PMR Pro from Masterpiece Arms – Punching Above Its Price

Estimated studying time: 12 minutes

The MPA PMR Professional manufacturing rifle is correct, exact and out there at an inexpensive worth. Excessive-end bolt motion rifles used for long-range PRS (Precision Rifle Collection) type taking pictures competitors typically begin at over $5000, with out optics.  The MPA (Masterpiece Arms) PMR rifles are designed to slot in the manufacturing division of the game which at the moment limits rifles to a $3000 MSRP most.  The PMR rifles from MPA provide you with a ton of bang for the buck.

PMR Professional

Together with the $3000 rifle restrict, optics are restricted to these $2500 and underneath MSRP.  My PMR Professional used on this assessment is a barely older mannequin made to suit the earlier max worth of $2500 MSRP.  It wears a Leupold Mark 5 HD 5-25×56 with the PR2 reticle with an MSRP of $2299.

These rifles and optics will not be low-cost, however they’re extra cheap than most high-end rifles and optics for the game.  As talked about above, a customized rifle can value effectively over $5000, and top-tier glass is about $4000.  PRS will not be an inexpensive sport.

Elite Motion

The PMR Professional contains a Remington 700 footprint Curtis Elite motion besides it makes use of an aluminum picatinny rail as a substitute of stainless. The rail has 20 MOA of cant to let you shoot farther earlier than working out of journey in your optic.  The bolt is a spiral fluted 3 lug design that contains a 70-degree throw and it’s hand-lapped and match to the motion.  The bolt additionally has a fast launch and tool-less firing pin meeting.

My favourite function is the lug lock interface between the motion and the chassis.  The entrance of the motion has the recoil lug and the chassis has a pocket with a tapered cylinder.  When tightened the cylinder grabs and sucks the recoil lug down into the chassis for a rock-solid lockup.

PMR Professional Barrel

The 26-inch barrels are gundrilled and made by MPA from 416RQ stainless.   They’re pull button rifled, stress relieved and hand lapped.  The barrels are air-gauged to 0.0001 for land and groove variation. The chambers are minimize with zero runout and the muzzles are thread 5/8×24 to first most comps and brakes.

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MPA BA Chassis

The MPA BA chassis is minimize for a Remington 700 motion.  They’re produced from 6061 aluminum and minimize for AI magazines.  The chassis has a V bedding system with clearance for glass bedding or a straight-walled barrel.  The magazine launch is ambidextrous for proper and wrong-handed shooters and the precise magazine catch is top adjustable so you possibly can fine-tune it to your magazines as there may be some variation between manufacturers. It comes with loads of add-ons as effectively. 

Adjustable cheek riser and size of pull that may be adjusted with a thumbwheel.

Integral ARCA Swiss rail machined into the chassis.  MPA calls it the R.A.T. system.

Spigot bipod mount that may be flipped to be used with both ARCA or Picatinny bipods.

Bag rider for rear help.

Integral bubble degree.  The extent is white with a black ball, excessive distinction and simple to see.

Evening imaginative and prescient bridge.

MPA vertical grip with a thumb cutout on the chassis.

PMR Professional Set off

Over time MPA has provided totally different triggers with the PMR rifles.  Mine has a Timney HIT single stage that’s incredible that I set to 1.25 kilos.  Present PMR rifles, together with the PMR Professional, include a Bix N Andy set off.

All PMR rifles include an accuracy assure of ½ MOA or higher.  That leads us to my load improvement for my PMR rifle.

PMR Professional Load Improvement

Many of the prime shooters in PRS are utilizing numerous 6mm calibers like 6GT, 6BR/A, 6 Dasher and others.  I selected to get the PMR Professional in 6.5 Creedmoor.  My earlier rifle was a 65CM so I already had reloading dies, brass, powder and bullets.  It made the change straightforward and saved chunk of cash.

I already had a stable load for the previous rifle and it labored fairly effectively within the PMR Professional, handing over teams of round 1 MOA.  I needed to wring out each ounce of precision potential with the PMR Professional and I ended up taking place a little bit of a rabbit gap with the load improvement.  The elements I had available to make use of had been Hornady brass, H4350 powder, Hornady 147gr ELD-M bullets and Federal Gold Medal Match massive rifle primers.

I began out loading batches of 10 rounds at .3 gr increments.  At this stage I used to be not taking a look at group dimension however as a substitute, the SD (Customary Deviation) numbers and velocity utilizing a chrono.  I discovered a flat spot within the outcomes throughout .3 gr with very low SDs and a small variance in velocity.  The subsequent batches had been refined to .1 gr and the identical consistency held true throughout 4 batches.  The powder cost I picked was proper in the course of the flat spot, so even when I had a variance of .1 or .2 gr when loading in bulk it will not make an enormous distinction.  The common group dimension was about ½ MOA with this load however I needed extra.

Ammo Chart

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You may see there’s a very small variance in velocity (FPS), Customary Deviation (SD), and Excessive Unfold (ES) from 40.9 grains to 41.5 grains.  I settled on 41.3 grains, proper in the course of the flat spot.

General Size and Bullet Leap

That’s after I went down the rabbit gap with seating depth and bullet soar.  Bullet soar is the gap from the ogive of the bullet to the lands of the rifling.  Various this distance can have a major impact on accuracy.  Hornady makes their OAL gauge which can be utilized to measure the soar.  It makes use of a modified piece of brass and a instrument to push your chosen bullet till the ogive simply touches the land.  You then use a comparator like this one from Hornady to measure the size of your loaded rounds from the bottom of the brass to the bullet ogive.  This offers you a extra correct studying than measuring the OAL of the loaded spherical.

I took the size from the comparator and began backing it down to provide extra bullet soar.  I spent various time on the method of testing batches of take a look at rounds with numerous bullet soar lengths.  I ended up at 2.095 from ogive to base as my optimum size.  A number of take a look at periods with the ultimate load and size persistently produced group sizes of 1/3 MOA.

Comparator

I’ll warn you now, this whole load improvement course of is lengthy and tedious with many journeys to the vary.  The end result was nice and I’m glad that I attempted it.  The subsequent time I have to develop a load for a precision bolt gun I’ll skip the bullet soar testing.  As you shoot the rifle extra there shall be erosion within the throat and the beginning of the rifling.  Over time that erosion will change the gap to the lands of the rifling providing you with extra bullet soar and requiring new bullet soar testing.  If I had been taking pictures F Class or Hello Energy I might contemplate re-doing it at common intervals, however for PRS taking pictures I might not hassle.

Barrel/Chamber Erosion

All MPA rifles include a easy temp sticker to place in your barrel.  The sticker has a bar that’s coloured by warmth and signifies the temp of the barrel.  Comparable temp stickers are quite common in testing automobile elements that see warmth cycles and point out a max temp reached.

MPA recommends you keep away from taking pictures your PMR Professional rifle when the sticker signifies the barrel is 122 levels or increased.  The upper the temp, the better the throat erosion.  When potential, its finest to let the rifle settle down to cut back the erosion.  I did my load testing within the peak warmth of the Arizona summer season.  On greater than at some point it was 110 levels; I may hearth just one or two pictures earlier than hitting 122.  Nevertheless, in my case, I had no alternative however to maintain taking pictures if I didn’t need to have 100 journeys to the vary.  Throughout testing and when taking pictures matches in excessive temps I exploit a moist neck gator soaked in water to chill the barrel.

I added a closing few gadgets to finish my rifle setup for the competitors. I added an APA Fats Bastard muzzle brake and tuned the adjustable ports to provide me a straight up-and-down recoil path.

Exterior Weights

Exterior weights from Grey Ops had been added so the rifle would stability on a taking pictures bag simply in entrance of the magwell.  It took solely two weights to stability the rifle. In the event you want extra weight to stability or simply need a heavier rifle to take in recoil, each Grey Ops and MPA make inner and exterior weights for the entrance and rear of the rifle.

One cool factor in regards to the chassis from MPA is that they’re all upgradable.  MPA provides new options usually and you may at all times ship in your chassis to get the newest options.  One function that got here out whereas I used to be testing is the magwell plates from MPA.  They provide three totally different magwell plates for numerous makes use of.  I went with the magazine blocker plate that forestalls a prop from touching or tilting your magazine when loading (pushing) the rifle into the prop.  If you’re pushing the magazine into the prop it might probably, and did for me, trigger feeding points.

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Conclusion

I’m unsure I see the benefit of spending one other $1-2K for a customized rifle over the PMR Professional, with one exception.  Subsequently, the higher-end chassis from MPA is healthier than the BA chassis my PMR got here with.  The brand new Vanquish chassis and the Matrix Professional chassis provide much more adjustability and few nice-to-have options.

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After taking pictures the PMR Professional for a couple of 12 months I’m thrilled.  The accuracy and precision are incredible, and I really like the stability, ergonomics, and options.  I even managed to attain my first (and solely) podium end at a PRS match in Wyoming with this rifle.

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