Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Christensen Mesa - comments?

I had one in 6.5 CM. It was ok but not accurate enough to keep for what it cost. I understand Christensen has been bought my a new owner who is dedicated to fixing the company’s issues.

This thread mirrors what I’ve seen and been told about the CA’s—bit of a roll of the dice. Some are solid, some have problems, particularly the carbon wrapped bbls.

Swamp,
So the Christensen family no longer owns the company? Do you know when this occurred?

The sale of the company is news to me too.

I looked at buying one and was told there was nearly a year backlog. Then i found out they wanted another $250 for a left hand version. Deal breaker for me.

I wouldn't recommend one. I've had two, 6.5 CM and 6.5 PRC, and both were intermittently incompatible with the Hornady 147 grain factory ammo blowing primers on a fairly regular basis. I had the same issue with a 6.5 PRC in the Ridgeline Ti. I also had a regular Ridgeline in both cartridges. Neither blew primers with the same boxes of factory ammo but neither was reliably better than about a 1.75 MOA rifle either.

I think some of that is ammo .. bullets specifically. I did some seating depth testing and came out with different lengths .. considerably different .. among different boxes of the 147 grain ELD match bullets, and all different than the factory ammo. The factory ammo seemed to have a more "bulging ogive" if that makes sense, and that made contact with the rifling prematurely. If it had only been factory vs component bullets needing different lengths, I'd have just shot component bullets and not worried about it but with different boxes of nominally identical component bullets requiring different seating depth, it just didn't float my boat.

So .. I wouldn't recommend either Christensen rifles or 6.5 CM or 6.5 PRC to anyone right now. Too much seems wrong in unpredictable combinations. That said, I do have a brand new Ridgeline in .300 Win Mag. New Lapua cases don't really want to chamber, takes a good bit of force to close the bolt. It may be the extractor, not the chamber. We'll see. If this does not work it will be my final try with Christensen. I'm about $12000 into them and the only Christensen shooter I have is a .22 LR Ranger.

It might be the effort to compress the dual ejectors.

Can’t figure out why Christensen thought dual ejectors were necessary—M700’s eject just fine with one plunger. An extra layer of complexity……

I've had my 6.5 cm Mesa for a couple of years now. Have killed a couple of mule deer with it.
Don't have any complaints. Still shooting factory ammo out of it with plenty of accuracy to do what it's intended to do.

I’m shooting a Mesa FFT 6mm Creedmore and a 280 Ackley. They are a lot of rifle for the money. The 6mm is in the running to be the most accurate rifle I own. I also have a Ridgeline 6.5 PRC that has been trouble free, but I’ve never shot factory ammo in it.

https://fieldethos.com/christensen-article-1/

Interesting article

I am NOT a Christensen Guy,but my 7-08 Mesa is Skookum. Ergo's/balance/handling is great,the added COAL is nice and it's a fhuqking hammer with 162's. Thinking I'll pop the SWFA 3-9x in Swiffer rings and Burris Extreme bases off it and go Reupold Backcountry with a NightFarce NX8 1-8x FFP DM-X Lit Bitch. Hint.





Just sayin'..................

Mine is a LH 6.3 CM. Factory Hornady ELD-x 143 grain shoot very well thru this rifle.

I have both of those. The PRC had to go back to the factory for ejection issues. Turn around was quick. It's more accurate than I am. The Creed has had no issues at all and is shoots pretty well in the limited testing I have done with it.

CA unquestionably has QC issues.