Nesika's Sporter Part 1

Marketing is all around us. I’ll give you an example. When my wife thinks I have forgotten to shave for too long, she’ll look up from the breakfast table, press the palm of her hand against my cheek and say, “Honey, without that beard you look so handsome and twenty years younger”. Ten minutes later, with the few hairs left on my head, my scraggy gray beard and the facial feature declivity of a basset hound, I’m shaving away to uncover that inner rock star. She has been getting away with this routine since we were teenagers. Effective.

There are many marketing techniques that are based on an ego massage or creating imaginary associations with celebrity or people who represent what we find compelling. The firearm industry appears to be in the midst of a Glam Marketing cycle. The new catalogue covers often feature a studly guy, with a stubbly beard, on a hunt and battling the elements. Alternatively, there is the presence of a “new country” girl stepping out of a top fuel funny car and hair flipping on her way to a wilderness elk hunt.

Unfortunately, the image of the featured firearm and its specifications are pushed to the distant background on page twenty three. The intent is to make us mortals, respective to our gender, think that buying that rifle will make us look like that guy, or that girl, and we’ll all hang out and go hunting together. It is ironic, but appropriate, that a rifle like the Nesika with its… attention getting price tag, markets its products with details of materials, process and specifications. Substance.

Background

Nesika Bay Precision was founded by Glenn Harrison in the early 1990s, the company’s name derived from the Nesika Bay neighborhood of Poulsbo, WA. The precision bolt action was marketed based on a well deserved competitive bench rest shooting reputation. In 2003, the company was acquired by Dakota Arms and moved to Sturgis, South Dakota. In 2009, Dakota Arms and its holdings became part of the Freedom Group when it was acquired by Remington Arms Company. Not a word of first hand experience in any of this, but rather a brilliant extraction and compilation of information from credible public records. That means all no wiki and/or message board sources were included.

Some folks profess that Remington has had an adverse effect on acquired companies. Closer to the truth, Remington has become somewhat of a safe harbor within the firearms industry. Using their economy muscle and centralized overhead, Remington has managed to preserve companies that were destined to become a footnote in history. In the case of Dakota Arms, the acquisition additionally ended the drama surrounding exited CEO Charles Kokesh and put the business on solid ground and in the hands of firearm professionals.

Today

Nesika firearms are expensive, which caused me to be skeptical, but not for long. There are materials and processes used that are not present in the manufacture of mass produced firearms. At the core, the Nesika action begins life as a center drilled, reamed and honed piece of 15-5 stainless bar stock. Using this center bore as reference, the action is then CNC and ED machined into form with exacting tolerances inside and out. The action’s one piece bolt body and handle, is made of Cerakote finished 4340 chrome moly steel to prevent galling that would have occurred with a stainless bolt within a stainless receiver. The bolt knob is threaded in place.

Nesika sells four basic actions; Classic, Round, Hunter, and Tactical, each in several sizes to accommodate a variety of cartridges. Within this group there are a multitude of options; left/right hand, repeaters, single shot, various lengths, flat and round bottom, fluted and non-fluted bolts. Nesika also offersthree versions of complete rifles; Sporter, Long Range and Tactical. In this case, the subject rifle is the Nesika Sporter Rifle, which is based on the Nesika Hunter Model V action, a derivative of the original Nesika bench rest action.

The Hunter Model V is a cylindrical 8.86″x1.350″ action. It has a bolt diameter of 0.700″ and taped to accept 1 1/16″x18 TPI barrel threads. The Douglas 416 stainless barrel holds bore/land diameter to a maximum of 0.0001″ the length of the barrel.

The Nesika bolt is helically fluted which reduces bearing surface and subsequent drag within the receiver, while making the bolt body more rigid and providing. The grooves also provide a dump off for powder residue and, of greatest importance, it looks really good.

Compared to a Remington bolt head, inset, the Nesika bolt closes flush against the barrel, rather than into a barrel recess, But still encloses the cartridge case head. The Nesika lugs are 0.130″ longer than the Model 700 Remington, both have a plunger ejector, however, the Nesika has a spring loaded sliding extractor rather than the Remington’s stamped steel edge extractor which is riveted inside the Remington’s bolt face.

Another sign of useful finesse work. The Nesika bolt has Borden Bumps milled into the bolt body behind each lug , 0.001″ eccentrics, camming surfaces as indicated with arrows below.

Out of battery, the lugs and Borden bumps are in the raceways and out of contact which permits uninhibited bolt travel. When rotated closed into battery, the bumps perfectly center the bolt face in the receiver body.

The receiver is round bottom, the recoil lug is pinned for alignment and to prevent rotation. The quality Timney trigger is fully adjustable for pull weight, pre and over travel. The bolt stop, center aft receiver, is depressed to remove the rifle’s bolt which avoids pulling the rifle’s trigger to accomplish the same or searching for a small bolt release inside the trigger guard. Weaver type scope bases are included with the rifle… which is a good thing as you won’t be finding a set at the local Wal-Mart.

There is a trend to label virtually all polymer based stocks “composite” as a way of creating the illusion that there is no performance gap between simple molded plastic stocks. From a measureable performance perspective, they are most certainly different.

The Nesika’s Bell and Carlson Medalist stock is made with a hand lay-up process of materials: fiberglass, aramid fibers, graphite, epoxy gel coats and laminating resins. Each layer is further  reinforced with polyurethane containing milled fiberglass. An aluminum bedding block is bonded into the stock during construction and the action is pillar bedded. It is a very stable and strong piece.

The Nesika Sporter is configured with an Oberndorf style hinged floorplate. The “Oberndorf” designation refers to the type of floorplate release mechanism and the location of its release latch in the lower front trigger guard bow. The design was introduced on Mauser sporting rifle manufactured in Oberndorf, Germany prior to World War II to service British trade.

The Nesika bottom metal is stainless steel throughout. The unit feeds the rifle cleanly and the release latch operation is positive. Having very recently upgraded the bottom metal on a personal Winchester Model 70, I can offer this comparison. The factory Winchester cast aluminum piece sells as a replacement for about $94. A one piece, all stainless steel, quality machined replacement piece went for $368. It opens when I want, not when it gets bumped, and I can open it with gloves on. The Nesika bottom metal is more nicely done. My only point is that the basis for added cost is in the details.

Which takes us to….

Thee Nesika Sporter is made of premium materials not employed in mass produced firearms and it has a fit and finish not found in mass produced firearms… which combines to produce the 3/4″ hundred yard group illustrated by the target packed with the rifle. Not bad, especially when the rifle is so well balanced, the bolt cycles as though it is riding on ball bearings and it locks up like a bank vault. But these are observations and not objective measurement.

After mounting and bore sighting a new Burris 3x-15x-50mm Veracity Scope in a pair of medium height Warnes rings, we are in the process of working us some 280 Remington handloads to see if we can match or better that factory target. Coming up in Part 2.