Over the many years of loading 28 Nosler ammo, I've had the most problems with ONE brand of rifle, you guessed it, Christensen Arms!

I have a local shooter having some chambering and accuracy issues (with factory ammo) with a 28 Nosler Christensen Arms Ridgeline (carbon fiber) rifle. So, I ask him to bring it to me so I can take some measurements of the chamber and throat. Right away I chamber an empty piece of new ADG brass and I can tell there is some resistance when I close the bolt. Next, I move on to the bullet seating to seat the bullet to his rifles' throat. Immediately I can tell it's a very short throat. I keep seating bullets deeper and deeper, and finally find where a 180 VLD is just barely touching the rifling. It's at .150" shorter!!! That's one hundred and fifty thousandths shorter than a standard SAAMI 28 Nosler chamber! (see picture below). In the world of gunsmithing, .150" might as well be a mile long on the throat length.

The other main difference is Christensen Arms runs a dual ejector plunger on the bolt face. Instead of one ejector plunger found on almost all bolt guns, they run two. Having 2, means there is less surface area on the bolt face, and increases the pressure on the bolt face during firing.

While I'm loading his ammo, I get Christensen Arms on the phone. I speak to a really nice guy at Christensen Arms and asked him all these questions. He confirms that Christensen Arms uses a "match" chamber for all their carbon fiber rifles. I asked him why. He says it's for their 1 moa "accuracy guarantee" (which I then had a hard chuckle, see back story below). I inform him about the chambering and short throat issues, and he says that's just how they chamber their rifles.

Why is this important? Running a "match" or tight chamber does several things. When head spacing (chambering) the round, it is .007" shorter than SAAMI spec. The difference between min and max head space is .007" on the 28 Nolser. So they run the shoulder of the round is .007" shorter than SAAMI, which is as small as you can go. This is why some brass chambers tight. The next thing is the .150" shorter throat. Having a shorter throat requires seating the bullet much deeper to get it off the lands, or so it won't jam into the rifling. Next is PRESSURE!!!! This combination of shorter throat and min spec chamber raises your pressure dramatically. Let's say you put 80 grains of powder with a 180 grain bullet seated at normal SAAMI length. When you try to chamber this round, the bullet will jam into the rifling (raising pressure). And the powder charge is based off of a regular chamber. So when you fire this round, you will get excessive pressure or a hot load. To load the ammo for these rifles, you have to seat the bullet deeper AND reduce the load to avoid excessive pressure. All the while you are reducing the velocity of a magnum round. And, if you shoot this rifle suppressed, you will increase the bolt pressure even more. So in combination of short throat, min spec chamber, and if you shoot suppressed, you have a triple whammy of major pressure problems!



A little back story. Over the many years of testing rifles and doing load development, I shoot many good rifles, and see many problem rifles. One was a very expensive Christensen Arms 338 Lapua Mag. My customer had spent a total of $8K on rifle, scope, and full set up. It was an expensive rifle that wouldn't shoot. Every group we shot strung the group diagonally from about 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock in a straight line. We sent it back to Christensen Arms, and then we got the rifle back. They included an electronic target that shot a .98" group. And you guessed it, the group strung diagonally exactly like what I was seeing. I tested it again with no improvement in groups. I ended up speaking to an executive and the tech who shot the rifle. They ended up shooting 30+ rounds of ammo, 3 different ammo brands, and finally waited 5-10 minutes between shots to get their 3 shot, .98" group and 1 moa "Accuracy guarantee". I was livid! And they wouldn't fix it.

Anyways, that's my

We've known they don't have the best engineers on staff since they put the double ejectors on. I helped load dev on one that would push a 195 very accurately but only at 2850fps without needing a hammer to open the bolt. Why would someone buy a top fuel dragster and run it at prostock speeds? That was the last Christensen rifle I ever recommended anyone buying.

That sure makes guys like you have issues trying to make rifle rounds run in them, especially without pressuring up.

Lol Judd I read that as post oak speed.

This is my 28 Nosler he is speaking of above. All I can say is how thankful I am that I found Chad. He provides great customer service. My gun will now hold groups which it wouldn't do before.

Another reason I would never buy one

Anybody around here long and still buyin one, idk what to tell ya

2850 is being generous to that rifle. I think it was more in the 2700 area.

Much different than the custom I built when I sold it pushing the same 195s @ 3300fps!

Really good to hear!!!

I know you know what your doing. But it has to piss you off when a suppose to be accurate rifle builder tries to [censored] YOU. Back when we used to shoot together is was not like this. Now days all you need is a backer and a fancy name to sell guns. I think between me and you we forgot more than most builders. Keep up the work and post Chad.