Bergara Premier Canyon Rifle: A Heavy Hitting Lightweight

The Bergara Premier Canyon rifle is light enough to go anywhere and chambered to handle everything from deer to dangerous game.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

In choosing a hunting rifle, there’s often a trade-off between weight and accuracy. Ultralight rifles are a joy to carry, but many hunters struggle to shoot them as accurately as they can shoot heavier, more stable rifles. On the other hand, few hunters choose to scale tall mountains carrying a rifle that weighs north of nine pounds with optic and ammo. I’ve stalked pronghorn antelope with a 10-pound-plus rifle and, even on flat ground, it was not a fun experience. Bergara has struck a nice balance with its Premier Canyon bolt action rifle, which tips the scales at just 6.2 pounds, without an optic, in guns chambered for 308 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, and 300 Win. Mag.

Add a scope, rings, and ammo to the equation, and you have a rifle with just the right weight for carrying anywhere and making the shot when you get there. In guns chambered for 300 PRC and 28 Nosler, the Canyon weighs slightly more – just 6.5 pounds – thanks to a slightly longer barrel. Notably, the rifle is also offered in a 6.5-pound package chambered for the 375 H&H cartridge, which makes the Canyon a legitimate dangerous-game rifle.

Bergara Canyon’s Lightweight Components

Much of the Bergara Premier Canyon’s trim weight can be attributed to Bergara’s choice of barrel and stock for the rifle. Bergara has a well-earned reputation for making accurate barrels, and the one on my test rifle, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, was no exception. The No. 4 contour premium stainless steel barrels, measuring 20 inches in some chamberings and 22 inches in others, have nicely executed full-length fluting. The business end is threaded 5/8-24 and comes equipped with an installed Omni muzzle brake. The entire barreled action is protected with a skillfully applied Sniper Grey Cerakote finish, making it impervious to the elements. Rates of twist are appropriate for each chambering.

The barrel is free-floated within a 100 percent carbon fiber stock from AG Composites, which builds extremely lightweight yet rugged stocks. The Canyon’s stock has straight, classic lines which any experienced shooter will appreciate. It wears an attractive Swamper Rogue camo finish with muted black, grey, and green tones. The forend is wide enough to fill the hand, and its bottom is flattened for solid engagement with a rest or shooting bag. There are sling swivels fore and aft, and the buttstock sports an effective Decelerator recoil pad that works in concert with the recoil brake to tame recoil. Bottom metal is – wonder of wonders – actually made of metal. Fit and finish on the rifle are quite good

A Well-Designed Action

The heart of the Canyon is the well-designed Bergara Premier action. It’s a two-lug design with a fluted, one-piece, stainless steel bolt body. The bolt uses a separate floating bolt head that ensures solid contact with the lug abutments in the action, theoretically enhancing accuracy. The nose of the bolt is cone-shaped for smoother feeding of cartridges. Located within the front of the lower locking lug, you’ll find a spring-loaded sliding plate extractor. There are also twin plunger ejectors for reliable ejection of fired cases. Key components of the action, such as the bolt shroud, bolt head, and non-rotating gas shield, have been given a nitride treatment for durability and protection from the elements. The nitride treatment has the added benefit of being somewhat self-lubricating. A cocking indicator protrudes from the rear of the bolt shroud when the firing pin is cocked.

The bolt does not have the short bolt throw found on some rifles, but neither does it have the extreme stiffness you’ll sometimes encounter when operating short-throw designs. In fact, the Canyon’s bolt cycles with exceptional smoothness, with no binding, while providing ample scope clearance for most scope designs. That slick-cycling bolt stands out in a market dominated by less expensive rifles that often make me cringe the first time I work the bolt. The Canyon left me with a smile. If I had to find something to nitpick, the bolt handle knob could be slightly larger, but it is knurled for a sure grip in any weather.

Fast-Handling, Well-Balanced

With an action this smooth, it’s easy to run this rifle fast, and the Canyon feels well-balanced in the hands. The carbon fiber stock made the gun feel somewhat barrel-heavy initially, but the weight balanced out nicely once a scope was installed. The rifle is not equipped with sights. The receiver is drilled and tapped to accept Remington 700-style scope bases. My test rifle came with a pre-installed one-piece Picatinny rail, making it easy to mount a scope.

Functionally, the rifle performed with nary a hiccup. It fed cartridges smoothly from the magazine. Empty cases extracted without issue and ejected reliably without having to draw the bolt back with undue force.

In all chamberings except 375 H&H, the Canyon comes with an AICS-style detachable polymer magazine. The 375 H&H comes with a hinged floorplate magazine, which is also available as an option on rifles in other chamberings. The magazine release button is protected inside the forward edge of the trigger guard. When the release is activated, the magazine drops freely into the hand. I found the magazine easy to load and easy to insert into the rifle. The magazine feeds cartridges directly in line with the chamber. You can easily feed single cartridges into the action through the ejection port with the magazine empty, but you can’t top off a loaded magazine while it’s inserted into the gun.

An Excellent Trigger

The Canyon comes with a very good TriggerTech trigger. The trigger pull was a bit heavy for my taste as the rifle arrived from the factory. Happily, it is easily adjustable without having to remove the action from the barrel. A few turns of the adjustment screw, located just forward of the trigger, dropped the pull weight to 2 pounds, 7 ounces. The trigger broke crisply with no hint of creep or grittiness.

Paired with the trigger is a two-position, rocker-style safety located within easy reach of the thumb. It does not lock the bolt down when engaged. That may or may not be your cup of tea, but for me, non-locking bolts have seldom been an issue in the field.

I expected the Canyon to be quite accurate, based on my experience with Bergara rifles, when I put the rifle through its paces at the range with a Trijicon Credo HX 2.5-15×42 scope mounted in a set of Warne Maxima rings. Initial groups were a little larger than I expected, but things tightened up as I put more rounds through the rifle. I suspect groups will shrink further with a bit more barrel break-in.

Sub-MOA Accuracy

Even so, the Canyon turned in a very good performance with four tested factory 6.5 Creedmoor loads. I deliberately chose rounds with bullet weights ranging from 125 grains to 143 grains, and I quickly discovered that the rifle had a slight preference for heavier bullets. Federal’s 140-grain Fusion load and Hornady’s Precision Hunter 143-grain ELD-X load produced nearly identical results. The Federal load turned in 0.82-inch average three-shot groups with the best group measuring 0.54 inch, while the Hornady load shot 0.83-inch average groups and a 0.55-inch best group. That’s impressive for two loads using bullets with entirely different designs.

The lighter bullets were not quite as accurate, but they still shot quite well out of the Canyon. Winchester’s 125-grain Deer Season XP load turned in one-inch average groups and a 0.78-inch best group. A Barnes VOR-TX LR (long Range) 127-grain load printed a 0.81-inch best group and 0.95-inch average groups. Overall, the rifle produced one MOA or better groups with all four tested factory hunting loads, versus match ammo, and I would not hesitate to go hunting with any of the tested loads.

Velocities, measured over my CED M2 chronograph, ranged from 55 fps to 120 fps slower than factory-stated numbers for the loads tested, but that’s to be expected with the rifle’s 20-inch barrel.

Final Thoughts on the Bergara Premier Canyon Rifle

Features like fluted barrels, fluted bolts, Cerakote finishes, and carbon fiber stocks add significant cost to a rifle, and that’s reflected in the Canyon’s MSRP, which is either $2,475 or $2,525, depending on your choice of chambering. That’s not exactly inexpensive, but it’s on par with rifles offering similar features. It’s also something of a deal when you consider that this rifle is designed to go anywhere and do anything.

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And by anything, I do mean anything. Depending on your choice of cartridge, the Canyon is equally at home in pursuit of whitetails or the dangerous game of Africa – and everything in between.

Bergara Premier Canyon Rifle 6.5 Creedmoor

Load	Avg. Velocity (feet per second	Avg. Group 100 yards	Best Group 100 yards
Barnes Vor-TX 127 gr. LRX BT	2,739	0.95	0.81
Federal Fusion 140 gr. SP	2,670	0.82	0.54
Hornady Precision Hunter 143 gr. ELD-X	2,578	0.83	0.55
Winchester Deer Season XP 125 gr.	2,792	1.00	0.78

Specifications: Bergara Premier Canyon Rifle

Caliber: 6.5 Creedmoor, as tested

Action Type: Push-feed bolt action

Trigger: TriggerTech adjustable

Rate of twist: 1-8

Barrel: 20-inch stainless, threaded

Finish: Sniper Grey Cerakote

Stock: Satin AG Composites carbon fiber

Stock finish: Swamper Rogue camo

Magazine/capacity: AICS detachable, 3+1 

Sights: None, pre-installed Picatinny rail

Overall Length: 42 inches

Weight: 6.2 pounds

MSRP: $2,475

Contacts

Barnes Ammunition

Bergara

Competitive Edge Dynamics

Federal Ammunition

Hornady Ammunition

Nagel’s Gun Shop

Trijicon Optics

Winchester Ammunition

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