Nesika Bay Tactcail Rifles

By Jacob Gottfredson

Copyright The Accurate Rifle 2001

Synopsis:  Nesika Bay Precision is the manufacturer of one of the highest quality, precision made actions in the world, having gotten its start in the most demanding and prestigious of pure accuracy endeavors: Traditional benchrest.  Having then branched out into 1000 Yard Benchrest and other forms of competition, as well as varminting, and hunting, Nesika is taking on the tough task of building actions and rifles for tactical needs.   This series of articles will be offered in three parts: beginning with the evolution of their tactical actions, it will evaluate the performance level of their production rifles, and conclude with my own spec built Nesika tactical match rifle.

 While this series of articles is about Nesikas tactical rifles,  it seems necessary to first discuss the heart of the rifle:  the Nesika Bay Precision action.   To do this, I pulled heavily from a colleagues previously written article in PS, a writer for whom I have the greatest respect:  Dave Scott.   While Daves comprehensive article provided technical detail about the actions, I spent the better part of a year evaluating Nesikas tactical rifles.  

 Jacob Bynum and Thomas Blahnik of Snipers Paradise gave many hours to this evaluation and helped steer my education in the various and important differences between the rifle of war, the rifle needed by law enforcement, and the rifle I envisioned for a tactical matches.

 Photos for this article were made available courtesy of Turk Takano.

 I want to thank Glen Harrison, Michael Allen, Turk Takano, Jacob Bynum, Thomas Blahnik, and Dave Scott for their invaluable help in the development of these articles.

 First Encounters

 What is that?, I asked.   The gentleman handed over the rifle with pride and a smile on his face.    

A Nesika Bay action. , he replied.   He knew what I was talking about, and it wasnt the barrel or the stock.  

 I eyed the gleaming steel and worked the bolt.  Hmmm nice.  I said.

 That was several years ago at one of the major benchrest matches.  Through the ensuing years, these beautiful actions continued to show up in greater numbers in the places I frequent.   Permeating the varmint, long range, and hunting genres at an ever-increasing rate, the quality and precision of these actions continue to gain notice and popularity as one of the most precision built, custom actions on the market.   

But little did I know just how exceptional these actions are.  It was not until I saw them being shown as tactical prototypes that I began to appreciate the thought and technology that has gone into them.  Nor did I realize that someone I had been nodding my head at at competitions all these years was both the designer and manufacturer of them.   

Glen Harrison is a familiar face to me, though I only knew him as a competitor.  I had no idea where he was from or what he did.  All I knew was that he usually waxed my butt on the firing line.   When introduced, both his and my reactions were, Hey, I know you.   I was embarrassed.  His partner, Mike Allen, had made the introductions.    While Glen is the designer, master machinist ,and president of the company,  Mike is the engineer, metallurgist, general manager, and consummate nice guy of the duo (does that mean Glen is not a nice guy I didnt mean that.  Maybe I better stop while I am ahead?).

 My first question of Glen was, Where did the name Nesika come from?  

 Both Mike and Glen are big, burly guys.  Mike was a football player, and I think Glen might have grown up wrestling whales in the waters off the Washington coast both somewhat intimidating to a 5-10 weakling like myself.     Glenn looked up at me with steel blue-gray eyes from his chore of polishing brass for his next turn at the benches during the Cactus Classic match in Phoenix, Arizona.   

I was just starting the company and looking for a name.  I was riding to work one day and glancing at the water along the Washington coast Nesika Bay.   I thought, why not,  answered Glen. 

Glen left for his relay,  and I continued with Mike.  So Mike, whats the rest of the story.

 It turns out that Glen possessed the perfect combination of personal traits for the job all rolled into one person.  He had been a rifleman, hunter, varminter, and benchrest competitor for years.   At the same time, he had become heavily involved in high tech machining and design, living in the middle of one of the  fastest paced tech areas in the world, the northwest.    The final ingredient: He was not too happy with many of the actions on the market at the time and thought he could do better; and so he did in a big way.

Although the entire story is fascinating, I am sure the editor would be pleased if I got on with it.

 My interest for many years has been hunting, benchrest competition, long range shooting, and the type of tactical shooting that fits well in those categories, namely: Extremely accurate, center fire rifles.    Which is exactly Nesika Bay Precisions forte.   

 As it turned out, Glen, Mike, and I had all registered for the Cactus Classic benchrest match in Phoenix, Arizona..   They kindly loaded two production tactical rifles in my Durango after the Phoenix match.  

 My job, as I saw it, was to let the tactical community know about Nesikas tactical actions and the performance of these rifles, the heart of which is certainly the action.  My job was also, as I saw it,  to provide suggestions from a tactical standpoint.   To do this,  I employed the help of other tactical shooters and the folks at Snipers Paradise.  But I was also interested in exploring the obvious differences between a rifle I would haul into combat and a rifle I would take to matches as a civilian not the same thing in my opinion.   These several requirements are what prompted me to split the subject into three articles:  the Nesika Bay action,  the performance of their production rifles,  and a rifle built to my specifications for tactical matches.  As a result, all of this led to hours on the phone and emails with Nesikas owners  .  

 Before proceeding,  let me stop momentarily to explain something.  While these rifles are being produced to help satisfy the needs of hardcore, tactical types,  they should be of great interest to other riflemen, particularly those interested in taking a weapon into harsh environments for hunting, for example, like I do.   So do yourself a favor;  read on before thinking there is nothing here for you.   The fact is, the perfect tactical rifle is my idea of what The Accurate Rifle is all about.

 The Nesika Bay Action

 Nesika offers three varieties of actions:  Classic, Round, and Hunter.  Their literature states the following:

 Classic The flat-bottom actions are the classic Nesika style.  They are the first choice when beauty and precision are required for the ultimate rifle.  

Round Like all Nesika actions, these feature the Borden Bumps.  Designed to yield less than .001 inch clearance when in the locked position.

 Hunter Derived from the round actions, a lightweight hunting-style action featuring a larger loading port and faceted sides. The cornerstone of your most accurate hunting rifle.

 Another, smaller action, the model C, has recently been added to their line.   But the action of interest here is their Round action which comes in Models J, K, L, M, and S,  each denoting different weights, lengths, diameters, and bolt faces.  

 The production tactical rifles that I have been evaluating in .308 caliber employ Nesikas model K.   A 1.470 diameter action is used for the Heavy Tactical action, while the slightly smaller Urban Tactical is 1.350 diameter.   Other sizes and models will be offered for the .300 Win Mag (Model L), and the .338 Lapua and Lazzeronis  Patriot  in Model S and Warbird cartridges in Model M. 

 The first thing one notices about these actions is the integral bolt handle.   That is, the bolt is not silver soldered on.   The bolt and the bolt handle are crafted from a single, solid block of heat-treated E-4340 chromemoly.    This lends itself well to tactical use, giving the bolt a ruggedness and integrity not found in most rifles that will see this kind of hard service.   

 Working the bolt in the receiver will make you ponder.   While it is smooth as glass,  there is a bit of a tightening up just as the bolt is turned and the lugs engage.   What you are feeling are the Borden Bumps, as they say in the vernacular, and first suggested by Jim

 Borden, the master gunsmith of benchrest fame.   The bolt, when slid along the raceways, has just enough clearance to make it easy.  But as the bolt is turned into the lugs, the clearance reduces to only .0007  +/- .0002 all around.   This is accomplished by introducing a cam or bump just forward of the bolt handle and another just behind the locking lugs.     

While the bump in the rear is continuous around the bolts circumference,  the bump in the front is just behind the lugs and only behind the lugs.   A total of .0007 clearance is available just to the rear of the front bump, allowing a loose fit when the bolt is open.   The middle portion of the bolt has been reduced to .010 clearance.  

  Why is this small item, conceived by Jim Borden and executed by Glen Harrison, important?  When a loose bolt is in the cocked position, the rear of the bolt is forced up to the top of the receiver bridge by the pressure of the trigger sear.  This forces the top locking lug on the bolt to disengage from the receivers locking lug seat.   The face of the case also becomes skewed in relation to the bolt face.  When the rifle is fired, several things happen.   First the head of the case tries to straighten itself to the bolt face, forcing the case into a banana shape.  The case then pushes against the bolts locking lugs.   The lug on the bottom pushes harder

 against its seat while the lug on the top slams into its seat.  The forces then assume a vector that is not parallel to the bore.   This causes an additional vibration that is not repeatable.   This concept was introduced by Audette and shown to induce inaccuracy.

 Glen succeeded in producing a bolt with a major diameter of .7017 inside a .7025 receiver bore.   This arrangement becomes the best of two worlds.  The action is loose enough to deal with the dirt and crud that a tactical shooter has to contend with,  while giving him the tightness conducive to accuracy when the bolt is locked in place.

 While this is unique to Nesika Bay Precision actions, it is being patented by Jim.   But does it work?   I believe it does, and in part two I will show the results of a great many tests carried out with three of Nesikas tactical rifles.  

Materials and Manufacturing  

Nesika actions are manufactured from PH VAR stainless steel,  VAR being the abbreviation for vacuum arc remelt which is a process used to free the steel of impurities.   Glen starts with a solid, round bar of this 15-5 stainless alloy.   The bar is gun drilled, reamed, and honed for the correct bore diameter and surface finish.  This produces a diameter within 50 millionths of an inch of specifications.   Now the bar can be held precisely for outside grinding, producing a drilled bar with no more than .0002 indicted roundout, both inside and out.    

This precision at the start reduces out of tolerance stack that can build up in the later stages of manufacture without it.  

 Glen employs wire EDM (electrical discharge machining) techniques to form the locking lug raceways.   This process uses a brass wire that is inserted into the bore.   The machine is programmed to precisely remove the amount of steel to form the lug raceways by

Contrast the bolt face and ejector pin on the new Nesika tactical action.

 electrically arcing from the wire to the receiver metal.   This gives Glen the ability to hold extremely tight tolerances and do it without building stress in the receiver.  

A second EDM technique is used to taper the ramps to the receiver locking lugs.  This is possible because the Sinker electrode that Glen uses can be formed to any shape. 

 Glen uses a thread mill to receive the barrel because it is considerably more accurate than a lathe and a single-point cutting tool.   The action and finished threads are so precise that lapping the locking lugs is not required.   But he does it anyway.    This precision allows a gunsmith to chamber and fit a barrel for a Nesika action without the owner needing to send the action to him.   Glen states that a Nesika Model K owner can order a second bolt, and it will work just like the original.  In fact,  barrels can be exchanged between similar actions.   

 The tactical action comes with a recoil lug.  Precisely ground,  it includes two pins that tie it to the receiver face.  This ensures that it maintains alignment during barrel installation and removal.    

   The loading port, bolt handle, bolt stop, trigger housing, and cocking rail cutouts are milled somewhat more loosely than the more critical parts of the action to facilitate movement or disassembly.

 The action is heat treated to 44 on the Rockwell scale.   This helps to eliminate galling. 

Nesika offers several action finishes.  Their standard finish is achieved by tumbling the receivers and bolts in both a course and fin ceramic slurry.  This produces a soft, non-glare patina that is both attractive and functional.   They also offer a full polish, accomplished by hand on a polishing wheel.  The finished product looks like hard chrome. 

 The tactical rifles are finished with Titanium Aluminum Nitride (TiAIN).  This finish is extremely hard, 92 HRC, that is commonly found on cutting tool surfaces.  It is very durable, will not wear off like other coatings (paint, Teflon, Parkerizing), and provides a dark gray, non-reflective finish along with enhanced corrosion resistance.   

Again, one of the features unique to the Nesika Bay action is the bolt and bolt handle.  This should be of primary interest to tactical shooters.  If you have every had a silver soldered bolt handle snap off,  you will know why.   The Nesika Bay bolt body and handle are one single piece of certified aircraft-quality E-4340 chromemoly.  Both are cut from a bar 1.25 by 3  that is first roughened to an L shape, gun drilled, honed inside, and turned on a CNC lathe, after which it is heat treated and turned closer to final diameter.  The final bolt body dimensions are achieved by precise CNC grinding.

  The bolt nose incorporates an extractor plate made of 4340 but which is hardened to 42-44 on the Rockwell scale, making it extremely strong.   The firing pin is also 4340 heat-treated to a hardness of 44.

  While the firing pin spring in the benchrest rifles are 23 pounds,  Glen uses a heavier spring in the tactical actions for obvious reasons.  

 The trigger guard on the tactical actions is steel,  affording the owner the opportunity to apply considerably more torque to the bedding screws than is possible with aluminum.   Tactical shooters, to include FBI testers, Chandler, and others confirm the benefits of additional torque.

 Of course Nesika offers many other action sizes and some amount of variation in the basic design to fit the shooters needs.   Bolts and ports can be ordered on either side in any configuration.   Benchrest shooters prefer loading ramps and no magazine,  while hunters prefer magazines.  Big game hunters and 1000 yard competitors often require large actions to support barrel weight, ignition forces, and long cartridge lengths. Nesika supplies them all.   

 Nesika Bay Precision might very well produce the finest all-around action available in the world today some certainly think so.   Nesikas decision to start producing tactical rifles is founded on their belief that an action made for extreme accuracy to meet tactical requirements has come of age.   I, for one, agree with them. 

 In part two,  I will evaluate the Nesika Bay tactical rifles truly pieces of extreme accuracy, structural integrity, and reliability.  

Nesika Bay Precision, Inc.

6112 NE Minder Road

Poulsbo, WA 98370

Phone:  360-297-5555

FAX:  360-297-3973