A while back I posed the question to the forum. Do I need a 45? And the answer was yes. Not one to upset the counsel of Cast Boolits I told my wife I had no choice but to buy another rifle, and so I did.
That rifle is an Accura LR-X. It comes with a 30" barrel and fancy cerekote finish. Now I've read some bad reviews in the past, but I love my Optima so much I decided to get it anyway hoping the production problems have worked themselves out. It looks like I was wrong.
Firstly this rifle is advertised as having a free floating barrel, however the handguard touches the barrel on one side and there's a huge gap on the other. I contacted customer service about this issue and they sent me a video about adjusting the tension, which did just that, but did nothing to fix the canted grip.
The other issue is the bore size. In an email from their service rep, they say it should be between .451 and .453. Mine is .4545 which is out of spec by their standards. For me, I don't really mind since I intend to shoot sized down 45-70 boolits and a .454 sizer is standard for many old 45 Colt revolvers. This could be disastrous for someone who doesn't slug their bore and just tries to plunk down a undersized boolit which wouldn't stay on top of the charge.
Some reported a choked barrel. I haven't tested for this yet and my understanding is that when shooting Mini balls this is actually an intended feature in some rifles. Anyone know if that's true?
It may be a while before I shoot it since I just ordered my moulds today, but I'll update this thread for those interested.