"UniquE" rifle

[Hans A.]

Hello there, I'm new to this board.

Do you guys know about French's "UniquE"? Their new rifle (X-Concept) appears in the book "Ways of the Rifle" (on page 181 there's a rather close up of it). After days of searching, finally (with some luck) I found their website (here). You can view X-Concept by clicking "Catalogue" and selecting "X Concept" under "Match Rifle". It's stock seems to have a very shallow forend (maybe the shallowest), which maybe become a trouble in kneeling (but the ultimate for prone - as HPS said).

What "things" do you guys think which are interesting (I think it's the look, buttplate, buttstock, trigger guard, forend, barrel, and almost everything else) in this rifle? Is it right that the barrel is clamped (so the action can free float, like in Ross stock)? And if you have pictures of it used in tournaments, please let us see...

Thanks.

[Juan Carlos]

Unfortunately Unique factory was closed two years ago.
Unique rifles are very accurate.
The french shooter Jean Pierre Amat won the gold medal 3 x 40 in Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games with Unique.

[Hans A.]

That's unfortunate indeed, and unfortunately too I failed to notice that there is something on the main page: "Last up-date on Saturday 29 Janu 2000", hm... :( Why was it's factory closed? Are there anybody who still use X-Concept? What are people's opinion about it (and about UniquE)? I'm curious because I never see it before.

[Guest]

The stock is still made in a modified form, the GE600/MEC Concept. This doesn't offer the barrel-clamping system that Unique offered.

I don't think Amat used an X-Concept to win the 1996 gold, wasn't it introduced in 1999-2000?

Rajmond Debevec did use an X-Concept to win the 2000 3-P gold.

[Juan Carlos]

I think making sport rifles and pistols is not a good bussines.
Unique factory was a little one and could not compete with Anschütz and Walther.
I own a .22 rifle, model T2000 with heavy barrel. His accuracy is exceptional. The stock is laminated wood.
The first time I shooted prone to 50 m I got 8 shoots in a 8 mm diameter hole (2,4 mm between centers).

[Simon]

The brand is still around thanks to a gunsmith who bought the rights and the stock + machinery when they closed.

The now produce custom long range weapons, but they're still able to produce standard ISSF 300m rifles if you ask them.

For now it's quite a success because their package is much more competitive than what's offered by PGM Precision (Makers of the Ulima Ratio, Hecate and Hecate II military sniper rifles)

http://www.unique-fmr.com

[Thor]

Not too much to research on the web but looks like a very nice rifle. I wonder how many were built and how many made it over to the USA.