Christensen Ranger Arms
- Last updated: 21/01/2023
Christensen Arms is best known for its carbon-fibre-wrapped barrels, and for developing centrefire hunting rifles that complement their light weight and rigidity. However, Christensen’s first product was actually a rimfire rifle, so the new Ranger 22 can be seen as a journey home. Except this time it’s rolling up the family driveway in the kind of style that comes from four decades of experience at the leading edge of rifle-making.
Taking a tour from muzzle to butt, we find the obligatory straight-profile carbon-fibre barrel. It’s 18” long and framed by a gleaming tenon and muzzle cap in stainless steel, the latter featuring a long ½”x28 thread under a perfectly-matched protector. Then, there’s a crisplymachined and evenly-anodised alloy receiver, with a flared ejection port and a 0-MOA Picatinny rail. The latter is bolted on, rather than milled-in, which I always prefer because it allows for replacement if the rail is damaged. A 2-position safety lever behind the bolt shows a ribbed half-moon profile and a double-T logo that signals the presence of a TriggerTech trigger, which in this case, is a Field unit, nominally adjustable from 2.5-5 lb.
The good vibes continue as we flip the rifle over and discover that it uses Ruger 10/22 magazines. Taking the Ruger route obviously permits the use of high-capacity alternatives, but the 10-shot rotary magazine supplied fits flush and feeds flawlessly, provided you make sure it is fully engaged in the Ranger’s ‘bottom metal’. A long release lever behind the magazine and cutaways on either side also save you from having to learn the special ‘pinch-’n-pull’ technique familiar to 10/22 owners the world over. Empty magazines didn’t fall free on release at first, but began to do so as the rifle ‘ran-in’. As for that ‘bottom metal’, initially, I took it for anodised aluminium, but it turns out to be high-quality polymer. Thoughtfully, the trigger guard is thicker in front to protect against accidental contact with the magazine-release, and slimmer to the rear for freer finger movement. The ribbed and curved trigger blade wins my approval, too.
Time now to consider the stock. Made from carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer, it is both light and satisfyingly rigid. The stock on the test rifle sported a black base coat, with a grey splatterpattern top coat adding visual interest and grip, or you can have the same in sand/black. You also get front and rear sling-swivel studs and a rubber butt-pad, whose ridged surface and dense composition suggest it’s more about shoulder fit and butt protection than recoil reduction, which makes sense on a rimfire.
The stock scores well for shape, with a forend that’s broad and flat enough to sit nicely on a bag, but still comfortable to shoot offhand. There’s also a modest hand stop under the butt, with a flat bag-riding section behind it. Similarly, the pistol grip promotes the fashionable upright stance preferred by long-range shooters, but without overdoing things. Additional control is provided by an ambidextrous palm swell. With the swell in my palm and a thumb-up grip, the stock put my trigger finger just where I wanted it. The length of pull suited me as well, though I suspect it may prove a bit short for the longer-limbed.
All good then? Well, not quite, unless you prefer ‘chin-weld’ to ‘cheekweld’, since even with the set of low Tier-One rings kindly supplied with the rifle by Highland Outdoors, the optical axis was 5.75cm above the comb. Getting the comb-height right matters, especially when entering a sector where all your competitors offer rifles with adjustable stocks that cost less, so I hope I’m the only one who finds the Ranger’s comb overly low.
Separating the stock from the action revealed the bedding arrangements, which consist of a pair of aluminium pillars, a transverse recoil bar epoxied into the composite, and a matching recess in the underside of the action, which is otherwise machined flat. The flat face provides even contact with the stock, and room for the polymer bottom metal, into which the blade-type ejector is pinned. The fit between the sides of the bottom metal and the stock may not be as tightly-toleranced as other aspects of the Ranger 22, but it’s certainly good enough.
As previously mentioned, Christensen has opted to equip the Ranger 22 with a trigger from TriggerTech, which has made a name for itself as the preferred supplier to boutique US rifle builders. Pull is supposed to be adjustable between 2.5-5lb and factory-set to 3lb, but on the test rifle, it started at 4lb 13oz and wouldn’t go below 3lb 9oz. The break was clean enough, but the heavy pull made it unduly hard to keep the lightweight Ranger perfectly steady right through the let-off.
Shooting was otherwise very agreeable. Despite the leverage afforded by the long bolt handle, cocking and ejection had a positive full-bore feel and the twin extractors flanking the bolt face kept a firm grip of fired cases until the ejector came into play, at which point the spent brass was flicked smartly away. Interestingly, the top and bottom faces of the bolt are milled flat, saving weight and enabling the rotating rear part of the body to provide a dual-lug lock-up when the bolt is in battery. The rear part of the bolt is blacked to match the shroud and handle, but the front is left in the white, and while the upper surfaces are cleanly polished, the underside retains the marks left by the CNC cutter that made it. This is an industrial touch I rather like, especially because the shaping of the milled parts is so crisp.
I would have liked to strip the bolt down, but as this wasn’t covered in the otherwise comprehensive and well-illustrated user manual provided, and because the positive strikes visible on fired cases supported the evidence from the trigger and bolt that the striker spring was a strong one, I decided this might be a step too far.
Now for that barrel. If the aim is to achieve bull-barrel stiffness and heat dissipation with buggywhip lightness, then Christensen has soundly ticked all three boxes. Even so, the barrel isn’t quite what it seems. In Christensen’s centrefire barrels, the carbon-fibre wrapping is cemented around a rifled steel liner. By contrast, in the rimfire barrel, steel bushings attached to each end of a conventional light-profile tube butt up tightly against the ends of a hollow carbon-fibre shroud, simultaneously applying compression to the shroud and tension to the barrel, thereby preventing the assembly from flexing, whilst reducing its density (most of the volume being carbon-fibre and air).
Chambering is done to the Bentz format, which aspires to the tight tolerances of a match chamber, whilst allowing just enough leeway for reliable feeding in a magazine rifle. This was delivered, provided I didn’t baby the bolt throw or have the magazine only half clipped in (both errors I quickly stopped making).
At the other end, the muzzle thread is cut to the US ½”x28 specification and at a full 1” is unusually long. Highland Outdoors sent along a Swedish RCC moderator, whose diminutive (100x29mm), featherweight (80-grams) build was clearly well suited to the rifle, but made me wonder about its effectiveness. I need not have worried, and (at just £45 from most retailers) I would unreservedly recommend adding one to your Ranger purchase.
Of course, the defining quality of any rifle is accuracy, and assessing that depends on identifying the loads it likes. I put it through its paces with subsonic hollow points from CCI, Eley and Winchester, as well as some round-nosed solids from Lapua. Initial groups with each were somewhat underwhelming but tightened impressively once I got used to the trigger and the rifle was ‘run in’ with a couple of hundred rounds. The best performers were the CCIs, which produced very nice 1/2” 5-shot groups at 50m.
In conclusion, Christensen has used advanced materials, design and manufacturing to produce a light, high-quality rifle. So, how does it measure up to the competition? Ruger’s Precision Rimfire Rifle also takes 10/22 magazines, but is more configurable and costs £500 less. Meanwhile, Tikka’s T1X UPR is closer in price, but also in weight, adding only an extra 10oz despite its adjustable stock and conventional barrel. And if the success of CZ’s 8lb 10oz 457 LRP is anything to go by, a fair few shooters are leaning towards heavier rifles, rather than lighter ones, when choosing a precision plinker. But as a wise man once said, “comparisons are odious”. Don’t ask the Ranger 22 to be what it isn’t, but accept it for what it is, a distinctive, stylish and well-made arm that’s accurate, reliable and positive in operation. It’s also endowed with endearing compactness and portability.