We love getting our hands on new rifle actions. We secured a Kelbly’s Atlas Tactical action a short time ago and have been very impressed so far with the performance. In a market where everyone is creating premium products with very robust designs and precision machining, it is getting harder and harder stand out. Kelbly’s has possibly taken the #1 pole position for “Bang for the Buck.” Coming in at the $1000 mark, its hard to beat a product like this.
One thing that I was curious about was the long sweeping bolt handle. I was originally unsure if I was going to like a bolt that long. Mated with the tactical knurled bolt knob, I will be honest, its amazing. The leverage and the sensation of the texture along with the purchase you can get on it while opening or closing, results in a stimulating experience. It feels robust, but not heavy weighted. There is a balance between a dense and heavy bolt, and light weight one that feels flimsy or cheap. This is not either of those. It has a perfect balance of tight tolerance moving in and out of the action, and upon closing feels smooth, light, and unassisted. Some actions that cock on bolt-close feel heavy during that operation. This action is the sweet spot.
The bolt is machined from a solid piece of steel. This adds to the durability and the overall quality of the action. This particular action uses the “swept” bolt handle. Kelbly’s does offer different bolt options. These actions feature a trigger hanger which makes swapping triggers in the field a breeze.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL…
The bolt uses a two-lug design featuring a “SAKO” extractor as seen above in the photo. One thing that I noticed was the pressure blowout holes in the side of the bolt in case of a case failure are pretty small. I’m sure Kelbly’s tested this design well past any type of real world failure. You can start to see just how deep the bolt fluting is. The bolt is black-nitride coated for smooth operation with no lube or minimal lube required. I do not recommend running any action with “ZERO” lube. With that being said, a little bit goes a long way. Another thing I noticed while running this action, is just how far you can sling brass cases with this extractor/ejector design. This action is cut for standard AICS mags.
KELBLY’S ATLAS TACTICAL ACTION
An up-close of the bolt face, you can see the extractor and ejector setup. The ejector acts as a plunger that is not engaged unless the bolt is in the rearward position. The ejector is an inertial ejector activated by the momentum of the bolt hitting the bolt stop in the action’s receiver. You will also notice that the bolt uses “push feed” and not “control feed” like some of the other actions on the market using inertial ejectors.The bolt body and knob is one piece. Above is a picture of the underside of the bolt.
Here is a side profile of the action. One thing to notice is the side bolt-stop. Kelbly’s claims that the bolt-stop is “anti-shear.” Time will tell if the bolt stop holds up to heavy use. I believe that the bolt-stop will do just fine. The recoil lug is double pinned and makes installing barrels really easy.Above is a picture of the inside of the action . The purpose of this photo is to illustrate what how the bolt-stop engages the ejector of the bolt.
INERTIAL EJECTOR IS THE WAY…
In this photo you can see the ejector in the forward position. In the photo you can now hopefully understand how it works. This function allows you to extract a case and maintain it in the receiver without sending the brass onto the ground. This is particularly awesome for when you are doing testing and do not want to ding your brass up. Or the opposite when you want to launch your spent shell casing and chamber another round.The 20MOA top rail is double pinned and held in with 4 #8 screws. This is almost a must-have for the premium actions these days. Hope you enjoyed this overview of the Kelbly’s Atlas Tactical. This will be one of the recommended actions for customers here in the near future. We look forward to continuing business with Kelbly’s and this might be our new number one “bang-for-the-buck” action. GOAT VALLEY PRECISION LLC
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