First a shout out to Hide vendors. Everything in the photos below have been purchased through this site, from the 700 & March I picked up in the for sale section, to the PRS tripod, Aadmout rings and caps, Shortbus paining the stock, Triad for the bipod and most of the gear in my pack and Delta Outdoors for my Low Drag pack. So this site saved me a bundle. At least that is the way I justify my spending. Hell if my wife can tell me she spent $500 on crap to save 35% I can do the same with my rifles. Now onto the review.
At SHOT this year I stumbled on the KRG booth and met with Justin of KRG. He had a new light weight tactical chassis dubbed the X-Ray and was based on the great W-3 line. I played around with it a bit and found myself going back every day to play some more. What struck me was the weight to strength ratio and the ergonomics, about the most perfect I used. The cost for the chassis was in the $500 range (SHOT special and will retail in the $550 range) and heck, I spend more then that on coffee each week so I picked it up.
Back home I mounted my X-Ring Accuracy manufactured R700 in it and took it to the range. The results were excellent and the chassis lost nothing from the swap out other then being about 3 pounds lighter then then AICS I run with that action. It was more comfortable to shoot then the AICS as well so I decided that I can never have too many rifles and picked up another SPS Tactical new in box from the for sale section and then sent the chassis off to Custom Gun Coating for paint.
Now for glass. I love my Nightforce and the ATACR to me is the best scope I have used, but looking for a lighter back up ring decided on the March for glass. Because I have zero problems with math and run MOA and SFP optics for work I went with the 2.5-25. The optic came when the chassis was out for paint so I mounted it on my XLR FN SPR and took it to the range. WOW what a scope! The thing is half the weight of the ATACR with the same glass clarity and I can focus up to 25x on a blade of grass 10 yards away. The low light transmission is not as good as the ATACR but not bad for a 42 objective. The range testing was in a word boring, and the scope tracks perfect and reticle is spot on. I preformed all the normal box/tracking testing. In fact I loved the scope so much I picked up a used 3-24 FFP and replaced my beloved SS 5-20 (I always like to run at least one mil/ffp scope so I can maintain proficiency with both mil/moa) Now the March has not replaced my ATACR as the #1 on my list, but they are at least 1A.
So now the chassis is back and I put it all together and take it to the range for a proper break in..... load round, shoot, repeat until I run out of ammo. Sorry I just don't find all the shooting voodoo break in to do anything. I have also noticed that on a stock 700 my groups tighten after 70-200 rounds as the rifle "settles in" so whatever I get in my first runs is only a slight indicator or what that 700 will do down the road a bit. In this case first four 5 round groups were between .92 and .68 so once settled this is a sub MOA stock rifle so all good there.
After the range on Sunday I went out to one of our training sites out in the middle of no where so I could do some balloon stalking. Basically another member of the team goes out and sets up between 6-8 balloons and the shooter moves to a spot, sets up the shooting position (never a nice flat open spot for prone) and has "X" amount to locate, range and engage the balloon. I find this to be a better test for the "tactacality (new word)" of a rifle vs. its use as a range gun. This makes me carry the rifle and all my gear through hill and dale and then make shots on balloons flopping in the wind from the trees or the various cover (old trailer, plywood sheets with loopholes in them. a mock roof etc.) in non-range positions. This lets me determine if the rifle/optic combo is a range gun or a tactical rifle. Well this combo is more then GTG. It so light I can shoot standing unsupported with ease, the eye box is really not as finiky as I have read about and the ergonomics hold through all types of shooting positions so the chassis is the bomb!
I would say that this is now my favorite chassis and the best value for the money. How can you beat the price for a chassis that feels so good in your hands (I love my XLR as well so you can't go wrong with either). The customer service I received from KRG is excellent and the paint job that Brandon from Custom Gun Coating did is just badass! So thank you to all the members and vendors that set me up with so many good deals, and I am sure I will be buying more toys soon.
Sully
At SHOT this year I stumbled on the KRG booth and met with Justin of KRG. He had a new light weight tactical chassis dubbed the X-Ray and was based on the great W-3 line. I played around with it a bit and found myself going back every day to play some more. What struck me was the weight to strength ratio and the ergonomics, about the most perfect I used. The cost for the chassis was in the $500 range (SHOT special and will retail in the $550 range) and heck, I spend more then that on coffee each week so I picked it up.
Back home I mounted my X-Ring Accuracy manufactured R700 in it and took it to the range. The results were excellent and the chassis lost nothing from the swap out other then being about 3 pounds lighter then then AICS I run with that action. It was more comfortable to shoot then the AICS as well so I decided that I can never have too many rifles and picked up another SPS Tactical new in box from the for sale section and then sent the chassis off to Custom Gun Coating for paint.
Now for glass. I love my Nightforce and the ATACR to me is the best scope I have used, but looking for a lighter back up ring decided on the March for glass. Because I have zero problems with math and run MOA and SFP optics for work I went with the 2.5-25. The optic came when the chassis was out for paint so I mounted it on my XLR FN SPR and took it to the range. WOW what a scope! The thing is half the weight of the ATACR with the same glass clarity and I can focus up to 25x on a blade of grass 10 yards away. The low light transmission is not as good as the ATACR but not bad for a 42 objective. The range testing was in a word boring, and the scope tracks perfect and reticle is spot on. I preformed all the normal box/tracking testing. In fact I loved the scope so much I picked up a used 3-24 FFP and replaced my beloved SS 5-20 (I always like to run at least one mil/ffp scope so I can maintain proficiency with both mil/moa) Now the March has not replaced my ATACR as the #1 on my list, but they are at least 1A.
So now the chassis is back and I put it all together and take it to the range for a proper break in..... load round, shoot, repeat until I run out of ammo. Sorry I just don't find all the shooting voodoo break in to do anything. I have also noticed that on a stock 700 my groups tighten after 70-200 rounds as the rifle "settles in" so whatever I get in my first runs is only a slight indicator or what that 700 will do down the road a bit. In this case first four 5 round groups were between .92 and .68 so once settled this is a sub MOA stock rifle so all good there.
After the range on Sunday I went out to one of our training sites out in the middle of no where so I could do some balloon stalking. Basically another member of the team goes out and sets up between 6-8 balloons and the shooter moves to a spot, sets up the shooting position (never a nice flat open spot for prone) and has "X" amount to locate, range and engage the balloon. I find this to be a better test for the "tactacality (new word)" of a rifle vs. its use as a range gun. This makes me carry the rifle and all my gear through hill and dale and then make shots on balloons flopping in the wind from the trees or the various cover (old trailer, plywood sheets with loopholes in them. a mock roof etc.) in non-range positions. This lets me determine if the rifle/optic combo is a range gun or a tactical rifle. Well this combo is more then GTG. It so light I can shoot standing unsupported with ease, the eye box is really not as finiky as I have read about and the ergonomics hold through all types of shooting positions so the chassis is the bomb!
I would say that this is now my favorite chassis and the best value for the money. How can you beat the price for a chassis that feels so good in your hands (I love my XLR as well so you can't go wrong with either). The customer service I received from KRG is excellent and the paint job that Brandon from Custom Gun Coating did is just badass! So thank you to all the members and vendors that set me up with so many good deals, and I am sure I will be buying more toys soon.
Sully
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