Aero Precision Solus Hunter

[paraman1]

After about a 10 year hiatus from the shooting world after my divorce I decided to take the plunge back into the world of Long Range shooting again. I had been shopping the Bergara rifles pretty hard but the reviews from actual shooters were all over the place so I found it hard to throw a bunch of money at one. I had also been researching the Aero Precision rifles and woke up this morning to find Midway USA had the Precision Hunter at a pretty steep discount. The rifle should be here towards the end of next week and I look forward to getting a scope mounted up and putting it through its paces. Needless to say I am pretty excited as this is my first new firearm purchase since before my divorce. I will try and post regularly on here about my experiences with this rifle.

 

[NateVA]

That's a pretty steep discount if I'm looking at the right one. As a midweight hunting rifle I'm sure it'll be great.

Aero Precision SOLUS Hunter Bolt Action Rifle Fluted Barrel | MidwayUSA

The Aero Precision SOLUS Hunter Bolt Action Centerfire Rifle is built for serious hunters who demand precision in any environment. The heart of the rifle is the SOLUS Action and a fluted, honed, and lapped match-grade barrel.

www.midwayusa.com

 

[paraman1]

That is indeed the rifle. It was right at 1560 with taxes and FFL transfer fee. If I am not sold on the stock I can always wait for a sale and buy a chassis for it.

 

[paraman1]

The rifle showed up yesterday and I must say it looks even better in person than it does on the internet. I spent the morning disassembling and reassembling everything as well as adjusting the Triggertech Field trigger down to about 2-3/4 pounds which is plenty light for what I am doing. I also mounted a Bushnell 5-30 scope which while it wasn’t my first choice it did keep the total cost below 2500 dollars which freed up some money in the budget for a few extra magazines and a couple boxes of ammo. I hope to make it to the range next week to start putting it through its paces and gather some data.

 

[Mooseknuckles]

Looking forward to see how it shoots. I have been looking at picking one of these rifles up.

 

[ilmonster]

I recently got the Aero Solus Bravo and so far (93 rounds down the pipe) it's great. I can get just under 1" ten shot groups with handloaded Hornady 168 ELD-M's and Sierra 168 MK's. Also added a Area 419 Hellfire muzzle brake which works awesome in reducing .308 recoil!

Can't wait to hear how it shoots! Cheers!

 

[paraman1]

First range day is in the books. After struggling to get it on paper initially once there it started showing promise right away. Bear in mind I haven’t shot in about 10 years but managed to pull in a couple 3/4 inch groups right at the end. I will be back at the range Friday with a chronograph and a spotter to start stretching its legs.

 

[paraman1]

I’ve been out to the range a few more times and the rifle is a solid 3/4 MOA performer out to 200 using the Hornady 140 grain ELD-M Match ammunition. I did finally have a chance to chronograph it and I have to say I was pretty unimpressed with the results. Still working on getting everything together to reload so factory ammo for now.

 

[lash]

That’s pretty respectable for a mid weight hunting rifle off the shelf, using factory ammo. Both the groups and the speed from my view.

 

[paraman1]

That’s pretty respectable for a mid weight hunting rifle off the shelf, using factory ammo. Both the groups and the speed from my view.

I don’t disagree with you on the accuracy part but I was expecting another 70 FPS in the velocity department.

As far is it being a Mid Weight “hunting” rifle I have to chuckle about how things have changed in the last 10 years. My last purpose built “Sniper” rifle weighs almost exactly the same as this rifle. 10 years ago 12-15 pounds was a heavy rifle but with the popularity of some of the newer shooting disciplines it would appear that 20 pounds is the norm and 12 pounds is light

 

[lash]

lol, 12 pounds is now mid-weight and 7-8 lbs is light.

 

[anon]

At 2629fps that 140gr ELD-M needs 10mils up from a 100 yard zero to get to 1000. It should still be putting along at 1372fps. I might not try a 60 round prone match, but it will surely bang some steel.

It's amazing how much better available factory guns have gotten in the last 10 years.

That thing has so many features that my then state of the art '94 Sendero didn't even know it needed. 20MOA integral rail, mag fed action, adjustable comb, and a user replaceable barrel and bolt head. My Sendero is still a BDL, but a McMillan A-5 helped fix the original stock's inadequacies. And, the 300 Win Mag has a lot more recoil for similar ballistics.

 

[paraman1]

So we put in another good range day with the rifle today. I added an Area 419 muzzle brake which has made the rifle a lot more comfortable during longer range sessions.

Today I worked on some load development for the rifle using 140 grain Nosler RDF’s, H4350, Lapua SRP brass and Federal match primers. After 10 years away from the bench I was happily amazed to see all my reloads were in the teens or less for ES and 4-8 SD. The most accurate 5 shot group at 200 yards was 40.6 grains and it shot a touch over a half inch.

I was amazed at how varied the groups were as it went from 1.75 inches at 40.4 to 1/2 inch at 40.6 and then a touch over an inch at 40.8 and back to 1.75 at 41.0. I will be doing some more load development around that 40.6 grain load to see if anything else can be gained.

Overall I am supremely happy with how this rifle is shooting regardless of the price point and I look forward to shooting it out past 200 yards to see what it can do. If you are on ethe fence about one of these rifle I would wait until they go on sale and snag one,.

 

[paraman1]

So after a summer with the rifle I have finally got it dialed in. I changed bullets and powder to the Berger 140 Hybrid’s and Vihtavouri N555 and once I figured out everything this rifle turned into a laser.

I added a muzzle brake and changed the trigger from the Field to the Primary model so total cost is 26-2700 at this point.

I took a box of Hornady Match with me to every range day and it was consistently shooting 3/4 MOA 5 round groups with me behind the trigger. My hand loads shoot consistently under 1/2 MOA for 5 rounds but occasionally I will pull off 3 round groups like this.

All in all I would say that this is a phenomenal gun for the money. I am planning on changing it up over the winter by putting a prefit 6 Dasher barrel on it and bedding the action so I can have it as a switch barrel rifle. I have the action wrench and barrel vice so no need to pay someone to reinvent it every time my ADHD kicks in.