My thoughts on my Olympic Arms 22-250 UMAR

South Paw Shooter

New 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.
 
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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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