Hi,
So back in the founding days it was Cheytac & Associates...that is important in the real history of what is todays era of "CheyTac".
The original 408CT test rifle was called the Prometheus and was built on a standard bolt action receiver in a big McM stock.
After successful testing and proving the 408CT (NOT THE SAME AS CURRENT CARTRIDGE BTW) the desire to have EDM chamber their windrunner in the cartridge for testing was reached.
EDM manufactured 25 Windrunners chambered in the 408CT.
Cheytac & Associates took delivery of IIRC 7 and then took 2 down to Briley in Houston to manufacture them in attempts to cut EDM Arms out of the deal. We are talking like a 2 year timespan of testing the EDM built "Cheytac" guns in the 408CT of all this debacle.
The over the barrel bipod and barrel shroud was not EDM design; it actually came from one of the "Associates" companies of Cheytac & Associates called Sniping Operations Executive. It was manufactured by Becker Machine & Tool in MN.
During this timeframe Cheytac & Associates operated out of a gas station in Arco ID.
Long story short, there was a 22 or 25 million dollar lawsuit back and forth between EDM Arms and Cheytac & Associates that drug out for a few years with both companies making their version of the Windrunner chambered in 408CT. It was eventually agreed upon and dropped with understanding that both entities will continue to do what they were currently doing.
Also, the 375CT was not designed nor tested by Cheytac & Associates at all, lol.....Cheytac did not start using that name and cartridge until about 4 years after we were shooting rifles built by Lawton Machine.
The 375CT was originally called the 375 No Name and were all built on Lawton 8000 actions.
I bring that up because it IS most definitely going to be called into evidence of these current CheyTac USA lawsuits against other companies for using the term 375 and 408 CheyTac.
The original 408CT was significantly better ballistics than the current 408CT version.
The original pushed the 419gr mono at close to 3200fps compared to the current version of 2850.
When the decision was made to "water" the original version down due to a couple pressure spike instances is when we started looking for its' replacement. That replacement was the 375 No Name.
Sincerely,
Theis
Some further info for those that are interested:
http://cheytacrifles.com/history/
The .408ct cartridge was originally developed and produced by two companies, first THEIS (Tactical High Energy Impact Solutions) which provided the modification necessary to translate what modifications became apparent and necessary from the original 505 Gibbs case. The second entity involved in the cartridge development was Lost River Ballistics Technology which is now closed and much of the intellectual property was used by Greenwich Ballistics (a CheyTac® LLC based company). Jamison International has been, up until recently, the primary producer of the 419gr projectile that is the patented “CheyTac®” cartridge. Despite this, many companies offer similar .408 cartridges that work outside the patent and provide excellent results such as the now commonplace 400gr solid projectile.
The M200 style system that is so prevalent in media, film and television was originally designed by Bill Ritchie of EDM Arms. Mr. Ritchie was approached by CheyTac® LLC to scale down his “Windrunner” rifle to accommodate and better suit the .408CT cartridge. CheyTac®, LLC began looking at options to modify the rifle and add the popular over-the-barrel bipod system and shroud after the initial field testing of the EDM Arms rifle was completed. The initial field testing was provided by a company, now defunct, known as Sniping Operations Executive (SOE).
CheyTac® and EDM Arms had a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed in the early 2000′s which resulted in the case being dropped and the decision was for both companies to continue producing their respective rifles in the .408ct chambering. EDM Arms later partnered with THOR Global Defense Group, Inc. to provide official license of the original rifle which is now the THOR XM408 and the enhanced THOR M408 model which features an upgraded barrel, enhanced bipod and carry handle system.
CheyTac® continued to produce the M200 rifle through a reverse engineering development process and had several machine shops over the course of the next few years produce the M200 under an ATF variance.
CheyTac® later approached RND Edge in regards of having a semi-automatic .408 rifle created for standard production. Initial prototyping was completed, but after some developments, RND Edge has separated from CheyTac®, and a semi-auto CheyTac®, LLC rifle was not officially brought into production.
It became apparent that with the extreme range that could be achieved with the .408 cartridge, a ballistic computing system would be quite a boon to provide quick calculation of the Data On Personal Equipment or DOPE. This system enabled the shooter to efficiently apply shots on a target at extreme ranges. The software was named the Advanced Ballistics Computer (ABC) and was produced to work on windows mobile platforms. The original ABC software is not available in the original form, but several companies now offer similar systems to provide calculation on both Windows operating systems as well as newer Android applications. Training courses offered by CheyTac® were provided on public BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property in Arco, Idaho. Targets at this range area were designed to allow safe firing positions between 100 and 2500 meters.
Knesek Guns, Inc. provided distribution and commercial sales and customer support out of their Arkansas facility, but supply became an issue as time went on and it became apparent that other options to provide a .408 system of identical or higher quality with great technical and customer support from the manufacturer was going to be needed. Larry Knesek began negotiations with Bill Ritchie and the formerly associated individuals involved with the CheyTac® project that had disassociated themselves for one reason or another. The THOR M408 rifle system offered maintains the better quality, accuracy and provides enhanced features over the CheyTac® M200 system which Knesek Guns had formerly distributed.
In summary, the entities described in the CheyTac® Asscoiates brochures from yesteryear have, for the most part, gone their separate ways or been closed. Here is a listing of the entities which were previously listed as the CheyTac® associated firms:
- Bradley Development (Unknown)
- Greenwich Ballistics (Current CheyTac®, LLC entitiy)
- Lost River Ballistics Technologies (Closed)
- Sniper Operations Executive (Closed)
- Tactical High Energy Impact Systems and subsidiaries (Conducting Research & Development)
- Advanced Barrel Systems (Closed)
- Jamison International (Closed)
- Knesek Guns, Inc. (Current distributor/exporter for THOR Global Defense Group & EDM Arms)
- RND Edge (No longer associated, feel free to contact RND for more info)
