Curtis Customs Releases New Action

[Tokay444]

I like my Axiom, but I’m glad I bought it from MPA.

How much will you like it when it breaks?

 

[JeffLebowski]

How much will you like it when it breaks?

I don’t fucking know, I guess I’ll feel super bad and come crawling back to the hide to apologize to you for making the wrong choice. Do you fucking feel better? Or maybe, I’ll just let MPA take care of it.

Jesus Christ, grown men and their teenage girl gear snobbery bullshit.

 

[Tokay444]

How dare you assume my gender!

 

[JPL-ATX]

Which they don’t tell you what the difference is from the vector. You have to go line by line. And most of it is just different wording saying the same shit.

The video is just a promo saying “this is good.”

Shit marketing. Hell, Phil at MPA did a better job of explaining this when he said it’s replacing the vector.

Pretty sure a name/design change was required in the settlement, due to Joel owning the original prints.

 

[drwood96]

Pretty sure a name/design change was required in the settlement, due to Joel owning the original prints.

Correct and the settlement prevented them from making the bolt changes that Joel did to improve reliability. So there are stuck with “proprietary” feed ramps.

 

[Jerry D]

Tell me about those 3 for 3 broken lugs on the firing pin?

I do feel it is an attempt to fix the vector without saying it was broken in the first place? Joel admitted their were problems with the first design and he has changed it. I am hoping he improved to the point of utmost reliability. I just ordered a terminus apollo lite and don’t want problems with it down the road.

 

[Jerry D]

What about this problem?
View attachment 7446827

Well, I took this photo to Joel at Terminus and showed it to him because I have an Apollo lite on order and they share some common designs with the axiom. He said we should not have this problem with his Terminus actions and his response time was very quick. I trust his judgment and customer service. The main reason I am purchasing his action over another such as a defiance rebel is simply because I really like 60 degree bolt throws.

If you are concerned with this photo, I suggest touching base with Curtis Customs and see what has been done or can be done or how common this problem would be.

 

[Jakeweb09]

I think I’d still go with terminus for customer service alone

 

[Gil P.]

I hope his cs has improved. I almost bought one of the first batch of Vectors and placed an order for one in February of 2019.

I got bad feeling about it and asked to cancel my order and for a refund in March or April. After many phone calls and emails, (many of which were ignored) I got my refund in June.

I ended up with a BAT TR from SAC. SAC did manage to mess some things up, they offered to fix the damage, but didn't take responsibility for it. I sent my stuff out to BnA and BAT Machine to get repaired rather than back to SAC. The action is great, I hope the lugs don't break on the firing pin like the Curtis. I've never heard of that happening.

There's too much competition and this community is too small to have bad cs.

 

[AccuSol-ERN]

I would like to chime in on this as well.

I have no dog in the fight......one side or the other. However I would like to point out an observation I have made on a few Curtis products. When you use a nitride bolt on an "in the white" receiver.......look for heavy wear and possible setback on the receiver lug seats. The few Curtis Axioms I have rebarreled had these issues.......therefore I do not work on them any more for liability reasons.

Maybe this isn't fault of the action or design???......it's possible the owners ran very hot ammo through their actions before coming to me for rebarrel and exceeded the material/design threshold???......but it's enough to be alarming as you don't want inconsistent measurements or heavy wear in that area.

Just my $.02

Ern

 

[sachsmart]

Re opening an old thread. Just Got a MPA built Matrix with Curtis Valor as it was highly recommended by Phil & I trust his judgment. I haven’t owned anything in this bracket so I have no comparison examples. Looks like its built solid & looks good. Lugs look great, haven’t fired it so can’t say much about feeding issue etc. one thing I did notice is the large tolerances between bolt & action housing. Almost seems like its too sloppy, but then again I guess Impact is the same and that’s the reason it doesn’t jam. My primary use is PRS so tight tolerances might jam with all the dirt & grime.

 

[gnochi]

one thing I did notice is the large tolerances between bolt & action housing. Almost seems like its too sloppy, but then again I guess Impact is the same and that’s the reason it doesn’t jam. My primary use is PRS so tight tolerances might jam with all the dirt & grime.

Unfortunately, you just stepped on a landmine, and about 5 of us here on the hide can’t ever let the word “tolerances” slip by without correcting it, because it means something very specific that does have critical function.

Tolerances are how much the actual dimension of a feature are allowed to vary from what it’s supposed to be (the “nominal” dimension) while still having an acceptable part. Tight tolerances mean you need to replace tools more frequently, measure more frequently, reject more parts, use more expensive equipment, and ultimately as a rough order of magnitude estimate cutting the tolerances in half makes the machining operation cost ~10x as much.

What you’re talking about are clearances. Clearance is the amount of gap there is at an interface. A larger clearance can feel sloppy, and depending on design may or may not bind easier when run improperly, but it’s also what allows the rifle to function at all in ice, mud, dust, etc. Note that you cannot design tight nominal clearances without tight tolerances, but a loose clearance can have very precise tolerances, or be an extremely example of loose tolerances.

So, let’s assume for a moment that every action manufacturer but the last 3 decades of Remington is competent, and look at one of the higher end ones. Their clearances are set for their coating processes plus expected operating conditions, with anti-bind and anti-slop features depending on what they want to implement. However, they also want to have prefit barrels not only headspace within 0.001”, they also want the barrel to be indexed within 5 degrees!

The bore clearance doesn’t matter all that much. The critical tolerances - which should be as tight as the budget allows - are then:

• Headspace dimensions
  • Distance from back of bolt lug to front of bolt face
  • Distance from front of action lug to front of action face
  • Distance from bolt shoulder to cartridge datum
• Indexing dimensions
  • Angle between action datum and start of action thread
  • Angle between barrel indexed feature (engraving, bore wobble, etc.) and end of barrel breech thread

If the tolerances are specified correctly, and a quality management system is used, every batch of acceptable parts will interchange. If not, they won’t.

 

[sachsmart]

You are right. I used the word tolerance generously. I should rather say the bolt and action housing have a large clearance. The question is, is this a feature? This is my first custom bolt action so I genuinely don't know how much to expect.

 

[Steel head]

 

[gnochi]

You are right. I used the word tolerance generously. I should rather say the bolt and action housing have a large clearance. The question is, is this a feature? This is my first custom bolt action so I genuinely don't know how much to expect.

My view on that subject, having never run a Curtis:

• If it wiggles when the bolt is back, don’t sweat it.
• If it wiggles when the bolt is forward, that could be an issue a few different ways.
• If it wiggles in the middle, that allows it to run smoothly in poor conditions

 

[sachsmart]

My view on that subject, having never run a Curtis:

• If it wiggles when the bolt is back, don’t sweat it.
• If it wiggles when the bolt is forward, that could be an issue a few different ways.
• If it wiggles in the middle, that allows it to run smoothly in poor conditions

Pretty tight when the bolt is closed. It will take some rounds down the bore to get this nitride finish to even out and start working smoothly.

 

[BuLLet]

Here's my GAP built Valor, first time out with it. 200 yard group to boot. I'm plenty happy!

 

[4O6shootist]

Here's my GAP built Valor, first time out with it. 200 yard group to boot. I'm plenty happy!

View attachment 7716215

View attachment 7716216

Looking solid. I'm on my 3rd gt barrel, they all shoot like that. Pretty easy cartridge to tune in. Shot quite a few 400y groups in the 2s and 3s with all them using Berger bullets. I really think the accuracy more depends on the guy who's chambering vs what action the barrels on. I've used an impact and a nucleus g2 so far. But I do like my bighorn 25cr in the wind over the gt.