Stag Arms Pursuit barreled action - tech stuff

NorthIdahoDude

Lil-Rokslider
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Aug 29, 2022
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I just laid hands on one of those Stag Arms Pursuit barrel actions that Aero Precision keeps blowing out as blems and overruns. Since I had a real hard time finding any technical specifications on it before I bought it, I figured I would post this for anyone curious who has my kind of OCD.

First up, the weight of things.

Bare action with bolt, as shipped, rail and all, 33 oz even - that's a hair more than a Solis lightweight, but a lot less than a regular Solis.

Barrel (18 inch 308) with thread protector is 2lbs 11.7 oz. I was pretty shocked here, that barrel sure looks and feels a lot fatter than that, but the scale don't lie.

Action with recoil lug and an old Walker trigger I had laying around installed, 36.32 oz. The old school trigger fit just fine without having to remove the 700 style bolt release from it.

Bolt by itself, 13.2 oz.

Picitinny rail with screws and pin - 1.9 oz (making the action without the rail, 31.1 oz - super comparable to the Solus lightweight if you wanted to use Talley lightweights or similar)

As far as I can tell, the bolt is the same as a Solus. I have read elsewhere that the bolt heads will interchange also, I will confirm for sure when the 223 bolt head shows up in a week or two.

The action itself is its own animal compared to the Solus. Set up more like an origin, with a pinned recoil lug, and a removable rail.

While I had the rail off, I test fit some Remington 700 front scope bases, and you could use front 700 basis for both front and rear. This does have the larger screw size, 8-48 I think it is, as well as a pin for the front (it's removable if you didn't want to use it). I seem to recall reading some people set up an origin action by using two front 700 bases with the larger screws, so this is probably the exact same deal.

Overall feels very well made, no rough edges, all the sharp angles have been properly machined so you won't cut yourself on them. The bolt runs very smooth, not quite as smooth as a tika, but getting into that neighborhood.

Dropping a borescope down the barrel, it looks pretty decent. Not on par with a super top shelf hand lapped something something, but definitely a cut above a typical factory barrel on any off the shelf sub-$700 hunting rifle I've ever looked at. To be fair, the borescope doesn't really tell you if a barrel will shoot or not, I have seen some very (very) ugly barrels that shot good, and some rather pretty barrels that shot bad, but by and large, ugly looking barrels shoot bad more often than pretty barrels do.

If I had paid $1,100 or whatever MSRP is, I probably would be kicking myself for not buying an Origin, but at the on sale price, I feel like I stole it.

Anyway, that's what I got off the top of my head, anybody has questions hit me up, and I'll see if I can answer them. I don't currently have a short action stock to put it in, so it will be a while before I shoot it.
 
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Finally ready to go shoot it and see how the OEM barrel shoots. Ultradyne chassis, Amend2 AICS mag, basic b***h AR tube/grip, and a MFT stock that I'll replace in the not too distant future, but for today will ride a rear bag OK.

Really am very pleased with the action and general chassis setup (my first chassis rifle, ever). Even if the OEM barrel isn't that awesome, the option of using any given Savage or Zermatt prefit opens up a whole world of high end barrels for way less than having a gunsmith do a rebarrel job.
 
How much did you pay for the barreled action?

Is the bolt stainless or is it chromoly?

Let us know how it shoots!

It was $549.99 ($582.99 shipped to my FFL, plus $10 for my FFL, $592.99 all-in).

Not sure how to tell what the bolt is made of, since everything is nitride/DLC/something similar coated? I'm about 99.999% sure it just comes of the same assembly line as the Solus, so whatever the Solus is made of, I expect this is the same.

Will do - I'm going to the range tomorrow. Got some 178 ELD-X's over Varget .030 off the lands loaded up, along with some factory Norma 150 grain fodder. Although, I realize in hindsight, I'm a maroon for loading up the ELD-X's for the first go. I should have done some 168 SMK's over Varget - that's the "if the gun won't shoot that, it flat won't shoot anything" load for 308s. The ELD-X's are a "some guns freaking love love love this bullet even more than SMK's, and some guns totally hate hate hate it" bullet. Oh well, if the ELD-X's aren't awesome, I'll go back out with SMK's next time. The Norma 150's are 1.5MOA ammo in everything I've ever tried, so if they shoot about 1.5MOA I won't be shocked. I'm just fire-forming brass with those, basically.

Unless the barrel is way-way-sub-MOA wonder-child, I'm probably going to sell it anyway. I like mine long and skinny, and this one is short and fat; not really my jam, unless it's accurate enough to be extra interesting.
 
Yeah, I did a triple take when I saw the price, and then checked out as fast as I possibly could, LOL
Yeah that’s nuts. I guess you still gotta buy a trigger, bottom metal, and magazine for a “complete” action but still competitive with a tikka coat wise. Any perceived advantage over buying a tikka rifle and stripping it for its action and barrel?
 
Yeah that’s nuts. I guess you still gotta buy a trigger, bottom metal, and magazine for a “complete” action but still competitive with a tikka coat wise. Any perceived advantage over buying a tikka rifle and stripping it for its action and barrel?

I already had a trigger and such. The only other new parts I bought was that ultradyne chassis and the mag.

All that said, I think a Tikka is a better action when judged exclusively on the technical merits. However, this one will let me swap barrels with Savage and Zermatt and such, I already bought the 223 bolt head so I can put a 223 barrel on it for cheap practice, I can get a magnum bolt face if I want to run a 6.5 or 7-6.5 PRC (or SAUM), and I can use polymer mags instead of metal ones in the chassis, and so on. Or to put a sharper point on it, this has way more aftermarket options than a Tikka.
 
Yeah, the deals are just randomly awesome to OK to too much... LOL

Currently they have Solus Ligjhtweight actions with Proof Research Carbon barrels on them for $1099. Those Proof barrels MSRP for like $999, so "buy a Proof Research Carbon barrel for MSRP, and get a Solus Lightweight action for $99!!!" more or less.

Or, you could pitch it as - buy a Proof Research Carbon barrel for 20% off at $799, and get a Solus lightweight action for $299...

7PRC, 300 PRC, 6.5 PRC, all in-stock as I type this. 24 inch barrels.
 
The proof barrel deal is pretty tempting. I'm covered for actions at the moment, but the 2 blem solus actions I've picked up don't appear to have anything wrong I can see.
 
The proof barrel deal is pretty tempting. I'm covered for actions at the moment, but the 2 blem solus actions I've picked up don't appear to have anything wrong I can see.
My loose understanding is that Aero is having some financial hurts, so they're blowing out a bunch of stuff. Selilng stuff as "blem" is a way of not openly devaluing the MSRP on your products. (see Palmeto State Armory's standard marketing procedures, LOL).
 
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Factory Norma ammo - not too bad, actually; I don't think any of my other guns have ever gone under 1.5 MOA with that ammo.
 
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