Have seen and played with a few, but have not seen them mentioned here along with the usual suspects. Is there a reason why these (Kelby Atlas) are not as popular in this circle?
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Kelby Action (Atlas)
- Thread starter DocRDS
- Start date
Some actions are just en vogue while others aren't, a lot of times for seemingly no good reason.
Really just depends on what the cool kids are rocking in a lot of cases.
Really just depends on what the cool kids are rocking in a lot of cases.
Kelbly makes a fine action. I wouldn't be afraid to own one at all.
The Atlas Tactical seems like a great action for the price. Another overlooked action in a similar price range is the BAT Igniter.
The Atlas Tactical seems like a great action for the price. Another overlooked action in a similar price range is the BAT Igniter.
The initial bolt stops were fragile allegedly, which got them a lot of hate. They updated it and fixed the problem, which is why the design features prominent in their literature. The Atlas is a great action imo, and theyre a good company to deal with as well.
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They had issues with bolt stops shearing in the past from what I heard. They addressed and fixed the issue with a redesigned bolt stop which I believe is retrofittable to all of the earlier generations. I have not personally owned one but know many that do and are happy with them.
I’d own one. The last one I felt half no bolt slop and ran like it was on ball bearings.
It's really interesting to see how some products in certain conmunities gain a lot of traction and popularity over other (equal) products.
Just sold my defiance tenacity and plan on picking up an atlas Tac. They are very good actions. Kelblys is top shelf. Out of all the actions I’ve played with, I think the Atlas Tac has the lightest bolt lift, next to my Kauger BRii. They also sell a heavy duty bolt stop, so that problem is rectified. A lot of actions out there now in the $1,000 price range. Can’t go wrong with most of them.
Can you explain what is different or how the TG ejector work--I read about it as I was poking around but didn't find details. I'm not super educated on ejectors/extractors as it is anyway.
I seem to have encountered a group of Atlas lovers in the wild and was having a "hmmm its Xmas, and I deserve it" moment, so it sounds like not much downside and lots of good.
The atlas is one if the smoothest actions out there. With mdt mags its hard to tell it picked up a round. I will say i dont care for the mechanical ejector but thats my only complaint
Instead of a spring-loaded, plunger ejector, Kelbly uses a mechanical ejector that requires pulling the bolt all the way rearward to engage the bolt stop. This allows the case to be ejected or picked out of the action without ejecting.
Both the bat and kelbly are tight tolerance actions of little bolt slop in the raceway. This is not great for running in poor conditions. I have not had issues with my bat's, nor my atlas tacs however these are hunting rifles that don't see the abuse of a match rifle run all day in dust dirt rain you name it, I have covers that go over my scope/action on hunting rigs when on foot and they are unwrapped when getting set up for a shot. The kelbly feels to have very light bolt lift but this due to having a longer than normal bolt handle and shortened cocking cam travel, as when you close bolt and the cocking piece passes to the sear you get another 0.020 cock on close to get the proper 0.240 pin fall with a TT trigger. A BnA trigger will result a a bit more cock on close. This can be fixed by a competent smith by retiming the ignition however takes a lil time and experience to get it right. They both run extremely smooth. Of all these actions you're considering, I'd take the kelbly or a bat igniter depending on your needs. The bat hammerheads br based bolt stop is a novel idea but really does nothing but shortens the bolt stroke by maybe 15% of its travel sounds cool on paper, but does it truly offer performance increase? A hammerhead with 75° bolt lift will take more force to open than any quality 90° action, for a match rifle this has the ability to disturb the rifle more on your prop when reloading for a follow up shot. If aw mags are a requirement, that's a pro for the hammerhead. Good luck in your decision!
Thanks for the reply and info. Much appreciated. I’m just going to keep tabs on it as I’m a lefty and they won’t be out for a while. They are marketing it with as having a lighter bolt lift. I once owned a Tubb2000 with a 70-75 throw 2 lug bolt and running it was exceptional. Maybe hoping they can replicate that feel? I agree the shorter dasher throw doesn’t get me too excited. If they build in proper clearances for a field/comp action I’ll give them kudos. We shall see.
The only way to reduce bolt lift in a 70-75° action(properly timed to trigger for no cock on close) is to reduce the weight of the firing pin spring. This reduces firing pin speed and impact force which can cause more inconsistent ignition resulting in higher SD/ES. Perhaps they've come out with some new way to engineer out this added effort, info on the hammerhead is very limited at this point.
I know lone peak and the zermatt tl3 run lighter fp springs that the traditional 28/24# range and I do not have problems with high sd/es with a good load. A lot of this theory comes from the guys chasing micro accuracy in the BR/Fclass game. They also change their fp springs every season. If these guys consistently see something on targets, it's usually a real thing. But they're all chasing 1/4 moa at 600 and 1k yards. That's not necessary for most our shooting disciplines.
My friend runs nothing but Kelblys. Atlas and a couple of Prometheus. We live and shoot in fine New Mexican dust. His actions run just as well as my impacts. I’ve never seen them bind or have issues regardless of the conditions. They are ridiculously smooth.
