Last summer I moved to Montana. Along with things like adopting a third dog and permanently affixing merino wool to my skin, that meant I needed to upgrade my hunting rifle. Not only are the animals bigger up here, but the mountains are, too. And I think I found a gun that鈥檚 not only incredibly light, but also extremely durable, and as accurate as anything else out there.
Let me tell you why I think this is the perfect rifle for the backcountry.
The Rifle
The Ridgeline is Christensen Arms鈥 no-frills hunting rifle. Just here听that means you听get a carbon-fiber barrel attached to a machined-from-billet stainless steel action, which is connected to a carbon composite stock with Invar pillars. There’s also an adjustable trigger, a radial muzzle brake, and a Limbsaver recoil pad. Any one of those features would听typically be afixed to a rifle with a much听higher price tag. Together, they represent extraordinary value.
I went for one chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum, which is a heavy-hitting, flat-shooting caliber capable of ethically harvesting any animal in North America. That鈥檚 especially important here in Montana, where sneaking around in the mountains, possibly with a bunch of meat on your back, means you might run into a grizzly bear. With the long action and 26-inch barrel required for a magnum caliber, the rifle weighs just 6.8 pounds thanks to all that carbon fiber.
Christensen has a background in manufacturing composites for the aerospace and medical industries. The precise tolerances and consistent听quality required by those worlds translates well to firearms. The company developed the first carbon-fiber rifle barrel in the mid 1990s, and with the Ridgeline, has brought听that technology down to a price level that鈥檚 competitive with mid-quality rifles made from more traditional materials. But even at $1,995, I haven鈥檛 found anything on the Ridgeline that鈥檚 not nicer than any other gun I鈥檝e ever fired. And it’s thousands of dollars cheaper than other rifles with similar specs.
The Ridgeline鈥檚 most distinctive feature is obviously its carbon-fiber barrel. That material actually wraps around a very thin stainless steel inner barrel, adding strength and shedding heat. So you get a very burly barrel for the weight of a very light one. Inside that barrel, the rifling is inspected to a tolerance of .0001 inches, contributing in a big way to this rifle’s accuracy.
Also shedding weight and adding a distinctive look in the process is the spiral-fluted bolt, which is matched by a fluted shroud and bolt knob. The bolt is fitted with an AR-15-style extractor, which for magnum calibers includes two ejectors for extremely reliable operation.
The Scope
Obviously I needed to put a really good scope on such a nice rifle. But my budget doesn鈥檛 run to Swarovski, Zeiss, or Leica glass, so I turned to Maven, a new company out of Wyoming that manufacturers in Japan and sells direct-to-consumer. Fortunately, isn鈥檛 just an ideal pairing for the Ridgeline,听it also costs just $1,200鈥攁bout half what you’d expect to spend for a similar product from a legacy brand.
The RS.1 has a zoom range that goes from 15x all the way down to just 2.5x. At full magnification, that means it’s听able to take full advantage of the .300 Win Mag鈥檚 incredible long range performance听for target shooting. Its rare to see such a powerful scope that鈥檚 also capable of zooming out so far, which means this setup is also perfect for close-in shots and in tight cover. With its wide field of view, the 2.5x setting is ideal for stalking animals in the woods, when a quick shot might be necessary. It鈥檒l also be good for bear defense, for the same reason. The听other nice thing about the RS.1 is that its reticle (the crosshairs)听is etched onto its first focal plane, which mean its points of impact remain the same, no matter the听magnification level.
The 1.5-pound RS.1 has a large 44mm objective lens, and a 30mm main tube, which add up to an amazing ability to capture light鈥攃rucial for hunting at dusk and dawn or in dense woods. It also has an incredibly generous 100 MOA (or minute of angle) of available adjustment for elevation, and 70 for windage, both set in 1/4 MOA clicks. I think I used around 7 MOA of elevation when I zeroed-in. I haven鈥檛 yet shot the rifle past 600 yards, but there鈥檚 more than enough adjustment there to take shots out to three times that, without swapping in a new base. (A minute of angle corresponds to one inch at 100 yards.)
Despite its mid-level price, there鈥檚 nothing about the RS.1 that doesn鈥檛 feel top-notch. The glass is incredibly clear, the anodizing on the body is flawless, the adjustments click around with total precision, and the magnification knob is perfectly damped. Mounting it to the Ridgeline for the first time, I was struck by how easy it was to achieve perfect eye relief. I鈥檝e kept the scope in the same position in which it was first mounted ever since.
There are two reticles available: an intricately hashmarked in minutes of angle and a that will help compensate for bullet drop without filling up the entire field of view. I opted for the long range option so I can go target shooting with friends, but in the field, would prefer the simpler option.
Shooting It
Before I ordered the rifle, a retired Marine Raider buddy texted me that his Ridgeline (also a .300 Win Mag) 鈥渟hoots like an AR-15, thanks to that muzzle brake.鈥 And he鈥檚 not wrong. Chambered in this extremely powerful caliber, the Ridgeline makes a very loud noise, but produces very little felt recoil.
That was the first surprise when I initially took the rifle to the range to sight it in. The second was that with it, I was shooting sub-one-inch听from the very first shots.听Modern production technology has made such performance fairly standard, but it still feels reassuring to sit down behind a new rifle, and work on enlarging a single hole in a piece of paper, rather than just poke a bunch of random ones.
The third surprise was that the Ridgeline maintained that accuracy throughout an 80-round session, with occasional quick pauses to swab the barrel, but without long breaks to allow it to cool. Aside from the occasional flyer caused by my own ineptitude, almost every group I shot managed to fall within one inch. Christensen employs two technologies that help minimize heat-related expansion and its impact on accuracy: the carbon-wrapped barrel and the Invar pillars. Carbon doesn鈥檛 retain heat in the same way steel does, so this barrel seems to cool faster than a traditional one. Invar is an aerospace alloy that has virtually no heat deformation, so the barrel鈥檚 relationship to the stock remains consistent regardless of temperature.
Neither the Ridgeline鈥檚 extreme accuracy, nor its ability to shrug off heat generated by long shot strings are terribly applicable in the field. The smallest animal I鈥檒l ever use this rifle on is a deer and even on a very small one of those, I have about an eight-inch circle to work with; within that any shot will result in an ethical kill. And, while hunting, you鈥檙e hopefully only taking a single shot. But it鈥檚 nice to know the rifle isn鈥檛 the limiting factor and it鈥檚 also probably practical that a very cold morning at elevation won鈥檛 alter the rifle鈥檚 accuracy.
Combine those features with the durability of the rifle鈥檚 construction and its lack of recoil and you just have a very confidence-inspiring package. The Ridgeline is going to hit what you point it at even if the weather鈥檚 bad, and even if it鈥檚 been bouncing around on your shoulder for days during the hike in, and even if you drop it. And it does all that in one extremely light package.
Confidence was what I felt hunting with it in the Absaroka Mountains last fall. With the move, Montana鈥檚 early deadline for its big game drawing, and its insistence on ruling me out of state until I鈥檇 lived here 180 days, I ended up with leftover doe tags. I took a whitetail on archery, then brought the Ridgeline along when I went looking for mule deer. This caliber is overkill for a doe, but a well-placed standing shot from 100 yards ensured that I didn鈥檛 lose any meat. Hopefully I鈥檒l be able to say the same about a bull elk this September.
Likes
- The brake and pad add up to about the same recoil as my braked 5.56鈥ust here from a 200-grain .300 Win Mag.
- From the carbon barrel to the billet action, to the fluted bolt, this is one very handsome rifle.
- Light enough to carry for days on end.
- Impervious to weather.
- More accurate than I am.
- Trigger adjusts down to 2.5 pounds and breaks crisply.
- Easy, intuitive, and positive safety mechanism.
Dislikes
- The brake makes shooting this thing at a range positively anti-social. But I鈥檓 afraid taking it off might mean I鈥檓 practicing different than I鈥檓 hunting.
- I鈥檝e never gotten along with hinged floor plate magazines, and this one only holds three rounds in magnum calibers.
- I should have gone for the simpler scope reticle.
Should You Buy One?
I鈥檓 pretty sure this is the first gun review you鈥檒l ever read on 国产吃瓜黑料. It鈥檚 certainly the first one I鈥檝e ever written. Why now and why here?听I thought this rifle-scope package was special enough that it merited the coverage, and its attributes make it uniquely applicable to the kind of adventure hunting we find exciting.听It鈥檚 light, it鈥檚 durable, it shoots straight, and it won鈥檛 even bruise your shoulder. It鈥檚 expensive enough that it probably won鈥檛 be your first hunting rifle, but it’s听also nice enough that it just might be your last.