Volquartsen Summit on chassis vs. Kidd supergrade

sneakyman

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Feb 10, 2013
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Hey yall! Im between building a volquartsen summit action, w feddersen barrel, on Accurate Rifle Systems chassis w kidd 2 stage trigger w dead air mask 22...vs. kidd reciever, feddersen barrel, on ARS chassis, kidd 2 stage, dead air mask....which will be more accurate? Kidd reciever or volquartsen summit with same barrels, chassis, and triggers??? Im looking for ultimate accuracy, quietness, and all round sweetness!!! Some guys on rimfirecentral seem to think i will have no extra accuracy compared to a kidd w the summit, i just have a hard time believing that. Maybe the toggle action doesnt lock up like a true bolt???...I plan to compete in nrl22 with it...thoughts, feelings, guru knowledge much appreciated!!!!
 
If you can get it to work reliably then the summits are a lot of fun. I fought lever tension and feeding/extraction issues for a couple of years on my summit fedderson build before it got fairly decent. The barrel shim spacing is very critical and summit/volquartsen’s instructions are not very helpful. tried using it for an appleseed event four months ago and wound up swapping it out for the kidd instead. Reliable feeding issues again forced it out of service and I have not touched it since out of disgust.

I might try a different barrel in the future to see if that changes anything. Summit barrel tenon hole is on the tight side as I cant heat it enough to fit a kidd barrel, but it will take a factory ruger or fedderson just fine with a heat gun.

To be fair, one guy at a tac steel match runs an original pws summit with their carbon barrel without any issues, I envy him. I so badly want a fortner action and this is the closest affordable alternative.
 
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Hey yall! Im between building a volquartsen summit action, w feddersen barrel, on Accurate Rifle Systems chassis w kidd 2 stage trigger w dead air mask 22...vs. kidd reciever, feddersen barrel, on ARS chassis, kidd 2 stage, dead air mask....which will be more accurate? Kidd reciever or volquartsen summit with same barrels, chassis, and triggers??? Im looking for ultimate accuracy, quietness, and all round sweetness!!! Some guys on rimfirecentral seem to think i will have no extra accuracy compared to a kidd w the summit, i just have a hard time believing that. Maybe the toggle action doesnt lock up like a true bolt???...I plan to compete in nrl22 with it...thoughts, feelings, guru knowledge much appreciated!!!!
The Kidd action with a rear anchor makes a great setup. I have a Supergrade in a Titan stock with Titan's rear anchor.
Mark
 
Have you had a chance to shoot the Feddersen barrel yet? How is the accuracy? Thanks
Not yet...it will be another month and a half till I have the reciever. They are backordered, and im having Scott Volquartsen mill an inlet for the kidd tang for me. Cant wait...
If you can get it to work reliably then the summits are a lot of fun. I fought lever tension and feeding/extraction issues for a couple of years on my summit fedderson build before it got fairly decent. The barrel shim spacing is very critical and summit/volquartsen’s instructions are not very helpful. tried using it for an appleseed event four months ago and wound up swapping it out for the kidd instead. Reliable feeding issues again forced it out of service and I have not touched it since out of disgust.

I might try a different barrel in the future to see if that changes anything. Summit barrel tenon hole is on the tight side as I cant heat it enough to fit a kidd barrel, but it will take a factory ruger or fedderson just fine with a heat gun.

To be fair, one guy at a tac steel match runs an original pws summit with their carbon barrel without any issues, I envy him. I so badly want a fortner action and this is the closest affordable alternative.
From my research, which was about everything written on the internet about the summit/pws all the fualts came down to the proper shimming of the barrel...even the broken bolt hardware was supposedly from too tight of headspace. Im hoping that the new thicker bolt assembly will fix it as well as proper shims.Do you have the new thicker bolt assembly?
 
If you can get it to work reliably then the summits are a lot of fun. I fought lever tension and feeding/extraction issues for a couple of years on my summit fedderson build before it got fairly decent. The barrel shim spacing is very critical and summit/volquartsen’s instructions are not very helpful. tried using it for an appleseed event four months ago and wound up swapping it out for the kidd instead. Reliable feeding issues again forced it out of service and I have not touched it since out of disgust.

I might try a different barrel in the future to see if that changes anything. Summit barrel tenon hole is on the tight side as I cant heat it enough to fit a kidd barrel, but it will take a factory ruger or fedderson just fine with a heat gun.

To be fair, one guy at a tac steel match runs an original pws summit with their carbon barrel without any issues, I envy him. I so badly want a fortner action and this is the closest affordable alternative.
Want to sell the summit receiver?
 
Took this out back today and ran 70 mixed brand leftovers as fast as I could through it. No failures at all and only a couple rough feeds that still cycled with a little extra force. No extraction fails either. (Mixed brand leftovers means cci,aguila, geco, thunderturds, sk and ancient federal hi powers. I would bet the high cycle force ones were thunderturds). Startled the neighbors horse a couple times with the supersonic crack of the fed hi powers, suppressor cant hide that.

I think during the appleseed shoot I got out of sequence under timed stage pressure and caused a couple of issues because of my own user error. This rifle has turned into a real love/hate relationship much the same way I love/hate Eley Edge ammo (stack 9 out of 10 on each other and number 10 takes a 1” stroll outside of the group). Today was a great day, but I’m still on the fence with this one. For a competition I’m going to grab the vudoo.

Reliability upgrades have been a volquartsen firing pin, spring and extractor, and a Kidd extractor. Cant remember which extractor is currently installed as I had fte’s with both of them and the factory pws extractor. Think it is currently a Kidd part. Lever torque force is just enough to snap over cam action when closed. Comparing mine to a new factory volquartsen I handled at MHSA my cam over force is about a third of theirs, but that is what it took to get reliable.
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Took this out back today and ran 70 mixed brand leftovers as fast as I could through it. No failures at all and only a couple rough feeds that still cycled with a little extra force. No extraction fails either. (Mixed brand leftovers means cci,aguila, geco, thunderturds, sk and ancient federal hi powers. I would bet the high cycle force ones were thunderturds). Startled the neighbors horse a couple times with the supersonic crack of the fed hi powers, suppressor cant hide that.

I think during the appleseed shoot I got out of sequence under timed stage pressure and caused a couple of issues because of my own user error. This rifle has turned into a real love/hate relationship much the same way I love/hate Eley Edge ammo (stack 9 out of 10 on each other and number 10 takes a 1” stroll outside of the group). Today was a great day, but I’m still on the fence with this one. For a competition I’m going to grab the vudoo.

Reliability upgrades have been a volquartsen firing pin, spring and extractor, and a Kidd extractor. Cant remember which extractor is currently installed as I had fte’s with both of them and the factory pws extractor. Think it is currently a Kidd part. Lever torque force is just enough to snap over cam action when closed. Comparing mine to a new factory volquartsen I handled at MHSA my cam over force is about a third of theirs, but that is what it took to get reliable.
View attachment 7547113
It seems like lots of them are coming from volquartsen with too tight of headspace. Most posts ive found where people love them they have proper shims and lose bolt with one finger easily...most people that hate it seem to have to push hard on bolt. Thats awesome shes working out for ya!!!! Is that the Feddersen barrel on there? What kind of accuracy w good ammo???
 
I put together a SS Summit, Bartlein 18", Kidd Trigger, Victor stock. My results are good, not great. Accuracy seems to be equal to a Kidd super grade, less than my Vudoo (probably to be expected). Shims were not hard, just time consuming as the barrel to receiver fit was tight. Didn't know a better way besides guess and check. Works well now. No issues with feeding or extraction. Overall it doesn't get shot much but isnt for sale. Fun gun to shoot.

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I put together a SS Summit, Bartlein 18", Kidd Trigger, Victor stock. My results are good, not great. Accuracy seems to be equal to a Kidd super grade, less than my Vudoo (probably to be expected). Shims were not hard, just time consuming as the barrel to receiver fit was tight. Didn't know a better way besides guess and check. Works well now. No issues with feeding or extraction. Overall it doesn't get shot much but isnt for sale. Fun gun to shoot.

View attachment 7547321View attachment 7547322
Thanks for the report!!!
 
I was trying to buy a Volquartsen summit new in Australia but the importer put the prices up. I kept looking on the gun sale websites and got a secondhand one barely used at a reasonable price. It did not shoot well first up. I checked the barrel v block and the barrel was slightly twisted so the block was not sitting square against the flat of the barrel. I fixed this by removing the v block and aligning the barrel, I re-installed the v-block and tightened with a in/lbs torque driver. First time I tightened too much. Now tightened to 12 in/lbs and shoots 0.3-0.5 inch groups at 50m with cci-sv. Shoots better with sk rifle match. I estimate that it has about 200-300 rounds through it so far. It is a great walk around rabbit rifle. It cycles smoothly and closes with light pressure which is only felt when cycling very slowly, when cycled at normal speed it is effortless closing. It has the carbon fibre tension barrel 16.5 inches. Love everything about this rifle,
It is worthwhile doing the work to get them operating correctly.
 
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I was trying to buy a Volquartsen summit new in Australia but the importer put the prices up. I kept looking on the gun sale websites and got a secondhand one barely used at a reasonable price. It did not shoot well first up. I checked the barrel v block and the barrel was slightly twisted so the block was not sitting square against the flat of the barrel. I fixed this by removing the v block and aligning the barrel, I re-installed the v-block and tightened with a in/lbs torque driver. First time I tightened too much. Now tightened to 12 in/lbs and shoots 0.3-0.5 inch groups at 50m with cci-sv. Shoots better with sk rifle match. I estimate that it has about 200-300 rounds through it so far. It is a great walk around rabbit rifle. It cycles smoothly and closes with light pressure which is only felt when cycling very slowly, when cycled at normal speed it is effortless closing. It has the carbon fibre tension barrel 16.5 inches. Love everything about this rifle,
It is worthwhile doing the work to get them operating correctly.
Thanks for the report!!! I should have all the parts in next week...ill keep yall posted! Sounds like ya got a shooter!!!!