Vortek Strikerfire First Impressions

[sabinajiles]

I have been intrigued by the Traditions Vortek Strikerfire for a while, so on a whim, I purchased one to try out. I got the regular Vortek Strikerfire, not an Ultralight or LDR model, and I got the lowest priced model with a black stock and cerakoted barrel and receiver . My first thoughts are that it is pretty nice looking for a plastic stocked rifle with very good fit and finish. The sticky rubber inserts on the stock grip and forearm are a nice touch but overall, I don't think it is as nice as the CVA Accura rifles with the tacky finish on the whole stock and forearm. The stock feels good when I shoulder it and is quite well balanced. The LOP seems to be right around 14". The first thing I noticed is how light it is. It is substantially lighter than my Accura V2 and this was apparent with more felt recoil when I shot it. The rifle does have an excellent recoil pad and the felt recoil is certainly not uncomfortable but it is noticeably more than the heavier Accura V2. The break action lever is nicely placed and works smoothly. The Strikerfire mechanism is very easy to use and the trigger block safety is nice to have, although mine is a bit stiff. Maybe it will loosen up with use, although I'm not sure how much I will actually use it. The 2 stage trigger is going to take some getting used to as I am not at all accustomed to having to take up so much trigger travel before getting to the point the trigger will break. However, once the travel is taken up, the trigger is very light and breaks very cleanly.

I purchased it as a package with the Traditions 3x9x40 scope which is quite clear but the crosshairs are a bit thick and with the extra BDC crosshairs, the scope view is a bit cluttered for my taste and the crosshairs block quite a bit of your view of the target. This might have to be changed but I'm going to give it a chance and shoot it for a while before I do. As is usually the case, the scope base mounting screws are not lock-tited from the factory and weren't really very tight either. The scope was apparently not bore sighted because the first shot at 50 yds was 20" right and 15" high. I was only able to get about 15 rounds though the rifle before i got rained out but that was enough to get the scope adjusted to where it was centered on the horizontal and about 4" high. My next session with it, I'll move back to 100 yds, fine tune the scope and loads and then check accuracy. I used Hornady FTX 265 gr .430 bullets in Harvester smooth green sabots over 100 gr BH209 and with a CCI magnum primer because this is an extremely accurate load out of my Accura V2. They loaded with about the same amount of pressure as with the CVA but as I said earlier, the recoil was more noticeable because of the lighter weight of the rifle.

Obviously, I haven't shot enough to determine how this rifle will group, but with the light trigger and build quality of the rifle, I see nothing to suggest that it will not shoot very well. One thing which was very noticeable is that there was absolutely zero blow back around the CCI primers. I only fired 15 shots but every primer came out as clean as it was when it went into the breech plug and the inside of the receiver was completely clean. The Accelerator breech plug works as advertised and in the 15 shots I fired with BH209, I had no failures to fire. It comes out easily with just 2 fingers and has coarser threads than the CVA so it only takes about three turns to remove it. The o ring on the bore end seals out any blow back around the threads and they were completely clean when they came out.

Overall, with the limited time I have had with the Vortek Strikerfire. it appears to be a very well built and well performing rifle. I will post updates on accuracy and my best performing loads after I get the opportunity to shoot it more, as well as any additional observations and thoughts that I have after spending more time with it.

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Good write-up

Did traditions ever put a firing pin bushing in the receiver like on your Accura V2? That was a weak point on my traditions rifle. Primers eventually dented the area around the firing pin and blowback became terrible.

 

[sabinajiles]

Good write-up

Did traditions ever put a firing pin bushing in the receiver like on your Accura V2? That was a weak point on my traditions rifle. Primers eventually dented the area around the firing pin and blowback became terrible.

No, there is no firing pin bushing. After reading your post, I took a good look at the receiver area around the firing pin to see if could tell if the primer was contacting it excessively. I even took a paint stick and painted the area around the firing pin and then opened and closed the action with a Winchester primer in the breech plug to see if it there was much contact and I couldn't find any contact marks. I used the Winchester primer because they are one of the longest. I am just not getting hard contact of the primer to the receiver face around the firing pin so wear should not be a problem. Maybe this was an issue Traditions has rectified, either with closer tolerances or a harder receiver face.

 

[sabinajiles]

I got a chance to shot the Vortek some more this afternoon. I used Scorpion PT Gold 260 gr bullets with both black crush rib and MMP HPH-24 sabots over 100 gr BH209 and Federal primers. As before, there is just no blowback through the primer and the receiver stays completely clean. I don't know if that is the norm for a Vortek or if I just got lucky and got a tight one. As far as accuracy goes, I got the aforementioned loads to shoot pretty well, the MMP sabots seemed to shoot tighter groups, but I could not get a group less than 4.5" at 100 yds. To be fair, I believe the Traditions scope that came with it is an issue. It has very wide crosshairs, 4 sets of them for bullet drop compensation, including a set over the center aiming point. They block a lot of the view of the target and make trying to hold on a 1" spot pretty much a guessing game. I also cannot adjust the focus to get both the crosshairs and the target completely in focus at the same time at full power. One, or both, are always a bit out of focus. It is a pretty inexpensive scope and I took a chance on it but it is not going to work for me. I personally do not like this scope and would not recommend it to anyone. I have a Nikon Inline XR that I am going to put on it for future shooting and see if that makes a difference.

 

[bestill]

I dialed in a strikerfire today for a friend. It took .015 of shims to seal primer.
Load was 100 gr blackhorn and federal209a primer and 290 Barnes tez with black crush rib sabot.
They fit extremely lose but shot a amazing one hole group at 50 yds.

I typically like a tight sabot but this gun would open way up with tight sabot

 

[sabinajiles]

Interesting. I got the Nikon scope mounted on the rifle today but with crosswinds gusting over 20 mph I didn't even attempt to try and dial it in. I first thought the bore on the Vortek was about the same as my CVA Accura V2 and Optima V2 but after spending some time today dry loading different bullet sabot combinations, it is definitely a bit tighter and is going to somewhat limit what I can use. A Barnes 290 gr TEZ loaded extremely easily with the black crush rib. It loaded a bit stiffer, but easily manageable, with a Harvester short black or MMP HPH-24, but an HPH-12 was uncomfortably tight and almost had to be hammered down. No worries though. Those 3 sabots should work with several very good bullets and I can always go to the MMP 3 petal for 45 bullets that run a bit over sized. The .430 FTXs loaded easily enough with a Harvester smooth green and I can always use a green crush rib if needed. I have not tried a 458 bullet yet in the MMP orange. I'll check them next chance I get to shoot.

 

[bestill]

I shot Barnes290 tez and 300 sst with black crush rib and both shot very well and same poi.

 

[Omega45]

Interesting. I got the Nikon scope mounted on the rifle today but with crosswinds gusting over 20 mph I didn't even attempt to try and dial it in. I first thought the bore on the Vortek was about the same as my CVA Accura V2 and Optima V2 but after spending some time today dry loading different bullet sabot combinations, it is definitely a bit tighter and is going to somewhat limit what I can use. A Barnes 290 gr TEZ loaded extremely easily with the black crush rib. It loaded a bit stiffer, but easily manageable, with a Harvester short black or MMP HPH-24, but an HPH-12 was uncomfortably tight and almost had to be hammered down. No worries though. Those 3 sabots should work with several very good bullets and I can always go to the MMP 3 petal for 45 bullets that run a bit over sized. The .430 FTXs loaded easily enough with a Harvester smooth green and I can always use a green crush rib if needed. I have not tried a 458 bullet yet in the MMP orange. I'll check them next chance I get to shoot.

20mph gusts ain't gonna change much at 100yds. Dial her in.

 

[sabinajiles]

20mph gusts ain't gonna change much at 100yds. Dial her in.

I guess it depends what you call a lot. I consider up to 8" of side drift quite a bit plus the fact that gusting winds make it impossible to establish a reference POI to use for scope adjustment. I prefer to dial in my scopes in light to zero winds.

 

[sabinajiles]

I got a chance to shoot the Vortek this morning. I am much happier with the Nikon scope, however, I still have not found a killer load for this rifle. I shot 260 gr Scorpion PT Golds with black crush ribs over 100 gr BH209 and the best group I could get was about 4-4.5". I also tried Barnes 290 TEZs with MMP HPH-24s over 100 gr BH209 and had about the same results. I tried .458 FTX 325s with the orange MMP sabots over 110 gr BH 209. They were a bear to start but once started loaded a bit easier. I had a little better results with them and managed a 3.5" group. I had the best luck with 250 gr SSTs and harvester short black sabots over 100 gr of BH209. which I used to initially dial in the scope, managing a 3" group. I ran out of black crush ribs and would have liked to have tried them with some other bullets. I had more of them delivered this afternoon so I'll have to do so additional testing of them the next time out as well as trying a couple different bullets. So far, it seems like I find a combo that shoots a pretty tight group for 3 or 4 shots out of a group of 5 but also throws 1 or 2 flyers. I haven't spent that much time with this rifle yet but so far it seems to be pretty picky about loads. I'll reserve making any judgement till I get more shooting time with it but with our firearm season coming up next Friday, that might be a while.

Some additional observations. As I said before, this is a light rifle. The 325 FTX and 110 gr BH 209 produced a lot of recoil. Even in my weighted lead sled, I really felt it and the rifle jumped pretty good out of the front rest. Also, the Vortek has a tight bore and it appears some .458 bullets with the MMP orange sabot will be difficult to load. The tapered barrel on the rifle is probably a big reason for the light weight but it also sure heats up fast and when I shoot 5 consecutive shots, it is pretty darn warm. I'm wondering if one of the reasons I'm not getting tighter groups is because I'm not letting the barrel cool down enough. Out of the about 100 rounds I have shot out of this rifle so far, it has never failed to ignite with BH209. The breechplug always comes out with 2 fingers and is always clean behind the front o-ring which seals the bore. I continue to be quite pleased at how clean the receiver of this rifle stays when shooting. I have used 3 different primers and have virtually no blow back in the receiver. The picture below is after 50 shots. I have heard from some other Vortek owners that this is not always the case so I must have gotten lucky and got one with pretty tight tolerances. Now if I can just get lucky on finding an accurate "go to" load.

 

[ShawnT]

Have you tried those 260 PT Gold's in another sabot besides the Crushrib? I am working with some in 300 grain and got some similar results with flyers from my Knight Ultra Lite. It was suggested to me to try Knurling the bullet to increase the diameter some and so the sabot got a better grip in it. That suggestion made me realize that the PT Gold's are .451 diameter bullets. It never dawned on me the day I saw that to try a different sabot and I actually had some in my bag. You might need to try a slightly thicker sabot with them and or Knurl them up a little. I tried both and both options helped a lot. My rifle has a bit of a tight bore too and I am working with MMP-HPH 24 sabots with .452 bullets and MMP-HPH 12 for the .451. I may try knurling up the bullets and the thicker MMP-HPH 12. I too am running out of time and plan to use the Bloodline for this season.

BH will heat that thinner barrel up a lot quicker than any other sub powder. It does in My UL. Heat will affect the sabots a good bit. Try letting the barrel cool down 10 minutes or more between shots and that should help with the groups too.

By the way, What primer is in that BP in the Picture above?

 

[bestill]

I shot Barnes290 tez and 300 sst with black crush rib and both shot very well and same poi.

I shot every combo possible and the above load was crazy loose but shot extremely accurate.

These were on clean bore and cleaning between shots.
1" groups at 100 yds

 

[sabinajiles]

I ran out of crush ribs so I didn't get to try them with all the bullets I tried. I had an order in for more that was in my mail Saturday evening so I will concentrate on using them with some different loads when I get a chance.