Re: Nemesis Vanquish in QFP lunch box case
I just picked up a NIB unfired Nemesis in .308 at the Crossroads/SAR show in Phoenix. I had been talking with the owner at his booth at the SAR show and he demonstrated all the features of the rifle to me there, but said he was 90 days on orders because he is about to sign a contract with the Israeli Army for a large number of rifles.
Being the kind of guy who likes to pay cash and lay hands on my purchase, I decided to wait a while, but in the very farthest corner of the Crossroads gun show barn I saw one up for private sale. The guy at the table said it was new and unfired, and it appeared to still have the manufacturing oil on the action and in the barrel. He told me he bought it a couple of years ago but decided he didn't want it.
I snatched it up at a bargain price (no, I'm not telling you) using cash and the pseudonym "Ben Franklin" so it's completely off paper, which is my new requirement for buying any more guns.
Took it back to the Nemesis booth and spent about an hour with the owner getting educated on the rifle. The current model has some changes, including an AR-style buffer pin and spring as the detent on the barrel nut rather than a cross pin with spring so you can now assemble it with one hand instead of two.
I bought a bunch of accessories for it on the spot, including a 16" barrel (so it'll fit in the small case), a quad rail, an Ashbury Precision folding buttstock specially adapted for the Nemesis (Ashbury doesn't sell anything but full chassis systems except to the Nemesis owner by special arrangement) and he agreed to go over the action and update everything he can when he gets it back to headspace the new barrel, including a 20 MOA Picatinny rail, upgrading the bolt and reaming the chamber.
This model used a tighter .308 spec chamber reamer that's 25/1000's shorter (2.775) than the usual spec (2.800), which makes some factory ammo that's loaded to max commercial OAL of 2.800 stick the ogive into the lands, making it difficult to close the bolt and producing a danger of pulling a bullet if you try to eject an unfired round after seating it home.
The new spec adjusts the shoulder to prevent this and opens it up to 2.800 which should work fine with Federal Gold Medal Match.
Because the rifle is completely modular, I can mix and match options depending on the mission, and I'll have both the 16 and 20 inch barrels, and may buy some other caliber barrels as well.
I mounted a scope I had and stopped on the way back to sight it in and experienced the tight chamber with the Hornaday ammo I bought for the purpose. Took a solid smack on the bolt knob to get the bolt to close.
However, after using up a lot of rounds trying to figure out where I was shooting (I didn't have a spotter) I finally got it on paper at 100 yards...with five rounds left.
I was having the shakes that day due to some new medication, so my hold wasn't very good at all, but I got it to group about 3 inches with my final shots. Horrible so far, but as mentioned above the barrel needs to be broken in a bit, the chamber needs to be reamed, and I need to quit taking this med when I shoot.
I fully expect it to shoot substantially sub-MOA once I get it broken in and get a load worked up for it.
So far I'm very pleased with it, as it exactly fits the bill for a take-down bolt rifle that's easy to transport, and easy to carry about covertly without raising a lot of fuss.
It's going to go into a Pelican case with my Level IV body armor and quick-reaction gear, which will get locked down in the cargo area of my SUV, so I'll have it with me all the time on the road.
I'll be giving a more detailed analysis as I get to know the rifle.
