S2H winter class 2026 observations and lessons learned

[Gmr777]

No. Not as reliable as Tikka, Sako, Blaser, MRC, Winchester, etc. No matter what you do to the action, you are left with the least reliable mainstream trigger design on the market. And there is no fixing it.

@Formidilosus - how about Weatherby actions? Curious where they fall in this discussion since they are not a R700 clone, at least the older ones. Supposed to be more patterned off a Sako action I believe.

 

[Formidilosus]

@Formidilosus - how about Weatherby actions? Curious where they fall in this discussion since they are not a R700 clone, at least the older ones. Supposed to be more patterned off a Sako action I believe.

I haven’t used any in a while, there were two MK5’s brought to one of the first classes. They did poorly, and by day two were functionally unusable due to dust/debris.

 

[JohnB]

They are not the same. The Maven does not have a box, and your brain/eye does not see it as such. And no, having a mil reticle is not the same as the dot and circle bracket at 1 mil that the THLR has. Technically it is the same, functionally it is not. The “aim long” and “aim short” portions are intuitive as hell on the THLR- there is not counting, or double checking- it’s right there drawing your eye to it.

Funny, up until this remark and a closer look at the posted reticle I would have bet money that my RS1.2 had a box. I saw your comment and had to do a double take.

 

[RockAndSage]

One more thing that got discussed but hasn't been posted about in this thread is gun lube. I have used various lubes over the years with mixed success, but as was brought up in discussions there are lots of negative side effects of common lubes (toxicity, off-gassing at temp, etc...). After hearing of TW25b, I will be giving it a go on a few guns to see how it does. My backup plan is to raid the pantry and de-virginize some olive oil per @Formidilosus recommendation.

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TW is one of the best greases out there. The batch I tested is also the only grease besides the Geissele stuff and the cherry balmz Winter Balm that are legitimately low-temp greases, that will perform below -40F in actual guns. Very few oils do that, even though most claim to go a lot colder. It's absolute BS. But those are the only 3 greases marketed to guns that actually work on guns with the springs and cycling energies they have, at temps below -40F, that I know of.

The only really notable limitation on the TW is with suppressed semi-autos or DI ARs, as its boundary lubricant is teflon particles. Teflon does off-gas some nasty stuff at temps common in those guns, but it's not an issue at all in manual actions, and unsuppressed semi-autos that aren't DI guns. A suppressed bolt gun in the West is an excellent application for it.

 

[RockAndSage]

I wonder if there's a 'damping grease' they use in that assembly that maybe varies from lot to lot?

Good thinking. It's more likely to be entirely different greases, rather than lot to lot differences. Damping greases in general do tend to be extremely temp-sensitive though.

 

[RockAndSage]

@Formidilosus - how about Weatherby actions? Curious where they fall in this discussion since they are not a R700 clone, at least the older ones. Supposed to be more patterned off a Sako action I believe.

Glad you asked about this, I've been meaning to ask Form about his thoughts on the MK V actions for awhile, as they tend to just not get mentioned much at all.