The Pursuit of Perfection: HS Precision PLC Rifle Review

Belly-crawling through the sage and cactus with my spotter closely behind, I quickly opened the legs of the bipod and started to inch my way forward, creeping up the slight rise in the hillside, looking for the antelope buck on the other side of the valley. As I pushed myself forward with my toes, I finally could see the prongs of the buck looking in my direction.

One more toe-dig and I should be high enough to clear the sagebrush in front of my barrel and see the chest of the intended target. My spotter practically had to yell the distance and wind hold call over the howling Wyoming wind that blew full value, left-to-right. I dialed the turret to the correct elevation, applied the 1.2 mils of wind hold in the reticle, and pressed the trigger…

Precision Pedigree

HS Precision has long been an industry leader in firearms manufacturing dating back to 1978. In 2020, they entered the carbon fiber barrel market with their own newly-designed carbon fiber-wrapped barrel. This company has spent over 40 years manufacturing some of the most widely used test barrels for ammunition manufacturers to measure accuracy with load development in their ammunition. This would only lead one to believe their new carbon fiber-wrapped barrel would hold the same level of HS Precision quality.

HS Precision is one of the very few companies in the US today who manufactures every part of their rifle components in-house. This is done at their facility in Rapid City, South Dakota. This is quite an impressive feat and something to be appreciated as it affords HS Precision the ability to supply their customer a high level of quality control that much of their reputation is built upon.

Many of you have read my rifle reviews and know that I am not one to simply take a rifle to the range, shoot a few boxes through the rifle, and call it a day. I typically review a rifle throughout a hunting season and have countless range days before I feel comfortable signing off on a rifle review. At SHOT Show 2020, I found myself talking with my good friend Josh Cluff, Vice President of Marketing for HS Precision, about reviewing one of their rifles.

Josh offered the idea of an antelope hunt/review of their new carbon fiber barrel PLC (Professional Long Range Carbon) rifle. Where better to test a rifle than the wind-blown state of Wyoming, chasing antelope on the dusty, sage grasslands. I would be joining Gary Turner from Talley Manufacturing and our very own Chris Denham, Publisher of Western Hunter on this hunt. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys with whom to spend a week in pursuit of pronghorn and fine bourbon.

High and Tight

HS Precision starts every rifle build with their Pro Series stainless steel, push feed receiver with a footprint similar to a Remington 700 with the addition of a three-position safety. Each Pro Series receiver is fitted with their fully adjustable trigger, allowing the user to tune it for a crisp break every shot. Since HS makes all of their parts in-house, they have the capability of controlling the exact tolerances between the sear and firing pin. Some other manufacturers can have a variance in lock time due to a variety of trigger options and varying sear tolerances. This is just one example of the extra steps HS takes to provide a high-quality rifle to their customers.

The 10x Cut rifle barrels produced by HS Precision have long been the standard of quality and accuracy in the ammunition proofing market. These barrels are cut from stainless steel and wrapped in HS Precision’s proprietary wrap that utilizes high pressure and a ratio of carbon fiber and resin that is unique to them. The steel blanks are cut and contoured prior to wrapping to have a pre-determined length for a threaded muzzle, offering the end-user a lightweight, rigid, and accurate barrel.

HS Precision is most well known for their aluminum bedding blocked rifle stocks. In fact, the first custom rifle I ever built, back in the early 2000s, was set in an HS Precision Thumbhole stock that was cutting-edge at the time. The HS Precision PLC rifle comes in an ambidextrous stock with a fully adjustable cheek piece and vertical grip. These features are critical in a rifle stock for precision long-range shooting, and HS built this stock specifically for the application. Fit with an HS detachable bottom metal utilizing their own center-fed magazines, these rifles feed extremely smoothly and reliably.

Real-World Testing

For our antelope hunt/review, each rifle was topped with Lightweight Alloy Rings, courtesy of Talley Manufacturing. Talley has been my go-to ring and base manufacturer for the last 20 years and has built a great line of products suited to fit every rifleman’s needs, so I had supreme confidence in this setup. Kahles K525i or K624i optics were mounted on each of the rifles chambered in 6 Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, and 300 PRC. When we arrived at our destination in Wyoming, rifle zeroes were confirmed, and we were set for the morning hunt.

While we had three antelope tags in hand between Denham, Cluff, and myself. Gary Turner was fortunate enough to draw a whitetail buck permit for the area, which was known to produce mature age class bucks. The plan was to glass the river bottoms in the early morning and evenings for Mr. Turner and hunt antelope in the mid-day, being they are more visible throughout the day. After a slow morning hunt that yielded no mature whitetail bucks, we transitioned to antelope. I was fortunate enough to be elected as first up for antelope, and the PLC in 6 Creedmoor was my weapon of choice.

Target-Rich

By noon, we had legitimately observed more antelope than I had probably seen in all my lifetime hunting them. They were prevalent, and the bucks were not hard to locate. It was impressive to see such a large number of mature antelope bucks nearly everywhere we looked. Selecting the buck to take was really a matter of what characteristics you wanted in your antelope. Around mid-day and 50 bucks later, we located a lone, mature buck with good length and good prongs in a rolling, sage-filled valley.

I tried to convince myself to be patient and pass as there was no shortage of antelope to hunt, but something inside me liked this buck and wanted badly to break the trigger on the PLC. A brief stalk across the valley led us to the above cliffhanger introduction and a bullet in flight from the 6 Creedmoor PLC, a beautiful antelope bucking standing downrange, awaiting its arrival. The bullet arrived on time and location, despite the wind’s best attempts to foil my efforts to tag my first Wyoming antelope. The HS Precision PLC rifles would notch the remaining tags for our crew with lethal accuracy, including a beautiful whitetail buck for Gary.

Long-Range Epilogue

After the tags were punched, we had nothing left to do but lighten the load of ammo in the back of the HS Precision Ford F-350 for the trip home. We headed out to the location on the Tillard Ranch that hosted the Nightforce ELR Challenge. There, we shot everything from coyote-sized steel targets at 1,000 yards to an elk-sized steel target at over 1,800 yards. Every PLC rifle performed flawlessly in terms of accuracy and reliability despite a heavy coat of dust on every moving part and the blazing sun’s relentless rays heating up barrels.

Everyone set a new personal goal for their farthest distance with multiple impacts on target. This crew punished steel repeatedly until the ammo was depleted to satisfactory quotas. It was a great way to wrap up the trip and finish off the review of a great lineup of HS Precision PLC Rifles.

As I was wrapping up this article, I reached out to everyone involved to see what pictures they had and wanted to share in the article. Just the simple text and the images sent back and forth sparked the fire in the group text that every hunter gets when looking back through our modern photo albums in digital form. The group all agreed we needed to plan the hunt again and honestly, even if we sat in the hotel lobby drinking whiskey and eating pizza again while reminiscing over past hunts, I’d be ok with that too.

For more information on the HS Precision PLC rifles, including the Carbon PLC visit www.hsprecision.com

And remember...

“Only accurate rifles are interesting”
- Townsend Whelen