Hello fellow Hide members,
First off I want to say thanks to everyone on here for being so helpful and providing help to me grow as a shooter these past few years. Ive been a member here for a while now and feel like its time to make my first serious contribution to this site.
I have been shooting competitively for the past 4 years or so now but just got into long range shooting for the past year or so. When a good friend of mine bought his first AI Mark III, we went out to shoot it and I immediately knew I had to have one. Ive wanted to buy an AI for the past few years but it wasn't until I actually got to shoot one that I fell in love.
Before I go into talking about the rifle, I have to say thanks to Randy and the crew of Mile High Shooting. These people are great to deal with and really know their stuff. I called towards the end of last year to get a price on a AX308. I was quoted a price over the phone but due to me having to go out of town for work for several months I decided to hold off on the order. In Feb. I called again to get availability and pricing but I was not 100% on the options I wanted and also was about to temporarily relocate due to my job and wanted to get settled first. Finally, on April 17th I was ready to put my order in, after some long deliberation over the options I wanted, I called up Mile High and spoke with Randy. I had heard somewhere that price increases had happened on AI, so I told him if they could honor the price I was quoted 2 months ago, I would place the order. He said that was fine, and so the AI was ordered!!! About 2 hours later, Randy calls me up and says he couldn't figure out how whoever priced that rifle for me got the number they came up with but he re-priced that rifle. At this point I'm thinking, oh great, he's about to say they can't honor that price any longer. However, he goes on to say that he can actually do it for almost 500 less!!! This blew me away. I just wanted to let everyone know this is a "stand up" shop and will have my future business. I can't think of too many shops that would of done this.
Next, I had to decide on an optic. I was originally planning on going with a Nightforce F1 3.5-15 but my friend has a 4-16 Schmidt on his AI and after shooting it to 1000 at MOA size targets I knew I wanted a little more magnification. I also knew I wanted something FFP so this ruled out Nightforce at this point. Schmidt had released their 3-20 and I felt this would be a perfect scope for a Short action caliber gun. It does everything the 4-16 Schmidt does, everything the Nightforce F1 does plus a little more. I really liked the locking MTC double turn turrets. It was FFP, had CCW 0.1 mil turrets, offered the Horus H59 reticle and was more compact than the 4-16 Schmidt. At the time I ordered this back in June they were just becoming available. I shopped around quite a bit but could not find any.
I came across Troy at Veteran Tactical (Snipershide Vender) here on the Hide and am glad I did. He was great to deal with and had some 3-20's on order. He explained that Schmidt had done away with the H58 reticle but was now offering the H59. So put a deposit down on one and to my surprise, it came in about 2 months later.
So finally, last week I got the call from Mile High that my rifle had shipped and this past weekend I was able to go out to Tacpro and pick it up. I guess I decided to do a write up on this because I looked all over about info on the new AX but really didn't find out much other than whats on the AI website or on youtube.
Rifle Specs…
2012 Accuracy International AX308, 20 inch w/ 1 and 10 Bartlein Barrel, 13 inch forend, 20-MOA rail, Surefire's 7.62ss muzzle break, 3 position safety, Accuracy International 2 stage trigger with all the quick adjust features.
Optic- Schmidt and Bender 3-20 FFP, Locking CCW 0.1 Mil-Rad turrets, Horus H59 reticle.
Optic Mount-Spuhr ISMS SP-4006 1.34 Height, 34mm
Suppressor- Surefire 7.62SS (Hurry up ATF-Waiting since 4/17/2012 so I'm thinking about 6-8 weeks left to go.)
Atlas Bi-Pod
First Impressions of my first bolt gun…
It not suprising these things cost what they do…the build quality is amazing.
The folding option is well worth it in my opinion…They lock up tight in both the folded and extended positions and make transporting the rifle much easier.
Installed the Grippy Cheekrest which I can easily see is a great improvement over the stock one.
I think I will really like the H59 reticle but I don't have much time on them yet and I know people either love them or hate them. If I don't like it, you will soon find it in the for sale section and Ill be ordering a 3-20 Schmidt with the MSR reticle.
Total weight without Bi-pod, mag or suppressor is 16.8lbs.
Just finished its initial cleaning and mounting everything up.
If you have any questions about the AX, ill do my best to answer them…just keep in mind that I haven't gotten to shoot this thing yet so stay tuned for the range report.
First off I want to say thanks to everyone on here for being so helpful and providing help to me grow as a shooter these past few years. Ive been a member here for a while now and feel like its time to make my first serious contribution to this site.
I have been shooting competitively for the past 4 years or so now but just got into long range shooting for the past year or so. When a good friend of mine bought his first AI Mark III, we went out to shoot it and I immediately knew I had to have one. Ive wanted to buy an AI for the past few years but it wasn't until I actually got to shoot one that I fell in love.
Before I go into talking about the rifle, I have to say thanks to Randy and the crew of Mile High Shooting. These people are great to deal with and really know their stuff. I called towards the end of last year to get a price on a AX308. I was quoted a price over the phone but due to me having to go out of town for work for several months I decided to hold off on the order. In Feb. I called again to get availability and pricing but I was not 100% on the options I wanted and also was about to temporarily relocate due to my job and wanted to get settled first. Finally, on April 17th I was ready to put my order in, after some long deliberation over the options I wanted, I called up Mile High and spoke with Randy. I had heard somewhere that price increases had happened on AI, so I told him if they could honor the price I was quoted 2 months ago, I would place the order. He said that was fine, and so the AI was ordered!!! About 2 hours later, Randy calls me up and says he couldn't figure out how whoever priced that rifle for me got the number they came up with but he re-priced that rifle. At this point I'm thinking, oh great, he's about to say they can't honor that price any longer. However, he goes on to say that he can actually do it for almost 500 less!!! This blew me away. I just wanted to let everyone know this is a "stand up" shop and will have my future business. I can't think of too many shops that would of done this.
Next, I had to decide on an optic. I was originally planning on going with a Nightforce F1 3.5-15 but my friend has a 4-16 Schmidt on his AI and after shooting it to 1000 at MOA size targets I knew I wanted a little more magnification. I also knew I wanted something FFP so this ruled out Nightforce at this point. Schmidt had released their 3-20 and I felt this would be a perfect scope for a Short action caliber gun. It does everything the 4-16 Schmidt does, everything the Nightforce F1 does plus a little more. I really liked the locking MTC double turn turrets. It was FFP, had CCW 0.1 mil turrets, offered the Horus H59 reticle and was more compact than the 4-16 Schmidt. At the time I ordered this back in June they were just becoming available. I shopped around quite a bit but could not find any.
I came across Troy at Veteran Tactical (Snipershide Vender) here on the Hide and am glad I did. He was great to deal with and had some 3-20's on order. He explained that Schmidt had done away with the H58 reticle but was now offering the H59. So put a deposit down on one and to my surprise, it came in about 2 months later.
So finally, last week I got the call from Mile High that my rifle had shipped and this past weekend I was able to go out to Tacpro and pick it up. I guess I decided to do a write up on this because I looked all over about info on the new AX but really didn't find out much other than whats on the AI website or on youtube.
Rifle Specs…
2012 Accuracy International AX308, 20 inch w/ 1 and 10 Bartlein Barrel, 13 inch forend, 20-MOA rail, Surefire's 7.62ss muzzle break, 3 position safety, Accuracy International 2 stage trigger with all the quick adjust features.
Optic- Schmidt and Bender 3-20 FFP, Locking CCW 0.1 Mil-Rad turrets, Horus H59 reticle.
Optic Mount-Spuhr ISMS SP-4006 1.34 Height, 34mm
Suppressor- Surefire 7.62SS (Hurry up ATF-Waiting since 4/17/2012 so I'm thinking about 6-8 weeks left to go.)
Atlas Bi-Pod
First Impressions of my first bolt gun…
It not suprising these things cost what they do…the build quality is amazing.
The folding option is well worth it in my opinion…They lock up tight in both the folded and extended positions and make transporting the rifle much easier.
Installed the Grippy Cheekrest which I can easily see is a great improvement over the stock one.
I think I will really like the H59 reticle but I don't have much time on them yet and I know people either love them or hate them. If I don't like it, you will soon find it in the for sale section and Ill be ordering a 3-20 Schmidt with the MSR reticle.
Total weight without Bi-pod, mag or suppressor is 16.8lbs.
Just finished its initial cleaning and mounting everything up.
If you have any questions about the AX, ill do my best to answer them…just keep in mind that I haven't gotten to shoot this thing yet so stay tuned for the range report.