My focus as a firearms enthusiast and a recreational and competition shooter has been on well-built firearms and I am always wanting to try new things, whether it is a new cartridge or a new manufacturer’s components. At the latter half of 2024, I made a decision that my next project would be a long action bolt rifle build.
The impetus for a long action build is that I do not have any long action rifles, aside from a USGI M1903A Springfield circa 1944. I wanted to have some sort of precision long action in my cache of firearms.
When it came down to what exactly the build would be for, I decided to just go for a precision hunting / field rifle, even though I do not hunt. I’m not against hunting and would like to experience it. I just never grew up in it so I never learned the nuances of hunting.
That being said, I wanted to build something that is precise, can reach long distance, and would be suitable for North American game so that I would have something that I can still tinker with from time to time at the range, yet have ready to go for when the time came to go out into the field.
With that, I chose to build a rifle on the 7mm PRC cartridge which is one of the newest cartridges in the firearms world. It was released in 2022 by Hornady and is the third Precision Rifle Cartridge (PRC) coming after the 6.5 PRC and 300 PRC. Obviously fitting in between 6.5 PRC and 300 PRC, the 7mm PRC is comparable to the venerable 7mm Remington Magnum, and modernized in design as it was created based on modern bullet design offerings.
In December 2024, I acquired a Defiance Machine anTi-X long action magnum bolt face in full nitride to commit myself to this new project.
I wanted a lighter weight action and was considering the Defiance anTi-X, Lone Peak Arms Fuzion (Alpine cut), and the Terminus Kratos. I am very happy with my Defiance Machine anTi short action that I use for my NRL Hunter rig, and prefits for Defiance are readily available from Proof or any gunsmith, so I decided to go with the anTi-X. However, I was really close to getting the Terminus Kratos because part of me wanted to try a new action (likely going to get a Terminus Zeus in the future to scratch that itch).
My next item to order was the chassis / stock and I decided to go with a Manners Stocks Long Range Hunter (LRH). Last year, I would have chose the MDT HNT26 chassis, but after my issues with zero shift with my NRL Hunter rifle and the fact I swapped out the HNT26 for the MDT CRBN to good effect, I decided to go with a Manners LRH.
The Manners LRH is a very popular rifle stock and gets great word of mouth from people that own one. Since I did not have a Manners stock, I felt this was a good time to try one out and I put in the order for a Manners LRH in High Plains camo. I spec’ed out the Manners for Hawkins Precision M5 DBM bottom metal and a Defiance Machine anTi in long action, of course, along with a full length Arca rail and flush cups.
Since I brought up the Manners LRH configuration, I will clarify that I choose Hawkins Precision M5 DBM bottom metal with the CIP+ magazine specification. I decided to go with the Hawkins Precision M5 DBM because of their reputation in the industry for building a quality DBM.
As far as the barrel, I was going to get an off-the-shelf Proof Research carbon fiber prefit for Defiance in 7mm PRC. However, as I was reading more on the 7 PRC, I discovered reports of clickers with the 7 PRC (as well as the 6.5 PRC and 300 PRC).
‘Clickers’ refers to the effect that takes place after the operator fires a shot, lifts the bolt to open the bolt and extract and eject the cartridge, and comes across a hard stop in the bolt lift at the last portion of the bolt rotation. The user has to use extra force to get the bolt to pop to the end of the bolt rotation travel creating that ‘click’ sound after the bolt gets to the top end of the rotation and the bolt can pull back.
This is occurring because the cartridge case has expanded tight into the chamber and the bolt is having a hard time getting the brass to eject.
This clicker effect has been widely reported across all the three PRC chambers in both factory and custom rifle barrels, and what people have surmised is that after a few reloads of a piece of brass, the sizing die is not getting the brass sized down enough for the chamber, specifically at the lower portion of the body towards the base or headstamp.
You would expect that a SAAMI spec resizing die would properly size brass down for a SAAMI spec chamber, but this does not appear to be the case with the PRC chambers. I researched PRC dies and it appears no one makes a small base sizing die, which is often the solution to these types of situations. A small base sizing die is designed to ensure the entire body of the case is sized down appropriately.
It appears that the solution to clickers is a modified PRC chamber known as the AW or AW2 spec. Alex Wheeler (Wheeler Accuracy) came out with chamber specs for 6.5 PRC, 7 PRC, and 300 PRC, which take the original SAAMI spec and expands the chamber to where the lower portion of the body is. Thus, a resized case will expand with enough leeway to extract without force.
People have been known to obtain an AW/AW2 finish reamer and open up the chamber on factory rifles to mitigate clickers.
With that, I decided forgo an off-the-shelf 7 PRC prefit from Proof and get a custom chambered prefit from a gunsmith using the 7 PRC AW2 chamber reamer.
This led me to Straight Jacket Armory which is where I commissioned and acquired a 26″ Proof Research 1:8″ twist blank that was chambered in the 7 PRC AW2 spec and muzzle threaded to the common 5/8-24 thread pitch.
The finished barrel weighs in less than the Proof Research spec weight of 3 lb 4 oz for a 26″ .284 1:8″ twist blank.
As far as the trigger, I opted to go with the Triggertech Rough Diamond Pro Curved Single Stage.
Earlier this year, I ended up buying several TriggerTech Diamond triggers because of the tariff uncertainty. I know that I always need triggers, for backup or for new projects, and in stocking up on triggers, I one of the TriggerTech triggers I picked up was the Rough Diamond.
For those wondering, the Rough Diamond is designed similarly as a regular Diamond single-stage, but with a heavier minimum pull weight range (8 oz to 40 oz adjustment range) to be more durable in harsher conditions and to have more compatibility with a wider range of 700-style actions. The latter portion is most likely due to issues people report with TriggerTech triggers not timing correctly with Impact Actions. Considering Impact Actions are one of the most popular actions on the market and TriggerTech is one of the most popular triggers on the market, it makes sense that TriggerTech would try to accommodate for Impact compatibility.
That being said, I picked the Rough Diamond off my shelf for this rifle build mainly to test out the Rough Diamond and due to the fact that if this is a field rifle, having more durability is desirable.
For the muzzle brake, I went with the same muzzle brake I use in all my precision rifle builds which is the Area 419 Hellfire. I specifically acquired the Hellfire Match in stainless steel.
This is the first stainless steel Hellfire brake I acquired as I normally get a Nitride finish brake. However, I wanted to try stainless steel to use cleaning methods that are more effective at removing the carbon fouling, but is too aggressive for nitride.
The scope that I picked for this rifle build was actually obtained well before I started this project. I bought a Leupold Optics Mark 4HD 6-24×52 M5C3 Side Focus FFP PR2-MIL in August 2024. I have an industry discount with Leupold Optics and I wanted to try out the Mark 4HD since I already own a Mark 5HD (3.6-18x TREMOR3 variant).
This scope sat factory sealed in a cabinet for a year until I finally got around to putting this rifle together.
Lastly, the scope rings I used are the Warne Mountain Tech 34mm Medium Matte Rings (7221M).
I had originally wanted to use the Area 419 HUNT scope rings since I have been using Area 419 scope mounts and rings for all my new builds. However, the Defiance Machine anTi-X has a single Picatinny rail cut for the rear scope ring and the Area 419 scope rings require two Picatinny rail cuts as the two clamp screws run all the way through as the recoil lugs for the scope ring.
Thus, I ended up having to go with a ring that utilizes a single lug design and as I was putting this rifle together on a weekend, I went to a local big box chain retailer and opted to go with what I felt was a quality available option from the shelf rather than waiting another several days for an online order, and this happened to be Warne.
After I got the Warne scope rings, I slapped it all together and then took it out to the range for a late Sunday afternoon range session to break it in.
Defiance anTi-X 7mm PRC Rifle Build Sheet
| Part/Service | Make/Model | Cost (MSRP or Direct Manufacturer price at time of purchase) |
|---|---|---|
| Action | Defiance Machine anTi-X long action, Magnum bolt face, nitrided | $1695 |
| Barrel | Proof Research carbon fiber 26″, .284, 1:8″, Sendero contour black, chambered in 7mm PRC (AW2) by Straight Jacket Armory | $1325 (price is for blank and labor from Straight Jacket Amory) |
| Muzzle Brake | Area 419 Hellfire Match 30cal Stainless | $195 |
| Trigger | TriggerTech Rough Diamond Pro-Curved Single-Stage | $300 |
| Chassis | Manners Long Range Hunter, Long Acton, with Arca and flush cups | $1139 |
| Scope Base | N/A | Integral to action |
| Scope Mount | 7221M Warne Mountain Tech 34mm Medium Height rings | 170 |
| Scope | Leupold Optics Mark 4HD 6-24×52 M5C3 Side Focus FFP PR2-MIL | $1500 |
| TOTAL | $6324 |
I bought some factory 7mm PRC ammunition to get a baseline muzzle velocity out of my barrel. I usually run factory ammunition for this purpose, particularly when I am trying a cartridge I have not reloaded for. However, I was aware that recent factory Hornady 7mm PRC ammunition has a reputation of being slower than advertised on the box. Many resources have indicated this is due to a change in powder used since the initial debut of the cartridge, as the powder that was used originally by Hornady became unavailable.
Whether or not that is true, I obtained Federal Premium 7mm PRC 175gr ELD-X ammunition to have another brand of ammunition other than the Hornady Precision Hunter 7mm PRC 175gr ELD-X ammunition, as well as Hornady Outfitter 7mm PRC 160gr CX (copper solid).
Hornady Precision Hunter 7PRC 175gr ELD-X out of the brand new barrel reflected the lower velocities that the industry was reporting last year in 2024.
Hornady states that Hornady Precision Hunter 7mm PRC 175gr ELD-X will have a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps out of a 24″ barrel. Obviously, this is not the case in this 26″ Proof Research barrel at only 2916 fps.
Federal Premium 7mm PRC with the same 175gr ELD-X bullet came closer to the 3000 fps specification that Federal also indicates for their ammunition at 2977 fps, but still short of 3000 fps.
Hornady Outfitter 7mm PRC 160gr CX is rated by Hornady with a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps out of a 24″ and in reality through the 26″ Proof barrel came in at ~2992 fps.
This is technically slower than expected given the 3000 fps is for a 24″ barrel.
As far as reloading, I picked up the Atlas Development Group (ADG) Fat Boy full-length resizing die after I saw at SHOT Show 2025 that they were releasing dies for specific cartridges.
What caught my attention is that they were going with 1-1/4″ dies to get thicker die walls to ensure strict tolerance in resizing, which I felt is critical given the PRC clicker issue discussed earlier.
Note that it appears the ADG dies production is outsourced to Micro Precision.
For the seating die, I went with my usual option and obtained a Forster micrometer seating die in 7mm PRC.
As far as brass, I went with ADG 7mm PRC brass. I did not opt for Hornady brass because it is notoriously soft and the only other 7PRC brass option is Peterson Brass, which I have used for 6mm Creedmoor. I opted for ADG because I wanted to try out ADG brass as I had never used it before. However, if Lapua was available at the time I started testing my rifle build, I would have went Lapua (and have in-stock notifications setup with various Lapua dealers).
I locally sourced some Hodgdon H1000 as it seemed to be the most popular Hodgdon powder for 7mm PRC based on online research in the community in terms of accuracy and temperature insensitivity.
As far as bullets, I decided to try loads using Berger Bullets 7mm 175r Elite Hunter. I selected this bullet because 175gr seemed like a good balance to obtain over 3000 fps and I wanted to use a bullet that would be accurate (Berger reputation) and lean towards hunting/field use in the event I needed to have hunting ammunition. I also acquired Barnes 7mm 168gr LR-X copper solid since California requires lead-free ammunition for hunting.
With the primers, this is actually my first magnum cartridge and I was able to locally source Federal Gold Medal Large Rifle Magnum Match (GM215M) primers.
Berger Bullets provided me with their load data for the 7mm 175gr Elite Hunter in 7mm PRC and I worked up a load with H1000. I ended up at around 68.5gr to 68.8gr of H1000 which put me above 3000fps in the 26″ barrel.
However, the standard deviation I was seeing was quite unsettling at the high-tens and often exceeding 20fps with 5-round aggregates. While 5-round strings is very small when trying to analyze loads, SDs are almost always small in small aggregated samplings. So the fact I was not seeing low-tens or single digit SD with a 5-round string was disconcerting.
After reading up on magnum cartridges and primer choices in real-world use, I decided to try CCI BR2 large rifle benchrest primers. These are not magnum primers and supposedly (unconfirmed) CCI BR primers have either thicker or harder primer cups compared to the CCIs standard primers.
In my testing, the same load with CCI BR2 instead of Federal GM215M primers produced single digit SDs.
I also tried basic Winchester Large Rifle primers, although these are older production primers (from about 20 years ago; blue packaging), and these also produced single digit SDs with some impressive, albeit small sampling size, groups.
Even CCI 200 Large Rifle (not magnum) primers produced lower SD than Fed GM215M.
I wanted to see if a different large rifle magnum primer would produce better SDs than Fed GM215M and I tried old production CCI 250 primers. I had a couple 100ct sleeves from 25+ years ago in the older CCI packaging sitting in my primer cabinet.
Thus, it appears that Federal GM215M Large Rifle Magnum Match primers seem to be a bit inconsistent and I am currently running CCI BR2 or any other Large Rifle primer in my cabinet for this 7mm PRC rifle.
The accuracy with all the primers are about the same and this rifle appears to shoot around .6 MOA or so with 5-shot aggregates and when I expand to 10-shot aggregates, it is around 1 MOA. I feel like this rifle does want to climb as the barrel heats up which is to be expected with a long carbon fiber wrapped barrel, particularly in a magnum cartridge.
In some limited testing, I have found that Vihtavuori N565 shoots nearly identical as Hodgdon H1000. I settled on 68.8gr H1000 with the Berger Bullets 7mm 175gr Elite Hunter which is around 3020 fps and 68.5gr N575 is hovering around the same muzzle velocity.
The above 5-shot group was 3021.92 fps average with an SD of ~4.4.
However, after about 200 rounds or so in this barrel, I noticed the velocities were creeping up. I dropped the load from 68.8gr of H1000 to 68.5gr of H1000 and it still maintains around 3050 fps with the Berger 175gr Elite Hunter.
Furthermore, I re-shot five rounds of Federal Premium 7mm PRC 175gr ELD-X which originally shot with an average of 2977 fps in the first few rounds of life in the barrel and after 200+ rounds. The resulting velocity was just over 3000 fps, which is what it is rated at.
What is my assessment of this rifle build project?
The rifle is performing about how I would have expected a lightweight rifle in a magnum cartridge to be. In larger sample sizes, this rifle is hovering under 1MOA which is a fair expectation. With smaller sample sizes (e.g., 3-shot groups), the rifle will perform under 1/2 MOA.
The Defiance Machine anTi-X is a great lightweight action and is going to be one of the lightest, if not the lightest, in its class. The operation is smooth and Defiance is well-supported in aftermarket prefits.
Straight Jacket Armory delivered superbly with the Proof Research carbon fiber blank, chambered with a 7mm PRC AW2 reamer.
The Manners Long Range Hunter is a great stock, but in retrospect, I feel that I should have gone with the Manners mini-chassis instead of epoxying and bedding pillars and the Hawkins M5 DBM bottom metal. I had to re-bed the action a few times because I was having issues with the release agent not properly releasing the action and the bedding material separating from the stock. If I buy another Manners, I will opt for the mini-chassis.
I am did get an Arca rail included with the Manners LRH and I did not think about aftermarket rails during the ordering. Had I considered this, I would have opted for a Sawtooth Rifles Dependabilt Arca rail instead, as Sawtooth Rifles Dependabilt rails incorporate RRS-Lock, which I use on all my tripod clamps and most of my bipod clamps.
The TriggerTech Rough Diamond feels just as superb as a ‘standard’ TriggerTech Diamond single-stage and I cannot tell the difference in the trigger break. As far losing 4 oz of trigger pull capability (8 oz to 40 oz range, vs 4 oz to 32 oz on a ‘standard’ Diamond single-stage), this is not an issue for me as I do not adjust triggers below half a pound.
I am happy that I purchased the stainless (non-nitrided) Area 419 Hellfire Match brake. Cleaning it with CLR is immensely easier compared to trying to clean a nitrided brake. All I have to do is soak the stainless brake in CLR for 15 min and the carbon falls right off. Any carbon that remains can be wiped off easily with a cotton swab. I will be opting out of nitrided brakes in the future, as applicable.
The Leupold Optics Mark 4HD 6-24×52 PR2 is a decent scope. The clarity is about where I would expect the optical performance to be at this price range and the turrets are arguably one of the best designs in the industry. I honestly feel like this Mark 4HD has a better image than my Mark 5HD 3.6-18×44.
Full disclosure: I did get the Leupold Optics Mark 4HD 6-24×52 PR2 using the Leupold Optics VIP program so my price is better than the standard retailer pricing the average person sees online or in stores. This made the Mark 4HD a better buy in my case. If I were to pay the standard retailer pricing for the Mark 5HD 6-24×52, I honestly might look into the Vortex Optics Razor HD LHT 4.5-22×50 which is the closest competing scope in this class.
Overall I am very satisfied with the outcome of this rifle build project. This a solid way to go my first long action precision bolt rifle. The 7mm PRC is definitely a magnum-style cartridge as far as recoil, yet is easily manageable from a recoil standpoint.
Addendum:
I was experience some zero shift issues on the vertical plane by as much as 3″ at 100 yards. After various troubleshooting, I decided to try a new scope to isolate the issue. I ended up ordering a Nightforce Optics NX8 4-32 4-32x50mm F1 TREMOR5 and a set of Nightforce Optics 30mm, 1.125″ tall, 6-screw rings.
The NX8 has favorable reputation as being a rugged scope with excellent image quality in a lightweight package. Thus, I figured this would be a quality alternative the Leupold Mark 4HD if I were to put a new scope on this rifle.
I picked up the TREMOR5 version only because it was what was in-stock immediately through Expert Voice (a retailer that facilitates discounts for persons affiliated in the firearms industry in some fashion, such as Military or Law Enforcement).
After I installed the scope and sighted it in, I took to the range on multiple occasions to check to see if there was a zero shift and it appears to have been eliminated.
I am going to test the Leupold Optics Mark 4HD 6-24x50mm in the next couple months to determine if the scope is truly malfunctioning (reticle moving on vertical plane on recoil), or if my zero shift issue was due to the mounting. As for this rifle build, I am likely going to keep the Nightforce Optics NX8 4-32 4-32x50mm F1 TREMOR5 on this gun.
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