Coup De Grâce, New Action from American Rifle Company, $899 WOW!

I'm hoping i get it built in time for the NightforceELR Steel match next summer
My shooting buddy and I have been talking about signing up for that one too! Aside from doing our own ELR shooting, that's what I'm building my rifle for. Maybe we'll see you there! We shoot at a farm that we can stretch out to ~3800 yards in Upstate NY. Need a Charlie Tarac to get that far, though. We usually shoot out to 2500 yards with our .300 PRC, .300 Norma, and 33 XC rifles.
 
I don’t think I’m going to be going out past 2500 yards but a good friend of mine was at the match and said the 7 prc was among rifles that were doing well and I’ve been seeing the 197 SMK and the 190 hybrid at my local gun store so I thought I might give it a try
 
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I’m having a .223 AI barrel spun up right now by a buddy. So we’ll see how it goes. If it doesn’t feed worth a shit I’ll send it off to get fixed or chamber it in something else lol.

Post back with how well it feeds (especially with fireformed brass) once you get it together. Very interested in how it picks up from the mag and if the round occasionally binds while feeding requiring you to back the bolt up slightly then try again to chamber the round.

I was going to order a carbon wrapped 223AI barrel for my other Archimedes during PVA's July 4th sale but decided to hold off until hearing some first hand reports how the CDG runs with 223. Ted said 223 was thoroughly tested, but I decided to play it safe and delay ordering the barrel until I had my CDG in hand to play with and also hearing some reports from end users running 223, especially 223AI as that sharper shoulder angle will exacerbate any feeding issues. I'm dealing with that right now on one of my other 223AI rifles, it fed like butter during fireforming but now that the cases are formed it has feeding issues where the sharper shoulder is catching on the edge of the chamber and stopping the bolt; coincidentally that action is also built for AW mags and also uses a barrel with a conical breech to help feeding.

If was smart I would have placed the PVA order at the July 4th sale price and before their price increase and asked them to hold off on machining the barrel until I decided what action I was going to use... but I'm often not smart.
 
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Has anyone mounted up a mk5 5-25 with arc rings yet? If so what height seems to work best?
between 1.0 and 1.6 but that's entirely up to you, your face, your stock/chassis etc
This ^^. I have a Mk 5 5-25 on one gun with ARC rings with 1.10" (medium per ARC) rings and it works as I need a high comb due to the configuration of my face and there is only so much comb riser in my chassis.

I have a ZCO in ARC rings that I just changed to their .126" (high per ARC) and its working...barely as I'm pretty max'd on comb height..... and they give me a bit more clearance under the scope for...well, various things...levels, mirage band, etc. I'm prob going to change out rings on the Mk 5 also.

Use the ARC penny method....it works.

1689189308774.png
 
Before I spun the 22GT barrel on, I decided to bolt the CDG into a stock and play with some 223 and Accurate mags using the flat breeched .223AI barrel from my Archimedes. The small diameter 223 rounds slip through the 6 o'clock lug cutout and get presented very low on the breech face, so the conical breech is a must with the CDG and the small diameter .223 cartridge. Has anyone got a .223 CDG up and running yet? I'd love to hear how the feeding is. My current .223AI Archimedes build runs perfect and feeds excellent, and I still have another unbuilt short action Archimedes in the safe I was planning to use for a lightweight 223AI build since the Archimedes has a smaller diameter bolt and a full feed ramp optimized for single stack mags like the 223 mags. However, if the CDG feeds .223 smoothly and reliably I may consider selling the unbuilt Archimedes and picking up another CDG, because down the road if I ever decide to switch to a .308 family case I can run AW mags in the CDG, but I'm limited to single stack mags only with the Archimedes.

Today I received my CDG with a LRI 24" M24 barrel chambered in .223 Wylde. I'm using a Xylo chassis and Accurate-Mag 10 round 223 AICS magazines.

The standard M12 magazine latch on the Xlyo chassis is too long for the AICS mags. I had to file off about 0.007" to make the latch work with an Accurate-Mag 10 round 223 AICS magazine.

Removing the latch and installing it is easy with an appropriate sized punch. The latch has an inner bushing that holds the spring in place. That's nice, as I thought that I'd have to make a slave pin to reinstall the latch. The latch pin is also chamfered so it's easy to reinstall.


ARC M12 Side.jpeg


With the Accurate-Mag .223 AICS mag working, I chambered a few rounds. There where no feeding issues. The rounds moved smoothly from the magazine and were presented to the face without any issues. No issues with extraction.

I did not notice any deformation of the hollow point tip of the bullets. Nor did I see a lot of marks on the conical barrel face.

However I did notice that the tip of the bullets left a single straight mark on the what I would refer to as a ramp that is located in front of the magazine well and above the aluminum tab stop for AICS mags. I know that it has been said that the CDG does not have a feed ramp. But this does seem to work as ramp for .223 Rem.

It appears that you can also single feed .223 Rem ammo just by laying it on top of the empty AICS magazine.

Here are a few pictures...

ARC CDG 223 Accurate-Mag AICS 1.jpeg

ARC CDG 223 Accurate-Mag AICS 2.jpeg

ARC CDG 223 Accurate-Mag AICS 3.jpeg

ARC CDG 223 Accurate-Mag AICS 4.jpeg


ARC CDG 223 Accurate-Mag AICS 5.jpeg

ARC CDG 223 Accurate-Mag AICS 6.jpeg



All the machining on the CDG looks good. The 0.378" and 0.473" bolt faces look good, feel smooth and polished.

Setting the timing on a Trigger Tech Special trigger was not difficult. But I may need to fine tune it since the firing pin will sometimes drop when I'm opening/closing the action very, very slowly.

The two barrels that I ordered from Long Rifles Inc look great. 24" M24 .223 Wylde and a 6.5 Creedmoor ELDX.

Hopefully I'll be able to hit the range this weekend. They're only predicting 104 degrees with 50-60 percent humidity...
 
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Looks good with regular 223, thanks for the good pics.

Hopefully 223AI doesn't hang up when the steeper shoulder contacts the bottom edge of the chamber; waiting to hear back from kadams1563 when he gets his 223AI barrel. That's what I'm fighting on my AI AXSA in 223AI which also has no real feed ramps and a conical breech. It ran perfect when fireforming but now the formed ackley brass is catching the end of the chamber at the shoulder/neck junction because of the steeper shoulder angle.

The easy solution is stick with regular 223, but I have a thing for 223AI, lol
 
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I don’t think I’m going to be going out past 2500 yards but a good friend of mine was at the match and said the 7 prc was among rifles that were doing well and I’ve been seeing the 197 SMK and the 190 hybrid at my local gun store so I thought I might give it a try
The 190 Berger LR hybrid shoots amazingly well in a couple 7mm SAUMs we shoot. Small, tight groups at 1400 yards is very easy with them. I think you'll be very happy.
 
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Hey, so i dont own a barrel vice but used my bench vice, some notched soft jaws and some thick heavy rubber strips to hold the barrel while i torqued the action with the provided action wrench. In spite of that, no matter how tight i seemed to get the vice the barrel would start rotating around 90ftlbs and never could get to the 100-150ftlbs that is called for on the action wrench. Was hoping to avoid buying a barrel vice since im currently not competing yet and will be a long while before i burn out this pva barrel at my current rate of fire on the rifle this is replacing. How important is the 100-150ftlbs? Tips to get a vice to hold better? Is 90 enough? Whats the risk if i say its close enough? Thanks in advance.
 
90 will hold and you'll probably never have an issue, but 125ish would be better.

I use a viper barrel vise with a strip of leather wrapped around the barrel, works perfect. It's only $65 and nothing fancy, and while I probably wouldn't use one in a high volume shop for frequently breaking loose ridiculously tight factory barrels it's plenty adequate for the occasional home user.

If you're going to be changing barrels, I'd highly recommend you purchase a barrel vise.
 
90 will hold and you'll probably never have an issue, but 125ish would be better.

I use a viper barrel vise with a strip of leather wrapped around the barrel, works perfect. It's only $65 and nothing fancy, and while I probably wouldn't use one in a high volume shop for frequently breaking loose ridiculously tight factory barrels it's plenty adequate for the occasional home user.

If you're going to be changing barrels, I'd highly recommend you purchase a barrel vise.
Yeah, onc im swapping barrels i for sure will.
 
Just tried with my Nuke 2.0 barrel in 6.5 and while it chambers and shoots fine, it doesn’t feed from AW magazine in the Xylo chassis. Probably will get it cut and rechambered with the cone.
Bolt lift I found was a tad lighter than the Archmedes, wonder if it’s due to the trigger hanger design. Was using a TT 2 stage Diamond < 1 lbs.
 
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I'd like to join the ranks of all the h zeroes before me and announce I have my barrel shipping notice from PVA. Then I'll post when it arrives, and then I can migrate over to the CDG build thread and show them pictures of my junk... :ROFLMAO:

Happy Friday everyone!
Please…no pictures of your junk…

And no pictures of your package either.
 
Well, data is data…. Ordered 2/10: short action, fluted, .378, hourglass, red, pivoting. Still patiently waiting. :)

Got notice of my barrel shipping so the CDG is the last piece of a ground up build.
Yep ... about 14 weeks - Preferred Barrels told me they are building mine now. I'm a 2/26 CDG order for a RH 0.473" .......... looks like slow and steady wins the race.
 
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If you are going to purchase a bore guide for your CDG from Mike Lucas, it might be a good idea to remind him that the CDG requires a groove down the left side to clear the mechanical extractor. I don't think other actions require this groove so this is a new requirement in his process.

The Lucas bore guides are very nicely done.
 

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Ohh no, I ordered a guide from Mike, it recently came in. No groove cut in mine. Didn't know it won't not work, both my CDG's are sitting in gunsmith jail.
You can return it to Mike to have a groove added, or you can cut a flat spot on the left side (see picture above) so that it clears the ejector. I did mine with a hand plane but it can be done with a belt sander too. Or if you have a milling machine....
 
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Interesting, my Archimedes (and previously nucleus) didn't need a relief on the bore guide for the mechanical ejector, obviously the CDG is different.

I'll have to modify the bore guide I received from Lucas about 6 weeks ago.
 
Interesting, my Archimedes (and previously nucleus) didn't need a relief on the bore guide for the mechanical ejector, obviously the CDG is different.

I'll have to modify the bore guide I received from Lucas about 6 weeks ago.
Kiba
Can you check yours so that we can get another confirmation on the issue and it's cause? Since you have other ARC actions to compare it to that will be helpful.
 
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Kiba
Can you check yours so that we can get another confirmation on the issue and it's cause? Since you have other ARC actions to compare it to that will be helpful.

I'm looking at it right now. It's the ejector. Unlike the nucleus and Archimedes where the ejector can swing totally out of the bolt bore in the action so a full diameter bore guide will fit, on the CDG part of the ejector is always protruding into the bolt bore in the action regardless of the ejector position so the bore guide will need a relief cut. Looks like removing about 0.050" from the side of the bore guide will do it (like in AllenOne1's pictures above.)
 
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Pics of ejector showing bore guide clearance issue... no matter the position of the ejector, some portion of it always protrudes into the ID of the action. The ejector position in the pics is about at the point where the front and rear of the ejector are both protruding into the ID of the action by the same amount.

Sorry the pics are a little blurry, with one hand holding the bolt stop open and the other hand holding the phone to take the picture I couldn't swipe on the manual focus adjustment on the screen to focus the ejector area, but you get the idea. Red arrows show the portions of the ejector that protrude into the receiver ID.

cdg1.jpg



cdg2.jpg


Any photos of the TCS built up by chance? My TCS should arrive in september and I'm glad to hear it doesn't need modification to work. I was also planning to have a gun smith modify the mag latch to us AIAW mags, but it sounds like a super easy mod?

Since I had it out of the safe to look at the ejector and bore guide issue, here's the pics you asked for of my CDG in a TCS. The TCS is in gloss metallic GAP camo that I picked up off the PX a couple months ago, barrel is a marksman contour 28" 22GT (kind of wished I went heavy palma or MTU since this is no longer even trying to pretend to be a somewhat light rifle, but the marksman will still work great.) No scope or mount on it yet since I'm trying to decide if I want to sell the S&B 3-20 that I originally bought for this when I was trying to keep it a lighter build.

I might rob the S&B 5-25 off my AXMC for load development until the Razor G3 gets here... or maybe I'll be extra stupid and buy a new S&B 6-36 since the prices on them dropped substantially this week. They're no longer in the "S&B is out of their mind" price range, they're now in the "still too much, but just low enough I want to try one" price range. All reports so far say they are excellent, but I'm not too excited about the only 2 reticles currently offered (P5FL or gr2id.)

cdg3.jpg
 
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Pics of ejector showing bore guide clearance issue... no matter the position of the ejector, some portion of it always protrudes into the ID of the action. The ejector position in the pics is about at the point where the front and rear of the ejector are both protruding into the ID of the action by the same amount.

Sorry the pics are a little blurry, with one hand holding the bolt stop open and the other hand holding the phone to take the picture I couldn't swipe on the manual focus adjustment on the screen to focus the ejector area, but you get the idea. Red arrows show the portions of the ejector that protrude into the receiver ID.

View attachment 8182969


View attachment 8182970



Since I had it out of the safe to look at the ejector and bore guide issue, here's the pics you asked for of my CDG in a TCS. The TCS is in gloss metallic GAP camo that I picked up off the PX a couple months ago, barrel is a marksman contour 28" 22GT (kind of wished I went heavy palma or MTU since this is no longer even trying to pretend to be a somewhat light rifle, but the marksman will still work great.) No scope or mount on it yet since I'm trying to decide if I want to sell the S&B 3-20 that I originally bought for this when I was trying to keep it a lighter build.

I might rob the S&B 5-25 off my AXMC for load development until the Razor G3 gets here... or maybe I'll be extra stupid and buy a new S&B 6-36 since the prices on them dropped substantially this week. They're no longer in the "S&B is out of their mind" price range, they're now in the "still too much, but just low enough I want to try one" price range. All reports so far say they are excellent, but I'm not too excited about the only 2 reticles currently offered (P5FL or gr2id.)

View attachment 8182980
Looks amazing, looking forward to hearing how it shoots. I won’t have mine together until September sometime.
 
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just some spr goodness
Did you send your action to SPR or order it as a pre-fit?

I have a barrel on order from SPR as a pre-fit and their disclaimer that if the drawing didn't fit the action any fix will cost me gave me pause. It would be confidence inspiring if I knew they were turning out good barrels off the drawing alone and without having the action to fit the barrels.
 
Did you send your action to SPR or order it as a pre-fit?

I have a barrel on order from SPR as a pre-fit and their disclaimer that if the drawing didn't fit the action any fix will cost me gave me pause. It would be confidence inspiring if I knew they were turning out good barrels off the drawing alone and without having the action to fit the barrels.
I get what you are saying and don’t disagree, but I offer this. Any top supplier would prefer to have an action (or two) in hand and some experience with it before concluding that tolerances held are good or not good enough to commit their potential time and money to repair/redo things caused by factors out of their control.

Plus, at least in my case, the action by itself doesn’t do me much good without a barrel hanging on it. Added benefit of having action sent directly to a barrel smith is then they have solid measurements of your personal action and can send another barrel anytime.

ETA: even PVA had to address this.
 
Did you send your action to SPR or order it as a pre-fit?

I have a barrel on order from SPR as a pre-fit and their disclaimer that if the drawing didn't fit the action any fix will cost me gave me pause. It would be confidence inspiring if I knew they were turning out good barrels off the drawing alone and without having the action to fit the barrels.
i sent my action direct to spr from arc, was also the first to order a barrel for cdg from them
 
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Pretty happy with the quality for the money. Got the PVA deal on a 6 dasher barrel, TriggerTech special and the Solus chassis, took a little filing and had to trim the comb to be able to remove the bolt, haven’t shot it yet but it feeds and feels great.
Thanks to Beefmanne I’m selling my Cronus and switching to a ZP5, pretty excited.
 

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One of my orders from the 10th has been sitting at my FFL for a week. I was out of the country when it was shipped and have been buried trying to catch up on things since I've been back.