American Rifle Company New Archimedes Action, New Xylo Chassis, and major Mausingfield revision

[Kiba]

After seeing the refined, near-production ready version of the Xylo in the video, I’m regretting my decision not to get in at the pre-order price last year. It looks very comfy with a lot of nice features.

One suggestion (which may already be on the chassis since I can’t see it in the video) is to incorporate height reference marks for the cheek rest height similar to what AI does on the AX buttstock. An engraved arrow and a few numbers and hash marks on the cheek rest rack and chassis makes it very easy to get the cheekrest back to the previous location after lowering it to clean the barrel or if you let someone else shoot it and they adjust the cheekrest.

Sure you can accomplish the same thing with a silver sharpie or a couple of pieces of tape, but engraving an arrow and numbers/hash marks looks more polished IMO.

(Cue Ted to complain about feature creep bloating the design, increasing costs, and delaying the schedule… I know the feeling because I deal with it daily, LOL)

Looking forward to handling one at some point in the future.

 

[karagias]

I can't keep up with you guys. While the video was uploading to YouTube, I took the dogs for a walk thinking that when I return, I would post the video on the Hide, and what do you know? Somebody beat me to it. Oh well.

Special thanks to the early adopters that ordered a Xylo Chassis one year ago at Shot Show. You guys got a great price and we will certainly honor it. We will be contacting folks for final payment within the next two or three weeks as parts return from anodizing.

We have increased the price of the Xylo Chassis to $1295. After finishing it we realized that it was under priced at $1000 so if you managed to order one at that price, lucky you.

The Xylo Chassis is awesome. I was out shooting it this weekend and loved everything about it. Pics are attached. Barrel shown in the pics was painted with black Rust-Oleum because of time constraints before Shot Show. The barrels of both the Archimedes and the Nucleus rifles will have external surfaces salt bath nitrided. Bore and chambers will be supplied in-the-white.

More soon...

Ted

 

[karagias]

More pics...

 

[karagias]

More pics

 

[chrome]

 

[phlegethon]

It’s a work of art. I can’t wait.

 

[BLDTYLRY]

The $799 pre-order price is looking better and better. At least the wait is worth it as the Xylo keeps getting further refined.

 

[Steel head]

The $799 pre-order price is looking better and better. At least the wait is worth it as the Xylo keeps getting further refined.

I wish I bit on that now!

 

[kthomas]

I wish I bit on that now!

It's an excellent deal at that price, those that got in on the pre-order did well.

 

[Steel head]

It's an excellent deal at that price, those that got in on the pre-order did well.

I need to convince Ted He needs an expensive fly fishing rod.
He lives in Steelhead/salmon land anyways.

I’ve caught lots of salmon just down the hill from his shop.

 

[Kimber.204]

Special thanks to the early adopters that ordered a Xylo Chassis one year ago at Shot Show.

I liked the concept from last year - this release version is even better!!!! I got bumped up to Master in NRA Highpower and this will be my companion stock for the 2020 season. Thanks @karagias !!! Yeah it sucks we had to wait a while, but look at some of the other industries doing pre-orders lately....I'm thinking of electric vehicles. People forget that some of the Tesla pre-orders were longer than this....the owners don't remember that when they're going 0-60 in 2.4sec....and when I tweak the stock length quickly for standing/sitting/prone and I stack them all inside the 10 ring I won't care that I waited a long time. I'll be checking my email constantly waiting for the notice it's ready to ship.

Thanks again Ted!
Ross

 

[Stoweit]

Wow looks fantastic. Is the trigger TT. If so which cocking piece do you suggest? Thanks

 

[HOLLYW00D]

Wow looks fantastic. Is the trigger TT. If so which cocking piece do you suggest? Thanks

Take a look at the bottom of this page: https://www.americanrifle.com/shop/product/cocking-piece-m3-160?category=21

 

[flyer]

I need to convince Ted He needs an expensive fly fishing rod.
He lives in Steelhead/salmon land anyways.

I’ve caught lots of salmon just down the hill from his shop.

Quit saying that. We need Ted to stick with his gun hobby.

 

[Stoweit]

Thanks Hollywood.

 

[Steel head]

Quit saying that. We need Ted to stick with his gun hobby.

I’m able to both!

 

[flyer]

Why take a chance?

 

[leftyk82]

Enjoyed the video. Ted was doing 'one-take' before it was cool.

While 15" LOP is nice, are there any accessories or mechanisms to get it closer to 16"? Asking for yeti's everywhere.

 

[BEJ762]

Well....I just ordered a stock. Will put my old mausingfield in it. Very excited.

 

[Dthomas3523]

@karagias

I forgot to ask at shot, does the rack and pinion handle dirt/dust pretty well?

I think that’s my favorite cheek adjustment I’ve ever seen.

 

[max1840]

It looks amazing Ted. Glad I got in on the introductory pricing. Can't wait to take delivery.

 

[PBWalsh]

@karagias I know I asked on the other thread, but do you have a weight for the Xylo with no added weights?

Oh and thanks for making a chassis with a short LOP and trigger reach!

 

[flyer]

Enjoyed the video. Ted was doing 'one-take' before it was cool.

While 15" LOP is nice, are there any accessories or mechanisms to get it closer to 16"? Asking for yeti's everywhere.

It shouldn't be tough to make a spacer.

 

[Steel head]

I like the 12 point wrench interface on the barrel.

 

[Cascade Hemi]

I guess I'll be selling an almost new W3 folder in a few months.

 

[BEJ762]

@karagias I know I asked on the other thread, but do you have a weight for the Xylo with no added weights?

Oh and thanks for making a chassis with a short LOP and trigger reach!

I called ARC this morning to ask that question and they said around 3.5-4lbs.

Ted - Please correct me if I got that wrong.

 

[steve123]

Anybody have a link to a video of the Archimedes showing the bolt lift ease when the bolt is lifted? Maybe a side by side directly compared to any of the common custom actions?

Please Please, too many pages to wade through.

 

[steve123]

I like the 12 point wrench interface on the barrel.

I like that aspect about the Bighorn prefit nut!

I haven't kept up in case this has been mentioned before but it would be cool if ARC offered a less expensive shouldered barrel option equal to a Shilen prefit. I paid less than $380 shipped to my door for my prefit from Shilen and it's been an incredible barrel. Of course it'd be easier to have a shouldered barrel option instead of a prefit. Not saying doing this as cheap as Shilen does but not $750+.

Too me the shouldered barrels for say an Impact action are as much as a shouldered barrel done by my GS so except for the time savings it has much less appeal price wise so I'd rather do prefits.

 

[Steel head]

I like that aspect about the Bighorn prefit nut!

I haven't kept up in case this has been mentioned before but it would be cool if ARC offered a less expensive shouldered barrel option equal to a Shilen prefit. I paid less than $380 shipped to my door for my prefit from Shilen and it's been an incredible barrel. Of course it'd be easier to have a shouldered barrel option instead of a prefit. Not saying doing this as cheap as Shilen does but not $750+.

Too me the shouldered barrels for say an Impact action are as much as a shouldered barrel done by my GS so except for the time savings it has much less appeal price wise so I'd rather do prefits.

He recently mentioned criterion barrels.

I’ve ran 3 Shilens so far and all have been excellent to amazing.
I’d totally love a shouldered Shilen at a decent cost for my nuke.

That said the brux currently on my nuke makes me giggle like a schoolgirl every time I shoot it.

 

[Kiba]

Anybody have a link to a video of the Archimedes showing the bolt lift ease when the bolt is lifted? Maybe a side by side directly compared to any of the common custom actions?

Please Please, too many pages to wade through.

I don't have any videos, but it's light and smooth. Since there's no traditional extraction cam the entire 75 degree bolt rotation is only used to cock the firing pin, and if you have a slightly stuck case from a warm load there's no "click" or sticky bolt lift at the top of the travel where a traditional action would exhibit extra bolt lift effort while working against the extraction camming surfaces to pop the stuck case out of the chamber. (That can also be a negative for load development though if you like to push the envelope, as the Archimedes will not have the "click" on bolt open to provide you with another sign that your load is on the warm/hot side.)

Bolt lift on my Archimedes is noticeably lighter than one friend's TL3 (which is quite light and smooth) and I'd say it's on par with or just a slight bit heavier than another friend's Impact. This is going by "fingertip feel", not any instrumented testing. I think Ted's choice of 75 degree bolt rotation over 60 degrees was a good one, you still get the benefits of reduced motion and increased bolt knob to scope clearance but there's an additional 15 degrees of rotation to spread out and lighten the bolt lift effort while compressing the firing pin spring.

If you choose the cocking piece for the Archimedes to have close to zero cock on close with your trigger, it's light single fingertip effort to close too. It's a very smooth and fast action.

One other comment... when I swapped the barrel and CG Mod 22 trigger from a Nucleus to the Archimedes, the Archimedes had a horribly heavy, draggy bolt lift and the firing pin had a slow fall-- the sear on the Mod 22 was too tall for the Archimedes even though it worked great in the Nucleus. I switched to a Bix-N-Andy with the low sear and the bolt lift is now really smooth and light (felt the same as with no trigger installed) and no more slow firing pin falls. I'm not the only one to encounter trigger / sear height sensitivity with the Archimedes, several here have posted about it with various triggers.

 

[steve123]

I don't have any videos, but it's light and smooth. Since there's no traditional extraction cam the entire 75 degree bolt rotation is only used to cock the firing pin, and if you have a slightly stuck case from a warm load there's no "click" or sticky bolt lift at the top of the travel where a traditional action would exhibit extra bolt lift effort while working against the extraction camming surfaces to pop the stuck case out of the chamber. (That can also be a negative for load development though if you like to push the envelope, as the Archimedes will not have the "click" on bolt open to provide you with another sign that your load is on the warm/hot side.)

Bolt lift on my Archimedes is noticeably lighter than one friend's TL3 (which is quite light and smooth) and I'd say it's on par with or just a slight bit heavier than another friend's Impact. This is going by "fingertip feel", not any instrumented testing. I think Ted's choice of 75 degree bolt rotation over 60 degrees was a good one, you still get the benefits of reduced motion and increased bolt knob to scope clearance but there's an additional 15 degrees of rotation to spread out and lighten the bolt lift effort while compressing the firing pin spring.

If you choose the cocking piece for the Archimedes to have close to zero cock on close with your trigger, it's light single fingertip effort to close too. It's a very smooth and fast action.

One other comment... when I swapped the barrel and CG Mod 22 trigger from a Nucleus to the Archimedes, the Archimedes had a horribly heavy, draggy bolt lift and the firing pin had a slow fall-- the sear on the Mod 22 was too tall for the Archimedes even though it worked great in the Nucleus. I switched to a Bix-N-Andy with the low sear and the bolt lift is now really smooth and light (felt the same as with no trigger installed) and no more slow firing pin falls. I'm not the only one to encounter trigger / sear height sensitivity with the Archimedes, several here have posted about it with various triggers.

Thanks Kiba, that's a very good explanation or description of the Archimedes feel.

 

[Kimber.204]

Bolt lift on my Archimedes is noticeably lighter than one friend's TL3 (which is quite light and smooth)

I've been wondering this myself. The thing I love about my TL3 compared to my Mausingfield M7 is that the lighter bolt lift of the TL3 doesn't displace the rifle as much as the slightly heavier lift in the M7. If the Archimedes is lighter than the TL3 (or at least that one TL3) it would be really interesting to me. I'll have to start watching the PX section.

the sear on the Mod 22 was too tall for the Archimedes

When I was putting together my Eliseo Tube gun with a Defiance Mutant action I picked up a used CG X-treme Mod 22 trigger and it wouldn't stay cocked. When I called Tom at X-treme Shooting Products and explained the issue he asked if it was a Defiance Bolt rifle. He had me send the trigger back and they replaced the sear and shipped it back out the same day. The taller sear worked perfectly. I say all that so as not to dissuade people from using the CG Mod 22 triggers - They are fantastic two-stage triggers. I have several Timney Calvin Elite two-stage triggers and they a really good....but the feel and adjust-ability of the CG Mod 22 is better yet....in my opinion.

Thanks @Kiba for the great comments.
Regards,
Ross

 

[Kiba]

I've been wondering this myself. The thing I love about my TL3 compared to my Mausingfield M7 is that the lighter bolt lift of the TL3 doesn't displace the rifle as much as the slightly heavier lift in the M7. If the Archimedes is lighter than the TL3 (or at least that one TL3) it would be really interesting to me. I'll have to start watching the PX section.



When I was putting together my Eliseo Tube gun with a Defiance Mutant action I picked up a used CG X-treme Mod 22 trigger and it wouldn't stay cocked. When I called Tom at X-treme Shooting Products and explained the issue he asked if it was a Defiance Bolt rifle. He had me send the trigger back and they replaced the sear and shipped it back out the same day. The taller sear worked perfectly. I say all that so as not to dissuade people from using the CG Mod 22 triggers - They are fantastic two-stage triggers. I have several Timney Calvin Elite two-stage triggers and they a really good....but the feel and adjust-ability of the CG Mod 22 is better yet....in my opinion.

Thanks @Kiba for the great comments.
Regards,
Ross

Agreed on the CG Mod 22... It's a great feeling trigger and it ran perfectly for about 4k rounds in a nucleus before I picked up the Archimedes.

If I had the time I would have sent the Archimedes and CG trigger to Tom to have the sear swapped, but I needed the rifle back together and working ASAP, so I ordered a bix-n-andy with a low sear and had it in my hands 2 days later and the rifle was up and running in time for the weekend.

The bix-n-andy isn't a true 2 stage like the CG, but it feels great and is easily disassembled for cleaning.

The Archimedes is a really slick feeling action that has no problems running fast or slowly... It's always really smooth. My nucleus gen 1 felt good running it normally to quickly, but it felt a bit clunky closing the bolt when running it slow... a lot of that was because mine still had the gen 1 bolt head with the smaller bolt lug ramps combined with 0.025" overcocking with the CG trigger. (The nucleus 2.0 now shares the Archimedes bolt head and lug ramp design, as well as offering multiple cocking pieces, so it will probably feel very good.)

I'll be building a 7 SAUM on a long action Archimedes later this year.

 

[chrome]

 

[leftyk82]

The above, if nothing else, is a lesson in Greek pronunciation ??

 

[phlegethon]

Does anyone know how to remove the firing pin in the Archimedes bolt?

 

[Kiba]

Does anyone know how to remove the firing pin in the Archimedes bolt?

ARC has a video here...

Support | American Rifle Company

americanrifle.odoo.com

 

[atomic41]

This video helps me "get" the aesthetics. There was something about the pics of the bare chassis that was not doing it for me but seeing it with a barreled action now it all makes sense. Also, seeing how those adjustments are made is awesome. I'm not a fan of the wood grip and I'm sure I'm probably in the minority there. Anyone know what the black grip was?
So after seeing this, I really want one!

 

[chrome]

This video helps me "get" the aesthetics. There was something about the pics of the bare chassis that was not doing it for me but seeing it with a barreled action now it all makes sense. Also, seeing how those adjustments are made is awesome. I'm not a fan of the wood grip and I'm sure I'm probably in the minority there. Anyone know what the black grip was?
So after seeing this, I really want one!

I think the black grip was just a heavier/darker stained wood. I could be wrong.

 

[Winny94]

This video helps me "get" the aesthetics. There was something about the pics of the bare chassis that was not doing it for me but seeing it with a barreled action now it all makes sense. Also, seeing how those adjustments are made is awesome. I'm not a fan of the wood grip and I'm sure I'm probably in the minority there. Anyone know what the black grip was?
So after seeing this, I really want one!

I think the black grip was just a heavier/darker stained wood. I could be wrong.

Just dark stained walnut. They were discussing some sort of epoxy that would lend even more pirchase , but sounds like they we're leaning towards raw to let the end user decide (while adding advice as to finishes)

 

[HOLLYW00D]

Just dark stained walnut. They were discussing some sort of epoxy that would lend even more pirchase , but sounds like they we're leaning towards raw to let the end user decide (while adding advice as to finishes)

Ebony (wood). Mentioned in the other video.

 

[Ledzep]

Nobody laugh too hard at me... but any time frame on Xylo deliveries?

 

[Steel head]

Nobody laugh too hard at me... but any time frame on Xylo deliveries?

Hopefully soon.
Regardless compared to the first version and price I’d say the pre order people scored big time.

 

[Ledzep]

Yeah I got in on the last bit of pre-order when they got extended a week into February last year. Probably need to call ARC and update address and CC info...

 

[flyer]

Nobody laugh too hard at me... but any time frame on Xylo deliveries?

From the video it sounds like soon.

As hard as building a chassis is, I don't think it's as hard as getting the heat treat and nitride coating right on an action. When Ted says it's close, I'm thinking weeks, not months.

After machining there is anodizing and then assembly, packing and shipping.

If all of the CNC programming is working for all of the parts, things should be moving pretty fast.

I was thinking March or April but now I'm thinking there is an outside chance that February may be possible.

Of course, I could be very wrong. MPA took a really long time to deliver my Hybrid chassis and they have been making chassis for years.

I think ARC is going to be pushing really hard to get these out the door so I'm hopeful.

 

[2aBaC̶a̶]

Is it normal for a Nucleus bolt to be very sloppy when all the way back. Mine has almost an inch of lateral movement and more than my R700

 

[gnochi]

Is it normal for a Nucleus bolt to be very sloppy when all the way back. Mine has almost an inch of lateral movement and more than my R700

Yes. Clearance gives you the ability to run when it’s dusty/icy/etc. It locks up nice and tight both at the back and the front when it’s all the way forward.

Also, Ted implemented effective anti-bind rails. I’ve found that I have to try pretty hard to bind the action if I’m running the bolt hard from maximum displacement at the back, and don’t often succeed.

 

[Midpack]

Got my archimedias back from McMillan today (were writing the action program off of my action) and man i forgot how much i really like this action. It just runs so slick.

 

[Winny94]

Got my archimedias back from McMillan today (were writing the action program off of my action) and man i forgot how much i really like this action. It just runs so slick.View attachment 7238148View attachment 7238149

Nice rig, whats the finish on that MCM?

 

[Midpack]

Nice rig, whats the finish on that MCM?

It's the mcwalnut. It's not listed as an option on their site. I only knew about it because i saw another guy on here post his a6 in it. It is not the mcwoody. The colors are the same but they try to mimic wood grain and burls with the mcwalnut