Some readers are probably familiar with the late and influential writer and hunter, Jack O’Connor, the man responsible for immortalizing the .270 Winchester cartridge and the “sheep rifle.” A sheep rifle was lightweight and had naturally pointing stock chambered in a flat-shooting caliber that was capable of 1-m.o.a. accuracy using a light-contour barrel. Such a rifle was to make it easier to trudge through sheep country: all rocky and rugged backcountry at altitude. During O’Connor’s day, anyone who wanted such a rifle had to hire a gunsmith to work it over. O’Connor’s concept seeped into the industry, and over time, arguably influenced how modern hunting rifles ship from the factory.
Case in point? Bergara’s new B-14 Squared Crest.
Image courtesy of Bergara.
The Squared Crest uses Begara’s take on the quintessential push-feed, 90-degree two-lug Remington 700 action. The Remington 700 action, of course, is to contemporary bolt-action rifles as the Mauser 98 action was to the classics of yesteryear, including O’Connor’s beloved pre-'64 Winchesters. Like O’Connor’s sheep rifles, the Bergara B-14 Squared Crest is a lightweight hunting rifle. Because the Squared Crest weighs only 6.8 lbs. empty and includes a plethora of modern bolt-action rifle enhancements, this Bergara comes with pretty much everything it needs out of the box to stalk game in any environment, sheep habitat or otherwise.
The B-14² Crest's Lock, Stock And Barrel
The B-14 action on the Squared Crest includes a fluted bolt with a “tactical” bolt knob and oversized safety. The fluting on the bolt body not only makes for a more visually striking rifle, but also helps with some weight reduction. Adding oversize controls is a good call, as these make it easier to work around mounted optics in the field. Like other contemporary bolt-action rifles, the Squared Crest also accepts AICS-format magazines. Except for the 7 mm PRC version, all ship with a five round capacity polymer factory mag. The good thing about sticking to the industry wide Remington 700 footprint and AICS scheme means that plenty of upgrades and customizations to the Bergara Squared Crest are available. The receiver itself is drilled-and-tapped and finished in Sniper Grey Cerakote.
Ignition on the Squared Crest comes by way of a single-stage Bergara Performance Trigger (BPT), which is externally adjustable between a weight range of sub-2 to -3 lbs. It’s set at the factory to break on the lighter side, and I thought it was fine as-is. The BPT breaks cleanly, allowing the shooter to easily actuate the trigger precisely.
Image courtesy of Bergara.
The Squared Crest’s action and barrel are bedded to a modern monocoque rifle stock fully made from carbon fiber. Internally, the stock is buttressed by a full-length carbon spine while all voids are filled with resin. Externally, the stock has an attractive gray carbon-fiber camouflage finish and counts on four different quick-detach cups, fore and aft on either side. The underside of the stock has three different swivel studs, two found near the front of the fore-end and a single one at the rear. The two front swivel studs can be swapped out and a rail section can be installed in place for bipods and accessories.
The stock is outfitted with a soft and grippy rubber buttpad in addition to a shim-based adjustable length-of-pull system. The Squared Crest’s stock has all the hallmarks of a typical precision rifle stock, albeit lightweight. The fore-end is fairly wide and squared-off, and this makes it easier to support the rifle rest or bags. The high comb allows for an easy and consistent cheek weld, and the rear corner of the toe dips slightly lower and flatter for rear-bag support. Personally, my favorite detail on the stock is the fact that the pistol grip area has a symmetrical palm swell, which makes it conducive to more precise shooting by allowing the shooter to rest their thumb on the same side as their other fingers. By keeping all fingers on one side, the shooter will not contort their thumb and thus avoid tensioning the stock-wrist and twisting the rifle off alignment with the target.
As Bergara offers the Squared Crest in a handful of calibers (6.5mm Creedmoor, 6.5 mm PRC, 7 mm PRC, .308 Win. and .300 Win. Mag.), its barrels are either 20" or 22" and come with rifling twists of 1:8" or 1:10", depending on the caliber. Barrels are free-floated and built from 4140 chrome-moly steel. Furthermore, these barrels are fluted and tapered ahead of the chamber area down to the 5/8x24 TPI threaded muzzle. By default, the Squared Crest ships with a 360-degree Omni-Brake, and a thread protector is included in the box. Like the Squared Crest’s receiver, its barrel is also finished with a Sniper Grey Cerakote that complements the furniture.
Outfitting My Squared Crest
My Squared Crest is chambered for 6.5 mm Creedmoor with the 20" barrel. The synergy between a rifle and its sighting system is one of the most important aspects of rifle shooting. From my personal riflescope pool, I mounted my FFP Leupold Mark 5HD 3.6-18X 44 mm (with the PR1 reticle). With its specifications, this Mark 5HD variant makes sense atop this rifle. Its magnification range is more than adequate for the types of [hunting] shooting to be done with the Squared Crest, and the PR1 isn’t a busy reticle. At lower magnifications, it even looks like a Duplex.
Image courtesy of author.
The Squared Crest’s stock lines up perfectly when combined with medium-height Leupold Mark 4 aluminum rings. Both the scope and the rings sit on a factory installed Picatinny 20-m.o.a. base. Jack O’Connor’s favorite sheep rifle was his .270 Winchester No. 2 mounted with a fixed 4X Leupold Mountaineer riflescope. No. 2 was said to weigh just over 8.5 lbs. Topped with my Mark 5HD, this Bergara weighs approximately 9 lbs., 3.2 ozs. Although it weighs 8 ozs. more than No. 2, I’m sure Mr. O’Connor would appreciate all the modern features of this scope and rifle.
Shooting The B-14² Crest
I shot the rifle prone at 100 meters off a rest with front and rear bags. For this review, I included three different 6.5 mm Creedmoor factory hunting rounds including Sierra’s 105-grain Prairie Enemy, Federal’s 140-grain Fusion and Hornady’s 129-grain American Whitetail. Overall, the Squared Crest is quite accurate with my sampling of factory 6.5 mm Creedmoor. The smallest group overall was 0.60 m.o.a. while the largest measured 1.75 m.o.a. Because a group merely measures the two extreme impacts in a shot string, it alone doesn’t tell the whole story between the rifle and its ammo. The extreme impacts in a group do help to paint a “back of the napkin” picture, but they don’t necessarily account for a given load’s true shot dispersion. Although the American Rifleman protocol calls for five-shot groups and my data is based on them, I couldn’t help but notice how tightly the Squared Crest printed 3-shot clusters. It bears mentioning because most hunting situations involve less than three rounds. Accordingly, hunting rifle barrels are optimized for portability, not sustained fire. This is true of the Squared Crest, with its barrel flutes and sporter barrel contour.
The Squared Crest was reasonably accurate with the selection of factory cartridges I had on hand. Factoring in the five-shot groups, how I fired them and my modest skill, conservatively speaking, this is a 1.5-m.o.a. rifle in my hands. There’s little doubt that this rifle is capable of even better performance and can be extremely precise in the right hands with good ammunition. Statistically speaking, the 129-grain Hornady American Whitetail loaded with the company's storied Interlock bullet performed the best overall. The 140-grain bonded Federal Fusion bullet also demonstrated excellent capabilities, but fliers opened up groups more so than the Hornady cartridge. The 105-grain Sierra Blitzking loaded in Sierra’s new factory round, the Prairie Enemy, was interesting. From the three, it was the warmest cartridge with the highest muzzle velocity, and it shot precisely. However, with this barrel contour, shot dispersion consistently printed fliers that skewed group sizes to an average of 1.44 m.o.a. This said, the Sierra Prairie Enemy’s mean-radius still averaged out to 0.52". At the aggregate level, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot any of these three loads in the field.
The Takeaway
6.5 mm Creedmoor isn’t exactly known for its recoil, and the combination of the Omni-Brake and generous rubber butt-pad made the recoil from the 141 rounds I fired feel imperceptible while fully prone. The Squared Crest fired and cycled all cartridges without incident; pertaining to the action, my only real “complaint,” if you can even call it that, is that I wished the safety was less stiff when actuating. As previously mentioned, the carbon fiber stock’s modern profile lends itself well to shooting from different positions. Because the stock is light, with a mounted riflescope, the rifle becomes top heavy and depending on the position, extra care should be taken to keep the rifle balanced.
With such a modern stock, I think the rifle would have been better off outright shipping with a Picatinny rail section on the fore-end instead of the sling studs. The only thing that this review lacks are “notes from the field”, as I haven’t had a chance to yet hunt with it. In all, it’s difficult to find much to complain about the Bergara B-14 Squared Crest. When viewed through the proper context, this is a very accurate hunting rifle. I can’t stress enough how well it prints three-shot groups, with many that were less than an inch. This rifle is not only ready to hunt our continent out of the box, it shoots very well and looks good, too. The Bergara Squared Crest is far from O’Connor’s wood-stocked No. 2, but I really do think he’d appreciate it.
Image courtesy of Bergara.
Bergara B-14² Crest Specifications
Manufacturer: Bergara (Spain)
Importer: BPI Outdoors
Action Type: bolt-Action, repeating, centerfire rifle
Chambering: 6.5 mm Creedmoor (reviewed), 6.5 PRC, 7 PRC, .308 Winchester and .300 Win Mag
Receiver: 4140 steel
Barrel: 20" or 22", 4140 chrome-moly steel, six-groove, 1:8 or 1:10 Twist
Stock: carbon-fiber monocoque; Sniper Grey Cerakote finish
Sights: none; drilled and tapped
Trigger: single-stage, adjustable; 1-lb., 12.8-oz. pull
Overall Length: 40" or 43.5"
Weight: 6 lbs., 12.8 ozs. (unloaded)
MSRP: $1,999 (starting)
