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Custom Actions for .338 Lapua Boltface-weather resistant

I find it funny that some will hammer the BAT receivers but will then say the Nesika and Pheonix receivers are great. All are built to teh same tightness, in fact the Pheonix receivers will be very little different then the original Nesikas, after all, Glenn was the original owner of Nesika.

I have never had a problem with BAT or Nesika receivers in the field and I have used them for years. I do however clean the rifles if they get dusty. I do not put a $4000 rifle in the mud and I tend to not let them get overly dirty, even if its a Rem 700.

Where I hunt, generally its not terribly wet but it can be dusty. Usually to **** cold to be wet!!! If my rifles get dirty in the field, they get cleaned that night weither I go home or spend the night in the field. Again, I have never had a problem with receiver performance.

To my knowledge, the Pheonix receivers for the Lapua are not ready yet. AT least Glenn contacted me and asked if I was interested in testing some of his receivers. I asked for the Lapua receiver and he said they were not ready, that was late this summer and he expected them spring of this year to be ready.

As far as the Surgeon XL receiver. ITs a good one but it has two major issues that I do not care for, well, three really. 1. Its HUGE for what it does!!! 2. IT has a VERY short OAL mag box, 3.600". 3. Its Chrome Moly, not hardly weather proof.

Stiller receivers. Pretty good. I would not class them in the same quality as a BAT or Nesika or Borden but they are very good for what they cost. I have seen a few that were not as square as I would like to see but on average, they are pretty good and you can hardly argue with the cost.

The M7500 Lawton can be made with a Lapua bolt face, I had one and it worked very well but Barney had to modify it personally as its not designed for the Lapua as far as the extractor goes. Now since Barney has passed away, I do not know if they will still do that.

As far as the Nesika Model M goes, I can not recommend them either. Not because of anything to do with the receiver, but because of a serious problem with customer service. Something very bad is happening at Nesika finanically so I would not recommend ordering a receiver from them. I will not order any more which is very sad to say.

My list as far as my opinion as to which is the best quality and weather proof.

BAT Model HRPIC
Stiller Predator X
Stiller 338TAC

If Borden would come out with a Lapua class receiver, it would be on the top of my list because of its great quality, price and function.
 
new to the site, need help. will be starting a new build for a 338 lm on a
CZ 550 RIGBY ACTION. any one have any experience on the cz actions for the caliber. looking to put a 30" barrel + mb. any advice would help. been looking for stocks and barrels for the rifle but cant find any suppliers. the rifle will be in the 14 lb range used for 1000 yd + target and hunting. we (a gunsmith buddy of mine) are building this rifle a piece at a time due to limilted spending money right now. i have been reading everything i can about this caliber and custom rifles. man these things get expensive quick. oh well i guess if you want to play you have to pay. gun)
 
I find it funny that some will hammer the BAT receivers but will then say the Nesika and Pheonix receivers are great. All are built to teh same tightness, in fact the Pheonix receivers will be very little different then the original Nesikas, after all, Glenn was the original owner of Nesika.

I have never had a problem with BAT or Nesika receivers in the field and I have used them for years. I do however clean the rifles if they get dusty. I do not put a $4000 rifle in the mud and I tend to not let them get overly dirty, even if its a Rem 700.

Where I hunt, generally its not terribly wet but it can be dusty. Usually to **** cold to be wet!!! If my rifles get dirty in the field, they get cleaned that night weither I go home or spend the night in the field. Again, I have never had a problem with receiver performance.

To my knowledge, the Pheonix receivers for the Lapua are not ready yet. AT least Glenn contacted me and asked if I was interested in testing some of his receivers. I asked for the Lapua receiver and he said they were not ready, that was late this summer and he expected them spring of this year to be ready.

As far as the Surgeon XL receiver. ITs a good one but it has two major issues that I do not care for, well, three really. 1. Its HUGE for what it does!!! 2. IT has a VERY short OAL mag box, 3.600". 3. Its Chrome Moly, not hardly weather proof.

Stiller receivers. Pretty good. I would not class them in the same quality as a BAT or Nesika or Borden but they are very good for what they cost. I have seen a few that were not as square as I would like to see but on average, they are pretty good and you can hardly argue with the cost.

The M7500 Lawton can be made with a Lapua bolt face, I had one and it worked very well but Barney had to modify it personally as its not designed for the Lapua as far as the extractor goes. Now since Barney has passed away, I do not know if they will still do that.

As far as the Nesika Model M goes, I can not recommend them either. Not because of anything to do with the receiver, but because of a serious problem with customer service. Something very bad is happening at Nesika finanically so I would not recommend ordering a receiver from them. I will not order any more which is very sad to say.

My list as far as my opinion as to which is the best quality and weather proof.

BAT Model HRPIC
Stiller Predator X
Stiller 338TAC

If Borden would come out with a Lapua class receiver, it would be on the top of my list because of its great quality, price and function.

Would you reccomend the pinned recoil lug offered by BAT and Stiller or not and why?
 
Jmden,

The BAT HRPIC receiver has an integral 20 moa rail base and integral recoil lug so no need for anything to be pinned, thats why its on the top of my list. The Surgeon would also be there if it was stainless, had a longer OAL magazine and was smaller in size.

Stiller, up to the customer. I have had dozens of personal rifles, hundreds of customers rifles go out without pinned recoil lugs using Rem 700, Savage, Borden and stiller receivers and have never had one produce a problem. If a customer wants a pinned recoil lug, no problem doing it but to be honest, I really see no need.

Truely, best application and use for a pinned recoil lug, allowing you to pull the barrel and reinstall it or a new barrel without worrying about lug index for bedding of the stock.

Conventional wisdom says any extreme duty rifle should have a pinned recoil lug and a pinned rail base. I do not see this as a nessesity but if a customer wants it, no problem with them either. I would say a pinned rail base is more useful then a pinned recoil lug. Especially with the simple, sit on top of receiver rails on most of these custom receivers. For a Rem 700, a Badger Ord or Nightforce rail has the positive recoil lug on the rail so that negates any real need to pin the rails to the receivers.
 
Kirby,
I am interested in what problems you were having with Nesika's customer service? I have one Nesika action and thought the customer service as well as the action were excellent. Has something changed recently?
 
Short story, I have had a decent number of receivers on order since early last year. Several projects have been cancelled because it has taken so long and when I tried to cancell those receiver orders they would not give me the run around.

Got the receivers in July, all were very poor quality, they told me to return them and that they would be corrected and shipped back ASAP. I was charged for all those receivers.

Been fighting with them since to get the receivers. In November I finally got some straight answers from the VP of sales at Dakota/Nesika and he told me that because of financial reasons, they would not be able to credit me for the receiver orders that had been cancelled and that the only way I could get my $$ out of the orders would be to sell the receivers when they got here.

They told me that would happen any time as they were having problems getting contacted for raw materials to make the receivers.

Simply put, its nearly February, I have no receivers and they have $8K of my money and have since July.....

This has really saddened me as Nesika used to be the GO TO company as far as top end receivers and getting them relatively quickly.

I suspect that Dakota Arms has finally drained enough capital from the nesika side of the company that they are in serious financial trouble as they were before the purchased Nesika which was the only reason they pulled out of Chapter 11 the first time around.

So after hundreds of e-mails, dozens of phone calls and nearly a year of waiting, I have nothing to show for it and they have alot of my $$!! Only way this will turn out alright is if I get those receivers but I am not expecting to much that way unfortunately. I hope I am wrong.
 
Thanks Kirby for the heads up, I won't be buying any Dakota arms or Nesika components anymore. I encourage the rest to do the same. Several people complaining will get the more attention than one. I will have to mention this to Richard Schatz he always speaks highly of nesika. I am sure this will trouble him. The only way you can get some companies to stand up and take notice anymore is to hit them in the pocketbook, this really bothers me.



Brent
 
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After having some phone time with Jerry Stiller at Stiller Precision regarding the Predator Extreme action, Glen Harrison at Phoenix Machine regarding their action using a .750 bolt and Bruce Thom. at BAT Machine regarding their HRPIC reciever, I've learned a few things regarding the use of long mag boxes like the 4" inside length centerfeed Wyatt's or the 3.94" inside length Seekins DM which seem worth sharing on this thread.

Unfortunately, Jerry at Stiller Precision does not think his Predator Extreme should be modified to work with the Wyatt's or Seekins DM. They would not leave enought meat on the receiver body or the bolt stop. Unfortunately, I've canceled my order with Jerry for this reason. I don't want to spend $$ on a custom rifle and then be more restricted in magazine length than I am with a factory Rem 700 LA that I can put a 4" Wyatt's box into.

Phoenix and BAT both machine their actions, at no extra cost if they know beforehand, for the Wyatt's or the Seekins in house (and others if you ask beforehand) and either move the bolt stop location or use a different bolt stop to accomodate the long boxes.

Both Phoenix and BAT use CM bolts. Phoenix is one piece and BAT silver brazes on an SS handle.

Phoenix uses 8-40 scope rail screws and M16 extractor standard. BAT's HRPIC reciever has integral 0 or 20 MOA rail and recoil lug. BAT has their own design extractor that Bruce says is very robust for the HRPIC.

The cost difference between these two is negligible when you consider the need for a pic rail and recoil lug for the Phoenix that is integral on the BAT HRPIC.

Just food for thought for those that might be in the same boat I am.

Jon
 
And Ive heard unoffically that Barnard are working on a magazine feed PLs,
and more that likely the P Cheys.

Until it comes out I would say they would neither confirm or deny that they are,wait and see.

There will be no strength issues with them

MORE food for thought.:D
 
Sako TRG 42 - Very nice smooth action and good ergonomic stocks as well. With the strength of the dollar I'm surprised your not all buying up the s/h ones here in the UK. Complete rifles in mint condition can be had for under $2,000!
 
Well...I decided to go with the BAT Machine HRPIC ( http://batmachine.com/products/actions.htm )with 20 MOA integral pic rail, integral recoil lug, spiral fluted bolt, and machined for the extended mag 4" Wyatt's box. I've got that box (longest out there to my knowledge for this class round) on my current rifle and certainly don't want to be limited with magazine feeding long rounds, shorter Lapua case or not. It'll be shipped off to Kirby in a few months.

Thanks for the input along the way, folks.

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Hi Fiftydriver

It seems that I am in the same boat has you with the Dakota Arms crew. I have paid in full, for actions and complete rifles almost 18 months ago. Guess what I have never seen a screw never mind the actions and rifles?

I have paid them $16K up front just to hear their sad stories

Do you know or does anyone know what the story is with Dakota Arms, the telephone just seems to ring and then goes through to automated phone system.

It's very difficult to find the true story over here in the UK

Mr Kokesh seems to be able to take everyone money and please himself

Any info would be greatly reveived

Kindest Regards

Steve
 
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