My thoughts on my Olympic Arms 22-250 UMAR

South Paw Shooter

South Paw Shooter

Member
First off I am no editor or writer of any sort. These are my personal opinions and thought's
Took the new Olympic Arms UMAR 22-250 (#88 off the production line) out Friday and Saturday and got a couple dogs with it. It has been fired about 30-40 rounds and I really think it is a keeper.
First off here are the spec's. from Olympic Arms web site
MSRP: $1428.70
Receiver Material- 7075 T6 Aluminum Forged Receivers Machined By Olympic Arms
Receiver- Finish Black Matte Anodized Receivers, Parkerized Steel Parts
Action- Gas Operated Semi-automatic Action
Upper Type-Gas block w/ picatinny rails
Handguard-Predator FIRSH
Barrel- 24” Heavy match grade bull barrel, 416 stainless steel
Chambering .22-250 REM;.223 WSSM, .243 WSSM, .25 WSSM, .300 OSSM
Bore Long-life non-chromed bore
Twist Rate-.22-250 REM (1x14) .223 WSSM (1x14) .243 WSSM (1x10) .25 WSSM (1x10) .300 OSSM (1x12)
Muzzle- Crown
Stanard Features include:
24" SS Bull Barrel*
Fluting available for additional cost(This will shave off about 1 1/2 lbs off total weight of gun)
Picatinny flat-top upper
Olympic Arms Predator Style handguard
A2 buttstock
Optional ACE skeleton stock
Your choice of side-sling mount or bi-pod mount
5 round billet aluminum magazine
*Bull barrel standard on the UMAR for the WSSM & OSSM cartridges are 416 SS precision broach-cut barrels. All .22-250 caliber UMAR rifles use 416 SS button rifled barrels.

Trigger- Standard trigger is around 4-7 lbs however there are a few options for the trigger. You can go with a lighter 2 stage or a full custom from CMMG I believe as an option.

Now my thought's
Goods-
Accuracy- Very accurate I am shooting under 1/2" group at 200yds (now these were reloads I have not fired any factory loads yet).
Comfort- This gun is well balanced,comfortable.

As far as Col in the mag well, The 22-250 UMAR magazine is able to seat out to 2.42" which is plenty for the 64gr Berger I plan on trying out.
You can put any mill-Spec upper on this lower however you will have to change the bolt release out with a regular mil-spec release off of a mill spec AR-15 to be able to use regular AR-15 magazine's. This is very easy though.

Barrel- Fluting available for additional cost about $90(This will shave off about 1 1/2 lbs off total weight of gun)

Not so good-
Barrel twist rate - 1-14 ROT was hoping for a faster twist so to utilize the opened up mag well.

Weight- It is a little heavy @ 9.4lbs but well balanced though. But easy to carry and shoot off stick's or by-pod.
As far as ready to go out hunting weight it is probably @ 11 lbs I am using a Leupold Mark 4 6.5-20X50mm LR/T and it weighs in at 22oz so this would be under 10 lbs total, I have the fluted barrel,which is not bad.

It come's with only (1)5rnd mag. The magazine is a proprietary magazine meaning it will only work in the Olympic Arms AMAR lower and at $100.00 per mag that is a little steep.

Now with the Feeding issue, It does great the only issue I had was when loading the clip, when I got to the 5th round it was VERY tight it almost felt like it did not belong or there were 5 rounds in it already. Then when loading one in the chamber with a full magazine the bolt did not want to close all the way due to such a tight round in the clip.

Remedy- I filed the clip on the top back side there are 2 edges that seem to be hanging up the round and were causing it to feel real tight and did not want to chamber. I filed them down very faintly and it cured that problem the rounds are still real tight in the magazine but they feed just fine now.

With that said I really like the gun and I highly doubt you guy's will see mine in the classified's any time soon.

I am sure I am forgetting a lot of stuff. If your think of anything let me know. This is the first time I have ever done a gun review hope you all like it. Right now turnaround is 60-90 days as of 5 min ago I just called them to get some of this info verified for sure.
 
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Thanks for the review. I agree that the twist needs to be much faster. A 1-10 twist would be great. Sounds like a great rifle. What trigger does it come with?
 
Good review.
How much does you rig weigh overall, field ready?
And what ammo is giving you consistent 1/4MOA groups?

Keep us posted if that 64 Berger will stabilize from your rifle's 1:14" twist. Sure curious about that...
 
It is a somewhat heavy trigger 4-7LBS however there are options available.
Field ready, with optics mine weighs probably 9-10lbs, I have the fluted barrel which they said would shave off about 1 1/2 lbs of total weight of gun which is 9.4lbs. My scope weighs 22oz total.

As far as accuracy I was shooting a friends reloads with 50gr Nosler BT they did real good but I have some loads for 55 Nosler BT and 64gr Berger with Hodgdon's new CFE 223 powder I will be trying real soon.
 
Originally Posted By: CobyThanks for the review. I agree that the twist needs to be much faster. A 1-10 twist would be great. Sounds like a great rifle. What trigger does it come with?
1 in 12 for some 60 gr. Nosler partition and BT.
1 in 8 for some 75 gr. A-max.
Not asking for much is it?
 
Thanks for sharing that info. I have several AR's and have always wanted one in a 22 250. I plan on having by this October hoping there will some other options and brand names by then.
 
Well just got home from the range. Went to put a new Burris PEPR mount on and site her in again with some 55gr Noslers BT But this time I sighted it in at 100yds. instead of 200yds. Well it shot pretty good I was able to shoot a .245"group of 3 and called it good. While I was out there I went ahead and tried out the 64gr Bergers loads I worked up.
They will shoot but the best group I got was just a hair over 1" at 100yds using 36gr of Hodgdon CFR223 and CCI2 primer. I started at 35.5gr and loaded up to 37.3gr but stopped at 36.5gr. I will try the 37gr and depending on if there is any pressure. I will try the 37.3gr but we will have to see. I will add more info as I learn it.Deerhunterjj will be posting my pics for me of the gun we took today.
 
Awesome write up. Keep me posted on your loads. Especially if you try some factory rounds. I dont have any reloading equipment of my own.

I won one in a raffle at a calling contest. It just got into the FFL dealer yesterday. Will be picking it up tonight. Super excited to shoot it. It should be the ultimate coyote gun IMO.

I agree the magazine pricing is BS. Im not to bothered by only having 5 rounds but 100 bucks for a mag is crazy.

Hope to see you keep this updated. I will try to update when I get mine rolling.
 
As far as factory rounds go it does ok I say that only firing a few old one's so it really is not a fare judgment on my part. But I may go buy a box just to try them out for accuracy info.
 
Thanks South Paw, great review. You're getting better groups than I'm seeing out of my new Cooper Custom 22-250. I already had my eye on this, now just gotta get my hands on one.
 
Just got home with mine a little bit ago. #30 made. Pretty excited about it. Will be a few weeks till I get her up and runnin. Still have to pick a scope, bipod, rings, and some ammo to try. Have a coyote contest this weekend so probly wont be able to work on her. Will post updates when I can to add to this review.
 
Coyoteslayer,

Cant help on the wait, but this gun is a AR15 with a "wallowed out" mag well. Same exterior dimensions.
 
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Thanks a million for putting this together....I have been very excited and wanting some first hand information about this as soon as I heard of this chambering being available.
I am a huge fan of the 22-250.

Patterson, congrats on you scoring one of these for free from the contest, thats great!
 
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i have two on order, said it was gonna be 6-8 weeks, a long time ago, i guess they are having issues with the mag spring manufacturer... lets see some groups @ 100M with the new 250, is it a shooter as well???
 


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