I recently purchased the Model 12 as my prairie dog gun. I realize that this is not the rifle’s primary objective and what few complaints that I have might be negated if I simply used it as a benchgun.

Today was the firearms second outing. The first outing was simply to get the rifle on paper, get used to its functionality & generate some brass to work up some reloads.


Holy crap am I going bald :-[

The Hardware:
Rifle: Model 12 Benchrest
Caliber: 6MM BR
Scope: Schmidt & Bender 5X25 X 56
Powder: 30 Grains of Varget (0.010 off the lands)
Bullet: Hornady’s 87 grain V-max
Primer: CCI 450
Brass: Lapua

I would appreciate if you would please keep the following in mind:
1) I am NOT a benchrest guy.
2) I am shooting a bullet designed for varmint hunting and not super accurate paper punching.
3) I was shooting from sandbags provided by the range & I just could not get 100% comfortable. I found that the butt of the rifle was
either too low to get the support under it that I wanted or too high.
4) I did not clean the barrel after any of the shot strings. I did not do this for a couple of reasons. First and foremost I not a big fan
of cleaning a barrel until the accuracy starts to slip. Secondly, I really don’t plan to clean the barrel when I go out to shoot prairie
dogs.

What I would change/complaints
1) Trigger is to light for the type of shooting that I normally do
2) The barrel is very, very, very, very, very long.
3) The rifle is poorly balanced because it is so front heavy.

Really liked:
1) Love the trigger … I know I complained about it being too light from the factory; however, it is a great trigger and I have little doubt
that when I increase the pressure that I am going to love it.
2) Love the dual port!
3) Accuracy out of the box is incredible
4) No copper fouling.
5) Minimal recoil

The numbers:
15 rounds of virgin brass shot
Standard dev: 7.17
Average Velocity 2962

15 shots of reloaded brass:
Standard Dev: 8.22
Average velocity 2965

The targets



The three targets above were shot using virgin Lapua brass.
The first two targets were shot at 100 yards (I actually called the fliers on the second target). The third target was a shot at 150 yards.

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The targets above were shot at 100 yards after reloading Lapua brass in a Redding full length type “S” bushing die.

Summary:

I have to say that I am extremely happy with the purchase of this rifle. Although I do have some minor complaints (they are only personal complaints), I can either fix them personally (ie. The trigger) or with minimal cost and minimal effort have a competent gunsmith alter (ie. The barrel length). I was shocked to see that with roughly 150 rounds down the tube that the barrel’s velocities are very consistent and there is almost no copper fouling. Additionally, the fact that the rounds loaded from virgin brass vs. the rounds loaded from once fired brass are so close in velocities & standard deviation I should not have to make any minor adjustment to my long range dope regardless of which I am shooting!

And the dual port… initially I thought it was kind of gimmicky; however, I have to say that I love it. By the end of the day loading had become second nature and the fact that your empties weren’t being tossed off the bench was greatly appreciated.

I did take the rifle out to 400 yards today & suffice to say I think every round would have sent a prairie dog to its maker.

If you have been tossing around the idea of purchasing this rifle, I would recommend that you pull the trigger (pun intended) and buy it.

If you are looking for a more in depth review become a paid member and read the article written by Pat Kennedy. That review alone is worth the price of membership.