Breaking in a New Rifle

Gibson’s stores were once a dominant retail chain store.  They carried a variety of merchandise but sporting goods is what I remember most.  Rumor is that Sam Walton once inquired about opening a Gibsons franchise before starting Walmart.   A series of ownership changes and a bankruptcy in the early 90’s almost ended Gibson’s stores.  However, there are a couple of remaining stores in Texas.  We once had a Gibsons Discount store here in El Dorado, Arkansas.

My First Rifle

It was the early 80s and I was just a young kid.  I went all over with my Popaw.  He was one of my heroes.  One afternoon we went in to Gibson’s and that’s where I saw it.  A Nickel Plated Rossi Pump action 22.  The thought, “you’ll shoot your eye out with that thing kid” runs through my mind now but I thought it was the coolest gun i’d ever seen.  It was shiny and it looked like the perfect size for me. My papaw used a similar rifle to ward off squirrels from his pecan trees.  Many days we’d pull up to his house and he’d be standing outside under the carport waiting on one to come out.  With my own Rossi, I could do it with him.  For now, though it was a wish list item.  

A couple days later, when we went over to visit,  I was surprised with that very 22 Rifle.  It wasn’t Christmas morning, but it sure felt like it to me.  We went out to shoot it and before he and my dad would let me shoot it, we had to clean it.  It was there that I learned the importance of properly taking care of a new rifle.  

The thing about a new rifle is that, like any new toy, you want to go play with it as soon as possible, but you can’t let the eagerness to go shoot get a head of proper gun safety and maintenance.  Now Lets skip forward a few years.  Say 30-35 years.  

The Christensen Arms Ridgeline

My dad is now retired.  Like my popaw, he spends most of his time with his grandkids.  Although he doesn’t hunt much anymore, he wanted a new precision rifle to play with. Several years ago, he purchased a Remington 700 VLS chambered in 6mm remington.  The 6mm Remington has long been a favored round in our family.  Although not as widely know as the 243 Winchester, the 6mm rem actually predates the 243 and offers slightly improved ballistics and the same bullet.  The 700 VLS is a beautiful gun but its heavy bull barrel proved more weight than Dad wanted to carry so, he never really shot it.  

With the wide popularity of the 6.5 creedmore, he decided he wanted to give it a try.  Dad and I stopped by T.P. Outdoors in Monroe, LA to talk about some custom guns.  

After talking with a gunsmith and discussing several options as well as pricing some Dad initially decided to go with a custom built rifle.  Then, T.P. Outdoors got in some new Christensen Arms rifles.  These rifles have been on order for months and they came in just days after placing his order for a custom rifle.  After looking at the new Christensen Arms Ridgeline and finding out nothing had been ordered yet or started on his custom gun, Everyone agreed that the Christensen arms would better suit his needs and at a slightly lower price with more features.  We’ll call it perfect timing.

The Christensen Arms Ridgeline has many of the features dad was looking for right out of the box.  It’s pretty much a custom rifle right from the factory.  It features a bedded stock, and a fluted bolt in a 700 clone action with a carbon fiber wrapped barrel.  We’ve shot carbon fiber barrel before on a Ruger 10/22 and love the performance. This one is no exception.  It makes for a very light gun at 6.3 lbs which was dads number one concern.  He wanted the performance of a heavy barrel but not the weight and fluting only does so much.  The carbon fiber dissipates heat 300 times faster than an all steel barrel of equivalent weight.  It also comes threaded for you suppressor guys out there. If you don’t have a suppressor, it comes with a thread protector and a ported muzzle break so all of your bases are covered.  

Now the lessons learned when I was just a kid are now really important.  With any new rifle, ensuring its clean and free of any grease or manufacturing defects is important. It’s also important to properly break in a new barrel.  This is definitely the case with a new precision rifle with a sub moa guarantee like the Christensen Arms Ridgeline.   

The barrel break in process can help increase accuracy by smoothing out the rifling in the barrel and prevents material from being impeded in the steel.  It can also help ease future cleaning and maintenance.  We still need to run another box of ammo through it, but we’ve followed Christensen Arms recommendations for barrel break we’re already getting pretty good results.  

For the moment, we’re shooting  Hornady Precision Hunter ammo.  Some of our shots have included sighting in the Leupold VX5HD 3-15×56 with FireDot reticle.  The scope lets in a lot of light and has been great to shoot so far.  Below is two three shot groups at 100yds after sighting in the scope and really trying for accuracy.  I’m happy with that and I think most people would be.  We tried the Hornady Match Ammo and didn’t get quite as good a results but Dad’s looking forward to playing around with some other ammo to find the best load and going out to some longer ranges.  

Few cons

There are a few very minor things that I’d change about the Christensen Arms rifle if I were building it as a custom gun.  

1. The bolt handle is light and appears to have had some thought put into its design, however, the design leaves some relatively sharp edges that make it a little uncomfortable to work the bolt.  This will most likely have some work done to it and be refinished in the future.  
2. The Ridgeline has a standard magazine compartment similar to any other Rem 700 and it works fine.  The stock is a very nice, light weight free floated and bedded stock.  However, the bottom plate of the magazine and trigger guard does not recess up into the stock like I would prefer.  The magazine in my factory Rem 700 BDL in 6mm rem has a much better feel when you hold it in one hand at the mid point of the gun. Although not really a big deal, this leaves a little sharper edge around the bottom plate than you’d probably get on a custom rifle. and its probably a trade off between weight of the thicker stock that may be required to recess the magazine bottom plate. 

Popaws Squirrel Gun

Other than a few very minor issues, the Christensen Arms Ridgeline is probably the sweetest rifle I’ve ever shot.  Its light weight.  It feels great in your hands.  The 6.5 Creedmore performance seems amazing and so fun to shoot.  It seems like a nearly perfect rifle.  Popaws squirrel gun sure has changed a lot over the years.  This one has me drooling all over it just like my Popaws old squirrel gun did years ago.   Maybe one day I can have a “squirrel gun” that nice too.