser than if it was going to be used for BR. With any action everything needs to be checked out and gone through if you expect top performance.

 

[JaoeyP]

I can't speak to all the actions you've mentioned but can comment on the Bighorn Origin. When I first got mine I had to send it back to have it modified to function with my trigger. When I got it back, working the bolt, just holding the action I thought the bolt lift/close wasn't smooth enough. I was concerned enough that I even reached out to Alex Wheeler to see about timing the action. Talked to Ryan Hunt at Hunt's Long Range who has built a few guns on that action and he recommended putting it together and just shooting it to break it in, that the actions he'd had experience with smoothed out after roughly 100 rounds. So, that's what I did. I've got about 250 rounds through it now. It is not the absolute easiest bolt lift, but it's plenty easy. It's light enough on open and close that it does not disrupt my sight picture from a bipod at all. After a little bit of a rough start, I really like my Origin. Not sure what your goals are for your build, but for a long range/tactical build they are well suited.

 

[JaoeyP]

Light should not really be a main goal, a little technique will over come any bolt lift. Too many have gone down the road of simply trying to make an action that feels nice in hand but sacrificed accuracy and reliability I dont mention those actions. Bolt lift is mostly a function of spring and cocking cam angle. If you like a smooth bolt close and accuracy you need enough of both.

After Alex told me this, I quit worrying about the feel of my action. Is it reliably, feeding, igniting, extracting, and ejecting? Yep! Is it accurate and precise? Yep! Moving on.