Christensen Arms Ridgeline Safari Plains Game 300 Win Mag 22" Rifle

Most carbon barreled rifles look like equipment. The Ridgeline Safari looks like a rifle, because Christensen dropped a precision machined action and a carbon fiber barrel into a walnut stock. The wood is not nostalgia for its own sake either. On a 300 Winchester Magnum the extra mass in the stock is what keeps the gun from beating you up over a long session of load development or a week in camp, and walnut puts that weight where the rifle balances best.

The barrel is free floating and hand lapped under its Aerograde carbon fiber wrap and cut to 22 inches, which keeps the rifle handling like a hunting gun rather than a bench gun. A radial muzzle brake cuts the recoil enough to stay behind the scope and watch what happens downrange, and the action cycles smoothly, which is the part you actually notice on a follow up shot with a magnum. 300 Win Mag remains the yardstick for North American big game at range: it throws heavy bullets flat enough to take some of the guesswork out of a long shot, and it sits on every shelf that stocks centerfire ammunition, so load development does not turn into a scavenger hunt. Black metal against oiled walnut.