German manufacturer Hera Arms made a name for itself by offering a solid and extensive inventory of custom-made parts, magazines, accessories as well as complete firearms on the European and worldwide market. Hera’s products concentrate mainly on the AR15/M4 platform, both on the parts/accessory side, and the complete firearms side; there are some interesting products such as the TRIARII pistol stock for the Glock that basically allows the pistol to be used as a pistol caliber carbine, the various .223, 9mm and .308 caliber semiauto rifles – and straight-pull AR rifles as well – or the newly introduced H6 side magazine fed, .223 caliber bolt-action rifle. And finally, the H7 bolt action rifle, that all4shooters tested some time ago.
Hera Arms H7 chassis test for Remington 700
Today I’m testing the stand-alone accessory stock of the H7, that Hera has available for four different actions: the Remington 700, Howa 1500 and Bergara B14 rifle actions, as well as the Ruger 10-22 specific version that has its own Hera H22 designation. For this test, I received the H7 Remington version as well as the H-22, which I will test soon, and a couple of additional and optional accessories, such as the H7 Ultralight handguard, and the folding stock accessory kit.
The H7 chassis stock system and magazines are available in Black, Green and Tan colors; the chassis uses an anodized aluminum alloy “core” that also acts as a bedding block, completed by composite polymer shells and buttstock and an aluminum alloy handguard that leaves the barrel fully floated.
I chose the Remington 700 action for my test, using a Police chambered in .308 Winchester. Before installing the action, I removed the spacer connecting the stock to the grip replacing it with the optional hinge kit that transforms the stock from fixed to folding.
This is no trivial operation as the two halves of the stock need to be slightly separated from the bedding block, and that involves removing four screws prying open the two halves and replacing the main screw connecting the butt stock to the chassis proper. I then also replaced the standard plain handguard with M-Lok slots with the H7 Ultralight, that in addition to being up to 33% lighter than the standard, also offers the ARCA Swiss rail with R-Lok indexing holes on the flat base of the forend.
Installing the Ultralight handguard is also easy, six bolts (three on each side) are removed and then the standard aluminum handguard can be easily pulled away and replaced with the new one, tightening the six bolts again on the “fork” that is machined in the aluminum structure on the chassis. I used a Fix-it sticks torque wrench indexed to 55 in-lb.
The central portion of the chassis is indeed a machined aluminum alloy bedding with V-block for centering the cylindrical action of the Remington 700 and uses the flat of the “fork” to lock the recoil lug of the action to control torsional forces and dissipate recoil.
Installing the H7 chassis system is very straightforward. Note: do not discard the original stock screws as they are needed for installation of the Hera Arms chassis, using the special washers provided with the stock.
Hera Arms H7: clean the threads of both screws and action before installation with a lint free cotton cloth
I assembled the chassis hand tightening both action screws and then I placed the rifle vertically barrel up and “bounced” the gun on its buttpad a couple times, to be sure the recoil lug made perfect contact with the aluminum block stop. Pushing down on the barrel, still with the gun vertical, I torqued the screws to 35/40 in-lb starting with the one nearest the recoil lug then the one on the tang of the action. I then passed to torque down both action screws to the final 55 in-lb.
All very easy! Time to go to the range with the Hera Arms H7
The Hera H7 chassis stock system comes with one AICS compatible 5-round magazine, the H7 mag, for .308 and similar cartridges, such as 6.5 Creedmor. But the chassis is compatible with many other magazines: I used MDT and Magpul mags with perfect results.
The folding stock option works flawlessly, once locked open it does not budge and although the plastic button of the lock seems flimsy, in actual use it stands up to quite a bit of abuse. Ergonomically the stock feels all right, unfortunately the cheek rest is nonadjustable (it can be removed though) and also the butt stock does not have a spacer system; the single spacer that connected the stock to the chassis has been replaced with the folding option, and therefore no more customization is further possible.
The Hera Arms H7 chassis is really lightweight, and solid – it does flex a bit if compared to other all-aluminum chassis available, however the affordability of the H7 is undisputable and the quality per cost ratio is one of the best on the market.
The trigger guard is very generous, and compatible with the Jewell tuned trigger I have installed on my 700.
Performance is as expected. Compared to the original stock of the Remington Police that I had professionally pillar bedded, there is no decrease in accuracy, on the other hand there is a huge increase in usability and features, just the folding capability is great, not to mention the Arca Swiss rail and M-Lok accessory slots for accessory mounting simply absent form the archaic concept of the HS stock of the Remington 700 rifle, dating back to the late 70’s and even then, I had to have a gunsmith bed and true the action for it to be at its peak. With the H7, in half hour of tinkering on the kitchen table I got a feature rich gun that is already able to express the best out of the barrel and action without any additional accurization.
A very solid and convincing product, affordable and why not, of very striking design that is bound not only to give good results on the target, but also turn heads at the range.
The total cost of the configuration I have used in this article is about 780 euro, with the Hera Arms H7 chassis having an MSRP of 449 euro, the H-Series Ultralight handguard offered at 249 euro and the foldable stock option still TBD at 79 euro.
One 5-round .308 magazine is included, and additional magazines are available for 39.90 Euro.
For additional information: https://en.hera-arms.de/produkte.
