I performed like a complete goose the first time I took the Celik Arms Chimera PB223 into the bush but this little push-button rifle made up for my shortcomings, leaving me with a great first impression and a dead boar at my feet.
I didn’t even see the porker that was just 15m away until my wife, a few steps behind me, casually said, “Pig!”
The rifle was still on my shoulder with nothing in the chamber when boar’s head came up and it bolted — zero to a hundred in a nanosecond. I cycled and shouldered the rifle, tracked the animal through the weeds, squeezed the trigger and rolled the fleeing feral. Absolutely nailed it.
That I could take such a quick, instinctive shot, successfully, the very first time I used the rifle in the field says a lot about its excellent handling. And the Chimera, in subsequent hunts, proved I hadn’t fluked it.
I was pretty stoked to start the test that way. But I was also well aware that I hadn’t fired a follow-up shot,. Fast follow-ups are the Chimera’s other promised trick.
The Chimera (pronounced ky-mi-rah) is one of the new breed of self-ejecting, button-release rifles we’re seeing in Australia, where our restrictive laws have previously limited us primarily to turn-bolt, straight-pull, lever-action and pump-action rifles.
It is a Category B rifle except in Western Australia, where it is banned under the new police-driven gun laws. It’s no semi-automatic but it is in some ways simpler and certainly less effort than other kinds of Category B firearms.
The Chimera has been a long time coming. It once looked like it would be the first of these new Turkish-made self-ejecting .223s to hit the market here but it was delayed primarily by development issues. Now, nearly two years after we first reported it was coming, it’s finally here.
The cycling system is gas-operated, meaning after you fire a shot, some of the expanding gases inside the bore are syphoned off through a small hole in the barrel, and this high-pressure gas opens the action. The gas piston is fixed inside the barrel collar, and doesn’t move, but instead acts more like a nozzle to direct the gases rearward into a closed cylinder on the nose of the action bar. That jet of gas thrusts the bar backwards.
The bolt carrier is fixed to the other end of the action bar and contains a rotating bolt head. In typical fashion, the carrier moves back a few millimetres before a cam begins turning the bolt head out of the chamber’s locking lugs.
There are seven lugs on the AR-style bolt head, with an extractor claw where the eighth lug would have been, and a single plunger ejector that flings the spent case well clear as the action opens.
Once open, the action is locked that way — and this is where the Chimera differs from most button-release designs. The locking catch is in the fore-end and hooks up on the front of the action bar. The release button is also in the fore-end. Jab it with your left thumb and the return spring — also inside the fore-end — shunts the works forwards again, chambering a round and locking the action shut, cocked, ready to shoot again.
In over 250 rounds of testing the Chimera, it suffered not a single stoppage, never failing to eject or chamber using more than half a dozen different factory loads. This is one of the critical tests for a rifle like this, and it is also at the heart of the delays in getting the Celik on the market, but I can’t offer any criticism of its performance here.
The Celik comes with two 10-round P-Mag style magazines made by Key-Arma. When they’re empty, a bolt-stop holds the action open, and a second bolt-release lever on the left side of the action is there to overcome the stop if the shooting’s over or you’ve replaced the mag with a full one; you need to hit the primary release as well.
The magazines are double-stacking, easy to fill, reliable in operation and have little windows so you can see how many rounds are in them, at least until you insert the mags into the rifle. The magazine release button is mounted on the right, just ahead of the trigger.
You’d think that the mounting of the bolt release on the left of the fore-end means this is not an ambidextrous rifle. However, it is actually very easy to manipulate with your choice of the index or middle finger of your right hand if you’re a lefty. Happy days if that’s you, because the stock’s shape is the same left and right. Only the knurled knobs securing the height-adjustable cheek piece might cause you any irritation, but you could probably replace them with low-profile alternatives.
I like the stock design a lot. Its angularity disguises a comfortable fit that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, with a nice curved profile up front to wrap your hand around and a straight, angled pistol grip that should suit the majority of shooters in any shooting position. The grip matches the trigger’s position and angle of pull, with enough latitude in hand position that it won’t matter if you have a large hand or small one. The flat butt has a generous recoil pad.
The butt you see here is the NSW-compliant non-telescopic one, but if you check out the CelikArms.au or Australian Sporting Agencies website you’ll see there are other versions available, including a synthetic one that resembles several thousand dollars worth of burl walnut — very pretty and yet weatherproof. If the butt stock on the test rifle is familiar, that’s because it is also used on a number of Turkish shotguns.
Weight is centred fractionally further forward than on a typical rifle, mainly because of the extra mass of the gas system in the fore-end. Scoped with the neat little ZeroTech 1-8×24 that you see here, the Chimera’s balance was under the front edge of the magazine. It creates a rifle that swings smoothly on moving targets and yet also points quickly.
The Celik weighs 3.9kg bare, a fair heft for a small rifle, but this also endows it with extra stability when shooting offhand. There’s very little recoil from the .223, especially as the gas system takes a little of the kick out of it. If you add the thread-on muzzle brake that’s supplied with the rifle, there’s about the same recoil as a rimfire, but you’ll definitely want hearing protection.
With the brake attached so that recoil is damped to almost nothing, and the quick-cycling push-button setup, you can stay on target tenaciously and the Chimera becomes a very effective culling tool.
It is, as I said, a good handling scrub gun.
The fore-arm mounted bolt release does have one drawback, though, which smaller people will notice. It dictates that your forward hand must be positioned next to the button, which will be a stretch if you have shorter arms. My natural grip fell about 4cm short but I found it easy to adapt to this.
You also need to be aware of the Celik’s propensity to release the action if you lay it on its left side, on the button. If there’s a full magazine in the gun, it’ll chamber a round.
The trigger deserves a mention. My gauge told me the average release weight was just over 3kg but on the bench and in the field I would not have credited it. The let-off feels a lot lighter, and — for this rather simple kind of hammer-releasing trigger design — there was not much creep and it was smooth. No, it’s nothing like the beautiful triggers we often get in a quality turn-bolt rifle but it’s a cut above the norm of other guns of this ilk. And that will help you be more accurate.
The Chimera’s accuracy is adequate — on par for this style of rifle. It is capable of shooting five-shot groups within 1½-2 MOA once you find the loads it likes, as you can see in the table. That’s comparable with most lever-actions, lots of pump-actions and the only other push-button .223 on the market at the moment, the Alcor.
It’s no target rifle but competently fulfils its intended role as a quick-shooting, short-range hunting rifle.
It did take a lot of trial and error to find a few loads worth persisting with. I couldn’t source anything heavier than 55 grain loads, unfortunately, but there’s potential for good results with them because the Chimera runs a fairly fast 1:8 twist rate in its barrel.
The barrel is only 47cm (18.5”) long, tapering gently to 16mm diameter at the muzzle and with flutes to reduce weight. It will get hot when you’re shooting a lot, of course, but it seems to handle it well. Groups will open up as heat builds but the shots all remain within minute-of-pig accuracy out to about 100m.
Like all gas-operated guns, the Chimera gets messy inside with gas residue but it doesn’t gum up and will be forgiving if you’re a bit slack about cleaning it. Maintenance is not hard. Stripping the rifle requires an Allen key (which is supplied) and maybe a punch and small rubber hammer, at least while clearances are still nice and tight. The manufacturer provides clear instructions about it, along with a video, so I won’t go into detail here, but I will add that the only difficult thing is releasing the charging handle; there’s a small spring-loaded slide you have to move with the pad of your finger or thumb, and it’s not easy to move it against the stiff spring.
Otherwise, this is an easy rifle to live with. It’s also supplied with sling swivels, the muzzle brake, an accessory rail under the fore-end, a cleaning kit in a pouch, some thread locker to ensure nothing rattles loose, and a rail for scope mounting. Plus those two 10-round mags.
It appears well made and the quality of finish is good, with a tough matte-black coating on the metalwork.
The Chimera lives up to its promise and proved itself perfectly reliable during the test. If it’s your kind of rifle, but the .223 doesn’t cut it for pigs and bigger animals, there’s a .308 available, too. For its low recoil and ability to keep you on target as you work through a magazine, the Chimera PB223 has plenty going for it.
Many thanks to Mudgee Firearms for assistance with logistics of this test and having plenty of ammo choices at a good price.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Manufacturer: Celik Arms, Türkiye
- Type: Self-ejecting button-release, gas operated
- Calibre: .223 Rem
- Receiver: 7075 aluminium
- Barrel: 47cm (18.5”), fluted, threaded with muzzle brake
- Stock: Synthetic
- Safety: Cross-trigger
- Sights: None; Picatinny rail provided
- Magazines: 2 x 10-round, detachable
- Trigger: Non-adjustable, 3kg release
- Length: 1015mm (1055 braked)
- Weight: 3.9kg (bare)
- Warranty: 2 years
- RRP: $1599
- Online orders: See celikarms.au to configure and order your Chimera, ready for pick-up at your local firearms dealer subject to having a PTA
- Distributor: Australian Sporting Agencies
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