If my house were on fire and I could only save one gun, it would be my Alamo Precision Rifles 6.5 Creedmoor. I have rifles and pistols that are worth more money than the APR, but none are worth more to me. In fact, I have a strong feeling that the guys at Alamo Precision are going to end up disrupting the high-end bolt action gun market.
Custom rifle builder Alamo Precision, located between Dallas and Fort Worth, already builds fantastic, butter smooth, tack drivers of guns on current high-end or trued actions. But the big, breaking news here is Alamo Precision’s own APR action, made with a Remington 700 short or long action footprint to Alamo’s unique specifications by Thompson Leh.
Cycle the APR action and you’ll do the same thing everyone else does: stare deep into the eyes of the person that handed the rifle to you, speechless. It won’t even be awkward. The two of you will share a brief moment of clarity as a result of that bolt throw that you will never forget. Now a reaction like that has to cost a fortune, right? Not so much.
The APR action rocks a Picatinny optics rail as standard, with a built-in 20 MOA cant. That extra elevation is mighty handy as you will almost definitely be shooting at extended ranges. For my custom build I requested a 6.5 Creedmoor chambering with a 20-inch barrel, and it has already proven itself to be accurate at 1,800 yards . . . but more on that later.
I don’t know if Alamo Precision’s “ratchet fluting” helps with cooling, and I don’t really care. It just looks amazing.
Take a gander at that clean machining. Did I mention the APR action runs just $799? That’s trued, finished, railed, spiral fluted, smooth as glass, and ready to kick some ass.
The APR action also comes standard with a mechanical ejector, left-side bolt release, threaded-on bolt knob, spiral fluted bolt, pinned recoil lug, tool-less fire control removal, and controlled round feeding. Bolt faces are available in .473” (.308) and .540″ (magnum).
For my custom rifle build I chose to use a TriggerTech Remington 700 Diamond trigger. Adjustable from 4 ounces to 32 ounces — that’s a quarter pound to two pounds! — and crisp as that proverbial glass rod we’re all seeking, this trigger is simply amazing and worthy of a stand-alone review.
My APR rifle sits in a Grayboe Ridgeback stock, bedded and custom painted by Alamo Precision, and features the Grayboe detachable box magazine system. The Ridgeback features a great pistol grip with palm swell, adjustable cheek rest and length of pull, and a mess of M-LOK slots on the flat-bottomed forend. It’s well made, stiff, and comfortable.
A full review of the Grayboe Ridgeback (by Ryan McMillan) stock will follow.
Okay, but can this custom rifle built on APR’s new, semi-custom action shoot straight? Sure it’s smooth and sexy, but it’s what’s downrange that counts.
This 5-shot group was shot at 100 yards with Barnes Precision Match 140 gr ammo. That’s under (if barely) a quarter minute — 0.249 MOA — with factory ammo, shot off a bipod and a makeshift rear bag. The APR will put this ammo through the same hole all day long if I do my part.
Winchester Expedition Big Game Long Range 142 gr hunting ammo — which is awesome stuff, incidentally — turned in 5-shot groups typically just over a half minute. A 0.601 MOA group is seen above.
The solid copper expanding BXS hunting ammo from Browning was very comfortably sub-MOA with this 0.712 minute group.
Federal Gold Medal Berger 130 gr turns in groups from just over half to about 1 MOA for me. I think I pulled that low left one, but the group above is still right on one MOA. This load and Federal’s Berger Juggernaut loads truly shine at extended long ranges, though . . .
So I brought the APR, the really nice SIG TANGO6 scope seen in all the photos here, a ZRODelta bipod, and a willingness to learn to Jay Monych for some long range shooting instruction at Triple C Range outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. Jay walked me through some learnin’, we verified zero, and we started applying long range shooting maths and wind reads on Triple C’s steel. Guess what? On my first day shooting past 450 yards I went three for three at 1,800. That’s a mile plus 40 bonus yards!
With factory ammo. In fairly windy conditions. Off a bipod. Shooting not .338 Lapua Magnum or 28 Nosler or some other fancy ELR job, but good ol’ 6.5 Creedmoor [Jeremy edit: .308 could NOT have done this].
Back to those targets: 0.86 MOA with Hornady Black 140 gr.
Hornady’s 120 grain ELD Match will turn in sub-half-minute groups from the APR when I do my job. Like that Barnes load, it’s fully capable of putting bullet after bullet through the same ragged hole. Even with the sneeze shot above, that’s a 0.593 MOA group.
At 400 yards on a gusty day with that Winchester Big Game Long Range 142 gr, Jeremy shot a half-minute group. Again, this is factory hunting ammo. The APR will shoot sub-quarter-minute, five-round groups with ammo it really likes, including fresh-from-the-box factory loads, all day long.
Thanks to a Lyman reloading bench shopping spree, we’ll be working up a custom load for this rifle beginning in the new year. Stay tuned for those results! Though, if I’m honest, a quarter minute is as still as I can physically keep a rifle on a bipod anyway, and Jeremy can’t even pass the driver’s license requirements with his blurry right eye. We’ll have to lock this thing in a rest to see if we can produce a five-round group that looks like a single hole.
Okay. Now the price. Are you sitting down for this?
A custom-made Alamo Precision Rifles rifle starts at just over $2,000. Replicating my setup will run you about $2,750. Click here to start building out your own.
Texas-based Alamo is delivering a full-on custom, sub-quarter-minute, smooth-as-silk rifle for a bit over two grand. That’s some serious accuracy at an incredible price. You choose whatever caliber your heart desires, whatever barrel length and muzzle treatment, twist rate, barrel fluting pattern, stock, stock finish, trigger, bottom metal, and so much more. Or visit the website and choose from dozens of factory-configured rifles like their Maverick and Ranger models.
Unfortunately, this review doesn’t end on a happy note. I lent my APR to Jeremy so he could make the video above, and he insists he lost it in a tragic sail boating accident.
Specifications: Alamo Precision Rifles Custom 6.5 Creedmoor
Barrel: 20″ Sendero Profile
Stock: Grayboe Ridgeback
Magazine Assembly: Grayboe DBM
Trigger: TriggerTech Diamond
Weight: 9.8 Pounds
Floats: No
MSRP: $2,049 on up, depending on options. This build clocks in around $2,750.
Ratings (out of five stars):
Reliability: * * * * *
It’s a bolt action and has been 100% reliable. This thing feeds just oh-so-dang-smooth.
Accuracy: * * * * *
Better than quarter-minute five-shot groups with factory ammo. What more could one want?
Overall: * * * * *
If this rifle cost twice what it did I would still give it five stars. I wouldn’t change a thing.