Christensen Modern Precision Rifle

[FuhQ]

I've debated hard on that same rifle...

What's the accuracy like?

So far…It’s hit-or-miss, but the barrel is still not fully broken-in. It’s not really settled yet, so groups are kind of so-so. But it is showing promise when it does drop a good one. The good groups tend to be around 1/2”, but are averaging around 1” for 5-shot groups @ 100 with handloads while doing load development. This also could be the powder choice, as it might just not like CFE223. So, I wouldn’t use my current experience with it as your baseline.

It’s a nice rifle, and it shows potential like all my CA rifles have. It’s all about finding that right load it likes…Just like any rifle. I say go for it, if you are wanting one.

Here was the best one from last week…

 

[ArmedGinger]

So I bought another Christensen Arms although this time it's an MLR and not an MPR. Wanted a 7mm PRC without spending anything crazy like a custom or a carbon barrelled MPR, so I picked this up for a decent price.

 

[ArmedGinger]

Got the gun all put together

 

[ArmedGinger]

Bore sighted the 7mm PRC at 100. Then moved out to 200 and pulled a decent five round group. Dialed my scope over and fired one more round that hit dead center of the target. Now w it's time to push it out to 1000+

 

[Waynemparent]

I’ve written this before so I’ll save the long version but tell your buddy to call CA and they’ll make it right with shipping on their dime. They went above and beyond for me with a loose hinge on the folding stock and replaced the barrel without asking after I had put 600 or so rounds through it thinking it was ok for me shooting it. 1 moa for 10 shot groups before they replaced it for “not being to their accuracy standard”.

Thanks for this post. I just ordered my first CA in MPR 338 Lapua. I’ve been shooting a modified Winchester Model 70 with a Heavy Hart Barrel it’s great out to 800 but after shooting my son’s CA Ridgeline 300PRC I wanted something more. I’m hoping it was a good choice

 

[FuhQ]

I'm not far from sending my 16" MPR 6mm ARC back to CA for a brand new barrel... I'm tired of chasing this fucking rabbit. I've NEVER had a rifle give me fits like this. I've put over 350 rounds down this barrel, and it's still not settled, and shooting worth a shit. I've pulled the whole rifle and chassis apart, cleaned everything, and properly re-torqued everything to CA specs. And scrubbed the barrel down to the white and dry patched it after each range session. And it still only puts down ONE good group every range session...And it's always the very first cold-bore group. After that, it's like a shotgun... Not impressed.

Here's the ones from today. I only shot it twice, before getting pissed and putting it back in the truck.


First group (excluding flier where I pulled the shot)...



Second group after letting it cool completely down...Nothing changed on the gun, scope, or ammo...

 

[Waynemparent]

I'm not far from sending my 16" MPR 6mm ARC back to CA for a brand new barrel... I'm tired of chasing this fucking rabbit. I've NEVER had a rifle give me fits like this. I've put over 350 rounds down this barrel, and it's still not settled, and shooting worth a shit. I've pulled the whole rifle and chassis apart, cleaned everything, and properly re-torqued everything to CA specs. And scrubbed the barrel down to the white and dry patched it after each range session. And it still only puts down ONE good group every range session...And it's always the very first cold-bore group. After that, it's like a shotgun... Not impressed.

Here's the ones from today. I only shot it twice, before getting pissed and putting it back in the truck.


First group (excluding flier where I pulled the shot)...

View attachment 8151742

Second group after letting it cool completely down...Nothing changed on the gun, scope, or ammo...

View attachment 8151743

Not what I would have expected I certainly hope you get it sorted out. Please keep us informed of the outcome

 

[FuhQ]

Not what I would have expected I certainly hope you get it sorted out. Please keep us informed of the outcome

I will. All 4 of my other CA rifles shoot lights-out…But not this one. I guess 5th time was the charm for getting a lemon.

 

[FuhQ]

New video is up with the 16" Christensen Arms MPR .308 Win. comparing my Dead Air Nomad-LT & my new ThunderBeast (TBAC) Magnus-HUB suppressor.

 

[Tengo1]

Tried some new hand loads on Sunday. Everything was between .5-.75 MOA until I tried the 5 I had loaded with 41.6 grains of H4350…

 

[Waynemparent]

Tried some new hand loads on Sunday. Everything was between .5-.75 MOA until I tried the 5 I had loaded with 41.6 grains of H4350…

That’s an impressive group!

 

[FuhQ]

Just realized I never posted a pic of the group my 16” MPR .308 Win put down during the first day of testing. This was a random load I threw together over 10 years ago based out of the Berger manual. I loaded up 100 of them in brand new Lapua brass, and only ever shot 50 of them over the years, because back then, it was during the Obama ban era, and everything, especially heavy Berger bullets (210-215), were nearly impossible to find, so I conserved them, even though my 5R .308 absolutely loved them. So, I figured my new MPR being a 1:10 should love them. And it definitely does. Shot pretty damn good with my new TBAC Magnus-HUB on there.

 

[christensenarms]

Good afternoon, we have recently made some changes here at Christensen Arms and I am the new Director of Customer Experience and I am focused on clearing up any past issues of QC and Customer Service. Our marketing team will be addressing this shortly as we leave this stuff behind us.

For the amount of money you guys are paying for a rifle from us we do want you to have complete faith in your rifle as well as ammunition you are running. You also want the level of customer service that is fitting of a rifle purchase like this.

@FuhQ thank you for taking my messages on Facebook and getting you set up so we could take a look at that barrel for you. Please let us know if we can help you out with anything else on that one.

If at anytime you guys feel your question is not getting answered by someone at Christensen Arms, please feel free to reach out to me here and I will get you guys taken care of ASAP.

 

[FuhQ]

Good afternoon, we have recently made some changes here at Christensen Arms and I am the new Director of Customer Experience and I am focused on clearing up any past issues of QC and Customer Service. Our marketing team will be addressing this shortly as we leave this stuff behind us.

For the amount of money you guys are paying for a rifle from us we do want you to have complete faith in your rifle as well as ammunition you are running. You also want the level of customer service that is fitting of a rifle purchase like this.

@FuhQ thank you for taking my messages on Facebook and getting you set up so we could take a look at that barrel for you. Please let us know if we can help you out with anything else on that one.

If at anytime you guys feel your question is not getting answered by someone at Christensen Arms, please feel free to reach out to me here and I will get you guys taken care of ASAP.

I don’t use Facebook…Maybe you’re confusing it with another social media app?

I will not be able to ship it back to y’all this week, as I wanted to do 1 final test at the range to ensure it wasn’t the scope or KeyMo setup causing the issue. After I test this weekend, if the problem persists, I will be sending it off next week. I have already printed out the return label and approved RMA form.

 

[christensenarms]

I don’t use Facebook…Maybe you’re confusing it with another social media app?

I will not be able to ship it back to y’all this week, as I wanted to do 1 final test at the range to ensure it wasn’t the scope or KeyMo setup causing the issue. After I test this weekend, if the problem persists, I will be sending it off next week. I have already printed out the return label and approved RMA form.

FuhQ, from Instagram. Let us know how the tests go.

 

[The GIF-fer]

Good afternoon, we have recently made some changes here at Christensen Arms and I am the new Director of Customer Experience and I am focused on clearing up any past issues of QC and Customer Service. Our marketing team will be addressing this shortly as we leave this stuff behind us.

For the amount of money you guys are paying for a rifle from us we do want you to have complete faith in your rifle as well as ammunition you are running. You also want the level of customer service that is fitting of a rifle purchase like this.

@FuhQ thank you for taking my messages on Facebook and getting you set up so we could take a look at that barrel for you. Please let us know if we can help you out with anything else on that one.

If at anytime you guys feel your question is not getting answered by someone at Christensen Arms, please feel free to reach out to me here and I will get you guys taken care of ASAP.

Hey hey, excellent to hear. I purchased a .338 MPR before I became a Member here and parts of this thread had me concerned about my purchase.

I have not shot mine, and might not get to for quite a while. When that finally happens, I'm more reassured any concerns would be addressed. It IS a beautiful rifle! The FFT furniture is sexy.

 

[The GIF-fer]

Meet the twins…

16” 6mm ARC (top) / 16” .308 Win (bottom)

View attachment 8100757

With matching new Kahles K624i CCW RSW SKMR4 scopes in Seekins Precision 1.00” high rings. They just barely clear the handguard, but 1.00” rings are G-2-G on the MPR with a factory 20MOA rail, and 56mm objective.

If anyone is wondering, that is my Otter Creek Labs Hydrogen-S 7.62 on the 6mm ARC, and my Dead Air Nomad-LT on the .308 Win. Both cans are running an Otter Creek Labs ZR0-DTA direct-thread mount. The fit is superb. And they sound just as quiet as they look.

Zeiss Mid 1.125 rings, Blackhound 4-32 x56, with sunshade on the front I barely see daylight underneath. Could fit 2, maybe 3 sheets of paper. I call that success! LOL

 

[FuhQ]

FuhQ, from Instagram. Let us know how the tests go.

Dave, they did not go well. It was not the scope, suppressors, or KeyMo system. I tried everything, and the results were the same. Actually, it shot worse unsuppressed.

 

[christensenarms]

@FuhQ let's get it back so we can take a good look at it and see what is going on.

 

[FuhQ]

@FuhQ let's get it back so we can take a good look at it and see what is going on.

I’ll be dropping it by the FFL this evening on my way home from work. So, y’all should have it by Thursday/Friday depending on how slow the shipping company is.

 

[FuhQ]

The rifle arrived at @christensenarms today (Thursday 6/16/23). They said 4-8 weeks turn-around time.

 

[Waynemparent]

The rifle arrived at @christensenarms today (Thursday 6/16/23). They said 4-8 weeks turn-around time.

I know that sounds like a long time but I had longer waits with two different Remington 700. Plus I’m confident Christensen will do the right thing. Remington did not

 

[Waynemparent]

Hey hey, excellent to hear. I purchased a .338 MPR before I became a Member here and parts of this thread had me concerned about my purchase.

I have not shot mine, and might not get to for quite a while. When that finally happens, I'm more reassured any concerns would be addressed. It IS a beautiful rifle! The FFT furniture is sexy.

I also bought a 338 Lapua MPR from Christiansen it’s a sexy big rifle that’s much lighter than comparable rifles in 338.

 

[RubiconJoey]

Here's the results from my last range trip with my 6.5 MPR ( 5 shot groups all at 100yds). I think this photo shows the importance of experimenting with different loads. The federal load was a big disappointment. I was really hoping to use these as a hunting round, but with this kind of accuracy at 100 I can't trust it. The Hornady match is kind of the "go-to" factory load, but I wasn't exactly happy with the results. The Nosler showed promise in some earlier tests. It would shoot 3 touching and then I'd get a flier. Ignore the first shot at the top of the target, I forgot to reset my turret from a 300yd hold. The Berger's are where I finally saw what this rifle is capable of.

 

[christensenarms]

@RubiconJoey The ELD series is what we do a lot of testing with the 140 and 143 grain so we see a lot of good results with those. The group with the 130 grain Berger you laid down is awesome! We love to see it!

 

[db2000]

Back when I shot 147 ELDM from my MPR 6.5 PRC. Love the rifle and excellent CS!
Too many were exploding out of the barrel so switched to Berger 156 EOL and RL26.

 

[christensenarms]

@db2000 Those are some awesome groups! Great to see out of a 6.5 PRC rifle with handloads!

 

[FuhQ]

New video is up comparing my Otter Creek Labs Hydrogen-S 7.62 and my Hydrogen-S 6.5mm suppressors on my 16" @christensenarms MPR 6mm ARC. Both cans are identical other than bore diameter.

The 6.5mm can is noticeably quieter in person, and you can tell it slightly in the video if you turn it up. Both cans sound amazing on the little 6mm ARC cartridge.

 

[Semomike]

I picked up an MPR in 223 Remington, it has the steel barrel. After a quick clean I put on SilencerCo ASR mount and the Omega 300 and took it out to the farm for a few shots to get some brass to start a load workup.

I shot some Remington 55 gr SP that I had that shoots very well in my all of my AR setups. 5 shot groups of 2"+. I chalked that up to it being late in the day and the lighter bullet in the 1-8 twist barrel. Although I'm not a professional shooter by any stretch, off of bags and a good shooting rifle I can get nearly all of my guns sub MOA.

I put together a ladder test with Horn 75 grain ELDm with some info I found starting at 24 grains and working up at .3 grains. The groups were terrible, best one was maybe 3". I stopped at 25.3 cause I was getting some pierced primers.

I went home did some more reading and decided I was going to put together a couple of ladder tests with RL15 and Staball Match.

I have the Labradar info for each one of these as well. The Staball Match was producing some SD's that were right around 10 and even a 6.9SD with a 17ES at 24.3 grains.

 

[ballisticdaddy]

I picked up an MPR in 223 Remington, it has the steel barrel. After a quick clean I put on SilencerCo ASR mount and the Omega 300 and took it out to the farm for a few shots to get some brass to start a load workup.

I shot some Remington 55 gr SP that I had that shoots very well in my all of my AR setups. 5 shot groups of 2"+. I chalked that up to it being late in the day and the lighter bullet in the 1-8 twist barrel. Although I'm not a professional shooter by any stretch, off of bags and a good shooting rifle I can get nearly all of my guns sub MOA.

I put together a ladder test with Horn 75 grain ELDm with some info I found starting at 24 grains and working up at .3 grains. The groups were terrible, best one was maybe 3". I stopped at 25.3 cause I was getting some pierced primers.

I went home did some more reading and decided I was going to put together a couple of ladder tests with RL15 and Staball Match.

I bought an MPR in .308 Win last year with similar results using factory and hand loads. There is new mgmt at CA and seem like they are going to do something about it now. Just received my RA and going back to them to test and/or replace the CF barrel. Hopefully their CS department will do same for you.

 

[Waynemparent]

I finally got a chance to shoot my CA MPR in 338 Lapua. I brought five boxes of different ammunition with. The range only has 100 yards but the best 5 shot groups came from RUAG Swiss-P 250gr HPBT and 247gr Styx Action Hyper Expanding Hollow Point. 3-different 3-shot groups were under 1/2”. All other factory ammunition shot greater than 1” groups and one of them couldn’t do better than 2”.

 

[Lazyninja]

I picked up an MPR in 223 Remington, it has the steel barrel. After a quick clean I put on SilencerCo ASR mount and the Omega 300 and took it out to the farm for a few shots to get some brass to start a load workup.

I shot some Remington 55 gr SP that I had that shoots very well in my all of my AR setups. 5 shot groups of 2"+. I chalked that up to it being late in the day and the lighter bullet in the 1-8 twist barrel. Although I'm not a professional shooter by any stretch, off of bags and a good shooting rifle I can get nearly all of my guns sub MOA.

I put together a ladder test with Horn 75 grain ELDm with some info I found starting at 24 grains and working up at .3 grains. The groups were terrible, best one was maybe 3". I stopped at 25.3 cause I was getting some pierced primers.

I went home did some more reading and decided I was going to put together a couple of ladder tests with RL15 and Staball Match.

I have the Labradar info for each one of these as well. The Staball Match was producing some SD's that were right around 10 and even a 6.9SD with a 17ES at 24.3 grains.



View attachment 8179997

The CA. Often have very short throats might be part of your primer issue, also might try shooting a 68 or 77 smk instead of eldm. It seems the 75 eldm is notoriously difficult to get to group well. I've been struggling with them myself.

 

[Waynemparent]

I get you're just the messenger but this is ridiculous for a company to say as if it justifies the problem.

Of course you need to let the barrel cool, but cool completely after three shots? Lol. Why not just say "Our Barrels are suboptimal"? Nobody in their right mind would ever buy a precision barrel that needs to cool completely after 3 shots. Or maybe I just haven't seen enough competitions where you take 3 shots

I shoot 20 round’s through my CA MPR 338 Lapua every week and don’t take any cool down breaks and don’t see any degradation in performance. 1/2 MOA all day

 

[Waynemparent]

The CA. Often have very short throats might be part of your primer issue, also might try shooting a 68 or 77 smk instead of eldm. It seems the 75 eldm is notoriously difficult to get to group well. I've been struggling with them myself.

Try RUAG Swiss P ammo… I bet you’ll get 1/2 MOA

 

[ballisticdaddy]

I bought an MPR in .308 Win last year with similar results using factory and hand loads. There is new mgmt at CA and seem like they are going to do something about it now. Just received my RA and going back to them to test and/or replace the CF barrel. Hopefully their CS department will do same for you.

Just got this from CA and thought I should share, they received the rifle Tuesday 7-18 and in less than a week here is their response:

@christensenarms I must say that I am very impressed and can't wait to get it back in my hands

"I'm excited to inform you that your firearm is ready to be returned to you! Your RMA service has been completed and your firearm is being processed for return.

Our top gunsmiths have performed a full detailed inspection, and carefully completed the following services on your firearm:
Installed New Barrel, Installed New Slayer Brake
Aligned Hand Guard, Checked Headspace (Headspace is correct), Engraved Barrel, Test Fired for Accuracy'

They cleaned and performed a final inspection of your rifle and your firearm has been test-fired for function and accuracy. I've attached, for your reference, a picture of the target used in the final firing test.

They used the following ammunition in their testing: Federal Gold medal Sierra Match King 168gr BTHP"

 

[christensenarms]

@ballisticdaddy I am glad we could get you taken care of!

We are changing a lot of things to better take care of our customers and improve their experience. We have more changes coming to improve our customer service level and QC levels. I will not stop pushing for improvements until we are back to offering a world-class experience with the world-class rifles that we are known for.

Let me know if we can ever help in any way.

Very Respectfully,
Jimmy Durham
Director of Customer Experience

 

[Semomike]

@christensenarms that is great! My rifle went back last week as well, hopefully will hear something this week to figure out what was going on!

thanks

 

[christensenarms]

@Semomike if you send me a private message with your name or email and what rifle you sent back I would be happy to look at where you are at right now.

V/R,
Jimmy

 

[Tengo1]

Took my 6.5 MPR out for another run of reloads. This time using 41.3 grains of H4350, 140 gr Hornady ELD match, CCI #200 primers and once fired Hornady brass.

5 rounds, shot about 20 seconds apart one after the other:

 

[Lazyninja]

I am thinking of putting a 40 moa MDT rail on my 338LM MPR . Has anyone here replaced the rail ? Curious if it's standard Long action rem.700 footprint?

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Took my 6.5cm MPR and had the barrel cut down to 18". The suppressor threads up to within a half inch of the end of the handguard. I've got to take the extension off of the suppressor and shorten the whole thing a couple inches. It's going to be a sweet deer/bear/coyote rifle..

 

[FuhQ]

New video is up comparing my Dead Air Nomad-LT and TBAC Magnus-HUB with my subsonic handloads in my 16" Christensen Arms MPR .308 Win.

 

[Semomike]

I got my gun back from C.A., and I’m very happy with how this turned out! I was extremely disappointed after initially seeing the groups this gun was producing (2”-4”), sent back and returned within a little over 2 weeks. Did a load work up today with it and results are great

 

[Waynemparent]

Just passing along the info that we were told from CA about their Carbon Barrels. Three shots and let it cool completely.

I shoot 20 shots out of my CA MPR 338 Lapua with a carbon barrel and never get greater than 3/4” groups. Definitely no problem with heating the barrel…

 

[Waynemparent]

I got my gun back from C.A., and I’m very happy with how this turned out! I was extremely disappointed after initially seeing the groups this gun was producing (2”-4”), sent back and returned within a little over 2 weeks. Did a load work up today with it and results are great

I’m glad to hear you’re getting great results. I’d expect nothing over 1/2” groups from my CA rifles and they deliver

 

[FuhQ]

Just got the call from CA, my MPR was so FUBAR (tolerance-stacking), that they just built me a whole new rifle on a new action, chassis, etc… Said this one shot 0.70” in testing, so, hopefully my handloads will be sub 1/2. Said it should be shipping out tomorrow. When it arrives, testing will commence.

 

[Waynemparent]

Just got the call from CA, my MPR was so FUBAR (tolerance-stacking), that they just built me a whole new rifle on a new action, chassis, etc… Said this one shot 0.70” in testing, so, hopefully my handloads will be sub 1/2. Said it should be shipping out tomorrow. When it arrives, testing will commence.

Like all rifles, you’ll find a better load if you experiment. I’ve always started with with as many different factory loads as I can find. When I find the best I try to duplicate it and then make small adjustments. Good luck and I’m sure you’ll find your sun-1/2”

 

[ArmedGinger]

*Christensen Arms has NOT endorsed this review in any fashion! This will be an honest review as I see the rifle*

This is the Christensen Arms MPR Competition rifle. This rifle differs from the regular MPR on a few different levels. Whereas the regular MPR comes with a Triggertech Primary PVD Flat trigger, the Comp model comes standard with their Special class with the PVD Flat trigger. The other changes are the bolt knob, which on the Comp model is carbon fibre like their FFT line of rifles whereas the MPR comes standard with the steel tactical bolt knob. The biggest differences though are the AR style pistol grip and the barrel. The pistol grip on the regular MPR was just a standard AR style grip which I found to be way too skinny for my hands and swapped out immediately on my rifle for an MDT Pistol Grip Elite, sort of an ERGO knock off. The grip on the Comp model though is an Anarchy Outdoors Tuxedo grip, which is more vertical and has a really nice thumb shelf. Finally the biggest change is the barrel. The regular MPR came with either a carbon fibre wrapped barrel of various lengths per calibre or a steel Medium Palma weight barrel. On the Comp model though they are fooling around. Christensen Arms calls this a Target Weight barrel. It's akin to an M24 contour barrel, this thing is large! Further more it only comes in one length no matter the calibre, 26". Finally to top it all off, the Comp model is only available in one colour, Tungsten, for the chassis and plain stainless for the barrel.

The rifle here is one chambered in .308 Win. Other chambers on the Comp model include 223, 6mm GT, 6mm ARC, 6mm CRD, 6.5 CRD, and 6.5 PRC.

I've topped the rifle with a simple Vortex Venom 5-25x56 for the upcoming tests that will hopefully be done tomorrow. I'll update this review as I test the rifle.

For now enjoy some pictures of the rifle.

 

[ArmedGinger]

MPR Competition Range Day

So I took the MPR Comp down to the local range to get it sighted in. I had received some HSM 190gr HPBT Match ammo that I decided to try out. The box didn't state what brand of bullets but I assume they are Sierra 190gr Matchkings.

First shot of the day seemed promising, two inches to the right at 100 after bore sighting. But the more I shot the ammo, the more I realized my gun just wasn't a fan of it. As you can see from the best group of them, they just didn't do well.

I was getting a little worried that maybe this rifle suffered from the nefarious CA Accuracy bug.

So I swapped over to something that has never seemed to let me down, Federal Premium 168gr Sierra Matchking. The first group did pretty decent at about 0.6" of an inch. The following groups were about the same. Finally the last five rounds produced the best group of the day. This is five shots, 100 yards, 6-7 seconds between shots.

Range Day Final Thoughts:

The gun shot very well with the ammo it likes. With the Atlas bipod on the front and the sand bag at the rear, it was very comfortable to shoot. The weight of the rifle along with the muzzlebrake made this rifle very tame on the recoil. The trigger will need a little adjusting, seemed a little stiff right out of the box but even then it wasn't too bad. The bolt seemed to be stiffening up by the end of the day when closing, they will just need a clean and a lube. Overall I am very happy with the rifle.

Now, is it worth the extra money over a normal MPR? My 308 and 6.5 Creedmoor MPR rifles both shot extremely well, almost as good as the Comp model. If you're planning on packing the rifle and maybe hunting with it, then the regular MPR with the Carbon barrel or the lighter medium palma contour steel barrel is a better idea. Cost wise, you're paying the same for the Competition model as you are a regular MPR with a Carbon barrel.

 

[DrDeath]

The MPR sure has my attention. How does it compare to a Tikka T3X Tac A1??