Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber - How they can build the "perfect" hunting rifle.

This!

I've been wanting a small stainless action like stick just spelled out for a while. I did snag 1 stainless mini grendel and it shoots well but I'm not sure the action itself is actually stainless it appears to be coated.

Someone needs to make a small body stainless mini action consistent enough for shouldered prefits. I'm thinking I'd like maybe a flat bottom with integral lug like a howa mini. A 3 lug 60 degree bolt similar to my cz 600 lux, the 2.5- 2.6" mag box room, compatible with rem 700 triggers, a flat ejection angle so you can mount a scope low and not bounce cases off the windage turrets. Stainless action body but a 1 piece 4140 dlc coated bolt. There were a few other ideas a few months back when some of us were posting about it.

It'd probably easier not to build the feed rails into the action but let them be part of the mag box so they could be tuned or have different mag boxes for different rounds. I need to get a Jefferson bdl box to see how he does it for the minis but I always miss them when he gets more made up.

I don't think it needs to have a bunch of extra cuts to lighten it to keep the cost down. There's a big cnc shop in Idaho Falls that does a lot of production for a bunch of different industries. They had several 4 and 5 axis machines all running making airsoft gun parts last time I was in there. I didn't count but there were at least 20 machines each the size of a small suv all cranking stuff out in just 1 of their rooms.

They said most of the cost is the prototype and set up costs but that once the design is dialed in if designed for efficient machining they could be cranked out fairly quickly and substantial cheaper than I might guess. They said over the last few years the precision and speed of their newer machines have increased dramatically.

Unfortunately whenever I mention the idea to anyone in the gun industry they don't think that such an action would sell. Legacy guys recently told me they only brought in a few stainless minis from their sister company this 1 time because there's no demand for stainless rifles in the US. They said they sell way more blued guns than they do stainless. I said maybe thats because you don't make any stainless ones. Defiance told me that they don't need a smaller action because the anti was already available and it's light enough. I told them it could be shorter with a shorter smaller footprint for a smaller round. The others like kelbly and zermat I've spoke with have basically said there's enough Remington clones already and the only real market is with the competition shooters who want sturdy actions etc etc.

I really think the time is right for a good stainless mini action especially with the 6mm and 22 arc out now. I guess we'll just have to wait long enough and pound the industry with requests for long enough that one morning one of them will finally wake up and go hey, I just had a great idea.

Bb