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

Handled a Christensen Mesa in 7 PRC this PM. Felt good, seemed to be a solid 700 clone build, weight was about what I had in mind. With 22" barrel, liked it alot.

Anyone have a Mesa or offer comments? Primary purpose be elk hunting and spend alot of time strapped to a pack and be "gently" used. I plan to shoot 175 gr ELDX.

Thanks.

I have a Mesa in 6.5 CM. Current round count of 743. I only feed it handloads. I've taken the last 4 elk with it. First 3 with the 143 grain ELD-X, the 4th with the 143 grain BondStrike. No complaints.

Have one in 6.5 CM, left hand. Works pretty good. Lot of rifle for the price. Sub MOA with everything I've put thru it.

Before you buy the Mesa pick up a Mesa FFT, the new stock is better IMO....Either way I have had several Mesa's and they have all been MOA or better rifles with no complaints on my end....Good luck...Hb

The only thing with the FFT is that it weighs 1 lb less than the non-FFT. This is good for most cartridges but in a 7 mag, I'd prefer the extra pound to tame recoil - I don't plan to use the muzzle brake......

I have two Mesas. One in 6.5 PRC and another in 6.5 Creed. The PRC had to go back for a bad ejector spring. CA got it back to me immediately. Both guns are pleasantly accurate.

I agree, i always ditch the muzzle brake....Hb

I like them and think you could do a whole lot worse. Fft is light so yeah, an extra pound ain’t gonna hurt you.

I’ve several FFTs. Had a regular Mesa that I sold to a buddy. No issues with any of them and think they are solid rifles.

Mine also had ejection problems. Christensen sent me some parts and fixed the issue. Seems like the issues are mostly with magnum cartridges. Bolt uses double ejectors vs the single ejector on a standard 700.

Funny you mention having 2. I was pondering a pair - 6.5 PRC or Creed and a 7 PRC, shoot heavy ELDX in both and have everything covered from antelope to moose. Both with 22" barrels, neither with a brake. I woke up at 3 AM thinking about that.......seems like the "easy" button.

They didn't have FFTs when I bought mine. If I had to do it all over again I'd go with a 6 Creed FFT and a the 6.5 PRC in the standard Mesa. The PRC is 8 pounds 12 ounces with a Meopta MeoPro on it.

The Gunshop in Idaho Falls recently closed out most all their Christensen stuff for half price. I almost bought a Mesa fft in 6.5 Creedmoor for $800 until the manager of the store told me why they were getting out of them.

He said they've had to send about 40% of what they sale back for repairs and some multiple times. He thinks they're really going down hill and have lost a lot of their good staff. Still wonder if I should have went for it at that price but after what I went through with their 22 I passed.

Bb

I’ve got a lefty 6.5cm also.

Only complaint I’ve had is having to use an adapter to mount a 5/8-24 suppressor.

scheels has them at 20% right now, likely for black friday. That should sweeten the pot enough to get one ordered up

They have a 7 RM I could be very interested in but they appear to not want to ship them. The nearest store is 8.25 hrs from my house.......

My son and I both have one each in 6.5 cm and they have quickly become our go to guns. I haven’t had a lot of time to hand load the past 2 years, but both guns will consistently shoot 1/2 moa out to 300 yards with good factory ammo which is the furthest range we have to shoot.

I have a .308 Win and I like it. It really likes 165gr NPT.

Very happy with mine in 6.5 CM.

Mesa FFT in 6.5 CM here and no complaints great trigger and balances well shoots well what else does anyone need

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.