Aim Surplus has the Solus SA for $638 after tax/free ship to FFL. They also have a 22" 6.5/Bravo/Solus for 1260. Nuts!
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2023 Black Friday & Veterans Day Sale Thread
- Thread starter FNG1001
- Start date
Anyone have any 1st or even 2nd hand knowledge about the Aero Solus?
Tried looking up reviews online, which I did find some, but didn’t find any I felt were of great quality, and the majority of my time ended up being just sifting through a sea of posts that really were only people speculating on the action or BA but hadn’t handled or shot one.
If you can give some insight, was your experience with their complete BA or with an action that had been fitted with an aftermarket barrel? Sounds like the action will accept Origin prefits if I’m understanding what I read correctly.
Thanks!
Correct. The Solus can fit Savage small shanks with a barrel nut and Origin prefits. If I recall correctly some people were having head space issues on early models but I think Aero was sending out replacement bolt heads to them.
I’m building a .25 Creed on one right now. Only part I’m missing is the barrel that’s on order from carbon six.
Yep they take Bighorn/Origin prefits.Didn’t know about origin pre-fits.
I too use Nanuk but also have double digits worth of Pelican cases. If anything is wrong with them, they replace them no questions asked. The process is super simple and I've since replaced countless 1650s and 2 1750s due to damage. Recently replaced a 1510 that has literally been on every continent because it finally cracked at the lid coming back overseas. Just contact them and they ship you a new case after following their procedure (basically, they will ask for before and after pictures of you drilling holes into the pelican label with the RMA # written across).
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No, the Solus barreled action is for factory ammo options only. This is why the 6 BR/BRA/Dasher option isn't on there, nor is the 22 GT. Not because we can't do it.
We're also not chambering anything Sherman any longer because Rich had a fit when I told a customer that didn't know how to reload that it wasn't a good option for him to buy a fireform-only, reload-only wildcat. Nor would I guarantee speeds reported by other people, including Rich, with any barrel we made. Whether it was an Osprey, Rock, Proof, or any other blank supplied by the customer. Apparently I was "driving away" customers by being honest with them.
I was thinking about a 7SS and started looking into it. There were a lot of posts (and no I'm not going to try and find them again) saying the magic velocity numbers were due to very high pressure loads. So I decided against that. You almost had me convinced to go 7-6.5prc but I remembered I'm a poors.
The Solus barreled action is hopefully going to be a standard deal for us. The critical point will be Aero's ability to continue delivering actions.
There's really no way to discount it any further but at $1099 base price for a good action and a good barrel there's not much to argue with. I like the action, it's smooth, it feeds well and it handles prefits so production is reasonable. I'm sure there will be things for folks to complain about but at the end of the day it's a street price action under $800 and a barrel on the end that can be dropped into a Bravo, slap a Timney on it and you have a sub MOA rifle for under 2 grand that will handle factory ammo and keep you on a deer vital zone at 600yd any day of the week.
I know they have some deals going on right now with Ballistic Advantage barrels but we didn't see much to get excited about when I took it to the range. However with a new barrel on it the thing shot fantastic, so I whittled out options and streamlined with our OEM process that we use for contracts to make something we can sell for $1099 and not lose our asses.
I had not heard all of the Sherman drama... Gotcha.
Any chance of future options with anything Alpha Munitions like the .25 Creed and 7 SAW, since Alpha makes both brass and reamers for them?
The reason I ask, is I know yall do great work, and make good barrels, and I would like to patronize your business someday and order one of these while they're at such a great price, but since I already have a massive collection of rando standardized cartridge rifles (and a few wildcats mixed in there), and have multiples in many of them, at this point in the game, for me it makes things a bit "vanilla" to build a custom rifle in a factory cartridge, you know what I mean?
Plus, I think a Solus custom with a 20" 1:8 twist chambered in 7 SAW would be pretty nasty.I completely understand from the average hunter or average person's standpoint to have a factory ammo rifle, especially those that don't reload, but since I reload for everything, and have been playing with wildcats for well over 15+ years, I like the challenge and tinkering nature of the unusual gems. Any recommendations for something cool and random you might have a reamer for that would fit in a magnum Solus short action? I like .25's, 6.5's, 7's, and .30's if that gives you any ideas. LOL
That is the Aero chassis that they offer with it as an option, isn’t it? How do you like it? How does it compare to other more commonly used chassis?
That’s what I thought as well. Hell, given the circumstances, isn’t all he really said was what should have been obvious (but clearly wasn’t) to the customer in the first place? Why would they even be looking at a gun that required reloading if they were incapable of the task? That’s like deciding your going to go on a solo cross country road trip, but failing to factor in a detail like having never learned how to drive… sure, there’s a chance you might make it, learning along the way, maybe, lol. But, I would much rather have someone pipe up and point out the stupidity of the situation instead of letting me put rubber to road and making them learning first hand (likely in short order) what a poor decision it was that had just been made. All you did was save that poor bastard from himself, lol.
Could be interpreting it incorrectly, as I’m not familiar with them at all… but I take it the name ‘Ballistic Advantage’ may be a bit of an ironic misnomer? Makes you feel more ‘ballistic’ with less emphasis on the potential ‘advantage’ they provide, would you say? Lol.
*I will also accept silence as an answer!
That was doing good business and the customer informed the way he should have been. Those of us that deal with Rich probably know this is par for the coarse. He’s an interesting person that’s for sure. All that aside the SS cartridges are freekin amazing and those of us that run one are okay with the occasional Richism lol for the reward.
Yes, that’s a Solus with the Solus 15” comp chassis. It wasn’t an option for me back when I ordered mine, as I got them from different places. The action came from Primary Arms on huge sale a while back, and I got the chassis on huge sale straight from Aero a few weeks later.
I like it, especially for the price I got them at. Aero was blowing them out and I got 3 of them for about $450 each shipped. They have since extended their 30% off Black Friday sale on their website and you can get them for a little over $500 right now. At that buy, it’s hard to beat. JMO…
Quite a few people have reported 1/2 MOA or better with handloads from the factory Solus barrels. I ordered mine as just an action, so can’t confirm or deny…Just what I’ve read.
I’ve seen sub half groups from the factory 6.5 barrel with Hornady Black so they aren’t bad but would rather have a custom barrel.
Well, obviously… But at the same time, I’ve got factory Remington 700 barrels that put down consistent 1/3 MOA groups with handloads, so I know what you’re feeling. You want to hate it because it’s not socially considered to be top-tier, but at the same time, a good tube is a good tube.
Can anyone tell me anything about “Lone Wolf Rifles” and their 3 lug SA receiver? Apparently supposed to comparable to an Apollo, but I’m not familiar with that either.
It took me a good bit of searching google with different combinations of things before I could even find the website for Lone Wolf Rifles, which was WAY down the listings when I finally did hit some combo of search terms that got it to pop up. The custom rifles look nice but not much info. Unfortunately their website only lists sales for guns that you pick parts from a drop down list, but no actual info regarding their actions even on their own website.
It took me a good bit of searching google with different combinations of things before I could even find the website for Lone Wolf Rifles, which was WAY down the listings when I finally did hit some combo of search terms that got it to pop up. The custom rifles look nice but not much info. Unfortunately their website only lists sales for guns that you pick parts from a drop down list, but no actual info regarding their actions even on their own website.
Dates seemed to be very hard for them this year. I REALLY wanted to try their seater, but the only caliber I could justify it for was Norma, and unfortunately the #9 has never been in stock that I’ve seen, definitely wasn’t for the sale.
It's likely a private branded Curtis action. Lone Wolf Rifles is Bobby Kiegans new(er) custom rifle company. He was the owner of CK Arms and Freedom Gunworks.
I have no doubt it’s a nice piece, but I’m genuinely curious of what appeals about a modular multi-chamber die? I shoot multiple rifles in different chamberings but only one barrel in a specific chambering at even given time. The sizing die gets set once for an entire barrels life. The seater die may get adjusted out as I run through firings of a batch of 300-500 rounds to chase throat erosion. Doing the wheeler lands method it’s an easy “throat eroded x to lands touch seater off x.” Setting up dies from scratch every time I move between rifles seems like a pain, I like just popping different die sets in and out of the co-ax press.
Thank you for this! With that, I was able to find way more information online. Read through another forum based around pistol competition shooting that, although from Feb 2021, yielded some good/interesting stuff:
“When it began CK was a Matt Cheely/Bobby Keigans venture Hence CK. Then Matt opted out but kept making parts for Bobby who continued to build under CK name”
Goes on to talk about how they, at that time, had recently been acquired by MPA, that both these original owners were (maybe still are?) working for MPA. It’s just my assumption/summation of what I read there, and again based off of info from a nearly 3 year old thread, but sounds like MPA’s current high end pistols are in essence the direct continuation of what CK arms was producing, or, maybe still is producing? Sounded like, at least at that time, after the acquisition, they shifted the production to MPA but the pistols were still branded and marketed under the CK brand.
The few people on there that spoke directly to the topic of the original owners of CK Arms, Bobby Keigans and Matt Cheely, painted them both as being held in very high regards, being stand up guys, and backing up their products by providing quality support for any issues that might arise from their work, even continuing on with doing such post MPA acquisition.
Link to the thread in reference in case anyone else is interested and/or would like to read where I pulled the bulk of the above info from, and would like to read it for themselves rather than just catching the cliff notes from a newbie with limited experience/knowledge to be working with and/or qualifications to be trying to interpret and relay info to those much more knowledgeable than myself, lol:
CK arms and Freedom gun works website
Both big these websites were unreachable when I tried. Any idea what's going on with them.
forums.brianenos.com
By any chance, does anyone know if Bobby Keigans has an account here on SH? On the above forum it sounded like he was not only open to people reaching out to him directly, but was typically pretty on the ball with getting back to people promptly as well. Would love to ask a few questions regarding the Lone Wold Rifles and their 3 lug SA receiver.
It sounds like if their action is anything reflective of their previous, and ongoing, pistol work, it is likely a quality piece that’s just lacking wide spread availability in terms of knowledge/information regarding them, which I’m assuming is likely secondary to their limited production and resulting lack of first hand knowledge of them, as well as the apparent lack of general knowledge of the Lone Wolf Rifle Company’s existence in the first place. In turn, again just an assumption, but that may be a good sign that they keep their operations on a smaller scale to allow for a higher level of quality, detailed craftsmanship, to go into the limited number of offerings that they do introduce into the market.
So was able to get more info on the action specifically, and you are correct. Apparently the Lone Wolf Rifle action is directly equivalent to both the Curtis Axion AND Terminus Apollo, which I didn’t realize are essentially one and the same(?) Or maybe what I read was in reference to these being the offerings from two other companies that are ESSENTIALLY the same actions, other than the manufacturer, rather than literally EXACTLY the same actions in every single way?
Side question: assuming it’s the equivalent to these two actions as mentioned above, I would assume that likely to be a higher quality action than that of the Aero Solus? Also, assuming the first questions answer is yes, how much of a difference would the better action play in producing a more precise rifle vs using the Solus, if all else were equal (trigger, pull, chassis, barrel, chambering and mating of the BA being done by the same gunsmith, etc.?
My memory is fuzzy on the details but from what I remember - Joel Russo designed the Axiom action and I think one more and brought the design to Curtis for manufacture. There were a lot of issues with the Curtis made actions at the time and Joel Russo left and founded Terminus, refined his designs and manufactures them with much stricter quality control. If you're interested in the action, I suspect the more refined design, Terminus Apollo, would be the one to get.
@Joel Russo <- Owner/Founder/Designer of Terminus
The Solus is a lower quality action. Joel created the designs for the actions that Curtis and Terminus sell. Curtis has a little different bolt diameter. The Lone Wolf Rifle action is likely made by Curtis and just has some different lettering on it. That's it. The value you get from Lone Wolf is a full rifle as opposed to having to send a barrel blank out for chambering.
Bobby has an account here under @FreedomGunworks. He is a good guy, but not exactly a saint either. Besides that, do your own research this thread is for Black Friday deals let's keep it to just the deals.
Got my blem hnt26 in.
MDT really stepped their game up on the Christmas swag this year. Like the socks!
MDT really stepped their game up on the Christmas swag this year. Like the socks!
Griffin Armament appears to be lacking in the shipping department and customer service department.
Ordered a suppressor with some tapered muzzle devices on Black Friday and nothing has shipped, not even the fingerprint kit for the Form 4.
I had to email customer service twice before I finally received a response that my order is still being processed with no other explanation than that...
Though, I did receive an email before my CS response telling me to make sure I returned my fingerprint card quickly...
Ordered a suppressor with some tapered muzzle devices on Black Friday and nothing has shipped, not even the fingerprint kit for the Form 4.
I had to email customer service twice before I finally received a response that my order is still being processed with no other explanation than that...
Though, I did receive an email before my CS response telling me to make sure I returned my fingerprint card quickly...
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They've been posting on social media they are very backed up on orders. They've been shipping non-FFL/Class 3 items. I've received my mount orders and my receiver order is still processing.
I am still waiting for my blem to come in. I got shipping notification for somebody elses stuff though and was told it was a mistake and my item will ship out eventually due to being on backorder. Not sure how a blem is on back order... Does this mean I have to wait for a blem to come along?
Most likely it means you'll be getting a new unblemished unit. Seams they oversell the blems every year. Pretty awesome of them to do that IMO.
Got my Hnt26 this week and can't find a blemish anywhere. Love the Christmas Socks.
I wanted to ask the same thing, but got cold feet…
As in, yes, you got a chassis and did get a pair? Or, yes, you ordered something else and still got a pair? Truly wondering, not being a dick (tried to re phrase it better but it sounded dickish every way I wrote it, lol).
I ordered about $250 between 4 sets of dampeners and a steel bag rider, and didn’t see any, though, my wife did open the box for me and may have pilfered them… I’ll have to do some further investigation before a final determination is made, lol.
I got a pair with the chassis. I had an accessory order that shipped & it did not have socks.
Aww, I did see a chamber flag on the counter briefly before all my items were briskly swept away to who knows were, in my wife’s flurry to tidy up the house before company arrived some time last week. Alas, I don’t think I likely will need to interrogate her as to any potential pilferage regarding the chamber flag, unless she potentially mistaken it for a bookmark or something of that sort.
If there are any stickers, those are always long gone before I ever lay eyes on them. Her proclivity for sticky items is… well… interesting to those (namely myself) who don’t share the same thrill from such tactile stimuli… keeping a label on any kind of bottle around here is dam near impossible. “Can you please at least wait until I’ve finished the prescription before you rip the label off” is not an uncommon utterance in my home. That being said, if that’s one of my biggest complaints about her, I suppose I have it pretty good! Besides, decoy/distraction stickers are pretty cheap, if you buy in bulk! From what I hear, divorces, not so much, lol.
If there are any stickers, those are always long gone before I ever lay eyes on them. Her proclivity for sticky items is… well… interesting to those (namely myself) who don’t share the same thrill from such tactile stimuli… keeping a label on any kind of bottle around here is dam near impossible. “Can you please at least wait until I’ve finished the prescription before you rip the label off” is not an uncommon utterance in my home. That being said, if that’s one of my biggest complaints about her, I suppose I have it pretty good! Besides, decoy/distraction stickers are pretty cheap, if you buy in bulk! From what I hear, divorces, not so much, lol.
