How hard do I push them .. I don't truly know. I was setting up for an antelope hunt in late summer, now canceled. I wanted to shoot the 129 grain Nosler LRAB so that's where most of my focus was. There is essentially no data for that bullet. Hodgdon's site has some data for 130s but I couldn't get most of the powders they used. Hornady has data for 140s-143s for powders I could get but nothing for the 129-130 grain range. What I did was work with Hornady data for the 140-143s, start in the upper middle, and work up to 2 grains over the max since that seemed to be about the separation Hodgdon showed with their powder selection. I used H4831, IMR 7828, RL 25 and 26, and Retumbo. I also shot the rifle with 140 grain ballistic tips, 140 grain accubonds, and 142 grain long range accubonds. "No love." I didn't have any pressure issues and all 100 pieces of brass have been fired 5 times without any discernable loosening of the primer pockets.
Mechanically ...
Well, the bolt lift is a bit stiffer than a normal 700. Not bad, just "draggy". If I were shooting a 700 and got that drag, I'd back off on the loads, but it seems normal for the Christensen action. On the plus side, they use 2 plungers instead of 1 in the bolt face and it provides the best ejection I've ever seen from a 700-ish action. None of this BS about dropping an empty loose in the action, it **heaves** them .. several feet with authority. The trigger (Trigger Tech "Field") was around 2-1/2 pounds, quite decent as factory triggers go but not adequate for the purposes for this rifle IMHO.
Scope clearance ...
I mounted a Leupold 4.5-14X AO with a 40mm objective in Talley low ringmounts. It was CLOSE but it did clear by 1/16" roughly. The "spandex"
Loopy scope cover would not slip between the barrel and scope though, so yeah, tight fit. Mediums would be better. Zero issues, or even hints of issues, regarding clearance for the bolt handle. Plenty o' room.
Other ...
The rifle did it's best, and most consistent, work with the 147 grain Hornady ELD Match ammo. I was not able to obtain any of those bullets nor did I try it with any of the other match bullets out there. I bought it as a hunting rifle for a specific hunt, nothing else, and didn't waste time or components with anything other than ammo intended for that hunt. It is quite possible it was a wrong choice of rifle / cartridge for my intended use though it sure looked good on paper.
Tom
