Tempest Builds..Lets See em

Up and running. Ran some of my hunting rounds from the other gun in it. 2818fps with 130gr ELD-M and an SD of 7.5 which will work. Pic heavy but i couldn't resist..
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Just emailed...will let you know what response I get. Hoping at least GA will distribute them.
Interested to hear what you find out from GAP. I don't know why those companies would stop selling them if that isn't the case - Unless they weren't selling well so those companies wanted to free up their shelves for other products?
 
Interested to hear what you find out from GAP. I don't know why those companies would stop selling them if that isn't the case - Unless they weren't selling well so those companies wanted to free up their shelves for other products?

That's my thought. Early on, Core was selling them like hotcakes because the wait to get one from GAP was pretty long. I bought mine from the first batch Core received, then sent it to GAP to get the barrel cut and installed. As a result, I had mine VERY early on. I'd assume those wait times have dropped for Tempest actions since then, so most people probably just order direct from GAP.
 
Regardless, I've told my wife that they are possibly going to stop production and therefore I will need to purchase another as soon as possible.
Same...wife had no say in this one though lol. This is the only 3 lug that checks all my needs.

Still no word. Might call tomorrow, i hate pestering companies but seems like the only way to get any answer from GAP.
 
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Same...wife had no say in this one though lol. This is the only 3 lug that checks all my needs.

Still no word. Might call tomorrow, i hate pestering companies but seems like the only way to get any answer from GAP.
Same here mate. I considered the vector but selected the current calibre so I wouldn't need to switch barrels. I will be very boring with the next build. Literally going to replicate the current one but use a carbon barrel instead of a steel with the intent of it becoming the backcountry hunting gun and backup comp gun.
 
Fear not...no fights need to be started with the wives and no couches need to become beds!

"Definitely not being discontinued, I'm not sure if they quit stocking them or if they were just out of stock. But we are absolutely still selling them and building on them. "

Received that email response today. Sorry if I caused a panic...was just odd to me the only 2 distributors (aside from GAP themselves) stopped carrying them on their website at the same time.
 
Fear not...no fights need to be started with the wives and no couches need to become beds!

"Definitely not being discontinued, I'm not sure if they quit stocking them or if they were just out of stock. But we are absolutely still selling them and building on them. "

Received that email response today. Sorry if I caused a panic...was just odd to me the only 2 distributors (aside from GAP themselves) stopped carrying them on their website at the same time.

Glad to have confirmation, at least.
 
I see you made sure he was dead this year! Very nice Buck, Will. That neck says it all. You still in TN? Those fields looks awful long for around here.

BTW, glad to see you've broken your shitty luck streak with this built. Its beautiful.
 
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Wow, nice buck!!

Thank you sir

I see you made sure he was dead this year! Very nice Buck, Will. That neck says it all. You still in TN? Those fields looks awful long for around here.

BTW, glad to see you've broken your shitty luck streak with this built. Its beautiful.

Lol for real wasn't letting this one get away. Nope still at home in the Mississippi Delta, got two weeks more of break, then it's back to Jackson. Neck is swole partly because i drug him out with a rope, but he was still in rut with a doe.

Thanks bud me too. Really really happy without how it sits now. Elite Swamp is easily my favorite mold that Manners has now. I thought i was going to be irritated that i couldn't match my EH1 in elite highlander.
 
Us early adopters "beta tested" some triggers, which was the main issue people had with these. A lot of new triggers hit the market during this actions roll out, and it hurt. (Oddly enough, now there are entire threads about new action x and what trigger works.) That, and the learning curve with how to properly reassemble the FP assembly after paint. I think many that were put together by personal Smith's, not at GAP, suffered some teething issues that gave shooters mixed feelings about the action. Why pay $1300+ for this when I can get xxx and nobody's bitching. (Yet)

Getting mine sorted was one email to George asking a question about spare parts and shipping my bolt in for inspection. It's been rock solid since, with the exception of a POS Timney trigger sear wearing and not cocking after 300 rounds. Easy fix but a tuned M700 went back in, back in game. That flat shoe fucker will go on my brothers rifle while he's in HI.

Edit: flu has my grammar worse than normal
 
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Us early adopters "beta tested" some triggers, which was the main issue people had with these. A lot of new triggers hit the market during this actions roll out, and it hurt. (Oddly enough, now there are entire threads about new action x and what trigger works.) That, and the learning curve with how to properly reassemble the FP assembly after paint. I think many that were put together by personal Smith's, not at GAP, suffered some teething issues that gave shooters mixed feelings about the action. Why pay $1300+ this when I can get xxx and nobody's bitching. (Yet)

Getting mine sorted was one email to George asking a question about spare parts and shipping my bolt in for inspection. It's been rock solid since, with the exception of a POS Timney trigger sear wearing and not cocking after 300 rounds. Easy fix buy a tuned M700 went back in, back in game.

Edit: flu has my grammar worse than normal

I'm one of the people that has had ZERO issues with their Tempest, and I have a super early action. That said, while I bought mine from a dealer (Core, actually), the barrel and build work from there was all done at GAP, so you may be onto something with your thoughts on GAP vs other smiths. Mine originally had a Timney 517 in it that got switched to a flat CE when those were released, and I have had 0 issues that I could attribute to the action. The only issue I have had at all was a batch of Tula primers that didn't want to light off consistently. That problem disappeared when I changed lot numbers, though, so all signs point to a primer problem, not an action problem.
 
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Same here mine was before they even coated them. Though i did have light strikes and have rolled through a good bit of triggers, Xmark pro, timney CE single stage, Timney CE 2-stage, BnA tacsport 2-stage, Huber 2-stage, and Ive since moved to triggertech across the board and never looked back. Also had some inlet issues but that isn’t any detriment to the action. I don’t shoot mine as much as most cause i just don’t have time anymore but I’ve got 1300rds on it without much issue at all.
 
Same here mine was before they even coated them. Though i did have light strikes and have rolled through a good bit of triggers, Xmark pro, timney CE single stage, Timney CE 2-stage, BnA tacsport 2-stage, Huber 2-stage, and Ive since moved to triggertech across the board and never looked back. Also had some inlet issues but that isn’t any detriment to the action. I don’t shoot mine as much as most cause i just don’t have time anymore but I’ve got 1300rds on it without much issue at all.

I've shot out 3x 6 Creedmoor barrels (1850, 1950, and 2150 rounds) and I've got just over 1k down my SAUM bolt and barrel with mine. Mine was also uncoated originally, so I had it cerakoted at first, then after a year I got the cerakote stripped and had both the action and bolt nitrided. When I bought my SAUM bolt later on, it came nitrided already.
 
Just bought a proof carbon barrel for a lightweight version of the tempest build I have now. Same cal. These actions are bloody addictive once you get your hands on them. I blame everyone who has posted in this thread
 
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Ive personally done the work for 2 of my own tempest builds, one early version uncoated and my latest melonited one. Never had single issue with either as long as i paid attention to firing pin protrusion.

Only inlet "issue" i had was to file/mill a small notch for the rear of the trigger hanger in a standard 700 inlet.

Ive seen far more people have issues with other brands than the 3 of us who run tempests at matches at least monthly.

For the life of my i can't understand why its not more popular.
 
Ive personally done the work for 2 of my own tempest builds, one early version uncoated and my latest melonited one. Never had single issue with either as long as i paid attention to firing pin protrusion.

Only inlet "issue" i had was to file/mill a small notch for the rear of the trigger hanger in a standard 700 inlet.

Ive seen far more people have issues with other brands than the 3 of us who run tempests at matches at least monthly.

For the life of my i can't understand why its not more popular.

I think it got a bad rap starting out because people didn’t like the little hitch on close and the fp protrusion issue. Then the bolt shroud came undone on Shane several times. It certainly isn’t the configuration i mean Curtis’ 3-lug took off.
 
I had GA build a 6CM with one along with a spare barrel in January 2016. Action was Cerakote and bolt was nitrided never an issue with anything, an absolute laser, love the Rifle and work but never could get past that cam over at the top on close, after running Surgeons for yrs it was difficult to get use to. Like I said never any issues of any kind but after 850 I put it in the safe and it’s been there since with the spare bbl. moved back to my Surgeons and on to an Impact, but I do miss running from an AW flawlessly. Great Action and design if only they could do something on bolt closing but that’s a 60* for you
 
I had GA build a 6CM with one along with a spare barrel in January 2016. Action was Cerakote and bolt was nitrided never an issue with anything, an absolute laser, love the Rifle and work but never could get past that cam over at the top on close, after running Surgeons for yrs it was difficult to get use to. Like I said never any issues of any kind but after 850 I put it in the safe and it’s been there since with the spare bbl. moved back to my Surgeons and on to an Impact, but I do miss running from an AW flawlessly. Great Action and design if only they could do something on bolt closing but that’s a 60* for you

Yup i think it’s just the nature of those lugs locking in the recesses. Forward pressure alleviates it though. I run it pretty forcefully. But currently my impact has a bit of a hitch like that when closing the bolt.
 
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That’s interesting Will, won’t get mine from Wade till after the 1st. I will be checking it out closely for sure. Wanted to see what all the hope is about. You are correct the harder and faster you run the Tempest the better it performs?
 
That’s interesting Will, won’t get mine from Wade till after the 1st. I will be checking it out closely for sure. Wanted to see what all the hope is about. You are correct the harder and faster you run the Tempest the better it performs?

It could be that i don't have a stock to mount it so it's more noticeable as well. But my cousin noticed it when handling it as well. This is with the correct trigger hanger and a TT diamond.
 
It could be that i don't have a stock to mount it so it's more noticeable as well. But my cousin noticed it when handling it as well. This is with the correct trigger hanger and a TT diamond.
Could be I having him put a diamond FS in mine with KMW btm in a foundation stock. Wade told me he likes to start out with the 00 hanger for the TT but it will come with another if I choose to like the timing different.
 
Yup i think it’s just the nature of those lugs locking in the recesses. Forward pressure alleviates it though. I run it pretty forcefully. But currently my impact has a bit of a hitch like that when closing the bolt.
I’m surprised you didn’t go for another tempest,like you I had a bighorn which I just couldn’t love.
The best 90* action I own is a Borden.I can lock it up with my pinky finger,so naturally I have one of his new dedicated 6BR repeater actions on order.
 
Just ran across this thread.Ive been enjoying my first Tempest a lot!
Tempest Action
Proof 20” Carbon barrel
Area 419 Hellfire Muzzle Brake
Manners T5 with Gen2 Mini Chasis
I was using an Argos I robbed from one of my trainers when I took the pic,since then I’m using an Ares ETR.
 

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Just ran across this thread.Ive been enjoying my first Tempest a lot!
Tempest Action
Proof 20” Carbon barrel
Area 419 Hellfire Muzzle Brake
Manners T5 with Gen2 Mini Chasis
I was using an Argos I robbed from one of my trainers when I took the pic,since then I’m using an Ares ETR.
What profile barrel is that mate?
 
I’m surprised you didn’t go for another tempest,like you I had a bighorn which I just couldn’t love.
The best 90* action I own is a Borden.I can lock it up with my pinky finger,so naturally I have one of his new dedicated 6BR repeater actions on order.

Yeah i thought about it but despite my love for the swept bolt handle i didn’t think it belonged on a hunting rifle. So my second custom which is kind of a hybrid hunting/backup rig i went 90 degree 2-lug. Figured that swept handle would get caught packing in or out on an elk hunt.
 
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Been enjoying mine for about a year now. Only 620 rounds through it this year but she's a stout performer just started a copper creek load development with 140 berger hybrids, first time doing that so we'll see how it goes. I barely have time to shoot the thing let alone reload for it so hopefully I'll find something it likes. Seems to really like factory hornady 140 eldm's but the sd is 37 from a 20 shot string according to my labradar so that needs to tighten up. A Little heavy for hunting at 14.5 lbs but I've done it because it just shoots so good. Here's the specs:

Gap built Tempest
Bartlein 1-8 GAP #6 contour 6.5 creedmoor
APA little bastard in pics but have since gone to Area 419 hellfire system for use with an omega
Manners PRS-2 swamp (MPA-mini Chassis)
Timney CE 1.25 lbs
sphur rings in some pics but now has badger rings and accuracy 1st level
Schmidt Bender 5-25 Gen II XR
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I pulled old faithful out of the safe and swapped her onto this rig. Managed to get 170 rounds through it and fire form enough brass for now. This rifle likes the 162 eld-ms. Next step is to run a velocity ladder and possibly get the freebore lengthened.

Reading old comments and reviews regarding the tempest and I can’t disagree more with a lot of them. There’s no issues holding a sight picture on a target whilst cycling the bolt aggressively, no heavy bolt lift, and the action is the smoothest I’ve felt. Wish I’d gone down this pathway long ago instead of wasting time and cash on other builds.

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First match i've shot this year. Was rough to say the least but fun and i had no zeros lol. Positionals and wind kicked my ass. Gun was hammering though. Elevation was perfect, was spotting probably 70% of my shots or so especially in the prone. Positionals i was just out of practice on. Wind also was pretty tricky starting out. Had a clean, should've filmed that one. Still loving the action i hit it with CLP before the match and the thing is just on ball bearings. Unbelievably smooth, i chambered a round on one stage and ejected it because i thought the bolt slid over the damn thing, never felt it pick up. I think i'm about to go back to a harris or try my Atlas CAL out on this gun. Definitely moving to an arca rail from 419 as well. Kept having to readjust cause it was slipping on the mat.
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