Review: Glacier Rifle Company Elite CR stock

The Glacier Rifle Company Elite CR carbon-fibre composite rifle stock brings measurable performance improvements to your Tikka, Remington, Sako or Howa.

My Tikka T3 is the most faithful and long-serving rifle I’ve ever owned. Over 21 years, I’ve lost count of how many rounds it has fired (thousands) and have used and abused it like the workhorse it is. It keeps on keeping on. It’d earned a 21st birthday present, I reckon, and so I bought it an Elite CR stock, available in Australia from Foxdog Outfitters.

Glacier Rifle Company Elite CR stock — The Glacier Rifle Co stock looks sensational but, more importantly, improves accuracy in a significant way

Glacier Rifle Company (GRC) is a family-owned New Zealand enterprise that makes complete rifles as well as other components. The business has been up and running through three generations over 63 years. Firearms aren’t all they do; they manufacture components for aerospace and defence industries. In other words, typical, clever Kiwis.

GRC, partly through its in-house design team led by Sam Kapoor, Sika Works, designed the stock, made the moulds and does all the manufacturing in-house.

Stocks are produced to fit Tikkas, Remington 700s, most Sakos and the three Howa 1500 action lengths. The Elite is one of several models.

In making its stocks, GRC employs some trade secrets developed over “decades of precision composite manufacturing for mission-critical applications,” says managing director Gerald Kapoor.

“We hand-lay high-quality carbon-fibre in a controlled moulding process under pressure to create ultra-lightweight, stiff stocks with superior durability,” he says.

“Once a shell is created, core-fill materials are added. Cores increase the stock’s thickness; this makes the stock rigid for precise shooting while keeping it ultra-light.

“For example, around the action we have a compressive-strength and low-density fill material. This is utilised to add high-end strength in thin-walled stocks which resists crushing under high loads.

“We can manufacture hollow stocks but there are compromises in manufacturing and performance such as balance, recoil, weight and sound. The various density fills we utilise absorb felt recoil, reduce noise and ensure the GRC stock feels balanced to carry.”

My T3 is a Lite Stainless, meaning it came with a lightweight synthetic stock — well designed with very little flex but no extra bedding support. I always suspected firmer bedding would improve its performance. The GRC stock’s bedding is solid and was the prime attraction for me.

“Both Remington and Tikka actions all are supplied with aluminium bedding blocks,” Gerald says. “All stocks have composite pillars around the action screws to ensure there is no crush when tightened to the prescribed torque setting of 35 to 38 inch-pounds [3.95-4.3Nm].”

The bedding block is inset solidly as an integral part of the stock, and it includes the recoil lug. The structure is incredibly rigid yet super light — and beautifully made with neat, precise machining.

It is a perfect fit to the Tikka action with solid contact at the front and rear, and wafer-thin clearance on either side of the magazine well.

The sporter-weight barrel floats well clear of any contact. There’s actually about 2.5mm of consistent clearance either side because the barrel channel is designed to also cater for the heavy varmint barrel (it’s the same for GRC’s Remington 700 stock, but not the Sako and Howa versions).

Realising that the plastic bottom ‘metal’ from the original stock might be a weak link now, I bought new aluminium bottom metal from High Velocity Hunting Australia, along with a pair of titanium action screws. This bottom metal has a slightly larger, squarer trigger guard, fits very nicely and works exactly as it should with the Tikka magazine, while providing squish-free support for the action screws. The screws are lighter than stock and have Torx heads so are much better to fasten than the somewhat distorted slot-headed original ones.

The first four groups I fired produced an average of 0.6 MOA, a measurable improvement on the already good 0.9 MOA it’d averaged from the old stock with the same Red Earth ammo.

I then increased the action-screw torque from 4.0 to 4.3Nm and the average came down to a very credible 0.5 MOA. Most groups were an oh-so-pretty little triangles of holes.

To get that kind of accuracy out of a sporting rifle is not just satisfying, it’s confidence building. I’m conscious of the rifle’s ability every time I pick it up. No excuses now. (Don’t forget how well used this 21-year-old barrelled action is, too — the accuracy is also a real credit to Tikka quality.)

The Elite CR stock weighs a feathery 793 grams. It’s only 22 grams lighter than the Tikka stock — which of course is a lightweight effort itself — but the Tikka stock has no bedding support, no check riser and no fore-end rail.

My T3 Lite Stainless may not have lost much weight but it has gained many beneficial features.

The cheek riser, which comes up about 28mm in 4.5mm steps, is nice to have. Just push a spring-loaded button on the right side of the butt and pull it up to suit you. Set up as is, the Tikka fits me best with the riser up one notch, and I benefit from having it.

The extremely squishy Limbsaver recoil pad is great, though admittedly hardly necessary on this .223. On larger calibres it’d be an ideal balance to the light weight.

The stock’s length of pull is 36cm. GRC makes 3mm and 6mm spacers you can add. The Elite CR’s grip and butt are a subtly different shape to the Tikka stock. Maybe it’s luck on my part but the Elite’s dimensions seem to have made me a better shot in the field with the rifle, judging by the shots I’ve pulled off — but of course that’s not necessarily going to be the same for everyone.

GRC’s prototyping process with 3D-printed dummy stocks enables a lot of experimentation with stock dimensions.

“We are unable to meet all people’s hand shape or stature, but by passing a new GRC stock model around a number of both amateur and professional hunters, we can create a compromise that suits a large range of people’s requirements,” Gerald says. “Slight adjustments of 0.2mm give a totally different feel to the palm swell.”

His comments about the fill reducing noise ring true. The Tikka is still very pleasant to shoot in every way and the stock doesn’t drum like a hollow one.

The low-profile rail under the fore-end is a great addition. It is bolted on and includes a sling swivel stud. It’s very solidly mounted and makes using a bipod a cinch.

The carbon-fibre is very neatly laid with an out-of-the-mould satin finish that isn’t too reflective for the bush. The finish has pinholes in the surface, a result of air bubbles in the carbon-fibre weave and resin matrix. GRC acknowledges this as a fact of life. You have to look closely to see them and I’m sure a few clear finishing coats would hide them if they concern you.

The aesthete in me might be tempted by a deep, glossy coat but this is still a working rifle. I’ve given it a hell of a 21st birthday present in the Glacier stock, with the HVHA bottom metal as a bonus.

For a few hundred dollars more I could have bought a new T3x Lite Stainless but, to Tikka’s credit, the barrelled action performs like new anyway and even the magazine is the original.

The outlay has produced a unique rifle with mind-blowing accuracy and greatly improved practicality. And it looks trick.

SPECIFICATIONS