My thoughts on my Olympic Arms 22-250 UMAR

[SouthPawShooter]

First off I am no editor or writer of any sort. These are my personal opinions and thought's
Took the new Olympic Arms UMAR 22-250 (#88 off the production line) out Friday and Saturday and got a couple dogs with it. It has been fired about 30-40 rounds and I really think it is a keeper.
First off here are the spec's. from Olympic Arms web site
MSRP: $1428.70
Receiver Material- 7075 T6 Aluminum Forged Receivers Machined By Olympic Arms
Receiver- Finish Black Matte Anodized Receivers, Parkerized Steel Parts
Action- Gas Operated Semi-automatic Action
Upper Type-Gas block w/ picatinny rails
Handguard-Predator FIRSH
Barrel- 24" Heavy match grade bull barrel, 416 stainless steel
Chambering .22-250 REM;.223 WSSM, .243 WSSM, .25 WSSM, .300 OSSM
Bore Long-life non-chromed bore
Twist Rate-.22-250 REM (1x14) .223 WSSM (1x14) .243 WSSM (1x10) .25 WSSM (1x10) .300 OSSM (1x12)
Muzzle- Crown
Stanard Features include:
24" SS Bull Barrel*
Fluting available for additional cost(This will shave off about 1 1/2 lbs off total weight of gun)
Picatinny flat-top upper
Olympic Arms Predator Style handguard
A2 buttstock
Optional ACE skeleton stock
Your choice of side-sling mount or bi-pod mount
5 round billet aluminum magazine
*Bull barrel standard on the UMAR for the WSSM & OSSM cartridges are 416 SS precision broach-cut barrels. All .22-250 caliber UMAR rifles use 416 SS button rifled barrels.

Trigger- Standard trigger is around 4-7 lbs however there are a few options for the trigger. You can go with a lighter 2 stage or a full custom from CMMG I believe as an option.

Now my thought's
Goods-
Accuracy- Very accurate I am shooting under 1/2" group at 200yds (now these were reloads I have not fired any factory loads yet).
Comfort- This gun is well balanced,comfortable.

As far as Col in the mag well, The 22-250 UMAR magazine is able to seat out to 2.42" which is plenty for the 64gr Berger I plan on trying out.
You can put any mill-Spec upper on this lower however you will have to change the bolt release out with a regular mil-spec release off of a mill spec AR-15 to be able to use regular AR-15 magazine's. This is very easy though.

Barrel- Fluting available for additional cost about $90(This will shave off about 1 1/2 lbs off total weight of gun)

Not so good-
Barrel twist rate - 1-14 ROT was hoping for a faster twist so to utilize the opened up mag well.

Weight- It is a little heavy @ 9.4lbs but well balanced though. But easy to carry and shoot off stick's or by-pod.
As far as ready to go out hunting weight it is probably @ 11 lbs I am using a Leupold Mark 4 6.5-20X50mm LR/T and it weighs in at 22oz so this would be under 10 lbs total, I have the fluted barrel,which is not bad.

It come's with only (1)5rnd mag. The magazine is a proprietary magazine meaning it will only work in the Olympic Arms AMAR lower and at $100.00 per mag that is a little steep.

Now with the Feeding issue, It does great the only issue I had was when loading the clip, when I got to the 5th round it was VERY tight it almost felt like it did not belong or there were 5 rounds in it already. Then when loading one in the chamber with a full magazine the bolt did not want to close all the way due to such a tight round in the clip.

Remedy- I filed the clip on the top back side there are 2 edges that seem to be hanging up the round and were causing it to feel real tight and did not want to chamber. I filed them down very faintly and it cured that problem the rounds are still real tight in the magazine but they feed just fine now.

I did go to the range today to put a new Burris PEPR mount on and site her in again with some 55gr Noslers BT But this time I sighted it in at 100yds. instead of 200yds like before. Well it shot pretty good I was able to shoot a .245"group of 3 and called it good. While I was out there I went ahead and tried out the 64gr Bergers loads I worked up.
They will shoot but the best group I got was just a hair over 1" at 100yds using 36gr of Hodgdon CFR223 and CCI2 primer. I started at 35.5gr and loaded up to 37.3gr but stopped at 36.5gr. I will try the 37gr and depending on if there is any pressure. I will try the 37.3gr but we will have to see. I will add more info as I learn it.

With that said I really like the gun and I highly doubt you guy's will see mine in the classified's any time soon.

I am sure I am forgetting a lot of stuff. If your think of anything let me know. This is the first time I have ever done a gun review hope you all like it. Right now turnaround is 60-90 days as of 5 min ago I just called them to get some of this info verified for sure.

 

[SouthPawShooter]

Here are some picture's of the rifle.

 

[CastleRocker]

Great write-up! I've been looking at those and wondering how well they where working out for the folks that have purchased them.

I'm going to buy the lower first because I would like to try it under my DTech WSSM uppers. I was pretty excited to hear the news last year about this new addition to the Olympic product line. This lower should allow me to seat heavier bullets out a little further in the two WSSM's and my wife's 6.5 Grendel.

Now, I am waiting for Oly to get the new magazines in before I commit, as I will need a few mags to use with the WSSM's and as you mentioned, $100 a pop is a bit steep.

Looking forward to the update.

Thanks and good shooting to you!

 

[SouthPawShooter]

I talk to them yesterday and I was told they are not working on a new mag any time soon so I guess I will be ordering a new mag here before long.

 

[brentc]

The really should be offering faster twist rates. It seems strange to me that they don't already. 1x14 is awful slow. I'm sure if you talked to Olympic about it you could talk them into chambering one of their faster twist 5.56 barrels in 22-250 instead of .223 or 5.56x45.

 

[SouthPawShooter]

They say they tried it in a 1-10 but there were accuracy issues and had there best results with 1-14 I think they should have tried a 1-12 before the 1-10 anyway.

 

[rdsii64]

I absolutely love the idea of a .22-250 AR. But as long as the mags are 100.00 a piece, I'll never buy one.

 

[LouBoyd]

I just ordered a UMAR lower with WSSM mags to use with my 300 OSSM and 243 WSSM Olympic Arms uppers. I like to experiment and will check if the UMAR lower and WSSM mag will also work with 50 Beowulf or 458 Socom cartridges and uppers. It looks like it might. A downside of AR-15's has always been their short magazines. The UMAR gives 0.18 inches more (2.40 total), though only with their special shaped mags. They can shoot standard mags but that doesn't give the extra length.

 

[oldmossy]

Any new comments on this rifle? Looking at purchasing one for coyote hunting

 

[chaz100]

South Paw shooter ...I too have a new umar 22-250 and yes it is giving me head aches already ..5 rounds are very tight in mag.. seems like the bolt doesn't come back far enough to pick up the next round ..not every time but enough to frustrate ... this is my 1st ar and at a loss as to why .. maybe the filing on rear tabs would help ? a little more description of doing this would be very helpful ( maybe a pic or two ) Thanks , Charlie