Home Forums Hunting & Shooting The Lefty Forum Christmas in July...

Back story: My wife and I are not big on giving each other fancy gifts for every birthday, Christmas, anniversary that comes along. My wife is an "easy keeper" and I am truly blessed to have her. Last fall she had a hankering for a digital sewing machine. After talking with her a bit, I clandestinely purchased a VERY nice digital machine for her for Christmas. We agreed that the machine would be her Christmas / Birthday / Anniversary / present for the year. Happy wife, happy life. We agreed that I would purchase a nice rifle when the opportunity arose.

Then, early this year, along came ShortActionSmoker's group buy for the MRC Short Action X2 rifles chambered in .260 Rem. I liked everything about the group buy rifles except the chambering. I have had multiple .243's, 7mm-08's and .308's. The .260 just did not interest me. However, had never had a rifle chambered 6.5x55 Swede. The wheels started turning. Emails exchanged with Darrik. And eventually had a plan. Darrik worked with me to special order a LH MRC X2 Long Action chambered 6.5x55, with all other spec's (color, barrel, stainless) being the same as the group buy. It finally came in this week. Arrived at SAS's shop on my anniversary ! I made a road trip yesterday down to Whittaker's to claim it.

First impressions:

Packaging: I think a new MRC rifle could fall off the back of a truck at 70 mph and not get a scratch on it unless the truck behind it ran over it. Double boxed. Heavy corrugated. Thick closed cell foam. WELL packaged.

Dimensions: 43" OAL. Barrel is right at 22" from bolt face to crown. Measures 0.605" at the muzzle. LOP right at 13.5". Weight is 7lbs, 7.5oz on my scale. 30oz for the stock. 5lbs, 9.5oz for the barreled action with bottom metal. Trigger pull a smidge over 3lbs.

Big change for the X2 is the stock ergos. MRC switched from B&C to making their own. They got it… Fore end is thin, comparable to the Rem KS stocks. Wrist is actually thinner than the wrist on a KS stock. I like it! I had just handled another rifle at Whittaker's that had a B&C stock. And it felt like a club compared to the X2 stock. The stock finish also has enough texture to it to be "grippy" even before the specks are applied. No need for shark bite on this one.

It looks like the barreled action is bedded to the stock, disassembled, and then final stock finish is applied. Two results: First, there is no visible bedding when the rifle is fully assembled. You have to disassemble the rifle to see that it has actually been bedded. Second, this results in a VERY tight set up when it is all bolted together. no movement/slop that I could detect. And a good bit of effort to separate the barreled action from the stock. I have not fired it yet. But am not expecting to see any signs' of movement. Barrel is free floated back to the bedding under the barrel shank.

Overall very pleased with the rifle. Unfortunately, I did not find the charger for my digital camera until late last night. I did take a couple cell phone pics between rain showers. However, they do not do it justice. I will post up pics tonight or tomorrow.

Last comment is the bolt. When the bolt is full forward, out of battery, as you raise the muzzle of the rifle, the bolt will glide back to the bolt stop before the muzzle is elevated to 30 degrees. Very smooth. All of my other rifles are somewhere between 45 degrees and vertical before they slide back on their own.

Gotta run. Will work today to get a scope mounted and start busting caps.

Sounds like a great rifle. I'm interested to see the pics and hear a range report. Thanks!!

Good to hear!! I was actually contemplating ordering one myself but will wait to see what the next group buy offering is. Looking forward to your pics.

Sounds like a beauty.

LH Rich

Pics...

Thats a nice lookin rig!! Whats going on top?

That's the exact rifle I want. Was gonna email MRC and find out if they made a Lefty x2 yet as the site said coming soon. I was even gonna ask about getting the barrel fluted. Nice rifle! If you don't mind me asking, what are they running as far as MSRP? Congrats!

Certainly looks excellent. Be good to see the range reports.

How long is the mag box? The 7x57 is very appealing...

@Dude - Mounted Leupold QR bases last night. First scope will be a VXIII 4.5x14 for accuracy check/load development. Long term will probably be VX3 2.5x8. Only concern is that there will not be much adjustment left for eye relief given the short tube on the 2.5x8, even with extended front ring.

@Hawk - Get in touch with ShortActionSmoker (Darrik at Whittaker Guns). He can work out the details with you. Keep In Mind, this was not a group buy rifle. Everything was custom ordered (ala carte).

@Jason - Max COAL is approx 3.5" with a spacer welded into the mag box (ala Winchester). That is plenty for the 6.5x55, 7x57, .30-06, etc. Looking at it, I would assume that you could order a mag box and follower for the full 3.6" if desired. I will try to measure it if I take it apart again.

FWIW, Even tho the mag box is "snug" in the stock when assembled, visual inspection appears that the mag box is approx 0.040" shy of bottoming out and binding on the bottom metal.

Very nice! Great looking stick right there...

Extremely nice. Thanks for posting pictures. I'd love to have a 9.3x62mm built just like that one!!!! From what's been posted, these MRC's shoot damn good too. Keep us posted on how she shoots..

O.K. All the activity with the group buy .260's finally got me motivated to get out and do load development for my MRC 6.5x55. Using my home made dummy cartridge with split neck, 123gr Scenars bottomed out right around 3.030" COAL. I've always heard good things about Lapua Scenars, and I've always liked Varget. So, 27 rounds later, here's where I ended up:

Lapua 123gr Scenars
3.020" COAL
39.0gr Varget (Hodgdon max)
Hornady Brass
Federal GMM 210 primers

Shoots like this:



For whatever reason, I started off at 3.005" COAL and eventually figured out I needed to get closer to the rifling. Could have saved myself some time and powder. Also have some 160gr pills to try out the 1:8" twist. But, the wind started to pick up, so called it a day.

I am not a great bench rest shooter. Given that this is the same spec barrel as the group buy, I expect that there will be several group buy members shooting significantly smaller groups once they get their .260's dialed in...

Anticipation...

Nice! You're going to have some fun with that rifle!