I have an X Bolt western hunter. I believe it was the 2020 SHOT show model, as it was discontinued quickly. It’s a blued barrel 6.5 creed with a 26” barrel and an adjustable cheek riser. It shoots stupid good, never strings shots and is extremely consistent. Balances well, and for a sporter stock, there’s nothing that fits me better.
That said, I’m not a fan of their scope mounting solution. 18 inch pounds max torque on the scope bases just doesn’t inspire confidence, and I’ve seen several of them stripped out. Given everything we preach here on the ‘slide about bullet proofing rifle setups, the x bolt doesn’t inspire confidence. Also, the maximum allowable action torque is only 35 inch lbs. again, that just seems way too low. I’ve learned since I picked mine up that these low torque values are due to the fact that their actions are thinner walled, a concession they had to make in order to drop some weight.
There’s also LOTS of reports of the x bolt barrels still being difficult to remove. There’s actually lots of threads on other forums about guys tweaking their actions removing the factory barrels, due to the fact that the action walls are so thin.
I won’t ever get rid of mine, but given my experiences and what I’ve learned since picking mine up, I won’t pick up another. I do love mine and love carrying it and shooting it, it’s actually the rifle that went to colorado for 3rd season with me. But now that I’ve finally jumped both feet into Tikka, the x bolt doesn’t get much love anymore.