New Volquartsen Custom Rifle

Santa Clause was very good to me this year. I got a Volquartsen Custom Rifle chambered for the new 17 Winchester Super Magnum (17 WSM) cartridge. I had been thinking about buying an auto-loading `17 HMR, but I already have two really nice bolt action rifles in that caliber. Even though I do shoot more 17 HMR than anything else, I decided to get the new automatic rifle in 17 WSM. I have had a 17 WSM before. I bought the Savage B-Mag rifle when it first came out. I took it up squirrel shooting a couple of years ago and found it to be the sorriest excuse for a rifle that I had ever owned. The magazine had to be completely reworked before it would even accept cartridges. Closing the bolt felt like it was full of sand. All the cleaning and polishing I could do , didn't make it any better. However, I did like the cartridge. I basically gave the rifle away.

Fast forward to 2017. I have a new 17 WSM Volquartsen rifle. This rifle is very much designed like a Ruger 10/22. It is machined out of steel and is a lot heavier. The workmanship is flawless. I have run a clip through it just to verify that it runs. I just bought 1000 rds of Hornandy 20 Grain V-max ammo from LAX online. I only have one 8 round clip, as they are $80.00 each! I will let you know how it shoots in a later post.

June 28, 2017 Update:

We are home from a very poor shooting season in Alturas. I wanted to give an update on the Volquartsen IF5. In a word, I don't like the gun. The workmanship is very good, but there is a problem with the design. First of all, the $80.00 magazines are rough and won't feed without some filing and sanding of the upper edges. The rifle also has feeding problems, though that may be getting better with use. My big problem is with the recoil. This think jumps when it goes off! The bolt is machined out of cobalt to give it the weight it needs to function properly as a blow-back action. Volquartsen literature stated that there was a polymer cross pin behind the bolt to absorb some of the shock. Well, there is not, and Volquatsen says that they went to a steel cross pin when the polymer pins failed. That heavy bolt goes back hard and hits that steel pin hard. Recoil is substantially more than the Savage B-Mag, which I hated for other reasons. The stock is attached with only one screw ahead of the trigger guard. No matter how tight I get it, it still loosens up after about 50 pounding rounds. The compensator also comes un-screwed in about 50 rounds.

The literature also says the trigger is factory set at about 2.5 lbs. Well, it is not! I had a gunsmith take a look and it was set at about 4.5 lb. Volquartsen told one of my customers that they would fix it and they did. I just need to send my trigger in to them. The bottom line here is that at over 1

$1700.00, this is the most expensive rifle I have ever bought. I was expecting an accurate, perfectly functioning rifle right out of the box! It is not. I wish I had it to over again, I would do it differently.