Official (DTA) SRS, HTI, Covert, Hunter Thread

[Dragoon300]

If you can get Vihtavouri N570 or Reloader 33 do it. I started with RL33, worked great in my factory 26" barrel, switched to N570, I like it better. I found it interesting that it works well in both my .338 LM with 300 gr Berger's and my 6.5 PRC with 153.5 gr Berger's, both 31" barrels, N570 works great in longer barrels.

 

[Dogtown]

But...reloading and load development is almost as fun as actually shooting

 

[mountainman308]

Has anybody made/printed plugs for the ports in the action above the clamping screws. I’m prepping for a trip out to the Rockies and I’m thinking about ways to keep sand and crud out of the shank flutes and action block during a hike.

 

[Dragoon300]

This could work.......
It's "All weather"

 

[mountainman308]

Do you want to have to get all that residue off your chassis once you get home?

 

[Dragoon300]

Yeah, good point!

 

[wooferocau]

Do you want to have to get all that residue off your chassis once you get home?

Yeah....that stuff is near permanent!!

 

[Ogbybay]

kapton tape would work. Sticks very well, not permanent, no adhesive bleed and is tough to punch a hole in it. Rattle can a strip or hit it with marker before application cause it’s shiny.

 

[waveslayer]

Wish we could get a bolt cover like the MRAD, that's been my biggest and only complaint with my SRS

 

[mountainman308]

Sounds like someone with a 3D printer and some time could make a bit of money here

 

[spamassassin]

Thanks guys; I’m not married to a particular powder, just haven’t tried the 338LM loading because can’t find primers. I ordered a few thousand rounds of 6.5 Creedmoor when I found that factory loads worked very well, and Still have a bunch Of CCI larger rifle primers leftover from 308 loading 10 year ago (bought 2000). But, want to see what I could push 338LM to. Biggest reason I stuck with the factory 6.5 instead of reloading was that the Hornady 143gr ELDX hunter loads just had a ridiculously low SD and were plenty fast enough. But who doesn’t want more speed……. Think I’m still waiting for some ammunition from Prime ammo from a while back too.

Hey, I’ve got 139rds of Prime 300gr stuck in the states. I’d be happy to make you a deal on it. Stored indoors in climate controlled conditions. Boxes were opened to dump it into my ammo can. All one lot.

 

[secondofangle2]

Eric smith comes through again. 34” 1:9 twist straight taper 338 LM. This thing is going to HAMMER.

 

[Andrews50]

.

 

[wi50]

Desert tech SRS a1 in 37xc, with a 1.25" barrel for 10", then I turn them down just a bit to 1.22 or so. Sending 390 atips. I did a few barrels in the last few weeks for this setup, 33" long and 35.5" long to test a few things. Shooting the best of the West elr match in Lexington Oregon this weekend. 300 Norma improved with 245 Bergers in light gun class, 37xc barrel for heavy gun class. Rifle chassis, two barrels, all ammo in one case and for a $30 checked in bag with Delta I'm in business. Scope, rear bag, accessories and two days of clothes on my carry on bag.

 

[Dogtown]

I'm glad to see that a 37XC is possible in an SRS.

 

[wi50]

37xc works good. I wanted something I can travel easily with, fly somewhere, not pack a ton of gear. I got big stuff to run like 50bmg's, .460 Steyr, etc when I drive to a match. But as far as a 37xc I bought a desert tech for traveling pull the foam out of a short case, lay a shooting mat in there, chassis, both barrels and 50 rounds of 37xc ammo and 50 rounds of 300 norma improved ammo and I can make the weight limit for a cheap check in bag. It's not the most convenient for me, I'm left hand and shoot left handed, but it works. The first 37cx I did was a used barrel I recycled from my .375 cheytac. Wanted to see how the 37xc worked so I re profiled the barrel, cut the larger cheytac chamber off and made it fit the SRS, I had a 32" barrel when I was done and just used up stuff I had. Shot well, got good speeds. So then I took a new barrel blank I had that was a slower twist rate and did some comparison on what velocity they'd run. One 1-9.25 twist and one 1-10.5 twist . Then I grabbed a new blank that was longer to see what another 3" or 4" of barrel would do for speed, what they'd each like for load and how each works when the bullets have to transition. I also did a shorter 23" 6xc barrel for those times there's shorter range stuff, some varmint hunting or something I can squeeze into a trip and want to pack the rifle along.

 

[DoctorBen]

37xc works good. I wanted something I can travel easily with, fly somewhere, not pack a ton of gear. I got big stuff to run like 50bmg's, .460 Steyr, etc when I drive to a match. But as far as a 37xc I bought a desert tech for traveling pull the foam out of a short case, lay a shooting mat in there, chassis, both barrels and 50 rounds of 37xc ammo and 50 rounds of 300 norma improved ammo and I can make the weight limit for a cheap check in bag. It's not the most convenient for me, I'm left hand and shoot left handed, but it works. The first 37cx I did was a used barrel I recycled from my .375 cheytac. Wanted to see how the 37xc worked so I re profiled the barrel, cut the larger cheytac chamber off and made it fit the SRS, I had a 32" barrel when I was done and just used up stuff I had. Shot well, got good speeds. So then I took a new barrel blank I had that was a slower twist rate and did some comparison on what velocity they'd run. One 1-9.25 twist and one 1-10.5 twist . Then I grabbed a new blank that was longer to see what another 3" or 4" of barrel would do for speed, what they'd each like for load and how each works when the bullets have to transition. I also did a shorter 23" 6xc barrel for those times there's shorter range stuff, some varmint hunting or something I can squeeze into a trip and want to pack the rifle along.

That’s wild man.
I was chin scratching how far you could push the SRS into HTI territory. 37XC is impressive. I’m presuming you’re single-feeding these?

 

[secondofangle2]

Physics is at play here guys. That thing thumps pretty hard.

My only advice is shoot one before you buy/build one.

I totally get the compromises, especially when flying. But there are compromises. Everywhere.

 

[PRDRIVER]

That’s wild man.
I was chin scratching how far you could push the SRS into HTI territory. 37XC is impressive. I’m presuming you’re single-feeding these?

The 37 XC in the SRS will be single feed as the cartridge is longer than the magazine well.

 

[PRDRIVER]

Weight is your friend with the 37XC in an SRS Chassis. Go heavy and long on the barrel.

 

[Dogtown]

A long straight taper barrel and full set of MDT MLOK weights has made all of my magnums much easier to shoot on the M2.

 

[Dogtown]

So then I took a new barrel blank I had that was a slower twist rate and did some comparison on what velocity they'd run. One 1-9.25 twist and one 1-10.5 twist .

Which twist would you use on a new barrel? Also, what kind of velocity are you getting with the 390s? I’m seriously thinking about one myself.

 

[DoctorBen]

Which twist would you use on a new barrel? Also, what kind of velocity are you getting with the 390s? I’m seriously thinking about one myself.

Aye... I'm all ears as well. If I'm gonna reload big magnums, may as well go BIG.

 

[wi50]

The 32-33" barrels I did run 390 atips 2900 and 2920 easily but if I push them harder, the SD increases a bit and potentially the bolt could be hard to open sometimes. The 35.5" barrel runs an easy 2945. I had dialed 14 moa of wind and held another 18 moa during my string at the 2 mile target. Shot all around it, right at target post to target post, left to right, but couldn't connect. But for you people who fail to understand that we're back to back world war champions, and see a need to use the metric system, that's about 9.3 mils. That way you can convert yards, feet per second , miles, gallons, feet above sea level, pressure from hg to .... You get my point and your hard earned dollars into some Gucci sounding metro shit. I also didn't see any benefit or detriment to the 1-9.25 twist barrel vs the 1-10.5 twist barrels. I simply used one 9.25 twist one because that's what I had on my cheytac and it was time to recycle it as an experiment.

 

[wi50]

Sending a lead cored jacketed bullet fast doesn't pay. Standing on the powder charge just doesn't pay, I'd think of you keep these things in the very higher 2800's to the lower 2900's they're accurate, pressure isn't to high to degrade the brass and when the brass fails it gets hard on the hard parts. The recoil is fun though. Pretty manageable. Easy enough to spot my own impacts at those distances. But a little planning on recoil management and rifle setup sure helps.

 

[wi50]

I just machined out an arca rail and used all the screws, you're begging for trouble using 2-3 little 4mm threaded screws and a short rail. And made a aluminum magazine filler so it's flush with the bottom of the mag well and doesn't catch your bag manipulating hand

 

[secondofangle2]

Wow! Check out this Easter sale dudes! 5% off the most unpopular conversion kits! You save $95!

https://deserttech.com/store/sale/easter-sale-2024.html?_=1711736719996&commercialbrand=126&is_ajax=1&product_list_dir=asc&product_list_order=price

 

[secondofangle2]

I finally got to test shoot my first K and P barrel from Eric Smith at ES – tactical. Hot damn, I’m just gonna use those next time rather than dicking around and ordering special twist this and special contour that and waiting six months (or longer). These barrels freaking shoot man. These are the first shots out of a 34 inch 338 barrel. Not broken in, not cleaned, fresh barrel

I do still miss my A1 trigger

 

[wade2big]

I finally got to test shoot my first K and P barrel from Eric Smith at ES – tactical. Hot damn, I’m just gonna use those next time rather than dicking around and ordering special twist this and special contour that and waiting six months (or longer). These barrels freaking shoot man. These are the first shots out of a 34 inch 338 barrel. Not broken in, not cleaned, fresh barrel

I do still miss my A1 trigger
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Did you just order the blank from ES Tactical or did you have him chamber it as well. I got nothing but missed timelines and lies when I tried to do business with the man. I cancelled around 5 months on a 2 month lead time. My first call was at 16weeks with my barrel supposedly on the bench ready to go in the next week. That never happened. It wasn’t the time that bothered me. It was the dishonesty.

 

[secondofangle2]

He used an off the shelf blank that he had. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I thought it was satisfactory.

I know that people complain about sporadic and inconsistent leadtimes. I would be upset about that too. I know he is working on improving consistency in that regard. I do have a little bit of an advantage because I am local and have been doing business with him for 10 years. I know that doesn’t help you I’m just explaining why my experience might be different.

I have heard a saying in regard to work like this or getting work done on your home, that there are three things people want: good, fast, cheap - and you can usually only expect to get two of the three for the obvious reasons. Eric definitely does good work and his prices are the best in the industry. So you often will have to wait unless you get lucky. Or you can go to short action customs, and get good and reliable timing, but pay almost twice as much. But a little birdie told me that short action is going to stop doing Desert Tech stuff altogether. Let’s consider that just a rumor for right now. But other than those two outfits, I’m not sure who I would even go to if they didn’t exist.

 

[Urraynium]

Did you just order the blank from ES Tactical or did you have him chamber it as well. I got nothing but missed timelines and lies when I tried to do business with the man. I cancelled around 5 months on a 2 month lead time. My first call was at 16weeks with my barrel supposedly on the bench ready to go in the next week. That never happened. It wasn’t the time that bothered me. It was the dishonesty.

I've a similar story - it's been over a year now but each call it's just "on the shelf" and "ready to go in a few days".

 

[secondofangle2]

The only other thing that I have learned is, given the demand for custom barrels and custom work like this, you kinda have to start planning your next barrel when you break in your new one.

Because of that, I have Manson Reamers designing me my own reamer based off some dummy rounds I sent them. And then I need to figure out my next barrel and order that blank so that by the time I burn up half of this barrel, the new one will already be off at the gunsmith and it won’t matter how long it takes

 

[wi50]

I have about 30 k&p cut rifled barrel blanks in the closet. I just buy blanks, many at a time in the common calibers and twist rates and try to keep a couple of each on hand. I pick them up when I'm through town or have a friend transport. I bought an extra lathe follow rest for one of my machines and converted it to air cylinders and brass pushers, i can profile/ contour the blanks then per application. This is all a bad deal for me, I started buying barrels to stick away for a lifetime for me and the kids. But then my friends seam to have a lot of projects. And those projects can happen pretty quickly. But it keeps the wait time out. At 3pm today I'm in town running an errand, get a call, buddy drives 2 hours to get here. By 8pm ihes eaving the shop with his new barrel. I'm a farmer for a day job, but I got a lotta nice machining equipment for fun. And way to many bad hobbies

 

[Mr. Z]

I have about 30 k&p cut rifled barrel blanks in the closet. I just buy blanks, many at a time in the common calibers and twist rates and try to keep a couple of each on hand. I pick them up when I'm through town or have a friend transport. I bought an extra lathe follow rest for one of my machines and converted it to air cylinders and brass pushers, i can profile/ contour the blanks then per application. This is all a bad deal for me, I started buying barrels to stick away for a lifetime for me and the kids. But then my friends seam to have a lot of projects. And those projects can happen pretty quickly. But it keeps the wait time out. At 3pm today I'm in town running an errand, get a call, buddy drives 2 hours to get here. By 8pm ihes eaving the shop with his new barrel. I'm a farmer for a day job, but I got a lotta nice machining equipment for fun. And way to many bad hobbies

Hi, I’m in Lodi. You wanna be friends?

Garret and the bearded carnie said they knew you when I asked when you first posted the DT accessories you made a while back.

 

[Bull81]

I’m new to the Desert Tech game. I have a SRS A2 and love it so far. My only complaint is the trigger kinda sucks. Is there any way to clean them up a bit? I can deal with the pull weight but the inconsistent creep and break is aggravating as hell. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[wade2big]

I’m new to the Desert Tech game. I have a SRS A2 and love it so far. My only complaint is the trigger kinda sucks. Is there any way to clean them up a bit? I can deal with the pull weight but the inconsistent creep and break is aggravating as hell. Any help would be greatly appreciated

The sear surfaces can be rough sometimes. It’s a shame at this price point. Pull the skins off and you will see how the trigger works. Polish the mating surfaces and the trigger will be crisp and clean. I had to do this to one of mine. I like the srs rifles but quality control and the customer service (communication) as a result of it are really lacking.

There is no consistency with these things. I had three at one time and everyone of them was different from the next. It’s sad really. Triggers were different, magazine fitment was different, etc.

Don’t worry though, instead of hiring people to better the company, the CEO will make high dollar youtube videos so he can get likes and comments from subscribers that can’t afford his rifles while those that can have to deal with the problems that are left unresolved as a result.

 

[spamassassin]

ES Tactical ended up sending me a barrel that was meant to be in-stock so long after I ordered it that I thought it was a barrel I'd ordered from another outfit because it had been so long that I'd forgotten, with my goldfish memory, that I'd even ordered it. IIRC they were moving or some other so-what-not-my-problem kind of thing and the thing got stuck on a shelf. I bought it so I could take the rifle on a hunt in Africa. I ended up not being able to do so because I didn't have a suitable barrel. The price was killer but the delivery was not.

SAC was far far better in terms of communications, expectation setting that I'd be happy to wait the extra time again just so I don't have to figure out where the mystery barrel came from. On the upside, ES Tactical's workmanship and the blanks they use seem to be stellar. YMMV. The gun world is rife with outfits that can't figure out their own production flow rates or manage their supply chains sufficiently to do anything according to plan. It's not hard, a quick spreadsheet and some historical data, draw a trend line and add in 20% so you always come in early.

I'm never late to meetings by making sure that I get to the meeting 5 minutes early in the worst of cases. I get to them 5 minutes early in the worst cases by planning to get there 30 minutes early in the average case. That gives me 30 minutes to do final preparation so I'm always on-point. You plan to get there 30 minutes early by managing your time and your commitments. Sadly, this skill is not taught in gunsmithing school.

 

[Dragoon300]

I’m new to the Desert Tech game. I have a SRS A2 and love it so far. My only complaint is the trigger kinda sucks. Is there any way to clean them up a bit? I can deal with the pull weight but the inconsistent creep and break is aggravating as hell. Any help would be greatly appreciated

It's too bad they changed the triggers on the A2 / M2's as the A1's were, and are extremely good triggers. The trigger was the thing that was always bad on all bulpup guns, except the DT SRS! That is until the A2 came along.
Sorry to hear this, I love my A1, the trigger is a dream and came that way from DT. I hope you can fix yours.

 

[secondofangle2]

The sear surfaces can be rough sometimes. It’s a shame at this price point. Pull the skins off and you will see how the trigger works. Polish the mating surfaces and the trigger will be crisp and clean. I had to do this to one of mine. I like the srs rifles but quality control and the customer service (communication) as a result of it are really lacking.

There is no consistency with these things. I had three at one time and everyone of them was different from the next. It’s sad really. Triggers were different, magazine fitment was different, etc.

Don’t worry though, instead of hiring people to better the company, the CEO will make high dollar youtube videos so he can get likes and comments from subscribers that can’t afford his rifles while those that can have to deal with the problems that are left unresolved as a result.

^this. All of it

And for emphasis, my A2 trigger was “OK” when I first got it, and 100 rounds in it’s getting worse I should have never traded “up” from my A1.

And the YouTube fantasies - what a joke.

DT is at severe risk of becoming the Labradar of bullpups- they have treated us so bad for so long, as soon as there is a competitor, they’re sunk. Because most of us who have their rifles hate the company even as we love the product. Once we have an option, we’ll drop them like a girlfriend with herpes

 

[spamassassin]

...
Once we have an option, we’ll drop them like a girlfriend with herpes

Hmmm. I mean, if you already bought the ticket and took the ride, it's probably the wrong time to complain to customer service. Just 'sayin.

I'm talking about the girlfriend, obviously, not the rifle.

 

[Bull81]

The sear surfaces can be rough sometimes. It’s a shame at this price point. Pull the skins off and you will see how the trigger works. Polish the mating surfaces and the trigger will be crisp and clean. I had to do this to one of mine. I like the srs rifles but quality control and the customer service (communication) as a result of it are really lacking.

There is no consistency with these things. I had three at one time and everyone of them was different from the next. It’s sad really. Triggers were different, magazine fitment was different, etc.

Don’t worry though, instead of hiring people to better the company, the CEO will make high dollar youtube videos so he can get likes and comments from subscribers that can’t afford his rifles while those that can have to deal with the problems that are left unresolved as a result.

I took the trigger apart and removed the connecting bar and polished the sear surfaces on both bars. That cleaned the trigger up nicely. Thanks for everyone’s replys

 

[secondofangle2]

How hard is it to take apart and put back together? Any pics during the process?

This will be like the 6th time I have taken my effen A2 apart in 2 months, troubleshooting the damn thing. I’m getting fed up.

But happy to do it if it will help.

 

[Bull81]

How hard is it to take apart and put back together? Any pics during the process?

This will be like the 6th time I have taken my effen A2 apart in 2 months, troubleshooting the damn thing. I’m getting fed up.

But happy to do it if it will help.

Wasn’t bad at all just keep up with where all the skin bolts go. Two screws hold the trigger on the the connecting bar slips out with the trigger. It’s one drift pin hold the disconnector in. Took about 30 45 minutes start to finish. I didn’t take any pictures. I used a supper fine Arkansas wet stone and flitz to polish everything

 

[secondofangle2]

Cool. I’ve got a stack of Arks from Dan’s Whetstones. Plan to use a surgical black, and then some chromium oxide (green butter stick) on a leather strop

 

[spamassassin]

/me eyes a 15000 grit oil stone which has taunted me for years with utter contempt and accepts my M2's normally glass rod break with occasionally erratic creep and factory setting of all the pounds because the skins are just too much of a hassle to remove. Yes. I am what most would call lazy. I call it "selectively active".

 

[BurtG]

18” SAC rolling out. Mk262 tmk was 40ish fps slower with higher sd. Stand1 sd would have been a lot lower sd but 1 shot out of 11 went faster.

53s did ok also

 

[DoctorBen]

18” SAC rolling out. Mk262 tmk was 40ish fps slower with higher sd. Stand1 sd would have been a lot lower sd but 1 shot out of 11 went faster.

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53s did ok also

View attachment 8387114

Love it.
Anyone else with a 223 from SAC note light primer strikes? Cant tell if it’s just me, or if I need to get a stronger firing pin spring.

 

[Mr. Z]

Love it.
Anyone else with a 223 from SAC note light primer strikes? Cant tell if it’s just me, or if I need to get a stronger firing pin spring.

Yes, but mostly with IMI razorcore. And that’s what I shoot most. Had 4 out of 120 at the last match I used it in.

 

[BurtG]

Love it.
Anyone else with a 223 from SAC note light primer strikes? Cant tell if it’s just me, or if I need to get a stronger firing pin spring.

My terminus 223 gives me light primer strikes with hornady and mk262.

Customer service is less than optimal also

No problems with the A1 desert tech

 

[DoctorBen]

Good to know; figured it was me. Mark at SAC has offered to change the spring, though I’m likely to just play with it myself, no issues there. You start fiddling with things and you will keep fiddling till it works; that’s the game in aftermarket and niche things. I’ll say that it shoots like a damn laser. And the random 1/10 that don’t go off are quite instructional for showing any positional instability.