Seekins Element Hunter – Early Thoughts

[RAM190Hog]

My Trijicon Tenmile shows up tomorrow and I’ll build up my Element Hunter. Keeping an eye on this thread concerning bagrider and load data.

Any of reloading gurus point me in direction of best value for a die? Just dipping my toe into reloading, a buddy told me if I bought the dies he’d teach me and help with load development and we’d go from there.

 

[BurchJ]

Initial shooting was a little inconsistent.

The maven seems to track decent enough though!

She jumps vertically on the shot. Also it's a really light setup. Need to get the can and a bipod on there. The 3 lbs would help. Also think I'm going to 3d print a bag rider. All those things should help with the jump.

Factory ammo was slow slow. 2650 147 eldms.

Played with a few handloads to push the pressure a bit.

58 gr of n565 got us like 2750 with 147s. 58.5 was near 2790.

58 gr n565 with 156s gave 2720 fps.

No pressure signs found. So I've probably got room...and maybe plenty of it. Be great to get those 156s to 2800 at least.

Fairly rushed process. Grumpy old fuddy shooter on a hot afternoon.

Going to load up a mess of 147s at 58 gr. Get those shot. Get up near 100 rounds through it and revisit the load development. Really want the 156s to shoot well for us.

Did you have any luck printing a bag rider?

 

[schmidty3]

Did you have any luck printing a bag rider?

Didn't mess with it. Should be easy enough. My dad wouldn't know what to do with it if it had one anyway .

I may steal it to shoot factory division at nrl at some point. (If i decide i vibe with it). He's already hinted at me taking it for a spin. Get it fully vetted out etc.... if I do. I'll probably do one then.

 

[wind gypsy]

My Trijicon Tenmile shows up tomorrow and I’ll build up my Element Hunter. Keeping an eye on this thread concerning bagrider and load data.

Any of reloading gurus point me in direction of best value for a die? Just dipping my toe into reloading, a buddy told me if I bought the dies he’d teach me and help with load development and we’d go from there.

Most dies will work fine. I'm partial to Forster full length sizing dies with necks honed to avoid over working brass. I typically get their micrometer seating dies as well as they are less expensive than the Redding micrometer dies and seem to work as well for me.

Hornady, RCBS, Forster dies all work fine. Lee will be less expensive yet but i've never used them so cant weigh in, probably also fine.

 

[Tweeder]

Looking forward to following your review here!

I picked up the new Element M3 barreled action in 6mm Creedmoor earlier this summer. I'm running it in Seekin's "Slam" chassis which they offer via their Custom Shop and is essentially identical to the "Hunter" chassis other than it utilizes a couple more carbon bits. I also have a Havak PH2 in 6mm Creedmoor that i've had since early 2023. I've been shooting these two rifles back to back for comparison sake the past couple months and have a couple thoughts:

• Accuracy: both rifles shoot much better than myself and every bit as well as the various custom guns amongst our crew of hunting budies.
• Element M3 Action:
  • the new action with the 60 degree bolt throw is a strong improvement over the prior action. It is significantly smoother and far less susciptble to binding.
  • my Element M3 barreled action is faster than my PH2 Havak barrled action despite being shorter.. This has been a weird one for me as I was expecting a 50-100fps penalty moving to the shorter Element M3 barreled action. In reality, i'm getting a 15 - 25fps increase in velocity.. Is the new action (designed for higher pressures) aiding in this improvement? or just coincidence?
  • the quick exchange barrel system works and is extremly simple. I removed and reinstalled my barrel to test things out. Took less than 30 minutes, spacing held up perfect, and the gun continues to hammer. Seekins is selling pre-fits for $500 on Euro Optic. I jumped on a 22 ARC prefit (and their ARC bolt head) after seeing how easy the switch was. Should be nice having my "trainer" rig on the same platform as my hunting rig between seasons.
• Slam/Hunter Chassis:
  • Everything is tight, solid, and functional on the Slam/Hunter chassis. My one complaint is the bottom of the buttstock is not great for getting supported. If anyone knows of a third party bag rider that would work, i'm all ears!
  • my PH2 Havak is slightly easier to spot impacts with. I'm assuming it has to do with the 2+ pounds of extra weight over the Element M3 / Slam set up which is ~ 8.4 pounds with an NX8, Scythe Ti, and Seekins Medium Rings.

Overall I think Seekins may be on to something special here. For ~ $3,500, one can buy both an Element M3 Hunter (pick your caliber) and a 22 ARC trainer barrel. You essentially have a hunting rig and a trainer rig all with one lightweight and foldable chassis platform. Add on Seekin's quality and customer service and it starts to get pretty compelling.

How much did the slam chassis set you back? You were able to order just the chassis thru custom shop? I’m waiting for them to release the element hunter stock as a component but I don’t thinks that’s happening any time soon

 

[4th_point]

I got to shoot an Element Hunter a couple weeks ago, also in 6.5mm PRC with the 20" carbon barrel.

Only complaint/wish would be flush-cup/QD on the side of the fore end, but that's easy to fix.

 

[youngbuck96]

I can attest that it is deadly!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bater]

Nice work!! Man I can’t wait for mine, living vicariously through you guys that have them already.

 

[Timjohnson11]

Quick update for y'all. Glen Seekins confirmed that they have a bag rider for the Element Hunter and Slam Chassis developed and that he's currently testing it.

 

[Idaho Mtns]

Update on the Seekins 6.5prc

As of yesterday, it has seen 110 rounds of various factory and custom ammo. Factory ammo is consistently ~100 FPS or more slower through this 20” barrel than what the factory boxes state. Custom loads for the same/similar bullets gain that all back. Getting nice sub MOA groups with the 134 Power Hammer and the 127 Barnes LRX and I’ve settled on the 134 Hammer for this season’s elk outing.

Observations

Range Bags - When shooting off bags at the range, noticed some lack of stability. The flat rail is great for front bags, but the folding stock does not have much surface area for a rear bag. So used a different bag and placed a little more forward (rather than under the recoil pad area) which fixed the rear stability issue for range day testing.



Shooting Tripod – The ARCA plate mount installed by the factory is too far back on the Mlock rail (far left in the photo next to the mag). Still getting good shots off the tripod but a more forward position will add stability and less movement with the muzzle. And with a suppressor, it is way out of balance. I plan to move the plate forward.



Bolt - At around ~ 80 rounds or so, the bolt sort of “binded up” and didn’t want to eject a spent round. With a little more pressure, it ejected the round and worked fine the rest of the range day. The rifle came pretty dry from the factory and I only slightly oiled a couple of months ago. Put some grease in designated spots per the manual and that has smoothed out the action.

Trigger – Seemed a little on the heavy side from the factory but was easy to adjust down.

Overall, great rifle. And it sure fits nice in the backpack.

 

[Bater]

Sure appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Keep it coming please

 

[youngbuck96]

Update on the Seekins 6.5prc

As of yesterday, it has seen 110 rounds of various factory and custom ammo. Factory ammo is consistently ~100 FPS or more slower through this 20” barrel than what the factory boxes state. Custom loads for the same/similar bullets gain that all back. Getting nice sub MOA groups with the 134 Power Hammer and the 127 Barnes LRX and I’ve settled on the 134 Hammer for this season’s elk outing.

Observations

Range Bags - When shooting off bags at the range, noticed some lack of stability. The flat rail is great for front bags, but the folding stock does not have much surface area for a rear bag. So used a different bag and placed a little more forward (rather than under the recoil pad area) which fixed the rear stability issue for range day testing.

View attachment 945317

Shooting Tripod – The ARCA plate mount installed by the factory is too far back on the Mlock rail (far left in the photo next to the mag). Still getting good shots off the tripod but a more forward position will add stability and less movement with the muzzle. And with a suppressor, it is way out of balance. I plan to move the plate forward.

View attachment 945318

Bolt - At around ~ 80 rounds or so, the bolt sort of “binded up” and didn’t want to eject a spent round. With a little more pressure, it ejected the round and worked fine the rest of the range day. The rifle came pretty dry from the factory and I only slightly oiled a couple of months ago. Put some grease in designated spots per the manual and that has smoothed out the action.

Trigger – Seemed a little on the heavy side from the factory but was easy to adjust down.

Overall, great rifle. And it sure fits nice in the backpack.

Can you just unscrew the arca plate and move it to one of the more forwarwd M-lok slots? I've honestly never even looked at or used the one on my rifle haha.

 

[Idaho Mtns]

Can you just unscrew the arca plate and move it to one of the more forwarwd M-lok slots? I've honestly never even looked at or used the one on my rifle haha.

It needs an allen wrench. I went to loosen it a few days ago and didn’t feel comfortable as there was a little bit of slop and didn’t want to strip it. Going to hand off to my gunsmith that has precision tools.

The other problem with the location of the arca plate by the factory is that it interferes when resting on a tripod using a tac plate w/bag. So moving the rifle ARCA plate forward will fix both issues of affixing to an ARCA tripod mount or shooting of the tripod tac plate w/bag.