Perhaps I’ve turn into jaded, however the time period “customized rifle” doesn’t excite me the way in which it as soon as did. Anymore, customized rifles resemble Legos, with gun makers shopping for actions from one place, barrels from one other, and shares from some place else. They screw them collectively, slap their identify on the receiver, and name it Christmas. Allterra Arms, a small however rising firearms maker based mostly out of Boise, Idaho, isn’t one in all these firms.
The craftsmen at Allterra Arms construct rifles on their very own actions and shares, and whereas they do supply barrels from exterior distributors, they do the chambering and threading themselves to create top-notch looking instruments that ship glorious accuracy and efficiency, together with a stage of buyer help befitting a customized rifle store.
Allterra at present provides 5 totally different platforms for his or her builds. I’ve one in all their Mountain Shadow Metal rifles, a compact and light-weight bolt-action designed for hunters who cowl a number of nation on foot.
The rifle weighs 6 kilos 13 ounces, not precisely an ultralight rig, however actually moveable, particularly in the event you don’t mount a very heavy scope on its Picatinny rail. Their lightest rifle, the Mountain Shadow Carbon, is much like mine however has a carbon-fiber barrel that shaves about half a pound off the bottom weight. On the higher finish of the burden scale is the Arid 1760, a stouter precision rifle that weighs about 9 kilos empty and unscoped.
Allterra Arms Mountain Shadow Metal Specs
- Cartridge: 6.5 PRC
- Barrel: 22-inch, fluted sporter weight, 1:8 twist
- Motion: Two-lug flip bolt
- Weight: 6 lb. 13 oz.
- Capability: 3+1
- Inventory: Carbon fiber, pilar bedded
- Bolt: Machined from single piece of 4140 chromoly
- Set off: Triggertech set to 2 lb. 6 oz.
- Journal: Hinged floorplate
- Size: 43.25 in. with muzzle brake
- Base Value: $5,745
Allterra Arms Convergence Motion
Frequent to all these rifles is Allterra Arms Convergence motion, a receiver they designed in-house. It’s a two-lug bolt motion with a pair fascinating improvements meant to reinforce accuracy.
Allterra Arms lumps these improvements below the phrase “bolt-to-bore alignment” on their web site and though that may sound like advertising and marketing fluff it’s an apt description of what they’ve completed.
If you study the bolt physique on an Allterra Arms rifle, you’ll discover put on marks forming a hoop across the circumference of the bolt about three quarters of an inch in entrance of the bolt deal with. That ring corresponds to a raised part on the bolt physique with a barely bigger diameter.
That raised ring engages the within of the raceway when the bolt is closed, giving help to the rear of the bolt. Coupled with the help from the lugs on the entrance of the motion this retains the bolt aligned throughout the motion and with the barrel. Some great benefits of this are pretty apparent.
A Excellent Line
One solution to envision an correct rifle is to image a straight line operating down the center of the rifle barrel. You need each part of our imaginary rifle to be aligned with that line. This begins with the barrel. We would like the bore to completely observe that line. The chamber must be reduce in order that it’s symmetrical to the road too. We would like the bolt to be positioned with the center of the bolt face—represented by the firing pin gap—centered on that line as effectively. The bolt face must be at an ideal 90-degree angle to the road, and so forth.
With the whole thing of our rifle constructed round this line, we are able to place the cartridge completely with respect to the bore. Assuming the bullet is seated within the case with no tilt—or “runout” to be technical—we now have created flawless bullet-to-bore alignment.
If there’s a recipe for accuracy, that is it—and each gun maker strives for this (or they need to) when constructing a rifle.
Convergence Machined for Accuracy
The opposite fascinating innovation within the Convergence is how they machined the barrel to be supported by two shoulder surfaces within the receiver. Usually, barrels have one flat floor on the rear—aka the shoulder—that butts up in opposition to a flat within the receiver when it’s screwed in. The Convergence has a second flat simply in entrance of the threads on the barrel that mates up with a corresponding shelf within the motion. This “twin lock barrel seat,” as Allterra calls it, helps stiffen the connection between the barrel and motion, which helps with accuracy.
Allterra threads their barrels 20 lines-per-inch (lpi), moderately than 16 lpi, which is the usual for Remington 700 clone actions. That finer thread pitch permits for higher tolerance management with headspacing and different dimensions.
Allterra machines its motion from a 2-inch diameter bar of 416 stainless, permitting them to include an integral recoil lug. Fairly than drilling out the middle of the motion after which utilizing a broach to kind the raceway, Allterra makes use of a extra exact EDM system to carry tighter tolerances.
The bolt and bolt deal with are additionally machined from a single piece of bar inventory, although the bolt knob is threaded on and may be changed, which is an efficient factor as mine has gotten fairly beat up throughout the hunts I’ve taken it on.
If you look below the hood of the Allterra system you’ll be able to inform that it was designed by efficiency obsessed ballistic nerds. Take the firing pin, for example. Allterra makes use of a thicker firing pin which they add flutes to. What’s the purpose of going with a heavier firing pin, solely to machine the burden again all the way down to regular? The thicker diameter prevents the firing pin spring from bunching up and “snaking” which may drag on the pin resulting in longer lock occasions—the time it takes the firing pin to strike the primer after the set off releases.
One other instance is the form of the bolt lugs, which have a conical profile that creates a excessive spot on their outer floor. These excessive factors (one on every lug) create outlined factors of contact within the barrel recess to maintain the bolt head centered within the barrel.
.5 MOA Assure
Like many gun makers, Allterra Arms backs their merchandise with an accuracy assure. With high quality manufacturing unit ammo they are saying their rifles will produce three-shot half-inch teams. Whereas the worth of 3-shot teams versus 5-shot teams is debatable, most rifle and barrel makers are providing some accuracy assure and Allterra is setting a excessive normal with ½ MOA efficiency.
My rifle, chambered in 6.5 PRC, turned out 3-shot teams that met that mark, however the majority of my taking pictures was with 5-shot teams. As a result of I deliberate to hunt with the rifle—moderately than simply ring metal—I principally shot Hornady’s 143-grain ELD-X manufacturing unit load.
On common, teams from my Mountain Shadow Metal measured .752 inches. This consists of teams shot with the muzzle brake that got here with the rifle and a pair suppressors I ran on it as effectively.
For a light-weight looking rifle with a sporter-weight barrel that’s additionally fluted this stage of accuracy is sort of good. And whereas I punched a good bit of paper with the rifle, I shot it principally at distance on small targets to get it dialed in for looking.
Underneath sensible subject circumstances, the rifle had no bother making constant hits (which means 90 p.c or higher) out to 600 yards on vital-zone sized plates, and was stable at 800 yards as effectively.
Inventory Design and Dealing with
Allterra touts how effectively their rifles deal with. Allterra’s inventory design features a damaging comb, which means the cheekpiece is larger on the recoil pad than on the grip. Weatherby popularized this profile many years in the past, because it reduces the quantity of cheek slap a shooter experiences throughout recoil making the rifle extra comfy to shoot whereas lessening the chance of growing a flinch.
The fore-end is pretty vast, offering a number of floor for the lead hand to grip. The inventory additionally has texture molded in alongside the fore-end and on the grip for a safe maintain. The angle of the grip positions the set off finger appropriately with respect to the face of the set off, serving to with set off management.
The inventory has a raised cheek-piece as effectively, giving the shooter’s face a stable anchor when mounting the rifle.
All collectively, these components add as much as a inventory that involves the shoulder with assurance, balances effectively between the fingers, and provides the shooter a number of management. It’s a sensible design.
I opted to ditch the swivel studs on my rifle and as an alternative had Allterra add two QD cups on the left aspect of the inventory, one on the entrance of the fore-end and the opposite a pair inches under the comb in entrance of the recoil pad.
To maintain the burden down on my rifle I had them set up a ½-inch recoil pad, however you’ll be able to go along with a thicker one in the event you like. Allterra will even construct your rifle with no matter size of pull you specify.
Allterra Arms Convergence Dealing with and Reliability
Earlier than Allterra ships any rifle to a buyer, they put it by means of a battery of high quality management checks. A type of is to cycle dummy rounds by means of the motion to ensure there aren’t any points with feeding, extraction, or ejection.
They are going to run the motion dozens of occasions to make sure that the journal is functioning appropriately and that the timing with the ejection is right. The bolt face has an M-16 model extractor and twin plunger ejectors positioned at one and 4 o’clock. The ejectors kick the empties free with out banging them on the windage turret of the scope, which means the prospect of getting a case bounce again into the motion is actually zero.
My Mountain Shadow Metal runs flawlessly and has had no points with both handloads or manufacturing unit ammo.
One factor to notice is that although the bolt glides easily up and down the raceway within the motion when biking the rifle, whenever you shut the bolt you’ll really feel extra resistance than with most 700-style actions. What you’re feeling is the drag on the bolt physique from the raised surfaces within the motion that create the “bolt to bore” alignment I discussed earlier. Although closing the bolt requires a bit extra effort than you is likely to be used to, it doesn’t have any sensible impact on the rifle’s dealing with within the subject.
Allterra makes use of prolonged magazines so the rifles can accommodate handloads with bullets seated out longer than SAMMI spec. The journal, made by Wyatt’s, can deal with cartridges loaded to 2.990 inches, which is .035 longer than the two.955 SAMMI most. That is nice for hunters eager to take full benefit of the 6.5 PRC’s capabilities.
Steel End and Bedding
The metallic end on the rifle may be very effectively executed. The motion and barrel are Cerakoted and the bolt is handled with nickel boron which improves hardness and put on resistance. Even after a number of hundred rounds although my rifle, the bolt reveals hardly any indicators of damage.
The rifle comes with a 20 MOA Picatinny rail that’s secured by 4 fasteners. Allterra additionally takes the additional step of heat-treating their motion screws, which they torque to 55 inch-pounds. The warmth treating hardens the screws and prevents them from flexing when tightened.
Allterra beds their actions across the rear tang and on both aspect of the recoil lug creating ample contact between the motion and inventory. The barrel is free floated beginning about .8 inch in entrance of the recoil lug. The match between the barrel channel and barrel is even alongside the size of the fore-end.
Last Ideas on the Mountain Shadow Metal
Allterra Arms rifles aren’t low-cost. The Allterra Metal, the bottom mannequin, begins at $5,295. The Mountain Shadow Metal is $5,745; the Allterra Carbon is $5,895; the Mountain Shadow Carbon is $6,250; and the Arid is $6,395. You too can purchase the C2 motion from Allterra for $1,295, which is rather like the Convergence besides it doesn’t have the twin barrel tenons.
What distinguishes the corporate from a lot of their competitors is their consideration to element with how they construct their rifles, embrace some fascinating extras they incorporate, and the shopper help they supply.
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They construct rifles in all kinds of cartridges, will develop handloads in your wants, construct the inventory to your dimensions and offer you quite a few methods to complete your rifle.
All that customization doesn’t rely for squat, nonetheless, until the rifle performs. And right here Allterra Arms excels as effectively. Not solely are their rifles correct, however they deal with effectively and are constructed to outlive tough dealing with and excessive circumstances. It’s laborious to place a value on that.
