Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats New PRS rifle for this year

Sweet! A little heavy for what I do, but any rifle that shoots that well would be fun.

Patriot Valley is a well respected and well represented gunsmith within the prs game. Their rifles are typically very very competitive. The John Hancock is their new “budget” entry if you will. I along with Jordan question the use of a 20moa rail that is windage adjustable. If the machining tolerances are good there should be no need for a windage adjustable base as most any scope used in the prs game have enough windage adjustement available to handle 30+ mph winds well past 1000yds.

If you look at the JH action pictures you can see torx headed screws on both sides of the action at the rear rail. This to me would indicate it is windage adjustable so as to allow the scope to stay closer to center windage.

At the price they are asking it’s competetive with the Seekins Havak, just depends if a guy likes a stock or chassis better.

I have shot both and I prefer a tactical style stock but have owned a whiskey3 chassis and liked it fine.


The predominate calibers in prs as of late seem to be the 6CM and 6x47 lapua as they can take advantage of the high bec 105-108’s and do pretty much what the 140-147 class 6.5’s do with less recoil.

I am only a hobby prs shooter and use a Tooter Meredith built 6x47 lapua with 105’s at 3100 fps.

Windage adjustable rail?

That's the bolt release on the Nucleus.

Maybe. I don't know what these guys are talking about windage adjustable rails. I watched the whole vid on the Nucleus and didn't see anything about a windage adjustable rail which seems stupid to me too.


I just viewed the vid again and what ya'll are seeing that you think is windage adjustable base is just the huge lug of a bolt stop. Very well built action,or else I'm just easily impressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wro5WuprNwE

Very nice rifle , cool that you're using a $300 scope to compete with too .

A heavy rifle is a pain to pack around but the first time you hammer an animal and know ' I probably couldn't have done that ' with a lightweight rifle makes it worth the effort .

Good luck come PRS season .

Thanks for posting the vid. Now that I can see more angles, it’s obvious that the rail is screwed in place with 5 screws, and as Higbean pointed out, that upper screw head is the bolt stop.

One thing I really like about the Deadline is that the rail is double pinned and fastened with 6 screws.

Jordan,

What do you think of the MDT?






As for the John Hancock rifle,

It does not have windage adjustable bases. It and the Mausingfield are the only 700 based footprint actions I would choose to use, and only with a Geissele trigger. While the Havok is a decent option, the JH rifle is far and away a better action.






RH,


What is the finished weight that you are wanting to achieve?




Mallard,

Tooter can certainly build a rifle.

Thanks, I appreciate the well wishes.

Yeah chunk rifles inspire confidence when the shooting starts, even if carrying them around ain’t much fun

Form,

I love the ESS. I’ve got a couple of them now, and it’s simply the most ergonomic, well-balanced chassis I’ve used, when paired with the ESS Skeleton stock. My only wish is that the MLOK holes on the handguard ran all the way back to the magwell, and that the forward grip was removable/attachable via MLOK. That’d give a bit more flexibility when using MLOK accessories like bipod adaptors or barricade stops.

The JH looks like a great rifle now that I’ve had a closer look. Why is it (and the MF) the only 700-footprint action you’d choose? I have to say that this Ultimatum is fairly impressive. It’s built like a tank.

Mallard, Very nice entry level PRS set up...Grin! Looks great for hunting LR, too! Thanks, for posting a pic....What do you like about your rig? Scope? and wish was different? Thanks, Beaver

That’s good to hear. MDT hasn’t had a chassis that has interested me until this one.





Warning: Personel experience/opinion follows-


As for the actions, Ive never used an Ultimatum, but I’ve seen and dealt with more issues in sand and dust, as well as sleeting rain/ice with 700 based actions and their triggers than all others combined.

Of course I’ve had plenty of 700 based guns work fine in those conduction as well. However given the choice it’s kind of like Leupold scopes- yes they can work.... and they also have more problems than others. It started to click that all guns aren’t equal when I had to wrap my M24 in a plastic bag, meanwhile our partners just left their AI’s uncovered outside during a sandstorm. Even then we had to have break cleaner/lighter fluid/oil to keep the guns working.

Back then I thought it was just a Remington 700 action thing. But I have seen and experienced the same issues, with Stiller/Surgeon/GAP/etc actions rifles. If anything they are worse due to tighter tolerances. Feeding, extraction, and ejection are all more prone to problems than with others.
Even with that the worst offender has been trigger problems. And I’m not just talking about the factory trigger ND’s.



Overall I’ve personally had with my rifle or partners rifles broken bolt handles, broken bolt stops, complete failures to fire due to triggers and failures to feed and eject due to dust/sand/ice, etc., etc. this is from R700’s and quite a few custom actions. If there are a multitude of rifles on the line, almost assuredly any problems will come from 700 based guns. It’s ridiculous that side by side you see less problems with factory Tikka CTR’s than with full up Surgeons.....

What the ARC actions due is give someone the footprint of the 700 but remove just about every issue except the trigger. The Geissele 700 mostly corrects that.




Again, just what I and others have repeatedly seen.

Form, what about the Bighorn actions?

And Triggertech triggers?

Thank you for the kind words. My rifle likely wouldn’t be considered entry level based on cost and quality but Meredith’s prices are super reasonable for what you get. I love the Stiller action for a hybrid hunting/prs uses, Krieger Barrels are known quality, Calvin elite triggers are nice and the badger dbm and manners CF stocks are known quantities.

That scope is a 3.5-18 Eotech Vudu I am playing with. I got a good deal on it and it’s pretty decent but has a Kahles k624i for PRS stuff.

All in all I don’t know that I would change anything if I did it again and I have no complaints.

Of course I am weird about my rifle preferences as I have a long range 6.5 WSM with a 27” barrel built on a GAP Tempest Action which is a 60 degree match action with a straight bolt handle with big ball shaped bolt handle, mcmillan htg adjustable, seeking dbm and a jewel trigger. Aside from a planned trigger swap to a Timney Calvin I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Which reminds me I should post that jewel for trade soon.

That's a beauty, Mallard! Lots of ways to build a truly excellent PRS rifle!

Yeah Jordan, that may get it done....just barely though. Hope you got some zero stop shims in that SS 10X

You bet I do!

Jordan, zero stop shims? You mean nylon gaskets? What, where, who, has em...I have my wife’s nail polish out, getting ready to go all sexy colors on my scope...Save me, bro...😳

I’m sure Jordan is using the kit from the old boy on snipers hide. The guy sells kits for under $25 with a bunch of uhmw plastic spacers marked in full time, half turn , 1/4 turn etc. you zero your scope then count turns to bottom out the turret. Turn it back to zero, remover the turret and install the proper shims to act as a stop.

They work slick and I have them in a few of my SS’s.

That would be my guess as well.