Fiftydriver
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To all,
After several late nights working after regular house, thank you to my wife by the way and some work this weekend, the first fully functional Raptor rifle from APS is throwing bullets!!!
First on the rifle componants:
APS Raptor receiver
20 moa rail base
Jewell trigger set at 1 lb
HS Precision DM system
Lilja 1-8, 6 groove 30 cal, 30" finish length #8 contour, heavy flutes
Defensive Edge muzzle brake
McMillan A-5 stock, adj CP, Decelerator pad 85% black, 15% grey
Stainless Steel pillar bedding
Burris 1/4" Xtreme Tactical rings
NF NXS 5.5-22x 50mm NP-R1
The Raptor is designed specifically for the Lapua class round and wildcats but also is long enough to allow rounds such as the big Wby and Rigby rounds to be used also. Its also right at home with the RUM class of rounds.
The barrel selection I chose was because I plan on using Richards aluminum tipped bullets in this rifle but for the time being I will be using 240 gr SMKs or 200 gr Accubonds. Here are some pics:
Like all first production prototype things, my receiver has some minor issues. All in all, its what I wanted but a few things will and have been modified for better function.
1. The cases were rubbing hard against the top of the ejection port which was milled straight down from the top of the receiver. I undercut this slightly on the mill to eliminate this case rubbing, worked perfectly. That will be changed in the production receivers to have this back cut.
2. The rail base will be extended to the end of the recevier to offer more room for long scopes and rail accesaries. It will also be made from Stainless Steel instead of the heat treated aluminum which the rail on this base is made from.
3. The bolt stop will be redsigned to a more attractive(my opinion0 design.
4. The rounds were binding a bit while feeding them so I shallowed the feed ramp angle a bit and repolished and not it works perfectly so this will be modified in the production receivers.
5. The receiver engraving will also be changed a bit to emphasize the Raptor name instead of Allen Precision Shooting.
These are pretty minor issues which were expected with such a project. The bedding had finally cured enough that I could start testing the rifle, or at least doing the brake in at the shop. It has either been very cold or very windy and today was no exception, very windy so no taget work yet. I just was checking for velocity potential with this barrel and how my receiver handled pressure.
I decided to start with the 240 gr SMK and US869. I started at 100.0 gr and worked up two grains at a time until I could just notice a slight increase in force needed to lift the bolt.
Here were the velocity results.
100.0 gr......................................2907 fps
102.0 gr......................................2963 fps
104.0 gr......................................3007 fps
106.0 gr......................................3062 fps
108.0 gr......................................3124 fps
110.0 gr......................................3208 fps Max working load
111.0 gr......................................3258 fps Snug bolt lift
112.0 gr......................................3311 fps bolt quite snug to open
113.0 gr......................................3368 fps heavy bolt life, ejector mark
Again, these were fired at the shop so no accuracy data yet.
Some may wonder why I went to 113.0 gr when 110.0 gr is my max working load, simply put, I wanted to see how well the Raptor worked with a higher then normal pressure load. IT handled extremely well.
I figured 110.0 gr would be a great top end load level. +3200 fps is most impressive. Interestingly enough, this same bullet iver Retumbo topped out at just shy of 3100 fps before pressuring out so it looks like 869 is a pretty good balance of burn rate for this case capacity. At 110 gr, this is roughly a 98 load density
After shooting each load, I would take the fired cases and line them up from mildest load to hottest. I then sized each case, cleaned and then reseated a primer to let the cases tell me what pressures we were running at.
I will be brutally honest, at 113.0 gr I will admit that primer pocket tightness was a bit less then all others but in all, everycases primer pocket remained very tight and completely usable and there was no chance in primer tighteness from the 100.0 gr load up to the 112.0 gr load. Trestimate to the stoutness of the Lapua case.
Again, no groups yet but soon, if the weather allows. Wanted toget this rifle done so I could get the changes on the receiver going ASAP. Stay tuned, there will be much much more to come on this receiver.
Kirby Allen(50)
After several late nights working after regular house, thank you to my wife by the way and some work this weekend, the first fully functional Raptor rifle from APS is throwing bullets!!!
First on the rifle componants:
APS Raptor receiver
20 moa rail base
Jewell trigger set at 1 lb
HS Precision DM system
Lilja 1-8, 6 groove 30 cal, 30" finish length #8 contour, heavy flutes
Defensive Edge muzzle brake
McMillan A-5 stock, adj CP, Decelerator pad 85% black, 15% grey
Stainless Steel pillar bedding
Burris 1/4" Xtreme Tactical rings
NF NXS 5.5-22x 50mm NP-R1
The Raptor is designed specifically for the Lapua class round and wildcats but also is long enough to allow rounds such as the big Wby and Rigby rounds to be used also. Its also right at home with the RUM class of rounds.
The barrel selection I chose was because I plan on using Richards aluminum tipped bullets in this rifle but for the time being I will be using 240 gr SMKs or 200 gr Accubonds. Here are some pics:
Like all first production prototype things, my receiver has some minor issues. All in all, its what I wanted but a few things will and have been modified for better function.
1. The cases were rubbing hard against the top of the ejection port which was milled straight down from the top of the receiver. I undercut this slightly on the mill to eliminate this case rubbing, worked perfectly. That will be changed in the production receivers to have this back cut.
2. The rail base will be extended to the end of the recevier to offer more room for long scopes and rail accesaries. It will also be made from Stainless Steel instead of the heat treated aluminum which the rail on this base is made from.
3. The bolt stop will be redsigned to a more attractive(my opinion0 design.
4. The rounds were binding a bit while feeding them so I shallowed the feed ramp angle a bit and repolished and not it works perfectly so this will be modified in the production receivers.
5. The receiver engraving will also be changed a bit to emphasize the Raptor name instead of Allen Precision Shooting.
These are pretty minor issues which were expected with such a project. The bedding had finally cured enough that I could start testing the rifle, or at least doing the brake in at the shop. It has either been very cold or very windy and today was no exception, very windy so no taget work yet. I just was checking for velocity potential with this barrel and how my receiver handled pressure.
I decided to start with the 240 gr SMK and US869. I started at 100.0 gr and worked up two grains at a time until I could just notice a slight increase in force needed to lift the bolt.
Here were the velocity results.
100.0 gr......................................2907 fps
102.0 gr......................................2963 fps
104.0 gr......................................3007 fps
106.0 gr......................................3062 fps
108.0 gr......................................3124 fps
110.0 gr......................................3208 fps Max working load
111.0 gr......................................3258 fps Snug bolt lift
112.0 gr......................................3311 fps bolt quite snug to open
113.0 gr......................................3368 fps heavy bolt life, ejector mark
Again, these were fired at the shop so no accuracy data yet.
Some may wonder why I went to 113.0 gr when 110.0 gr is my max working load, simply put, I wanted to see how well the Raptor worked with a higher then normal pressure load. IT handled extremely well.
I figured 110.0 gr would be a great top end load level. +3200 fps is most impressive. Interestingly enough, this same bullet iver Retumbo topped out at just shy of 3100 fps before pressuring out so it looks like 869 is a pretty good balance of burn rate for this case capacity. At 110 gr, this is roughly a 98 load density
After shooting each load, I would take the fired cases and line them up from mildest load to hottest. I then sized each case, cleaned and then reseated a primer to let the cases tell me what pressures we were running at.
I will be brutally honest, at 113.0 gr I will admit that primer pocket tightness was a bit less then all others but in all, everycases primer pocket remained very tight and completely usable and there was no chance in primer tighteness from the 100.0 gr load up to the 112.0 gr load. Trestimate to the stoutness of the Lapua case.
Again, no groups yet but soon, if the weather allows. Wanted toget this rifle done so I could get the changes on the receiver going ASAP. Stay tuned, there will be much much more to come on this receiver.
Kirby Allen(50)
