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I've had a couple of these through my doors recently and have been really impressed. I haven't shot one yet, but am anxious to do so. It pretty much spanks the Ruger American and it would give the Howa a run for it's money in 6.5 Grendel as a hunting option. CDNN was running a sale on these and Winchester had a rebate going that put the end cost below $300, so customers were ordering them in to my shop for me to do the transfers.
Here is one in .308 with a 20" barrel as compared to my 20" Howa in a Boyd's At-One Stock. The XPR comes in at 6.65 pounds and the Howa at 6.81 pounds, but the Boyd's stock on the Howa is where much of that weight comes from.
Action:
It uses a 3 Lug "Fat Bolt" with a 60 degree throw. This is a cost savings way of mfg as compared to the Howa. It is smoother than the Ruger American, but not as buttery as the Howa. I do like the short 60 degree lift of the bolt. It leaves a ton of room for whatever scope that you want. The bolt looks monstrously huge as compared to the Howa mini-action bolt. The barrel is held on with a barrel nut which should make for easy barrel swaps. Too bad they don't offer a caliber with the same bolt face as the Grendel.
Safety
I much prefer the safety on the XPR over the Ruger's and it is better than the Howa's as well. It is a two position safety that locks the bolt. The safety lever is well shaped and easy to use in either direction. I tend to accidentally "skip over" the middle position on the Howa when I want to use it. It makes me be very purposeful when using the safety on the Howa (which is good), but it also allows for error (not good). That issue is eliminated with the Winchester. The safety is obviously either on or off. A nice button is located just ahead of the safety lever to release the bolt of you want to unload it with out taking the safety off. The bolt unlock is easy to use and probably a carry over from Browning (who made the XPR for Winchester). Speaking of that the XPR is basically a Browning A-Bolt III with a different mag, trigger and safety.
Trigger
The trigger is an adjustable single stage. It isn't quite as good as the Howa trigger. One sample was excellent. The other had just a slight amount of creep. The break is super clean and no over travel on either of them. If you prefer single stage triggers, you would probably like it over the Howa.
Magazine
The magazine holds three and is single stack, which would be good for the Grendel. It is almost flush fit. It sticks out about as much as the Howa mag does once you cut it down. The downside is that I don't think you could easily take the mag apart. In fact, the manual specifically tells you not to do it. The Howa mag is much more serviceable. The good thing with the Winchester mag is that it costs about half of what the Howa mags cost. The XPR mags put the Ruger American rotary mags to shame.
Trigger Guard/Bottom Metal
This is made from plastic, but it looks like a much nicer/stronger plastic than what LSI uses for the Howa mini-action. It is separate from the stock too, so it would be an easy swap if someone (like DIPinc) decided to make aluminum ones.
Stock
The plastic stock feels stiffer than the Howa plastic stock and is much better than the Ruger American. Boyd's does offer a bunch of different stock options for this as well.
For now I can only dream of a Grendel XPR, but it may be worth getting one in 6.5CM and chopping the barrel down to 16" and putting it in a Boyd's AT-One stock.
Here is one in .308 with a 20" barrel as compared to my 20" Howa in a Boyd's At-One Stock. The XPR comes in at 6.65 pounds and the Howa at 6.81 pounds, but the Boyd's stock on the Howa is where much of that weight comes from.
Action:
It uses a 3 Lug "Fat Bolt" with a 60 degree throw. This is a cost savings way of mfg as compared to the Howa. It is smoother than the Ruger American, but not as buttery as the Howa. I do like the short 60 degree lift of the bolt. It leaves a ton of room for whatever scope that you want. The bolt looks monstrously huge as compared to the Howa mini-action bolt. The barrel is held on with a barrel nut which should make for easy barrel swaps. Too bad they don't offer a caliber with the same bolt face as the Grendel.
Safety
I much prefer the safety on the XPR over the Ruger's and it is better than the Howa's as well. It is a two position safety that locks the bolt. The safety lever is well shaped and easy to use in either direction. I tend to accidentally "skip over" the middle position on the Howa when I want to use it. It makes me be very purposeful when using the safety on the Howa (which is good), but it also allows for error (not good). That issue is eliminated with the Winchester. The safety is obviously either on or off. A nice button is located just ahead of the safety lever to release the bolt of you want to unload it with out taking the safety off. The bolt unlock is easy to use and probably a carry over from Browning (who made the XPR for Winchester). Speaking of that the XPR is basically a Browning A-Bolt III with a different mag, trigger and safety.
Trigger
The trigger is an adjustable single stage. It isn't quite as good as the Howa trigger. One sample was excellent. The other had just a slight amount of creep. The break is super clean and no over travel on either of them. If you prefer single stage triggers, you would probably like it over the Howa.
Magazine
The magazine holds three and is single stack, which would be good for the Grendel. It is almost flush fit. It sticks out about as much as the Howa mag does once you cut it down. The downside is that I don't think you could easily take the mag apart. In fact, the manual specifically tells you not to do it. The Howa mag is much more serviceable. The good thing with the Winchester mag is that it costs about half of what the Howa mags cost. The XPR mags put the Ruger American rotary mags to shame.
Trigger Guard/Bottom Metal
This is made from plastic, but it looks like a much nicer/stronger plastic than what LSI uses for the Howa mini-action. It is separate from the stock too, so it would be an easy swap if someone (like DIPinc) decided to make aluminum ones.
Stock
The plastic stock feels stiffer than the Howa plastic stock and is much better than the Ruger American. Boyd's does offer a bunch of different stock options for this as well.
For now I can only dream of a Grendel XPR, but it may be worth getting one in 6.5CM and chopping the barrel down to 16" and putting it in a Boyd's AT-One stock.
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