Christensen Arms Ridgeline Safari Plains Game 7mm Backcountry 20" Rifle

Christensen Arms usually answers questions about weight and accuracy with carbon fiber and a synthetic stock. The Ridgeline Safari takes the same barreled action and drops it into European walnut, which is a different argument entirely. A walnut stock adds mass, and mass is exactly what you want under a magnum cartridge headed at plains game. It also puts the rifle in the same visual tradition as the safari rifles it is meant to replace, without giving up any of the modern parts underneath the wood.

The barrel is hand lapped stainless steel wrapped in carbon fiber, free floated, threaded at the muzzle and fitted with a radial brake to keep recoil in the range where you can still spot your own impacts. The receiver is stainless steel with a black nitride finish, drilled and tapped on the standard Remington 700 pattern so optic bases are easy to source. QD sling mounts are integrated front and rear, and a Picatinny rail on the forend takes a bipod or a support without clamping anything to the stock. The trigger is a TriggerTech, which is the right call on a rifle that gets fired from field positions at real animals. Chambering is 7mm Backcountry, a modern high pressure cartridge built to hold velocity out of shorter tubes, which is exactly why a 20" barrel makes sense here.