A Handloader's Look At THE REMINGTON ETRONX

Guns Magazine, June, 2001 by Charles E. Petty

The electronic circuitry that makes this speed possible is contained in a sealed unit inside the stock. The trigger is really just a switch that sends a high-voltage burst of energy (150 volts) up some wires to the connector in the action, down the special contact in the bolt -- the firing pin -- to the primer. All this happens at near light speed. Lock time is reduced by 99 percent.

This system also eliminates the need for the heavy spring and cam system, which is necessary to cock the hammer on a conventional rifle. In the EtronX, the locking lugs offer the only resistance to bolt-lift. This makes bolt operation incredibly fast and smooth.

Pulling the EtronX's trigger is unlike anything we're used to. There is virtually no movement of the trigger itself. It feels as if you're pushing against an immovable object until the gun fires. It takes the concept of "surprise break" in a very different direction, but it does not eliminate common shooter errors. The trigger pull is 3 1/2 lbs., but you can still jerk it with exactly the same result you'd get with a standard trigger.

Getting To Know The Trigger

We experienced a long learning curve in trigger management. Over a matter of months, we shot the rifle on a semi-regular basis and tried different techniques of trigger control. What finally emerged was different from the usual shooting method of only putting the tip of the finger on the trigger and gently increasing pressure until the gun fires. That didn't work on the EtronX, and we'd frequently jerk the trigger. We'd squeeze with steadily increasing pressure, but the gun only fired at a point we thought was far past where it should have.

The technique that worked best for us was to put the trigger right in the middle of the first joint and then use a pretty aggressive press. The object is to get the gun to shoot within a couple of seconds. There is no way to "milk" this trigger, and it's far better to apply the amount of pressure needed to fire a shot in a quick, controlled manner. As we learned to do it that way, all at once the gun became much more fun to shoot.

The rifle was equipped with a new Bausch & Lomb 6x24 scope with their new Rainguard coating. This is truly remarkable stuff. Water simply doesn't bead up on the lens, but runs right off. Even in a downpour, the lenses remained remarkably clear and unfogged.

A Handloader's View

Shooting the rifle was obviously limited by the fact that only one factory load is available. That load uses a 50 gr. Hornady V-Max boattail with the proper green tip. Velocity and accuracy are comparable to the conventional load with the same bullet.

Handloading opens up a whole realm of choices not available in factory ammo. The good news is that you may use loading data from your favorite source in EtronX primed cases. Special data is not required. Our experience showed that some powders gave slightly lower velocities with the EtronX, but others did not. Obviously, Remington has the only pressure testing setup there is for this type of load, but, as long as you don't exceed published data for conventional primers, everything should be just fine.