Fiftydriver
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Over the years, my Raptor LRSS has been posted and talked about many times here on LRH but having been away for some time, i wanted to do a refresher on this amazing rifle system which has truly been the workhorse of my small shop over the past couple decades. This will not be a short read but want to share the details of the adventure!
a history first. The concept of my Raptor LRSS started long before i had my Raptor receiver. I started fully blueprinting rem 700 long action receivers, converted to single shots and fitting very heavy 1.250" or even 1.350" staight cylinder barrels to these receivers and then machining special barrel bedding v-blocks bedding them into the forend of certain stocks that could handle The size of these blocks. This made the receiver a totally non stress component of the rifle as far as holding the barreled receiver into the stock. To was 100% freefloated other then the recoil lug contact to the stock.
these rifles performed extremely well but were very labor intensive and also very heavy.
around 2006 i contacted a machining company asking them to build me a custom receiver to my specs that would be able to support long heavy barrels with ease, increase bedding area of the receiver and have the increased strength i wanted to get the most out of my wildcat cartridges.
special features of my Raptor over other custom receivers of the time combined features found on BAT, Nesika Bay and Remington and then i added a few features i felt were lacking in all of these receivers. These features included:
- full length round receiver for strength
- extended ejection port window to allow +4.000" long cartridges to be ejected
- small match style ejection port to keep as much steel in the receiver body as possible.
- dramatically lengthened receiver thread tenon for added support for long barrels
- longer receiver design for increased "Wheel Base" on the receiver for increased bedding support
- extra mass on the tang area to strength it up
- larger diameter receiver threads again to support long barrels and chamber pressures on my larger diameter wildcat cases.
- increased length between the bottom bolt lug support surface to the start of the magazine window cut out (weak link in most repeating receivers).
- also shallow the feed ramp angle to allow more steel in this critical strength area.
- redesign the bolt longer as well as longer bolt head to use very long, very large bolt head lugs which would be significantly stronger then any other receiver in this class.
- pinned 0.300" recoil lug
- full length stainless steel pic rail with 6, 8-40 mounting bolts
- triple pin the rail base to receiver
- long, bolt handle for increased leverage extracting cases
process took around a hear to hammer out and a bit after that the first true Raptor prototype receiver arrived at my shop…. I was not fully impressed with the result. While it had some of the features i demanded, there were several areas where corners were cut and quality of machining and finish work were less the what i wanted. However i did build on that receiver. Fitted a 31" #8 contour Lilja 1-9 twist heavy fluted barrel chambered in my 300 Allen Xpress and with one of my medium Painkiller brakes on the muzzle, a jewell trigger set at 1 lb to control the action and all pillar bedded into a McMillan A-5 adjustable stock.
The rifle shot great. At the time, the 240 gr smk was the baddest 30 cal out there and this rifle easily reached 3200 fps with that bullet. i have used it to take many big game in the 700-1100 yard range. And as its a major part of APS history, it will never be sold. Today it throws the 215 gr berger at 3350 fps!
however, it really did not do what I wanted. The internal areas i wanted beefed up were not and when asked why, they said they would need to redesign their bolt to accomplish this. Told them that was the entire point, to get something new and take things to the next level. The company then refused to provide what i wanted so I paid for their time and the receiver and parted ways.
a little bit later I caught wind that Glen Harrison was leaving Nesika Bay and starting up his own receiver building company called Defiance Machine here in northwest Montana, just over the Rocks from me. I had worked with Glen and his crew many times as i had used many if his Nesika Bay receivers on my customers rifles. they had reached out to me because of being a past customer.
so i reach out to Glen and told him my ideas, he got me in touch with his head shop man and we pounded out the details of my Raptor receiver. First prototype showed up and i could not have been happier. They then asked if they could use several of these features in their Rebel XL receiver and i was great with that And the APS Raptor was born.
I now had the receiver of my dreams. quality was world class, strength was easily top in its size class, my wildcats would never come close to the limits of this receiver design with proper loads. I was happy with the stock i was using. The mcmillan A5 left nothing for me to desire in my Raptor rifles so i made that the standard stock option.
One aspect i was not liking with my old V-block rifles was the weight. They would range from 20-25 lbs depending on what barrel diameter was used. On my original defunked Raptor attempt, the #8 contour barrel was ok but just felt there was a better barrel design to be had so i started researching a custom barrel contour for my Raptor rifles. A design to provide all the barrel stiffness and rigidity i wanted and needed but in a lighter weight then a straight cylinder barrel.
i started by doing barrel flex testing on different barrel contours already offered and some were very good. Obviously the straight cylinder barrels were the stiffest but to heavy. Contoured barrels much lighter but much more flex as well.
early Raptor with test barrel with 1.250"x4" shank length
so i decided to combine the two designs. I wanted a long barrel shank of large diameter to provide the critical stiffness and rigidity needed in the first 3rd of the barrel where the stresses imposed on the barrel are at their peak. As such, i went with a 1.350" diameter shank that was a full 8" in length. Honestly i went with this length thinking i could have an option for the barrel bedding v-block design of old if needed. That was proven NOT needed with the strength of my Raptor receiver.
the barrel would then have a 30" radius in the wrist down to 1" diameter and then straight taper to a muzzle diameter of 0.825" at whatever finish length we wanted. That would mean that a 30" finish length barrel would have slightly more taper per inch then a 34" length barrel. Compensating slightly for the longer barrel with slightly more mass.
in the end, these barrels produced flex results very similar to a 1.250" straight cylinder barrel but with dramatically less weight. Add to that, the large 1.350" shank diameter shifted weight and balance back toward the receiver much better then the straight cylinder barrel design, bonus.
i wanted to get even a bit more weight reduction. My goal for the Raptor rifles was to compete head to head with 25-30 lb class rifles but do this with a bare rifle weight in the 12-13 lb range so that when scoped up and ready for the field they would be under that pesky 16 lb weight limit the state of Idaho had on the books.
as such, i decided to have a bit of a unique flute pattern used on my Raptor barrels. There was a fluted section on the 8" long shank and then a second fluted section on the straight taper section of barrel. This gave it a very unique and striking appearance and also dropped more weight and shifted balance back toward the receiver even more. Very happy with the result.
this pic shows the custom Raptor barrel contour well, and oh yes, Left hand option as well!!
with the barrel features decided upon, the jewell trigger was selected as standard option, my medium Painkiller muzzle brake would be standard option, Raptors could be ordered with detachable magazine systems, internal mags with hinged floorplates or as single shots which offered the ultimate in strength.
my Raptor Long Range Shooting System (LRSS) was born.
the Raptor LRSS is available in most commercial magnum chamberings as well as all of my Wildcats up to my Raptor class wildcats i will talk about in a bit. Right and left hand options, single shot or repeater, internal or detachable mag options.
A little over 3 years ago, the Raptor LRSS idea was taken to its limits and really to the place i intended it to go from the start. My dream was to design a line of wildcat cartridges to take full advantage of the Raptor receiver. I had these wildcat dreams on paper from the start of the Raptor receiver adventure. Now with the platform a reality, it was time to get the wildcats designed. These would not be true wildcats in the beginning as they were to use their own unique case design, not a modified parent case. That would being an adventure. In the end, the 300 Raptor, 338 Raptor and now working on my 375 Raptor were released.
Left to right are the 338 Raptor (original version), current 300 Raptor and on the rifht is a 300 RUM for comparision. Will not go into the details of the original to current Raptor design here but you can see the current production design is slightly longer with more case capacity then the old version.
the Raptor wildcats were designed from the start to be single shot options housed in the Raptor receiver and Raptor LRSS rifles. This was because of their 4.250"-4.400" oal!!
they have a head diameter that is the same as the 338 Lapua but a case body length slightly longer then the huge 408 cheytac class case. The result is a case capacitu landing right between my wildcats based on the lapua parent case and my wildcats based on the cheytac parent case with performance splitting the two as well. Just about the absolute max you can get into and out of this class of rifle.
this Ultimate Raptor if you will is again single shot, has a 30-34" barrel. The rifle abovr has a 34" Raptor contour barrel and is chambered in 300 Raptor. Muzzle velocity with the 245 gr berger is well north of 3400 fps. The 338 version breaks 3200 fps with ease and long case life. With the new soon to be released 375 Raptor i am expecting to see the same 3200 fps performance but with 350 gr class bullets.
in testing my Raptor LRSS design, again the design goal was to compete head to head with rifles in the 25-30 lb bare rifle weight class. I have tested my Raptors LRSS rifles out to 2500 yards with amazing results. Shooting WELL under 1 moa at those full 2500 yard ranges. In fact they have proven capable of holding 1 moa to the limits of their supersonic velocity ranges if the shooter is up to it. All of my Raptor LRSS rifles are proven to have 1/2 moa accuracy potential at a minimum of 1000 yards before shipping.
Recently, in the past couple years, i have had interest in varmint Raptor LRSS rifles. Same rifles, generally single shots but chambered in varmint chamberings resulting in truly the ultimate varmint rifles.
this one is actually a 22 creedmore!!
its been a long adventure but in the end well worth it and the Raptor LRSS has proven itself time and again to be one of the ultimate long range shooting systems on the planet, especially considering its weight range!! If your interested in having a Raptor LRSS or just have questions let me know.
a history first. The concept of my Raptor LRSS started long before i had my Raptor receiver. I started fully blueprinting rem 700 long action receivers, converted to single shots and fitting very heavy 1.250" or even 1.350" staight cylinder barrels to these receivers and then machining special barrel bedding v-blocks bedding them into the forend of certain stocks that could handle The size of these blocks. This made the receiver a totally non stress component of the rifle as far as holding the barreled receiver into the stock. To was 100% freefloated other then the recoil lug contact to the stock.
these rifles performed extremely well but were very labor intensive and also very heavy.
around 2006 i contacted a machining company asking them to build me a custom receiver to my specs that would be able to support long heavy barrels with ease, increase bedding area of the receiver and have the increased strength i wanted to get the most out of my wildcat cartridges.
special features of my Raptor over other custom receivers of the time combined features found on BAT, Nesika Bay and Remington and then i added a few features i felt were lacking in all of these receivers. These features included:
- full length round receiver for strength
- extended ejection port window to allow +4.000" long cartridges to be ejected
- small match style ejection port to keep as much steel in the receiver body as possible.
- dramatically lengthened receiver thread tenon for added support for long barrels
- longer receiver design for increased "Wheel Base" on the receiver for increased bedding support
- extra mass on the tang area to strength it up
- larger diameter receiver threads again to support long barrels and chamber pressures on my larger diameter wildcat cases.
- increased length between the bottom bolt lug support surface to the start of the magazine window cut out (weak link in most repeating receivers).
- also shallow the feed ramp angle to allow more steel in this critical strength area.
- redesign the bolt longer as well as longer bolt head to use very long, very large bolt head lugs which would be significantly stronger then any other receiver in this class.
- pinned 0.300" recoil lug
- full length stainless steel pic rail with 6, 8-40 mounting bolts
- triple pin the rail base to receiver
- long, bolt handle for increased leverage extracting cases
process took around a hear to hammer out and a bit after that the first true Raptor prototype receiver arrived at my shop…. I was not fully impressed with the result. While it had some of the features i demanded, there were several areas where corners were cut and quality of machining and finish work were less the what i wanted. However i did build on that receiver. Fitted a 31" #8 contour Lilja 1-9 twist heavy fluted barrel chambered in my 300 Allen Xpress and with one of my medium Painkiller brakes on the muzzle, a jewell trigger set at 1 lb to control the action and all pillar bedded into a McMillan A-5 adjustable stock.
The rifle shot great. At the time, the 240 gr smk was the baddest 30 cal out there and this rifle easily reached 3200 fps with that bullet. i have used it to take many big game in the 700-1100 yard range. And as its a major part of APS history, it will never be sold. Today it throws the 215 gr berger at 3350 fps!
however, it really did not do what I wanted. The internal areas i wanted beefed up were not and when asked why, they said they would need to redesign their bolt to accomplish this. Told them that was the entire point, to get something new and take things to the next level. The company then refused to provide what i wanted so I paid for their time and the receiver and parted ways.
a little bit later I caught wind that Glen Harrison was leaving Nesika Bay and starting up his own receiver building company called Defiance Machine here in northwest Montana, just over the Rocks from me. I had worked with Glen and his crew many times as i had used many if his Nesika Bay receivers on my customers rifles. they had reached out to me because of being a past customer.
so i reach out to Glen and told him my ideas, he got me in touch with his head shop man and we pounded out the details of my Raptor receiver. First prototype showed up and i could not have been happier. They then asked if they could use several of these features in their Rebel XL receiver and i was great with that And the APS Raptor was born.
I now had the receiver of my dreams. quality was world class, strength was easily top in its size class, my wildcats would never come close to the limits of this receiver design with proper loads. I was happy with the stock i was using. The mcmillan A5 left nothing for me to desire in my Raptor rifles so i made that the standard stock option.
One aspect i was not liking with my old V-block rifles was the weight. They would range from 20-25 lbs depending on what barrel diameter was used. On my original defunked Raptor attempt, the #8 contour barrel was ok but just felt there was a better barrel design to be had so i started researching a custom barrel contour for my Raptor rifles. A design to provide all the barrel stiffness and rigidity i wanted and needed but in a lighter weight then a straight cylinder barrel.
i started by doing barrel flex testing on different barrel contours already offered and some were very good. Obviously the straight cylinder barrels were the stiffest but to heavy. Contoured barrels much lighter but much more flex as well.
early Raptor with test barrel with 1.250"x4" shank length
so i decided to combine the two designs. I wanted a long barrel shank of large diameter to provide the critical stiffness and rigidity needed in the first 3rd of the barrel where the stresses imposed on the barrel are at their peak. As such, i went with a 1.350" diameter shank that was a full 8" in length. Honestly i went with this length thinking i could have an option for the barrel bedding v-block design of old if needed. That was proven NOT needed with the strength of my Raptor receiver.
the barrel would then have a 30" radius in the wrist down to 1" diameter and then straight taper to a muzzle diameter of 0.825" at whatever finish length we wanted. That would mean that a 30" finish length barrel would have slightly more taper per inch then a 34" length barrel. Compensating slightly for the longer barrel with slightly more mass.
in the end, these barrels produced flex results very similar to a 1.250" straight cylinder barrel but with dramatically less weight. Add to that, the large 1.350" shank diameter shifted weight and balance back toward the receiver much better then the straight cylinder barrel design, bonus.
i wanted to get even a bit more weight reduction. My goal for the Raptor rifles was to compete head to head with 25-30 lb class rifles but do this with a bare rifle weight in the 12-13 lb range so that when scoped up and ready for the field they would be under that pesky 16 lb weight limit the state of Idaho had on the books.
as such, i decided to have a bit of a unique flute pattern used on my Raptor barrels. There was a fluted section on the 8" long shank and then a second fluted section on the straight taper section of barrel. This gave it a very unique and striking appearance and also dropped more weight and shifted balance back toward the receiver even more. Very happy with the result.
this pic shows the custom Raptor barrel contour well, and oh yes, Left hand option as well!!
with the barrel features decided upon, the jewell trigger was selected as standard option, my medium Painkiller muzzle brake would be standard option, Raptors could be ordered with detachable magazine systems, internal mags with hinged floorplates or as single shots which offered the ultimate in strength.
my Raptor Long Range Shooting System (LRSS) was born.
the Raptor LRSS is available in most commercial magnum chamberings as well as all of my Wildcats up to my Raptor class wildcats i will talk about in a bit. Right and left hand options, single shot or repeater, internal or detachable mag options.
A little over 3 years ago, the Raptor LRSS idea was taken to its limits and really to the place i intended it to go from the start. My dream was to design a line of wildcat cartridges to take full advantage of the Raptor receiver. I had these wildcat dreams on paper from the start of the Raptor receiver adventure. Now with the platform a reality, it was time to get the wildcats designed. These would not be true wildcats in the beginning as they were to use their own unique case design, not a modified parent case. That would being an adventure. In the end, the 300 Raptor, 338 Raptor and now working on my 375 Raptor were released.
Left to right are the 338 Raptor (original version), current 300 Raptor and on the rifht is a 300 RUM for comparision. Will not go into the details of the original to current Raptor design here but you can see the current production design is slightly longer with more case capacity then the old version.
the Raptor wildcats were designed from the start to be single shot options housed in the Raptor receiver and Raptor LRSS rifles. This was because of their 4.250"-4.400" oal!!
they have a head diameter that is the same as the 338 Lapua but a case body length slightly longer then the huge 408 cheytac class case. The result is a case capacitu landing right between my wildcats based on the lapua parent case and my wildcats based on the cheytac parent case with performance splitting the two as well. Just about the absolute max you can get into and out of this class of rifle.
this Ultimate Raptor if you will is again single shot, has a 30-34" barrel. The rifle abovr has a 34" Raptor contour barrel and is chambered in 300 Raptor. Muzzle velocity with the 245 gr berger is well north of 3400 fps. The 338 version breaks 3200 fps with ease and long case life. With the new soon to be released 375 Raptor i am expecting to see the same 3200 fps performance but with 350 gr class bullets.
in testing my Raptor LRSS design, again the design goal was to compete head to head with rifles in the 25-30 lb bare rifle weight class. I have tested my Raptors LRSS rifles out to 2500 yards with amazing results. Shooting WELL under 1 moa at those full 2500 yard ranges. In fact they have proven capable of holding 1 moa to the limits of their supersonic velocity ranges if the shooter is up to it. All of my Raptor LRSS rifles are proven to have 1/2 moa accuracy potential at a minimum of 1000 yards before shipping.
Recently, in the past couple years, i have had interest in varmint Raptor LRSS rifles. Same rifles, generally single shots but chambered in varmint chamberings resulting in truly the ultimate varmint rifles.
this one is actually a 22 creedmore!!
its been a long adventure but in the end well worth it and the Raptor LRSS has proven itself time and again to be one of the ultimate long range shooting systems on the planet, especially considering its weight range!! If your interested in having a Raptor LRSS or just have questions let me know.
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