Bought a Mesa rifle in 300 Win Mag. 3 3-shot groups with 3 different loads and none less than a 3 inch group. Gun is brand new.

Called Christensen and they said have you followed the break in procedure. I have cleaned it after every 3 shot group, but they are telling me I have to cycle 50 rounds through it for it to be accurate.

That doesn't make any sense.

Anyone else had any dealings with this. My Nosler rifle didn't have this issue.

I'd keep shooting through the 50 round break in procedure. Mine started shooting better groups after about half way through and was fouling noticeably less as I got to the end of it. Mine (300 WSM Ridgeline FFT) is shooting right at an inch with Norma Bondstrike factory ammo now and I'm right at 50 rounds now.

Their inconsistent performance is well documented. Seems like it’s a coin toss if you end up with a shooter or POS. I’d bet money after 50 rounds it’s not much better.

Usually Christensen is a P.O.S. Seen several that wouldn't shoot well even attempting a custom load for them.

Also, you're cleaning too much. Shoot 3, cool, shoot 3, cool, shoot 3.

Rounds 7, 8, 9 will tell you how it is going to shoot.

And you have to stick with the exact same ammo for those 9 rounds.

Well, I stand corrected. Followed their 50 round instructions, and about 40 rounds in shooting cheap 150 grain Norma Whitetails, I'm getting a 3/4 inch group.

I guess sometimes you just have to follow the instructions.

So an additional 40 rounds following their procedure took the rifle form a 3" rifle to a .75" rifle?

Doesn't sound right

My Tikka CTR was 1/2 MOA right out of the box. First 3 rounds almost went into the same hole.

Don’t remember precise round count, but somewhere around 15-20. Tikka 6.5 CM three round group.

Most brand new rifles need three volleys of 3 shots, and they are fine.

Some want to be cleaned about 30 rounds in. The next foulers are often less rounds. Last week I had one that put shots 2 and 3 in a bullet and a half hole, after having been cleaned a second time. Clean cold bore shot went one place. Then 2 and 3 moved over slightly, but were tight together. Adjust the scope zero, let the barrel cool and fire one shot to verify zero. Done deal.

Seems like a whole lot of trouble to deal with a Christensen, and get mediocre end results.

I'll bet on a less expensive Tikka every day.

Personal opinion here but I believe that the Christensen Arms actions are fine but their barrels suck; doubly so for their super high dollar carbon wrapped barrels.

I bought one of their super high dollar ARs with a carbon barrel and it would not shoot one bullet anywhere close to another after a few shots. Threw a faxon gunner barrel onto it and it became a tack driver.

Id still like to hear how an additional 40 rounds shaved off 2.25"s

I just cant fathom a rifle shooting 3'' groups, then firing 40 more while cleaning and those groups get sucked down to .75

That doesn't sound right

This is a three shot group out of my new MGM 22-250 barrel on an encore. These are shots 10-12 on the barrel with no cleaning.

Yep.

1400 rounds into my CTR’s life. Just shot these this week. First time I’ve shot it in a long time. Red is 5 shots, other is 3.

And ignore what others tell you.

IMO, Norma makes some of the best value ammo on the market. It's always performed very well in my rifles. Excellent brass too.

The CA chambers I have seen when new are pretty rough, some evidence of chip weld on the reamer, and a good bit of rollover coming off one side of the lands. I can see having to burn 50 rounds to smooth all that out to where the groups become more consistent. If that were a 28 Nosler or similar, the 50 rounds of ammo could be upwards of $200.00 to get that thing broke in, no thanks.

How do they continue to sell rifles, between slow for caliber twists, early signs of pressure, failure to extract or hard extract, accuracy issues, you would think people would simply over look them. Are they buying them for the look, perceived upgrades?

I just don't understand it.

A good sales/marketing department can move a lot of product regardless of quality for a time. Look at Hornady, not that they sell low quality stuff because they don't. I have lots of their stuff on my shelves. They do however have a pretty good marketing team. They made tons of $ promoting and selling 6.5CM, and for good reason. Not sure of the numbers but the 6ARC was pushed pretty hard, just poor timing. The list goes on. Sometimes it's a home run and often not as good. CA will either get it together and survive or run out of marketing steam and fail. All departments have to succeed to stay in business. Personally, I'd buy a Savage and upgrade a few parts and have $ left over for components before I'd buy a CA. That way, I know it will shoot before I load it up.

I think I bought the same gun. 'Never heard about the 50 round thingy. It killed what I shot at. 'Didn't know I was supposed to be pissed.

I must be doing something wrong as my left hand 7-08 after breakin shoots sub minute five shot groups

You mentioned after breaking it in....was it too shooting 3" groups before the break in?

Actually the groups were pretty good, about one and a half but they got around three quarters after break in. Of course, the 7-08 is usually a very tight shooting round.

You're forgetting that closely spaced holes in paper is what impresses some people most.

Actually, they guarantee sub MOA so people expect to get that when they drop $2k or more on one of their rifles.

Creekrunner,

Nice goat!

I must have gotten a good one - I’ve actually been pretty impressed with mine. It’s one of the shorty Ridgeline Scout rifles in 6.5 Creed - these were a few of the groups or shot with factory 120 ELD-Ms as I was on the last 10 or so of the 50 round break in shots. It definitely didn’t start out shooting 3” groups. These are the best two 3 shot groups out of the rifle and it (and I) won’t do that every time, but it never shot over .8” even when I started breaking it in.