Impact Precision Action?

I've never had a custom action but it seems like everyone is trying to reinvent the wheel.
What benefits do these realistically offer compared to something like a Tikka T3?
You could save money there which could be put towards other products?
 
I've never had a custom action but it seems like everyone is trying to reinvent the wheel.
What benefits do these realistically offer compared to something like a Tikka T3?
You could save money there which could be put towards other products?

Depends. Some people go for features. I go for feel. Once i felt how smooth a defiance was out of the box, and once i lifted the bolt on a TL3, I was hooked on custom actions. I owned Tikkas, but after feeling up a good custom, I didnt want to go back to the heavier bolt lift of the Tikka. I will say though, Tikkas have a smoothness and anti-binding capability to them that is rarely matched even by customs. So honestly, when it comes to comparing a Tikka to a custom, the main thing you get with a custom is a lighter bolt lift (depending on choice), and Remington 700 footprint.
Other features like a mechanical ejector or a reinforced bolt stop and other features can also be reasons, just depends on which ones you want.
 
The impact action ships with a 24 lb firing spring. Sorry to be so dramatic...

It's 18 pounds. I took my Impact built rifle to a VERY respected smith on the Hide and had him look it over. He has equipment to measure the spring strength and I video taped him testing the spring. Was he being dramatic?
 
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Information is per the manufacturer (Impact Precision) via Tate Streater over the phone. @swage2712

My information is from two actions where the spring weight was tested. Like I said, I'm not trying to ruin anyone's business or reputation. I have side by side comparisons of two Impact actions and my Deviant. I guess two actions mysteriously made it out with lighter firing pin springs. Let's quit while we're ahead @arm017
 


With everyone talking about the smoothness of this action it makes me want to finger bang one for sure. Smoothest action i've felt to date happens to be my own Tempest. No bullshit the action catches a lot of flack and in some regards i understand that but mine even bare was like nothing i've ever felt. Then having it polished and DLCd and nothing has come remotely close. This includes TL3s (i have a TL3 myself), Deviants, BAT tactical nitrided, Curtis Axiom DLCd, and a Surgeon 591. Both my TL3 and dad's SR3 are DLCd now. His SR3 is smoother than my TL3 IMO. Still haven't handled a Mausingfield, a nucleus, or obviously the impact.

Anyhow from the opinion of others the Impact is apparently extremely smooth.
 
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Re: all this talk about smooth cycling,

Wonder how they’d (Impact) stack up if all compared actions were similarly nitrided?
Yes, to be a fair comparison they should all be nitrided or all not nitrided.
It's like comparing off road vehicle capabilities when they all have different tyres.
 


With everyone talking about the smoothness of this action it makes me want to finger bang one for sure. Smoothest action i've felt to date happens to be my own Tempest. No bullshit the action catches a lot of flack and in some regards i understand that but mine even bare was like nothing i've ever felt. Then having it polished and DLCd and nothing has come remotely close. This includes TL3s (i have a TL3 myself), Deviants, BAT tactical nitrided, Curtis Axiom DLCd, and a Surgeon 591. Both my TL3 and dad's SR3 are DLCd now. His SR3 is smoother than my TL3 IMO. Still haven't handled a Mausingfield, a nucleus, or obviously the impact.

Anyhow from the opinion of others the Impact is apparently extremely smooth.



It's a different kind of smooth though. Yes it is very smooth once worn in, but the impact has a very robust and stout type of feel to it. Very distinct indexing through the bolt stroke, just very mechanical, kind of no frills sort of smooth.

Being a TL3 fan - I initially really did not love my impact. (I still prefer my tl3s over the impact). The first month of impact ownership was ehh yeah it's pretty nice... But as it's worked in, it has definitely grown on me. The bolt lift or perceived bolt lift is heavier compared to the TL3, and when you look at the bolts, it makes mechanical sense based on the cocking ramps and the cocking recess. Part of my break in process to get the impact to feel more like the TL3 was milling some of the proud edges on the cocking recess so that there is less of a distinct catch when running the bolt. (obviously there is a fine line of improving ergonomics and reliability).

Part of the reason the TL3s are so damn smooth- is they purposefully allocate a portion of the bolt stroke to cock on close. (Remember when Ted from ARC had two different mausenfield options?). And that is part of what I have come to enjoy when running a bolt. So not only are you having to work against a lighter 21 lbs spring (per bighorn) versus a 24 lbs. spring (per streater), but it also has a much more shallow cocking ramp to travel. This resulted (based on my tl3s) something in the neighborhood of 190 thou firing pin fall compared to the 'standard' of .220-.240. The bighorn engineers are extremely smart in my opinion, because (I'm not sure if on purpose) they have challenged just about every feature of a standard action.

Contrast that with the impact - 24 lbs spring, 220 thou firing pin fall (with my action), standard feature set - ejector, push feed, etc. All sums up tates' explanation of his action- "yeah, my shit just works'. And yeah that is exactly how I feel about it too.
 
Yes, to be a fair comparison they should all be nitrided or all not nitrided.
It's like comparing off road vehicle capabilities when they all have different tyres.

Yeah I agree- coatings make a big difference in feel, my experiences and thoughts shared are from owning both a raw and nitrided deviant and a DLC Tl3 and their NP3 version action. So fairly even ground for comparison.
 
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Here are a few pictures that illustrate what I am talking about-

IMG_0386.jpg
IMG_0388.jpg
IMG_0390.jpg
 
Sorry to quickly get off topic but, what trigger and hanger are you using in your tempest, and what's the pull weight? @5RWill

TT diamond and the 30 hanger pretty sure. Or the 20 I’ll check when i get off work. Mine is right at 12oz

It's a different kind of smooth though. Yes it is very smooth once worn in, but the impact has a very robust and stout type of feel to it. Very distinct indexing through the bolt stroke, just very mechanical, kind of no frills sort of smooth.

Being a TL3 fan - I initially really did not love my impact. (I still prefer my tl3s over the impact). The first month of impact ownership was ehh yeah it's pretty nice... But as it's worked in, it has definitely grown on me. The bolt lift or perceived bolt lift is heavier compared to the TL3, and when you look at the bolts, it makes mechanical sense based on the cocking ramps and the cocking recess. Part of my break in process to get the impact to feel more like the TL3 was milling some of the proud edges on the cocking recess so that there is less of a distinct catch when running the bolt. (obviously there is a fine line of improving ergonomics and reliability).

Part of the reason the TL3s are so damn smooth- is they purposefully allocate a portion of the bolt stroke to cock on close. (Remember when Ted from ARC had two different mausenfield options?). And that is part of what I have come to enjoy when running a bolt. So not only are you having to work against a lighter 21 lbs spring (per bighorn) versus a 24 lbs. spring (per streater), but it also has a much more shallow cocking ramp to travel. This resulted (based on my tl3s) something in the neighborhood of 190 thou firing pin fall compared to the 'standard' of .220-.240. The bighorn engineers are extremely smart in my opinion, because (I'm not sure if on purpose) they have challenged just about every feature of a standard action.

Contrast that with the impact - 24 lbs spring, 220 thou firing pin fall (with my action), standard feature set - ejector, push feed, etc. All sums up tates' explanation of his action- "yeah, my shit just works'. And yeah that is exactly how I feel about it too.

What bolt knob are you running on your TL3? I feel like mine is easy to bind with my helical diamond mainly because of how long the bolt knob is and pushing forward off axis will do that. Where as dad's SR3 has the helical short and i can't bind that thing for the life of me. It feels a decent bit better than my TL3 when running it. Almost like mine gets hung up on the mechanical ejector. Though i think i swapped bolt heads just to check and see if it changed anything and it didn't so i assume it's just pushing off axis with that longer bolt knob.
 
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TT diamond and the 30 hanger pretty sure. Or the 20 I’ll check when i get off work. Mine is right at 12oz



What bolt knob are you running on your TL3? I feel like mine is easy to bind with my helical diamond mainly because of how long the bolt knob is and pushing forward off axis will do that. Where as dad's SR3 has the helical short and i can't bind that thing for the life of me. It feels a decent bit better than my TL3 when running it. Almost like mine gets hung up on the mechanical ejector. Though i think i swapped bolt heads just to check and see if it changed anything and it didn't so i assume it's just pushing off axis with that longer bolt knob.


Yep- that 'bindiness' was the main reason I gave the impact a go. I have the tactical bolt knob- similar in length to the helical diamond. Its lateral and torsional force on a 2 lug action coupled with a bit too much rearward raceway clearance. I want to say something like 5-6 thou clearance in the rear lugs vs. 3-4 in an impact.

But the cure for mine was cerakote (cerakote the action minus where the lugs engage) it took up clearance perfectly, not bindy and smoother than before. Wasn't a huge fan of their first iteration of DLC, so I stripped it and had it cerakoted.
 
Yep- that 'bindiness' was the main reason I gave the impact a go. I have the tactical bolt knob- similar in length to the helical diamond. Its lateral and torsional force on a 2 lug action coupled with a bit too much rearward raceway clearance. I want to say something like 5-6 thou clearance in the rear lugs vs. 3-4 in an impact.

But the cure for mine was cerakote (cerakote the action minus where the lugs engage) it took up clearance perfectly, not bindy and smoother than before. Wasn't a huge fan of their first iteration of DLC, so I stripped it and had it cerakoted.

So i'm not alone in this. I just got the receiver back from DLC. A buddy of mine actually had his cerakoted in the new Elite cerakote. I damn near went with that and probably should have because his i couldn't bind even with the helical diamond. I just figured DLC would overall be smoother but i will say cerakote elite is smooth, much more so than regular cerakote. I actually think i'm gonna send it off to my friend now and have the bolt cerakoted black now that you say that. Should relieve some of the binding issues.
 
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