Precision Rifles
The Remington 700 rifle has been for many years a prominent stalwart in the precision rifle world. The strong aftermarket support that has accompanied the 700’s time in the sunshine has also made it a very desirable platform for custom rifle building, and the 700 footprint has been copied and cloned by many in order to take advantage of that aftermarket.
One of the many companies that has done exactly that is Bergara, and today we are talking about one of the rifles they manufacture.
The Bergara BMP 6.5 Creedmoor
The Bergara Match Precision (BMP) is a short action rifle designed and built for competition. There are all kinds of accessories and features that make a good match gun, and Bergara certainly included many of them here.
At the core of the rifle is Bergara’s B-14 two lug action, it uses a sliding front extractor and a traditional plunger ejector. The bolt nose and breech is tapered, and the assembly slides very smoothly in the action. The front of the action has a very cunning cutout to capture the recoil lug, and keep it centered. In front of that is a twenty-four inch match grade barrel made by Bergara, and threaded 5/8-24 at the muzzle. The model I tested here came with a very nice user indexable muzzle brake, which works very well to reduce recoil. The B-14 utilizes Remington 700 accessories like scope-base rails, which made mounting my scope easy.
The second half of the rifle is the BMP chassis. We live in a chassis world now, almost every manufacturer has their own version of a chassis gun. I think Bergara did pretty good with theirs, it incorporates most of the important features a shooter would want.
Built from aluminum, the BMP chassis is not particularly light at 10.4 pounds, but most match guns aren’t light so that’s fine by me. Let’s start at the butt of the chassis and move forward.
The recoil pad is made of hard rubber, and is quickly indexed by loosening a thumbscrew just in front of it. There is very rough rubber like surface between the butt-pad and the rear face of the stock, this allows the butt-pad to be easily fit to the shooter and maintain solid lockup with minimal torque. Just in front of that is the length of pull adjustment, which is easily done by loosening a wingnut on the butt-stock to adjust to your liking. Then it is easily snugged back up for a solid feel. The adjustable cheek-piece is adjusted the same way using an identical wingnut to release the cheek-piece to be adjusted to your scope height. The whole process of fitting the chassis to my taste took only a few moments and zero trips to the owners manual.
Moving forward on the chassis is the pistol-grip, the model I have came with a vertical MDT adjustable grip. Many people don’t care for the vertical grip, but they are wrong in my opinion. The precise adjustability of the MDT allows for perfect trigger finger placement and pull.
The adjustable trigger of the BMP felt perfect just the way it came, I felt no need to adjust it any lighter, even though that is what I usually do. At the front of the trigger guard is the wide magazine release for dropping free the AICS type magazines, the rifle came with the Magpul version which I quite like. The slippery polymer seems to allow smoother feeding than some metal magazines. The fit of the magazines seemed just a bit looser than I would expect, but at no time during my testing did they malfunction or fall out, so I guess they are perfectly fine.
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The forearm of the chassis features MLok slots on all the right spots, which allows users to add and adjust any accessories they feel necessary. There are also steel insert flush cups to quickly install and remove your sling, there are correlating flush cups on the rear of the butt-stock as well. The top of the forearm seems to be drilled and tapped for a night vision optics bridge, which I was unfortunately unable to use.
Like a Glove
There were few things I felt needed to add to the BMP, but I did have to install one of my favorite accessories which is the Area419 ARCALock rail on the bottom of the forearm. On top of the rifle I mounted up one of my nicer scopes, deserving of a ride on the BMP was the Kahles 3-18X56. It was a perfect fit for the rifle, and after sliding on my Atlas Bipod I grabbed some ammo and headed for the hills.
I also grabbed a wrench to remove the muzzle brake because I was dang sure going to shoot this rifle suppressed. I grabbed my Yankee Hill Machine Nitro N20 suppressor to go along for a ride on the BMP.
ON THE FIRING LINE
I was expecting good accuracy from this rifle as I frequently hear good reports from owners. After boresighting the rifle and zeroing the turrets on my scope, I started pounding things with the BMP. In no time, I was running the Bergara bolt on targets all across the canyon. Sub-MOA accuracy was easily obtained shooting 140 grain match ammunition. Before my first box of ammo was expended, I was hitting my 950-yard target. The Bergara BMP provided very predictable shooting, and the 6.5 Creedmoor was shooting very well in the Rocky Mountain breeze.
The BMP felt like a perfect interface between me and my targets. The chassis, bolt, and trigger all felt like a familiar and flawless old friend. Shooting the rifle from prone off the bipod and from elevated positions such as rocks, tripods, and other things came very easy with the well-balanced rifle. I really liked the pistol grip, and the reloading of mags went quick and smooth using my trigger finger to push the release. The smooth-running bolt fed cartridges flawlessly from the magazines and extracted spent cases like an expensive custom action. This rifle ran just like a match gun should, and it felt like a well-oiled machine.
Match guns obviously must perform in both function and accuracy, and the BMP certainly did both. Shooting half-MOA groups with the BMP was not a challenge, if you shot the ammunition it liked. I shot a small variety of Federal 120 grain, Desert Tech 140 Grain match, and a couple different handloads.
WHAT ABOUT THE GRIPES
I honestly thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to find something about this rifle that I didn’t like. But in fairness, the only thing I wish I could change about it is perhaps how long it is. I do have an affinity for shorter rifles so don’t let that hinder your choice. I also would have loved to see the ARCA rail built into the chassis, but it’s not a big deal for sure.
-CBM