A good friend of mine, Earnie Bray, the owner of Red Creek Tactical, has been arranging for a rifle to be built for my use in some upcoming sniper competitions. While looking for an action for the build, he came across Rick Uselton of Uselton Arms. Rick has been in the rifle building business for years and he served as a soldier in Vietnam. He has also acted as a consultant on many of the military sniper rifle projects over the last many years. Rick has been building custom 1911 pistols for 10 years now, and for the last five, he has built custom bolt-action rifles.
Uselton’s Mountain Lite is perfectly suited for the field. Dropping to a knee with a monopod or set of sticks was smooth, and the rifle produced superb accuracy.
Like many custom builders these days, Rick has gravitated towards an action of his own design. Rick’s Warrior Action is one of the most robust and reliable out there, making it a perfect choice for a tactical or competition rifle.
Uselton’s tactical bolt handle works great with gloved hands. Shooters can expect rapid and positive bolt manipulation. A crisp trigger helps the Mountain Lite maintain great accuracy. The side-mounted bolt release eases the cleaning process.
While discussing my rifle build, Rick explained the advantages of this action in a hunting rifle and the value of the 7.82mm Warbird cartridge, especially for longer-range hunting. This caliber provides for some rather impressive ballistics, sending a 175-grain .30-caliber bullet downrange at almost 3,500 FPS. Producing 4,700 FPE (foot-pounds of energy) at the muzzle, this cartridge delivers some serious energy on target. Together, the Warbird cartridge and Rick’s custom Mountain Lite rifle make a terrific hunting team that is comfortable to carry for hours, delivers tremendous energy on target and is really pleasant to shoot. With this rifle and cartridge, you can hunt most anything out there, certainly in North America, without regard to how long you must hike or ride to reach it.
Uselton’s Warrior Action is equipped with its own rail and is durable enough to handle the power of the 7.82 cartridge.
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