Christensen Arms Ridgeline: quality and consistency?

[SDHNTR]

Hey, I was wondering if you had personal experience with Alamo? I have been checking them out a little and then saw you mentioned them. Thanks!

I have three rifles from them. All fantastic shooters. Had some very minor issues with bottom metal on one and they bent over backwards to fix it. The only knock I know of is they have now gotten so popular that lead times have grown longer. But their success is well deserved. Best value in custom rifles by far.

 

[Elk_ADD]

I have three rifles from them. All fantastic shooters. Had some very minor issues with bottom metal on one and they bent over backwards to fix it. The only knock I know of is they have now gotten so popular that lead times have grown longer. But their success is well deserved. Best value in custom rifles by far.

Thanks for the feeback’

 

[Jharden]

Looks like I’m one of the unlucky ones. I bought the Ridgeline 6.5 PRC back in April21. Due to ammo shortages, I have only recently been able to start shooting it. I’ve went thru around 100 rounds with the factory Hornady 143 ELDx with very poor accuracy. It’s consistently inconsistent to put it best. Sometimes it will print just over an inch triangular group and sometimes it will throw a 2” horizontal string. Really no rhyme or reason that I can tell.
This past weekend I went out early, with temps in the 40’s. I would fire a round and set the timer for 10 minutes. As you can see by the results, very random.
I even switched out the Nightforce I had on it originally for a known good Leupold. No luck. I’ve got a return request in as of today. Hopefully they will do the right thing and take care of it. As someone else mentioned, a 2K dollar gun should do better than this.

 

[TuckTruck]

I purchased a 300wsm Ridgeline this year and it has been sub moa with multiple factory loads. I also bought a traverse in 300wm and same story. It’s shot sub moa with Federal, Winchester, Norma, Nosler and Hornady ammo. I’m very happy with both rifles.

 

[archp625]

I will through in my $0.02. I have owned one Christensen Arms Rifle in 6.5 PRC and recently sold it. I bought the rifle at the end of 2019 and really liked it minus a couple things. The first thing was the stock. I hated it. I feel like you had to have hands the size of Shaqs to get comfortable with it. I could not. I sold it and bought a Manners EH1 and had it bedded. That mad the rifle so much better for me. The other thing that I did not love was the sloppiness of the bolt. So much play and not very smooth. Besides that it was great. Shot 0.75 MOA with Factory ELD-X. I was able to reload and get sub 0.50 MOA groups with ELD-M.

Would I buy another one, probably. I did sell it so I could fund a 300 WSM built of a Tikka action. I think Tikka has a much smooth action that the R700 platform.

 

[Jharden]

I did get my RMA this morning to send back. At least they seem to be prompt in the customer service dept.

 

[Jharden]

Received notification on Tuesday that my rifle had been tested and found to not shoot within the MOA guarantee. They swapped the barrels and bedded. They attached the 2 test targets to the email. One was .4 and the other was .2 on a 3 shot group w/ factory Hornady ammo.

It seems Christensen is really taking care of these issues that slip by their QC process. I should have my rifle back on Monday.

4 weeks turnaround for repairs. Not bad.

 

[Mowy33]

I purchased a 300wsm Ridgeline this year and it has been sub moa with multiple factory loads. I also bought a traverse in 300wm and same story. It’s shot sub moa with Federal, Winchester, Norma, Nosler and Hornady ammo. I’m very happy with both rifles.

I was looking at the Traverse as well.. Do you know the final weight of that rifle once loaded up? And do you prefer it over the Ridgeline? Thanks for the help!

 

[Flben]

Received notification on Tuesday that my rifle had been tested and found to not shoot within the MOA guarantee. They swapped the barrels and bedded. They attached the 2 test targets to the email. One was .4 and the other was .2 on a 3 shot group w/ factory Hornady ammo.

It seems Christensen is really taking care of these issues that slip by their QC process. I should have my rifle back on Monday.

4 weeks turnaround for repairs. Not bad.

They turned your gun around in a month? They have had my Mesa for 2 months

 

[Jharden]

They turned your gun around in a month? They have had my Mesa for 2 months

Maybe I just got lucky??

 

[TuckTruck]

I was looking at the Traverse as well.. Do you know the final weight of that rifle once loaded up? And do you prefer it over the Ridgeline? Thanks for the help!

Right now the traverse weighs in at 10 lbs 8 oz. with the sling and a full mag. I don’t have my bipod on it right now but that’s another 15 oz, so I’m actually 11 lbs 7 oz. It has a 26” barrel. I swapped the factory pic rail with a 20 moa nightforce rail. I have a nightforce shv 5-20x56 scope mounted on nightforce rings. The Ridgeline comes in at 8 lbs 13 oz also without the bipod. It has a 24” barrel. It has a nightforce 20 moa pic rail and a zeiss conquest v4 4-16x44 with zeiss rings. I definitely prefer the traverse over the Ridgeline just because it has all of the improvements that I would make to the the Ridgeline anyways. It’s got a better stock, a side baffle brake, lower pic rail and upper pic rail. I’ve added all these to the Ridgeline except the stock (that’s coming in the future). The main reason I bought the Ridgeline is because it’s my wife’s gun and either way I would have to put a different stock on it with a shorter LOP (she’s 5’ 2”), so why spend the extra for a better stock when it’s coming off anyways? If you plan on making any improvements to the Ridgeline out of the box you’ll probably be money ahead just jumping into a Traverse.

 

[Jharden]

Barrel number 2. Same as the first. At this point I’m going to request a refund. Not sure if they will or not. But I’ve spent enough $$ in ammo to know I don’t want another one of these rifles. Just absolutely no consistency. One group will be .5 and the next will be 1.5”. POI constantly changes as well.

 

[Southern Heritage]

Barrel number 2. Same as the first. At this point I’m going to request a refund. Not sure if they will or not. But I’ve spent enough $$ in ammo to know I don’t want another one of these rifles. Just absolutely no consistency. One group will be .5 and the next will be 1.5”. POI constantly changes as well.

Mine are exact way. I traded both in on a atx spotter

 

[Flben]

Barrel number 2. Same as the first. At this point I’m going to request a refund. Not sure if they will or not. But I’ve spent enough $$ in ammo to know I don’t want another one of these rifles. Just absolutely no consistency. One group will be .5 and the next will be 1.5”. POI constantly changes as well.

My Mesa does the same thing. They have had it for 10 weeks now.

 

[Jharden]

I wonder if they ever give full refunds or they just keep changing out barrels?

 

[Go West Old Man]

I wonder if they ever give full refunds or they just keep changing out barrels?

I think it’d be worrisome not knowing if one’s return for repair barrel change-out was actually a brand new replacement barrel …. or maybe one that had previously been returned that they kept as replacement barrel inventory. With the many apparent reports of returns for barrel swaps, I just can’t imagine that they just toss the return barrels in the trash.

 

[danarnold]

I was in the market, read a lot of neg reviews and was able to handle the CA vs a fierce ct rival, trigger was a major diff between them in my hands.
I ended up getting the fierce but haven't been able to put any rounds thru it

 

[Jharden]

I’ve been looking at the Fierce models. May just trade out for one. If I can get a decent trade-in on the CA. .5” guaranteed as well.

 

[LTff247]

I have a ridge line in 300wsm and really like it. It shot two different factory ammo well under Moa. and my hand loads just over 1/2moa out to 450 so far. I did have to send it back but the customer service was outstanding and the covered all shipping. I had the gun back in 3 weeks. It’s not the most refined gun but when you add up all the components to build a similar gun you get a lot for the money. I am happy with mine.

I have an uncle that has a traverse in 300ultra mag. His is very picky which ammo it shoots well but he was able to find a load that shoots well. 200gr accu bonds around 3/4moa.

Question. I'm looking at the Christiansen Arms Ridge line in 300 wsm. Do you have any feeding issues with high BC bullets? Thanks in advance.

 

[Jharden]

Fwiw… I ended up selling the Ridgeline and taking a pretty big hit. But I bought an Alamo Precision, Maverick in 6.5 PRC. This rifle is the absolute best gun I have ever owned. I can’t make it shoot over .5 Moa. I’m working my loads up the ladder to find the sweet spot, but my god, every load seems to shoot good.

Muller works cut barrel, defiance action, AG composite stock, trigger tech diamond.

These guys are putting out a premium product at a reasonable price.