Custom action search

[Rifleman97]

IMO nobody makes an action better than BAT actions. Call em up, find the action that has the features you want, and send it to your smith.

I would say Terminus is up there. For the Kratos and Zeus lines at least I know you can just buy spare bolts. One of his actions is a quick change barrel system, where you can change the barrel and swap the bolt and be wildly different in your setup and have 2 barrels both ready to shoot. I think if you want the best go BAT, and if you want an action still better than almost anyone can shoot, AND the barrel swap/bolt face change setup, Terminus has you covered. BAT might have something capable of that too, I'm not current on all of their models as they have a lot.

 

[old_heli_logger]

Thats just for prs. If your using it for a hunting rifle it is irrelevant info

You state your opinion like it's a fact

 

[Rifleman97]

You state your opinion like it's a fact

To his benefit, what a PRS shooter wants can be very different from what a hunter wants. A lot of PRS rifles are 15-25 pounds. And can have or lack some features hunters like. Like a 3 position safety, cutouts for weight savings, some like controlled round feed, etc. But yeah, saying it's entirely irrelevant is a bit extreme of a take.

 

[old_heli_logger]

To his benefit, what a PRS shooter wants can be very different from what a hunter wants. A lot of PRS rifles are 15-25 pounds. And can have or lack some features hunters like. Like a 3 position safety, cutouts for weight savings, some like controlled round feed, etc. But yeah, saying it's entirely irrelevant is a bit extreme of a take.

I hope I wasn't too offensive.
Most any action can be made to hunt. Most of the PRS actions are repeaters, so I'm sure there are folks that hunt with their PRS rifles

 

[highdrum]

Did a search for this first and there wasn't anything recent other than folks looking for budget friendly actions or questions on specific actions and I'm not looking for budget friendly. Budget friendly and custom don't go together.

I'm looking to do my first custom build and trying to figure out what action to select and it's not easy by any means. I feel like it's trying to buy a new sports car over the internet without ever actually having the opportunity to see one in person, touch it or test drive it. Please explain the why's of the decision making process on your custom action selection. I know this is very opinion based and we have a tendency to become quickly loyal to certain manufacturers but for those that have custom actions from a verity of manufacturers please be as detailed as possible on likes and dislikes between the different actions you have. Heck I'll also take "you're a fool if you don't buy X" just as long as you include the why.

I know the question will be what will it be chambered in, I am not sure. I know the next question will be what will it be used for. Ok, I got that one, some hunting, mostly target shooting. I prefer to use sticks and strings to hunt big game, unless I go out of state. With that I'm not looking for an ultra lite build.

Do any of the custom action manufacturers have changeable bolt bodies or bolt faces to allow some ability to use both a .473" and .535" case heads?

Thanks for the input in advance.

Here's what I'd do.......get a bat igniter. It has switchable bolt heads for 473 and 535 heads. The headspace is consistent, so a good smith can prefit the chamber. The short action igniter is cut for the unknown munitions XL dbm system, this allows 3rd mags that can be loaded to 3.150 coal. This allows pretty much and the saum or short prc cases to be loaded long with extended freebore to maximize performance. It has an integral lug, screwed rail that can take bat direct mount rings. It's not a lightweight action, but it's quality. They're not overly expensive either.

There are other actions that have swappable bolt heads, and consistent headspace like zermatt. But they are only cut for aics hawkins dbm length.

Pick your cartridge/bullet combo, chose you're action around that.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

The biggest problem with custom actions is the r700 style trigger they all use. For an archery analogy, it's like they all use bowtech rpm 360 limbs (hopefully you remember all the issues those had).

For function and safety, imo the best actions available are in the sako s20, followed by the Tikka t3x. Slick feeding, integral rails, safe and reliable triggers. There's rumors of a bat action in development that will have interchangeable bolt faces and the tikka/sako trigger, if that ever comes to the market it will be THE gold standard.