by Flyer » 20 Apr 2018, 2:08 pm
Cool. I'm not too fussed over the plastic bits - though if they break I might be! Good to know they're down the road from me in Perth.
Mine arrived yesterday and is an exact replica of the A7 Creedmoor in the latest edition of the SSAA magazine (black and stainless).
But typical Beretta - I think they have blind men assembling their rifles, because the last two Sakos I've bought have had their barrels on the piss something wicked, with both touching the left-hand side of the stock. I don't know if they throw them together and just don't care, or if they fail to tighten the action screws enough so the barrel slips to one side during transit. But after retightening my 85 Varmint to specs, the barrel hasn't moved a bit, so it's probably the former (Beretta don't give a s**t).
Apart from that, I got what I wanted: a nice 6.5 Creedmoor barrel and action in a good synthetic stock. The bolt is as smooth as you would expect a Sako - or Tikka, for that matter - and it seems to have a little less wobble at the end of its travel compared to my 85s, perhaps because it's new. The trigger seems to be good, but the trigger spring is pretty heavy, so it will be interesting to see if there is any creep in it after I lighten it. Both my 85 set triggers are set at just over 1lb (normal trigger - 9oz set trigger), so I may invest in a lighter trigger spring for the A7 depending on how it feels.
The thing I like most about the rifle is how well balanced it is. It's fairly light - I weighed it at the shop and it tipped the scales at 3.455kg with the bolt, mag and Weaver mounts (which came already installed) - and the alloy bedded synthetic stock seems to be complement by the fluted medium-weight 24.4" barrel. When I picked up an A7 Roughtech Range a couple of weeks ago, I did notice it was a bit front heavy with 26" heavy fluted barrel and synthetic stock, but the Pro model feels very nice on the shoulder.
I won't know how it shoots until it's added to my licence (hopefully that won't take too long, but this is WA!) and I'm still deciding what scope to put on it. I've got a couple of Swarovski Z5s - a 3.5-18x44 and a 5-25x52 - so it will be one of those. The 5-25 is on my .223 target rifle, so it may have to be the 3.5-18. Might have to change the Weaver mounts first - depends how the monkeys have installed them.
The laws of physics do not apply to politics.
