I received the used Optima Elite today, so far, it looks promising, has a couple scratches, but bore and action are in excellent shape, has 2-pc bases on it, no iron sights, just the mount holes, but I would have taken them off anyway, can't use em with my eyes!! It locks up tight on aluminum foil that is .0005" thick which is impressive, new sized brass is flush with the chamber mouth, the barrel is tight when open, no wiggle at all. I pulled the forend, which is a muzzleloader forend btw....the hinge pin is .394" which is good or bad, depending on how you look at it, TC uses a .430" pin, H&R's is .375". The rifle with a Durasight base, weighs 7lbs-13oz.
The bad news is the trigger, my Lyman digital trigger scale gives me a 10 pull average of 5lbs 4oz, but it is crisp and breaks clean. I knocked the pins out and it's built pretty much like an H&R, in fact, I used the same slave pin that I use on H&R triggers to put it back together, the design is almost identical, just made of better material and the latch release handle is more like TC's but the latch itself is very similar to the H&R. I did a little honing on the trigger sear, but couldn't remove the hammer extensioin, so I could hone the hammer's sear engagement surface, sent Mark an email to see if he can tell me the secret to removing the extension, it may just be loctited and need some heat to soften the loctite, but I didn't want to wreck it not knowing the "secret"!!
The 7mm-08 has a twist rate of 1:9" as marked right on the barrel, so I think I'll shoot the 160gr Accubond in it, the throat is deep enough that I can load it long to keep pressures down and still have some room for powder!!
Tim
