Christensen Evoke Hunter Rifle Review: A Solid Choice

Christensen Arms has been at the leading edge of rifle design since it developed the industry’s first carbon-fiber-wrapped barrel three decades ago. The innovation ultimately led the company into the business of building complete rifles—rifles that have seen significant use the world over.

That said, the firm’s products have always leaned toward the premium end of the price spectrum and were financially out of reach of many shooters and hunters. With the introduction of the new Evoke rifle, Christensen is now offering a rifle at a competitive price—starting at $899—that maintains many of the design elements that have helped build the company’s name.

The Evoke is offered in four different models including the Evoke, Evoke Mossy Oak, Evoke Precision and Evoke Hunter. I tested the latter, and it’s available in seven cartridges: 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, the new 7mm Backcountry, 7mm PRC, .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag. and .300 PRC. Staples such as the .270 Win. and .30-06 are available on the base Evoke and the Mossy Oak version.

The most noticeable feature on the Evoke Hunter is what is missing: the carbon-fiber barrel Christensen Arms is known for. The fact is it would be virtually impossible to build a rifle at this price with a carbon-fiber barrel. As it did with the Mesa series, the company opted for a stainless steel barrel to keep the cost down. Although I’ve had good luck with a number of carbon-fiber barrels, having a steel barrel is in no way a handicap.

The Meat and Potatoes

The Evoke Hunter is equipped with a button-rifled and hand-lapped barrel made from 416R stainless steel. Barrel lengths on this model vary from 18 to 22 inches, depending on the chambering.

My test rifle was chambered in 6.5 PRC so it shipped with a 22-inch sporter-contour barrel with a 1:8 twist. The barrel was threaded 5/8x24 at the muzzle and fitted with a removable six-port RFR muzzle brake. It doesn’t come with a thread protector. The barreled action was Cerakoted in satin black.

The Evoke Hunter is built around the company’s Model 25 action, a 700-style action with a tubular receiver. The receiver uses a steel recoil lug that sandwiches between the face of the receiver and the barrel shank. The ejection port is generously cut, and there is a receiver-mounted bolt stop at nine o’clock.

Although the top of the receiver is compatible with scope mounts designed to fit the 700, the rifle ships with a zero m.o.a. Picatinny rail installed. This means you can mount an optic to the rail or use readily available aftermarket mounts. The rail does add some height above the bore to the scope, which is a reason that some may choose an alternate route.

Machine Work

There is a vertical ledge milled into the top of the receiver that serves as a recoil shoulder for the Picatinny mount. Since in the real world scope mounting systems are usually the first failure point, this is a great idea.

Contrary to what you may read online, this is not a three-lug action but a traditional two-lug design with a 90-degree bolt throw. The bolt body is spiral-fluted. The bolt uses an M16-style, spring-loaded extractor along with a pair of plunger-type ejectors. The bolt fits into a .150-inch counterbore in the barrel in the style of the 700. In its marketing materials, Remington used to bill this setup as “three rings of steel” since the case head is encapsulated by the bolt, the barrel shank and the receiver ring.

The Evoke Hunter uses a detachable magazine system based on the AICS pattern. The bottom metal arrangement that facilitates the magazine is a bit unique, incorporating a magazine release button that sits inside the trigger guard in the style of a Mauser Oberndorf or 700 BDL-pattern rifle. Pressing the button forward releases the magazine.

Not only will this system be familiar to those accustomed to using more traditional floorplate magazines, it also prevents the button from being actuated accidentally. The magazine that shipped with the rifle is a steel short magnum model with a 3+1 capacity. I tested the rifle with a polymer magazine from Magpul, and this worked as well.

Trigger and Weight

The Evoke Hunter features a TriggerTech trigger. These triggers are known for their creep-free break thanks to an internal roller system. Mine came from the factory set at 3.9 pounds and broke without creep, as advertised.

That’s not an unreasonable weight for hunting but not conducive to maximizing a rifle’s mechanical accuracy potential from the bench. These triggers are easily adjustable without removing the stock, so I dialed the weight down to 2.5 before heading to the range. The 700-style safety sits just to the right of the tang, where it is easily accessible.

Aside from using an all-steel barrel, one of the ways Christensen Arms was able to keep the price down on the Evoke Hunter was by using an injection-molded stock rather than a more rigid—and expensive—fiberglass or carbon setup. I see a great number of injection-molded stocks on test rifles and I can say that the quality seems to be steadily improving; this one is better than most in terms of rigidity.

The Evoke Hunter’s stock is a hybrid design, incorporating elements from traditional sporters as well as more modern precision stocks. The stock has a straight comb with a raised cheekpiece. I ran across several websites describing the cheekpiece as adjustable but, for the record, it is not.

Comfortable Shooting

The stock’s pistol grip is fairly vertical, making it comfortable for shooting from supported positions such as from a bipod or tripod. These days, more and more hunters are using these shooting aids in the field, and the Evoke’s grip design complements that trend.

The fore-end is relatively slim which, in my opinion, is the correct answer on a hunting rifle. Giant beavertail fore-ends might be great on sandbags, but good luck sliding them into a saddle scabbard or getting a hand on them in an unsupported position or when your shooting rest is a tree.

The barrel is free-floated within the fore-end, but since this is an injection-molded stock, exerting pressure on the stock can cause it to contact the barrel.

Internally, the stock has an aluminum block secured to the polymer that serves as a pillar for the forward action screw and also as a bedding block of sorts. The rear screw has a more traditional round pillar.

Shots Fired

After firing the rifle, I noticed that the engagement between the bottom of the action and the aluminum block was a bit uneven, which suggests to me that bedding the action to the stock would have a significant positive effect in terms of accuracy and repeatability.

One of the stock’s more practical features is a short Picatinny rail section attached to the forward tip of the fore-end. This three-slot rail is ideal for securely mounting a bipod, and it also serves as a sling swivel attachment point. A standard sling swivel stud is mounted at the toe of the stock. A soft rubber buttpad helps dampen recoil. The stock is finished in the company’s own Christensen Arms Hunter camo.

For testing I mounted Leupold’s new VX-6HD Gen 2 3-18x44mm and quickly got things zeroed. Thanks to the muzzle brake, recoil was extremely light, and at extended ranges it would be possible to spot one’s own hits. The device certainly made the muzzle blast more apparent but not obnoxiously so.

I tried three loads: two from Hornady and one from Gunwerks. The Evoke Hunter showed potential for excellent accuracy but was a bit inconsistent. One group would be a tiny cluster while the next would spread out.

Accuracy

My experience tells me that, when this happens, a loose optic or the rifle’s bedding are usually to blame. In this case, it was the latter. I determined the rifle was very sensitive to the fore-end position on the shooting rest. When the front bag position was near the barrel shank, groups were excellent. If the rest was placed farther out on the fore-end, groups strung vertically.

This is a common ailment with injection-molded stocks due to their lack of rigidity. If that keeps you up at night, it would be easy to stiffen things up with some two-part epoxy poured into the voids inside the barrel channel.

All that said, the rifle still shot well, with groups averaging right around one m.o.a. Christensen Arms advertises the Evoke as a sub-m.o.a. rifle, and it exceeded that standard with at least one of the loads I tested.

The Evoke Hunter’s magazine system worked relatively well, but the box was somewhat susceptible to movement. In one case, I cycled the bolt but the top cartridge in the magazine did not feed into the chamber. The magazine had shifted just enough to allow the bolt to pass over the lip of the cartridge case and not push it into the chamber.

Bottom Line

My test rifle weighed a touch over eight pounds, which made it very shootable. The rifle also balanced well, making it comfortable to carry and stable in realistic shooting positions.

For a general-use hunting rifle, this is the weight range I prefer. Ultralight rifles are nice to carry but difficult to shoot well in the field. Heavy PRS-style rifles have the opposite problem. A seven- to eight-pound sporter is the Goldilocks spot for me.

Christensen Arms offers a wide range of well-built hunting rifles at a variety of price points. The new Evoke series of rifles is the most economical in its centerfire lineup, but that doesn’t mean that the guns skimp on the details.

It wasn’t long ago when shooters had to make a serious investment to acquire a rifle with the kinds of features included on the Evoke Hunter. Today, there are a host of factory rifles such as this one that cost under a grand but have all the bells and whistles. The Evoke Hunter is a capable rifle that is ready for the field.

Christensen Arms Evoke Hunter Specs

• Type: two-lug bolt-action centerfire
• Caliber: 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC (tested), 7mm Backcountry, 7mm PRC, .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag., .300 PRC
• Capacity: 3+1
• Barrel: 22 in. stainless steel, 1:8 twist; threaded 5/8x24
• Overal Length: 43 in.
• Weight: 8 lb., 1.6 oz.
• Finish: black Cerakote
• Stock: synthetic
• Sights: none; drilled and tapped on 700 pattern; 0 m.o.a. Picatinny rail installed
• Trigger: single-stage adjustable; measured pulls 3.9 lb. as received, 2.5 lb. as tested
• Safety: two-position
• MSRP: $999
• Manufacturer: Christensen Arms, ChristensenArms.com

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