I was invited by Tim Cronin, owner of Elkhorn Precision, to join him at the range and shoot his newest 6.5 Creedmoor built on a Defiance controlled round Deviant action.
I've been fortunate enough to own a few rifles built by Tim, all of them are a work of art. This one is no exception. The lines are perfect, the fit and finish are flawless. Every detail hand worked by Tim. The transition from stock to tang feels transparent when you run your finger over it and where the ejection port and stock meet is perfectly hand fitted.
The rifle shoots lights out, we were shooting factory Hornady 143gr ELD-X Precision Hunter. We didn't spend a lot of time shooting groups, we both shot it a few times on paper at 100 yards to get a feel for the rifle. We then switched to shooting steel at distances ranging from 200 - 780 yards. The rifle has a Vortex scope with a Kenton Industries etched turret, the turret was dead on all the way to 780 yards. So picking steel off was very fun, the only thing we needed to spend time on was wind.
The action itself is exactly what you'd expect from Defiance. Great looking and mechanically perfect, it ran without issues. I am a fan of controlled round feed, my standard hunting rifle is a custom 280AI built on a Model 70 Pre-64 controlled round feed. I like the advantages of the controlled round feed on my hunting rifles, and Defiance pulled it off perfectly in my book.
Here are some photos of the rifle and action. We all have our favorite builders and components, but Tim and Defiance are certainly in the world class category.
I've been fortunate enough to own a few rifles built by Tim, all of them are a work of art. This one is no exception. The lines are perfect, the fit and finish are flawless. Every detail hand worked by Tim. The transition from stock to tang feels transparent when you run your finger over it and where the ejection port and stock meet is perfectly hand fitted.
The rifle shoots lights out, we were shooting factory Hornady 143gr ELD-X Precision Hunter. We didn't spend a lot of time shooting groups, we both shot it a few times on paper at 100 yards to get a feel for the rifle. We then switched to shooting steel at distances ranging from 200 - 780 yards. The rifle has a Vortex scope with a Kenton Industries etched turret, the turret was dead on all the way to 780 yards. So picking steel off was very fun, the only thing we needed to spend time on was wind.
The action itself is exactly what you'd expect from Defiance. Great looking and mechanically perfect, it ran without issues. I am a fan of controlled round feed, my standard hunting rifle is a custom 280AI built on a Model 70 Pre-64 controlled round feed. I like the advantages of the controlled round feed on my hunting rifles, and Defiance pulled it off perfectly in my book.
Here are some photos of the rifle and action. We all have our favorite builders and components, but Tim and Defiance are certainly in the world class category.
