Беспок Монолит .33XC Bespok Monolit .33XC
Bespok Monolit .33XC - through the eyes of an owner
Article based on materials by Igor Zhukov NSK-I
Original article
Monolith 33XCmagazine feed, barrel at muzzle 45mm, length 34, twist 1-9, tight neck 0.368. A time-tested and proven bullet-twist-barrel length combination.
The Monolith impressed with its monumentality, quality, and design. A rifle in which nothing needs to be changed or reworked — the pinnacle of engineering thought and design. Everything is well thought out, every nuance accounted for, everything for the shooter, everything for victory. I especially want to note the magazine operation and magazine feeding — it's an indescribable delight. I'm not a fan of magazine feeding, but I had to reconsider my views. All the days of setup, I enjoyed the bolt operation and magazine feeding. During forming, I played around with single-feed tray loading and then stopped — I did the entire setup with magazine feeding and got true pleasure from it. The cartridge feeds into the chamber straight, without misalignment, the bolt operation is smooth in all modes. I tried it various ways — very fast, very slow — always perfect. I'm impressed!
The stock is folding; the folding mechanism always has the same tension, the force never changes, the control buttons on the mechanism are comfortable to press and tactilely pleasant.
All these days I tried to find something to criticize, but everything is well thought out and the entire system is perfect. A lot has passed through my hands — many customs — and I understand the difference between a perfect instrument and an ordinary one. Here that difference is immediately obvious, and you draw unambiguous conclusions: BESPOKE #1, period! If I'm wrong, please correct me — it would be interesting to hear the arguments 🙂 But I want to remind you right away that Bespoke is the only manufacturer in the world that delivers rifleswith0.3 MOA accuracy!
Peterson brass, the brass is not of the highest quality, but very strong. The brass needs to be brought to uniformity and worked to the required dimensions.
For the tight neck, we turn the wall to 0.01400, loaded cartridge 0.366,
Side clearance 0.001, bushing 0.365 and 0.364 for magazine feeding.
Preparing 250 cases took 6 days. Of the 250 cases, 230 were within 0.01400 and 20 pieces were at 0.01395. Cases that don't make the dimension are not defective — I set those aside, and when I have enough of them I'll run them as a single batch at 0.01395.
Barrel break-in took 7 shots with cleaning, unhurried, with understanding and borescope inspection.
The remaining 95 cases I formed on a charge of 75 gr, Irbis 570, shot for accuracy, checked recoil, bipod function, and bag behavior. I tested the fouling shot. Tests showed there was none — this is one of the indicators that the system is tuned and all components are working perfectly. I took the trouble to calculate the accuracy of 14 groups of three shots — accuracy 0.322 MOA. For Bespoke products this is a normal result; it was the same with other Bespoke rifles. I want to note that this is not one lucky group, but 42 shots at 0.322 MOA! And that already says a lot. (to me)
https://youtu.be/O2Oa0XNENB4?si=Ir1I0PZX5p0Bcrr5
The photo shows a fragment of the target from the forming session, the last series of the day, magazine feed. For forming and break-in of the 33 XC I use the 300 Scenar — it's always available at a reasonable price — and Irbis 570.
For the tuning session I used Berger 300 gr bullets, Vihtavuori N570, Federal primers. It's foolish to buy a racing car and fill it with 92-octane fuel, so you have to go all out with Vihtavuori and Federal.
Tuning was conducted at the SSK shooting range named after Dmitry Donskoy. A wonderful place, a cozy atmosphere, friendly staff. All conditions are created for comfortable tuning, and that is very important. Proper concrete tables, a proper target frame, a fan, an adjustable chair, American benchrest flags. A RELOADING ROOM, a cleaning area! 100m, two directions (tables).The facility is LICENSED!
The tuning took two days. I went slightly beyond my planned tuning schedule due to the barrel profile — 45mm at the muzzle — and I decided to try a different velocity range. I found no joy there and came back down to the proven, working option.
An undeniable advantage of the heavy contour is the absence of heat buildup. The shooter tires faster than the barrel heats up — a 25-shot string and the barrel is merely warm. If that matters to anyone, there is a solution 🙂
When I tuned the first Bespoke setup, I noticed one detail that pleased me. The seating depth node was 8 steps at 0.003 per step. That was a first for me — usually 3 steps, sometimes 4, extremely rarely 5. I thought I'd gotten lucky and it was just a coincidence. This time the situation repeated itself: the seating node came out to 7 steps, which is an undeniable advantage — you don't have to worry about throat erosion causing the tune to drift at the most critical moment, as it usually does. Soon I'll be tuning another Spectre 33XC in our team, and I'll be hoping the situation repeats itself. And then, far-reaching conclusions can be drawn!
There's no point in talking about my specific recipe, velocities, and seating depth — it's all very individual and has no relevance to other barrels. I won't burden you with numbers; everything as usual: BV-OAL-BTO, and I work in 0.003 increments on seating depth, this time I stopped at 44 thousandths from OAL, which suits me perfectly — the bullet sits ideally in the case neck.
Node of 7 steps at 0.003 — that's 21 thousandths — no need to worry about throat erosion and tune drift. From experience, this is a very wide node, simply unreal! On the final tuning day the weather was unkind — there was gusty, variable wind all day. I had to recall my benchrest youth and work with the flags. The American flags helped a lot — very informative.
https://youtu.be/PDf-tOUwxyI?si=nE-6wIj6nBJ-khPH
On the final tuning day I forgot my tuning targets and had to improvise a target on the spot. We borrowed a printer from the guys and printed targets on cardboard. The target itself turned out very well — the Nightforce Competition reticle aiming point fell perfectly onto the center of the target, which was very convenient!
The photo shows the targets for the entire node from start to finish
Beginning of the node
The last group in the node could have been re-shot — the first shot landed off, and there was a strong feeling that all three should have been together.
But I reasoned as follows: this is the last group in the node, and if it were tighter it would change nothing — the overall picture would remain the same: seven seating depths at 0.003 increments (21 thousandths). The tuning result fully satisfied me — the accuracy of all groups in the node was 0.187 MOA, which for an ELR system is considered simply ideal. I should note: this is not one lucky group — it is a seating-depth node spanning 21 thousandths!
I checked the beginning of the node in a different velocity range — significantly higher velocity — as a contingency for rising temperatures. Everything performed in normal mode, as it should. As practice shows, if the seating depth node is correctly identified, changing the powder charge plays no significant role and does not affect accuracy.
