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Aero Precision Bolt Gun Teaser (Now newly announced SABR thread)
- Thread starter Bluedog82
- Start date
Well, it's been 3 weeks since i ordered the bravo version. Hope to hear something soon!
Lol #impatient
Called Aero today just to see if I could get an update on the complete rifle I ordered because it was "in stock 2-3 week delivery time" when I ordered and paid on Jan 30. Monday will be 4 weeks.
Nice lady said ohhhh when I mentioned it was a Solus and said she didn't know any details, but there was something going on with them, they've had a bunch of calls on order status and there should be an email going out if not today, then early next week regarding the status of the solus' they've sold already.
Thanked her and mentioned it would have been nice for them to have given a status update if there was a problem and they didn't expect to make the projected delivery date. And especially not for custoners to have to call in several days past expected delivery date window and then be told to wait for an email that may come today or next week that would hopefully explain what to expect.
So I guess I wait...
Nice lady said ohhhh when I mentioned it was a Solus and said she didn't know any details, but there was something going on with them, they've had a bunch of calls on order status and there should be an email going out if not today, then early next week regarding the status of the solus' they've sold already.
Thanked her and mentioned it would have been nice for them to have given a status update if there was a problem and they didn't expect to make the projected delivery date. And especially not for custoners to have to call in several days past expected delivery date window and then be told to wait for an email that may come today or next week that would hopefully explain what to expect.
So I guess I wait...
curious to see if its the tenon or ejectors that they're updating
Small update on my experience. I’ve been told that Aero got a few different prefits from the same mfg that did mine, and all of them headspaced correctly. I don’t know why mine did not work or why we were able to measure a difference in headspace between the origin and Solus, but Aero seemed pretty confident that their headspace is set correctly. I’m extremely interested to hear what update they send out to everyone.
Their customer service has definitely been transparent and second to none at least for me, for what it’s worth!
Their customer service has definitely been transparent and second to none at least for me, for what it’s worth!
Yeah, last week they said they had an issue with barrel coatings not being up to their standard. But no updated eta like i asked for. Never did get an email update like customer service said either.
So I canceled and ordered an origin action, pva 6creed barrel, krg bravo, etc like I originally planned
I bought a couple of the SOLUS actions while SHOT was still going on; I logged them into my bound book on 1/27/23, and the S/N range on both is in the 999XXX range. The ejector plunger faces on mine are nicely radiused, as opposed to the slightly pointed profile mentioned above. I was hoping that Aero would provide a dimensioned tenon drawing with the actions, instead of ad copy referencing Origin pre-fit - I've never bought a pre-fit for myself or a customer, and most of the custom actions I've used over the years either come with a tenon drawing, or one is available for download at the manufacturer's website. I was also hoping for the availability of a rear-entry action wrench, but haven't seen nor heard anything about that yet. Seems odd that when I call my sales rep, he knows very little to nothing about either of these things, and has even made the comment that he doesn't know what's going on "over there" - his reference to the bolt action department.
Whatever - I got tired of looking at the boxed actions here in the office, so took one out to the shop, measured the depth from the action face to the boltface, and started in cutting the tenon on a Bartlein 6mm/1:7.5tw 3B blank. Got it chambered with my 6XC reamer, polished the edge of the chamber mouth a bit, finished it at 24", threaded the muzzle for a TBAC CB mount, gave it a nice 11* crown, and put it together. I had to cut some 1/8" thick PVC spacers to prevent the Browning A-Bolt & Rem 700 tops that I cobbled together to use on the Brownells action wrench from dinging the integral picatinny rail - it worked just fine, but I'd much prefer that Aero would get with it and start selling a nice rear entry wrench.
I used a TT Diamond trigger on this one, and put the finished bbl'd action into a Manners EH-1A with PTG Stealth DBM. It shoots pretty decently accuracy-wise, but although some fire-form ammo loaded in Win 22-250 brass with Hornady 87 BTHPs and S107MKs in Peterson 6XC brass fed smoothly, when I tried more Win 22-250 FF ammo loaded with Lapua 105 Scenars, the bullet tip hit the flat breech and just stopped. I'd always cut a 15* lead-in cone on my DTA SRS barrels, but never had to do so on any of the Bighorn barrels I've done, so didn't cut one on this barrel. Have only put about 35rds through this rifle to date, will have to spend some time figuring out why the Sierra 107s feed so well while the Lapua 105s don't.
Whatever - I got tired of looking at the boxed actions here in the office, so took one out to the shop, measured the depth from the action face to the boltface, and started in cutting the tenon on a Bartlein 6mm/1:7.5tw 3B blank. Got it chambered with my 6XC reamer, polished the edge of the chamber mouth a bit, finished it at 24", threaded the muzzle for a TBAC CB mount, gave it a nice 11* crown, and put it together. I had to cut some 1/8" thick PVC spacers to prevent the Browning A-Bolt & Rem 700 tops that I cobbled together to use on the Brownells action wrench from dinging the integral picatinny rail - it worked just fine, but I'd much prefer that Aero would get with it and start selling a nice rear entry wrench.
I used a TT Diamond trigger on this one, and put the finished bbl'd action into a Manners EH-1A with PTG Stealth DBM. It shoots pretty decently accuracy-wise, but although some fire-form ammo loaded in Win 22-250 brass with Hornady 87 BTHPs and S107MKs in Peterson 6XC brass fed smoothly, when I tried more Win 22-250 FF ammo loaded with Lapua 105 Scenars, the bullet tip hit the flat breech and just stopped. I'd always cut a 15* lead-in cone on my DTA SRS barrels, but never had to do so on any of the Bighorn barrels I've done, so didn't cut one on this barrel. Have only put about 35rds through this rifle to date, will have to spend some time figuring out why the Sierra 107s feed so well while the Lapua 105s don't.
No, I haven't. I've used AICS & Accurate Mag copies of the AICS in all my short action rifles over the years. Since you mentioned it, I'm wondering if anyone with a SOLUS has tried AW mags in their rifle yet? I've never had an action cut for the AW mags before, so don't own any of them.
Only had this rifle to the range a couple of times - once to test fire & get a quick zero with the H87s at 100, and then with the 107s & 105s at 600. Need to try some DTAC 115s in it since I used the 1:7.5 tw bbl...
My solus didn't work at all with steel AI brand mags, but was very smooth magpul AICS mags. The AW’s should work as long as the mag catch is adjustable. Mine was a 6cm with dtacs @2.8”.
There's no provision for adjusting the mag latch on the PTG Stealth DBM, though I have milled the latch shorter when needed in the past. I did use some B-O M5 DBMs before moving to the PTG units, and have several Hawkins DBMs. I know B-O used to sell longer latches if you needed them, but don't know about Hawkins.
The PTG DBM I have in the Manners EH1-A stock for the SOLUS latches AICS mags in high & tight, with very little play; as I mentioned, both H87s & S107MKs feed very smoothly in that rifle. It's possible that seating the Lapua 105s a bit farther out would mitigate the feeding issues with it - if they can be seated out far enough to help without jamming the lands in the throat of a new 6XC chamber that has only .071" FB to begin with...
ETA - I have ran some loads with the DTAC 115s through the rifle, just to see if they'd feed OK, and they were fine. Just need to shoot some of them to see how they compare to the S107s at 600 & beyond.
The PTG DBM I have in the Manners EH1-A stock for the SOLUS latches AICS mags in high & tight, with very little play; as I mentioned, both H87s & S107MKs feed very smoothly in that rifle. It's possible that seating the Lapua 105s a bit farther out would mitigate the feeding issues with it - if they can be seated out far enough to help without jamming the lands in the throat of a new 6XC chamber that has only .071" FB to begin with...
ETA - I have ran some loads with the DTAC 115s through the rifle, just to see if they'd feed OK, and they were fine. Just need to shoot some of them to see how they compare to the S107s at 600 & beyond.
Checked tonight to see if aero had any chassis weights and nothing yet but the spigot mount is up on the site
Do you know what any of the spacing you had? My Solus will not close a Go gauge either. Brand new proof barrel. Looking at the Origin specs the face of the receiver to the bolt face should be 1.025, I am measuring mine at 1.016, .008 off!
I don’t know what the actual measurement was, I just know it was .0015 shorter than my origin measured side by side. I sent it back to aero and they said it was within .0002 of nominal. Here’s a pic, looks like half a thou from yours. I think they set their headspace to proof, not origin and so there are some possible issues with tolerance stacking. Hopefully it doesn’t happen to many people.
Attachments
.0005 I will just account to measurement discrepancy's between us. Id say our actions are exactly the same.
This leads me to believe that this is either how they are made, or they had a bad batch and the QC is bad.
If this is how they are made they are in no way okay for a Origin prefit. Even if they did space them off the Proof prefit, I am trying to use a proof prefit and cant close on the go gauge.
Like I said, but nsent mine back and have communicated back and forth with aero extensively. Their customer service has been top notch but the final word from them has been my action is absolutely within spec, they worked with proof very closely to establish headspace for prefits, and we’re more than willing to refund me for my action. I think for people transitioning to bolt rifles from AR platforms, this will open up a lot of options, especially using a barrel nut or Aeros barrels, but I fear they are going to have more than a few headspace problems going forward.
Thanks for the info, I will send mine back in. I suspect mine will be in there spec as well. Seems interesting that my brand new proof prefit still does not fit and has the same issue. I will report back in here when I get all the info from Aero.
Was just on the Aero Precision website checking out some sale items when I decided to look into the bolt rifle section to see if they'd ever come up with a rear entry action wrench. Nothing yet, but they do sell polymer action blocks that clamp in regular vise jaws. Price is reasonable, but it's not what I'm looking for, as I have a very good bbl vise from SAC. The action blocks in a vise would be fine if I were using only pre-fit barrels and setting headspace with the included bbl nut, but I'm not doing that; instead treating it like any other action and cutting shouldered bbls to fit each individual SOLUS action as measured with a depth mic. The guys who're working the bolt rifle side of SP's business seem pretty hung-up on the pre-fit business model, and I realize that it's what a lot of guys here were looking for. But IMHO, they're shooting themselves in the foot by not also catering to those of us who want to build rifles with individually fitted shouldered barrels by coming out with a solid quality rear entry action wrench.
I think the main hang up on the prefits is the tenon and headspace are all kinds of messed up. for the use of zermatt prefits, they need to redo the whole thing because from the get go i've only seen people have problems. Same goes for cycling. A group im in on FB shows a lot of people having issues cycling the bolt with even the least little bit of lateral movement, getting hung up pretty badly.
There is nothing stopping people from building specific to their individual action.
The problem is Aero advertising a very specific shoulder spec and saying its being held to a +/-.0002" so you should be able to buy an origin based shouldered barrel from any of the major barrel makers, torque it on and go shoot. We have now seen multiple cases where this is not the way it's working.
To make matters even worse Aero has been almost completely silent since the "release". If the spec had to change for some reason that's fine, but tell people and for fucks sake change the specs on your website.
Given that the action was first shown off at shot 22 with an estimated release date of that fall I kinda figured they held the launch to make sure everything was golden. Sadly it feels like they had only just started proofing the production lineb at the start of this year.
Looking at that vice block not only should that have been available day one with the actions, but it specifically doesn't work with shouldered barrels, do we're still waiting.
All in all I feel like Aero is playing around with too many projects at the same time and not finishing any of them. Like who asked for a generic suppressor at the same price as everyone else? Generic r700 chassis? At least it's a little cheaper than the competition.
I don't have any clue what the Aero management has planned for the company but I can say that every firearm company under the White Wolf umbrella has gone down in quality and customer communication in the last couple of years.
I wish I hadn't gotten so excited for a 60° action to go with my origin. Thankfully I said to myself let's not be a first adopter and now work has made it so I can't shoot the comp I wanted to build this rifle for so it's a moot point.
Maybe @Aero Precision or @John.Warren4 can give us some insight as to what is going on and what shoulder spec the action is actually cut for.
Dittos on AP playing around on too many projects. My sales rep on the AR side of the business says he doesn't know what's going on over on the bolt rifle side; sounded to me a little like he was getting a bit tired of getting his ass chewed by irate customers who were wanting action prints & wrenches for the actions they'd bought. I tried to explain why I was asking for both those items, and am not at all sure whether he ever did understand me or not. It's irritating to me to still not have a reply from anyone at AP as to whether they're even considering making action wrenches. OTOH, when I got into using BAT 3L actions, all I had to do was ask about an action wrench, and I immediately had pricing & one coming in the mail. Same with Vudoo for everything they make, from the original Gen 1 to the Gen 2 3-lug actions. The apparent lack of any sort of a plan to supply builders with the tools they need or actions that actually meet the pre-fit specs they were advertised as doing raises questions - at least in my mind - of how serious they are about the whole bolt rifle project.
This is what they wanted I think, but everyone told them to do it to origin, two birds with one stone. I think they feel almost everyone will use barrel nuts, they’ve got some growing pains to learn the hard way I’m afraid. In most of my many communications with them, customer service was huge on their list of importance, but understanding what the community expects still seemed new. I am completely shocked they haven’t released an action wrench, but the vice block clamps show even more they want to drive people to use barrel nuts. They were a bit shocked and confused when my gunsmith was able to use a universal wrench to torque my barrel on which I’m sure many of you know, did not headspace on two origin barrels.
They did try to listen to their customers wants, I just don’t know why they have had so many issues. My guess is they didn’t use Origin print for headspace, but a barrel mfg prefit barrel specifically. I could be wrong, but they essentially told me that in multiple ways.
I wound up using the universal head on my Brownells action wrench, with the addition of a couple of heavy PVC shims to avoid dinging the integral scope rail on the SOLUS action that I used on a 6XC build I did with a Bartlein 3B contour shouldered bbl blank. It worked, but was a rather marginal way to go about it. It's been a couple of months since I tried calling AP to ask about an action wrench - must be time to try calling again...
Wonder if anyone has received a complete rifle from Aero yet. Hoping they got their stuff together but haven't seen any reports yet
Got home from a hospital trustee's meeting an hour's drive away last evening, popped a bowl of popcorn, and came into the office to check emails. Wonder of wonders - there was one from my sales contact at Aero Precision announcing the availability of what I've been asking for since I placed my order for a couple of the SOLUS actions - a rear entry action wrench! I quickly placed an order for one of these, and will be looking forward to using it when I do a build on the 2nd of these actions.
I sent my action into Aero, They replaced the bolt head, it was not ground properly. Everything now head spaced exactly like it should. Quick turn around and they made it right.
Just to give a heads up, brownells has these on sale and if you use promo code MDAY15 you can get one for 671 plus tax. At that price it’s worth giving it a try IMO.
We appreciate the grace while we work out the kinks of a new product.
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