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Thompson/Center Arms Dimension Rifle Review Sometimes I'm just amazed at the simple innovations manufacturers come up with to create unique, yet practical, firearms. In my humble opinion, that is exactly what Thompson/Center did with their new T/C Dimension Rifle. I'm sure you are thinking that this is not the first switch barrel bolt action rifle to ever hit the market and you're right. The thing that Thompson/Center has done is to make switching barrels and calibers fast, accurate and affordable. They have established a rifle platform that can shoot 4 different caliber groups and up to 10 different calibers (at the time of this review). Also, when you purchase the rifle, it comes with all the tools you need to switch the barrels in the field. Each person will see their own pros and cons with this type of platform, but immediately I saw a potential opportunity to have the same "feel" when shouldering the rifle, the same cheek weld when looking through the scope, the same trigger pull for each shot and potentially same high quality scope for all my hunting situations. I want to be clear that when I say all my hunting situations, I'm talking about a range of 10 calibers that currently go from the .204 Ruger to the .300 Winchester Magnum. If you can't "Get-R-Done" with that range of calibers, you must be hunting some extremely big and dangerous game that are not in North America. With regard to the scope, one potential beauty of this platform is that you may have the opportunity to invest in a single high quality scope that can be used on all your hunting and target adventures. Instead of skimping on many different scopes for many different rifles, you can pool all that money together and buy a high end optic, or you can buy a good scope and spend the remaining money on hunting adventures... or your wife... just kidding. The more I thought about this optics situation, the more I liked the new T/C Dimension Rifle platform and decided I had to try one out for myself.
If you have read any of my other reviews, you may already know I'm fairly detailed. When I first started thinking about this Dimension Rifle review, I recognized I could potentially go "off the deep end" with the details of the four different caliber series (groups), ten different barrels/caliber, and two different methods for mounting a scope. After pondering the best way to do the review, I decided to focus on some aspects that would be the most important things for me to understand and show about this rifle platform. Below sets some of my key goals for this review.
For this review, I decided to receive the complete rifle in the .308 Winchester caliber and then receive an alternate .223 Remington barrel (magazine & housing) and bolt series. The table below shows the details of each series and barrel combinations currently available. I decided to go with the .308 Win and .223 Rem because there is so much affordable match grade ammunition on the market and l also like the idea of having standardized calibers for my own personal inventory. I will have to admit that I was tempted to select some of the other calibers because T/C has done a good job offering some of the most popular calibers on the market. In the November 2012 issue of "Shooting Times" magazine, Shooting Times featured an article titled "Cartridges with Staying Power". The article shows that with the exception of the .204 Ruger, the other 9 calibers listed in the table below make up the top 9 reloaded rifle cartridges according to data from RCBS which is based on reloading die sales. Also, eight of these ten calibers were in the top 10 in 2011 based on Federal ammunition sales. Clearly T/C did their homework when deciding on the initial calibers for this rifle. T/C also plans to introduce new calibers in the future. I'm already hoping to see a threaded barrel 300 Blackout and 6.5 Creedmoor.
During my reviews I like to compare my results to the manufacturer's claims where possible so the following text in colored italics was taken directly from the Thompson/Center website on 10/6/12 or the 1/17/12 Press Release and gives an Overview, Key Features, and Specifications for the Dimension Rifle. The , and are my way to show agreement and keep up with details that I have covered in this review with either photos, commentary or both. I may also add commentary after these marks as necessary to explain some items if needed. Overview & Key Features
Review Rifle Specification
This review is broken down into multiple parts with this page providing links to each part along with an overall summary of the specifications, pros and cons, and my final "bottom line" comments. Make sure you take time to checkout the other parts of the review because they contain many photos and lots of commentary. Also, there is an extreme amount of detail in those parts which is not covered on this page.
As you read these Pros and Cons below, keep in mind that it is hard to keep my particular preferences from creeping in the equation. Therefore, it is important that you take the time to look at the other parts of this review so you can decide yourself on items which may be more of a personal preference. Pros:
Pro/Con/Comment? You Decide:
Cons:
Bottom Line: The Thompson Center Dimension Rifle lives up to T/C's claims. I was very impressed with the accuracy of each caliber tested and the repeatable accuracy when removing and installing barrels was impressive. The key to using this rifle with multiple calibers while at the same time having a single receiver mounted scope will be spending some time at the range to ensure you have mapped out the best possible zeros which would include the effects of small deviations in group centers due to removing and installing barrels. After shooting a couple of range sessions, the bolt feels smoother and I really like the feel of the rifle. Only time will tell, but so far I think T/C has produced another winning switch barrel platform. I hope to see some other caliber and barrel profiles in the future along with stock and magazine capacity offerings. If you like the thoughts of having a switch barrel rifle, do your research, read other reviews, visit other forums, and take a close look at the Thompson Center Dimension Rifle the next time you are in a gun store. I think you will be impressed. Or If you would like to be notified about future Gunsumer Reports reviews via Facebook, make sure "You Like This" by clicking the Facebook "Like" button at the bottom or top of this page. If it already says "You Like This" beside the button, clicking it again will uncheck the "Like" status and you will not be notified.
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