I first saw the Q LLC “Fix” rifle at the 2017 SHOT show. It was a unique design that immediately grabbed my attention. A bolt action rifle that challenged the carbon fiber stocked mountain rifles in weight but also had characteristics of the chassis style precision guns that were taking the market by storm.
The streamlined Q Fix was designed from the ground up to challenge what could be done on a lightweight, precision bolt action rifle.
The generous flared magazine well makes reloading a snap. The multiple facets of the handguard mate up nicely with the forward portion of the receiver.
Q LLC Beginnings
Q LLC was just getting started up, and delivery of the first rifles were months away. The Fix is now being delivered to those who placed orders early in 2017. So the time is upon us to see if the Fix was worth the wait. Initial offerings are only available in 308 Win or 6.5 CM.
The Fix is not just another chassis gun where the receiver/ barrel assembly is dropped in and bolted to a chassis, though on initial glance it has that look. It is assembled more like an AR platform that was ingeniously redesigned to make it a bolt action rifle.
The Fix blends features of several designs, along with the new vision to result in a lightweight rifle that has a barrel closer to the weight of what you would expect on a varmint or precision gun.
Ergonomics
The receiver is a totally new design, though it has some of the shape and flavor of an AR-10. The minimalist shape of the receiver is almost as though someone vacuum shrunk the metal around the bolt, magazine and trigger area.
Layout of the guns controls should feel familiar to AR shooters. Notice closed position of bolt handle for reference to an open position in next photo.
In reality, I’m sure that it was all 3D modeled to arrive at the shape. Similar to an AR, the stock, barrel, and handguard all bolt or attach to the receiver.
The receiver utilizes a Magpul AR pistol grip, and Magpul 308 magazines. The magazine release and ambidextrous safety are located in approximately the same position as on an AR. A generous trigger guard surrounds the trigger allowing room for operation with gloved hands.
There is no separate upper receiver, it is a one-piece assembly made integral with the lower. The trigger is similar in feel to an AR, but there is no hammer, the two-stage trigger’s action releases the firing pin in the guns manual bolt. The trigger broke cleanly at 2 ¾ lbs.
Bolt glides smoothly on the guide rails and mates precisely with upper contours. The ejection port is large and easily allows ejection of loaded rounds.
Distinct Features
The bolt is unique in that it only requires a 45-degree lift, which isnoticeably less than the 60 and 90-degree guns. Operating the bolt through its full cycle is fast and sure. Though it does take a few cycles to get used to the 45-degree lift, the tendency is to keep lifting further.
Folding stock was very rigid and had no play in the locking mechanism. Pushing downward on the stock at the hinge releases the lock to allow folding the stock.
The highly skeletonized, folding alloy stock bolts directly to the rear of the receiver. The stock folds to flat to the right side of the rifle. The stock locks in place securely in both positions. It has an adjustable cheek piece and butt plate.
The cheek piece has 1.4“ vertical travel to support a variety of scope mount heights and objective lens sizes. The cheek piece locks in position by tightening down a single Torx screw.
Depressing the button on the side of the butt plate allows adjusting the height of the butt plate for proper shoulder contact. Threaded cheek piece mounting studs can be moved to adjust forward /rear positioning.
Infinite Adjustments
The butt plate has 1 5/8-inch overall travel, allowing a length of pull from 13 1/8” to 14 3/4”. It locks in place with a single Torx screw as well. In order to support the lightweight design of the rifle the butt plate is fairly small.
The small butt plate area does mean that the recoil is transmitted to that reduced area; making stiff loads a bit more noticeable to the shoulder.
Lock nuts tighten down in addition to the Torx screw, to ensure the adjustable butt plate stays in position under recoil.
The handguard bolts to the front of the Fix receiver over the barrel. It is manufactured specifically for the Fix; it is not interchangeable with any AR style handguards. A well thought out and executed part of the rifle design is that all the screw on the gun uses the same size Torx driver- excellent.
The handguard was found to be very rigid and worked well when shooting off bags or from a bipod. Threaded steel attachment points are strong and minimize risk of stripping.
It is a well-designed piece of kit though; lightweight and small outside diameter to fit the hand and keep weight down. Additional lightening and also barrel cooling is accomplished by generous machining of slots on all sides of the handguard.
The handguard also has steel threaded inserts distributed on all sides to allow mounting Picatinny rail at desired locations for accessories. The top of the receiver and handguard have a full-length rail screwed to them for mounting of optics, night vision or additional gear.
User Adaptable
The breakdown of major components and barrel of the Fix. The 22” 6.5 CM barrel weighs 4.3lbs; it and the bolt make up the majority of the gun’s mass.
Perhaps the most significant attribute of the Q Fix is that the barrels are user changeable. Presently, Q is working to fill rifle orders and extra barrels are not available. It’s expected that custom shops will be making replacement barrels for the Fix soon. As long as the bolt face is the same size, and the round will fit in the magazine, the options are wide open.
The barrels are threaded into a barrel extension and locked into the receiver, by a lock ring similar to an AR barrel nut. The extension housing tightens down around the extension as well. A jam nut tightens against the barrel extension to the barrel, allowing the proper head spacing of the barrel, and to support interchangeability.
Changing the barrel on the Fix requires a vise, a torque wrench and a bit more work than an Accuracy International (AI) AT model; the Fix offers much though, and at a considerable cost savings.
Specifications-
- Caliber- 6.5 Creedmoor (308 Win. available)
- Barrel Length- 22”
- Weight- 7.7 lbs (16” 308 is closer to 6 lbs)
- Overall Length- 42” (Stock Open, 32” Stock Folded)
- Handguard Length- 15”
- Trigger Pull- 2lbs 12oz.
- Capacity- 10 Rds
- MSRP- $2,999
Field Testing
The full-length rail atop the Fix made mounting a Nightforce 2.5-10x scope an easy task. There were no problems getting the proper eye relief when there is a 19” top rail for scope mounting.
Adjust the height of the cheek piece to get the eye at the proper level, and lock that back in place- done. The cheek piece has 5 positions for placing the 2 mounting pillars that allow linear adjustment of its position as well.
The cheek piece will not let the bolt come clear of the receiver with the stock in the shooting position. However, partially fold the stock to the right allows easy removal, and bore sighting the rifle was a breeze.
Initial testing did not deliver the accuracy expected from the Bartlein/ Tooley barrel. Contacting Q, revealed they had identified an issue with one of the top rail screws possibly contacting the barrel.
Inspection of the rifle found a bright circle on the barrel where that screw was indeed making contact. Q sent a set of replacement screws, and upon replacement, it was back to the range.
Accuracy results are the average of 3, five round groups shot at 100 and then a pair of single 5 round groups at 300 yards. Keeping with the lightweight theme of the Fix, final test groups were fired with the compact Nightforce 2.5-10x.
The Fix was now delivering the accuracy that had been expected all along. The groups for the combined ammunition at 300 yards averaged out to 2.88”, which comes out to .96” moa, just like the groups at 100 yds.
Lasting Impressions:
During the range testing, there were a couple odd instances requiring noticeably more force to lift the bolt. No indications of the cause for the hard lifts could be found on the fired cases. Firing additional rounds of the same ammunition in another 6.5CM rifle resulted in no such difficulties. Possibly just a bolt lubrication issue, but the cause is still under investigation.
So is the Fix worth the wait? A relatively light, magazine fed, sub-moa rifle, with user changeable barrels. Does it have a future in the precision rifle or hunting gun arenas?
It’s not a heavyweight, chassis mounted sniper gun such as the AI AT, though with its quality barrel and components it appears capable of acceptable long range accuracy.
It’s also not a flyweight, pencil barreled, carbon fiber stocked mountain rifle, but it does have a relatively light footprint on the scales and can be had in suitable hunting cartridges.
Time will tell if it has a place somewhere between, or perhaps for the shooter looking for a one gun solution.
For more information about Q LLC Rifles, click here.
Really Nice! I like that it’s light, accurate, so very adjustable in many ways. The folding stock makes it very portable too. Also great trigger pull it appears too right out of the box. On the negative side 3 grand is a prettty stiff price. Way out of my price range but could have many applications including law enforcement.