I ordered this rifle and after several months I received it in June of last year. I am finally getting around to collecting photographs and summarizing my thoughts for an honest description of the new rifle that I received from 10X.
I would like to start by mentioning the things that I liked about this rifle. First, this rifle IMHO looks killer. The stock is very comfortable when you get in position and and has a good range of adjustment in both the buttplate and the cheek piece.
Now for the photos and my observations on the issues with the rifle that was delivered to me.
[/IMG]Trigger....
One of the options that I selected for my rifle was a Jewell single stage trigger. Upon testing at arrival, it was an extremely heavy trigger for small bore position rifle with a release weight around 1.5#. Other springs were supplied loose with the trigger, but why didn't 10X install them from the outset. They know that a heavy trigger is useless in benchrest competition, so why did they leave it that way for a position rifle?
Adjustable Buttplate....
The buttplate looks good but the wings come loose after you are in position only after a few minutes. It did not make any difference on how tight you cranked down - it never stayed in the position it was set. The vertical stem that allows the buttplate to go up and down is weak and distorts when you are behind the rifle in position. To correct this, I made a thicker one out of stainless steel and it is no longer a problem. The wings will take a lot more time and effort to fix before it is fully reliable for use in position - especially prone where it has the most contact and pressure.
[/IMG]Cheek piece......
The cheek adjusts vertically, slides side to side and tilts. The obvious problem is that there is no way to adjust the tilt without removing the cheek piece off of the rifle and taking the thing apart. A simple fix is if a slot is added to the front of the assembly to give the wrench access. Without adding a slot, the cheekpiece would take forever to adjust and not allow a 3p shooter full range of function between prone, standing and kneeling. If you cannot adjust the rifle properly, it is of little use.
[/IMG]Bedding......
When I ordered the rifle, I had an extensive conversation of what options I wanted, one of which was to have the action fully bedded in Devcon steel putty. As you can see in the photo, the action was not bedded. To be honest, I was set back a little on the bedding, and I am still in awe. I have never seen or heard of a target grade action bedded this way.
When the action is tightened down onto the supplied bedding, it actually "rocks" in the stock with minimal pressure.
[/IMG]Accessory rail........
This is a photo of just one of many places on the accessory rail where there are machine marks. A little scotch bright and about 1 minute of effort goes a long way for the cosmetic appearance of machined parts. I guess I might be nitpicking, but for a domestic company that wants to make a name for themselves, this does not bode well. They appear to want to make a run at producing a US made prone/position rifle, but marginal clean up before assembly will not provide a professional appearance.
At this time it is time to get down to brass tacks and talk about it's accuracy.
Upon receipt, I tried several different brands of match grade standard velocity ammunition and the best results at 50 yards were around 1" groups (5 shot). I am an NRA smallbore prone competitor with an Expert classification and will possibly make Master in 2013.
I was stumped and after some checking, I noticed that there is no engagement between the bullet and the rifling. Normally in a match grade chamber, there is at least a minimum amount of engagement which enhances the accuracy of the rifle. It appears that the barrel chamber is too deep and it prevents the engagement. The only way to fix this is to remove the barrel, cut off the old chamber section and redo it properly.
As the accuracy was so poor, I called 10x twice and never heard back. The first time I called it was for a bore guide and the next time was after I had shot the rifle and had less than acceptable accuracy.
I was also told by 10x that the rifle is safe to dry fire as much as I like because in their design the firing pin would never touch the face of the barrel. Based on their input, I did so and now the chamber face has a nice dent.
I knew I was going to have to have the barrel rechambered so I took it off the action and took some additional photographs.
Barrel threads.....
I guess they will be functional, but definitely not a good fit or finish.
[/IMG]Crown.......
After checking the chamber end, I took a closer look at the crown. For some reason, when 10x bead blasted the barrel, they also bead blasted the crown. I do not know why they would have done this and there is no indication that any masking was applied to protect the end of the rifling.
After additional examination to determine the impact of the bead blasting (and if it went into the actual barrel), I noticed that a metal burr exists on every land on the crown. It appears like it was done with a chamfer tool. The burrs were large enough that you could snag it with a dental pic and vertically pick up the barreled action.
I tried to get a photo of the burrs on the rifling, but I am not a professional with a camera so this was as good as I was able to get.
[/IMG]I also tried to take some more photos of the chamber area.
There is a firing pin dent but it is hard to see.
[/IMG]As I had disassembled the barrel and the rest of the action, I noticed that there was a sandy residue. I then removed the loading tray from the bottom of the action. In the photo, you can see that the bottom of the loading tray is partially bead blasted. From what I can deduce, the action was fully assembled and then bead blasted....that is the only way I can see how this pattern was produced.
[/IMG]Before taking the rifle apart I also checked the headspace. The .042 low limit gauge would not even let the cam of the bolt to even start to shut.
To be honest, I more than anyone else wanted this rifle to woop my Anschutz. I am an American toolmaker and take a lot of pride in this country and wanted this rifle to work out.
From the photos and observations, I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. I am very disappointed in the product that was delivered and have decided that the only way this will be resolved properly is to do the repairs myself.
Others may disagree on this approach and think it is best to have 10X perform the repairs. In my view, if 10X let a rifle out of their shop with this many blatant issues, I don't want to go through the hassle. In addition, I am not sure I would not be constantly questioning the rifle every time I got into position - and that will not help me make Master.
Thanks for reading this, and hope you find it informative. I have already started redoing the rifle and I will keep you informed of my progress and additional observations.
