Christensen Arms Evoke Hunter Review: Resurgence Of Value

I hit the range to test out the entry-level yet feature-heavy Christensen Arms Evoke Hunter.

In 1979, I purchased my first centerfire rifle. (My dad actually bought the rifle because I was not old enough, but I paid for it with money I earned from a paper route.) It was a brand-new Remington Model 700 ADL, and it cost $223. Based on inflation, today that rifle would cost about $981. That rifle shot well but it was plain-Jane with a walnut stock and blued steel. It did not have any of the modern and cool features hunters want today, like a synthetic stock and Cerakote finish resistant to the elements. It did not have a detachable magazine, a scope rail, a threaded muzzle or brake, or a bipod attachment point. The new Evoke rifle from Christensen Arms has all those things and a retail price of $898.99.

Modern manufacturing techniques have reduced the cost of making firearms, and the demands of hunters have increased the standard features we now expect to see on a new rifle. Christensen Arms has been listening to what hunters want in terms of both features and price, and their new Evoke rifle is a manifestation of that. I recently tested one of the Evoke rifles chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, and Christensen Arms is clearly onto something.

Christensen Arms Evoke Hunter Specs
Length: 42 Inches
Weight: 7.69 Pounds (as tested)
Barrel: 16.25 to 22 inches depending on chambering, with 5/8×24 threaded muzzle and RFR brake
Action: Two-lug, 90-degree bolt action
Trigger: Adjustable TriggerTech
Capacity: 3+1 detachable MDT polymer magazine
Finish: Cerakote
Stock: Synthetic/polymer
Chambering Options: 6.5 Creedmoor (tested), .243 Winchester, 6.5 PRC, .270 Winchester, 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm PRC, 7mm Backcountry, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 RPC and .350 Legend
MSRP: $899
Website: christensenarms.com

The Details

Christensen Arms announced the Evoke rifle in 2024, but samples did not make it out of the factory until early 2025. While visiting Christensen Arms last year, I saw a prototype of the Evoke, but between then and now the design changed just a bit. Christensen Arms pioneered the carbon-fiber-wrapped barrel, and then they perfected it. As an entry-level rifle, the Evoke comes with a 416R stainless steel barrel, but this barrel is button rifled and hand-lapped at the factory. The barrel also has the muzzle threaded at a 5/8×24 pitch and the rifle comes standard with a removable, stainless steel, premium RFR muzzle brake.

Barrel lengths range from 16.25 to 22 inches depending on the cartridge. The 7mm Backcountry is available with either a 16.25- or 20-inch barrel, and the 6.5 PRC, .270 Winchester, 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm PRC, .30-06, .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 PRC and .375 H&H all come with a 22-inch barrel. Evoke rifles in .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester and .450 Bushmaster have a 20-inch barrel, and the .350 Legend is the only Evoke with an 18-inch barrel. Regardless of the chambering, all barrels are fully free-floated.

Christensen Arms attaches the barrel to a newly crafted action that they designed in-house at Christensen Arms. It has a bolt with a radially fluted body, two lugs, a 90-degree throw, and a M16/
Sako-style extractor and a plunger ejector like on that first Remington 700 I bought more than 40 years ago. Regardless of the cartridge the Evoke is chambered for, the action is the same size. It does not come in short, long and magnum lengths. This adds weight for short-action cartridges, but it does reduce manufacturing costs. The bolt handle has an octagonally shaped knob that’s a tad bit—but not too much—oversized. It seems just about perfect for fast and positive bolt operation.

The rifle feeds from a detachable polymer magazine made by MDT, and it has a three-round capacity, regardless of the cartridge. You release the magazine by pushing a lever in the trigger guard. Also, inside the trigger guard, you’ll find an adjustable TriggerTech trigger. The trigger on the test rifle broke crisp and clean at about 3 pounds, and I left it throughout all testing.

The Evoke’s barreled action is housed inside a synthetic polymer stock. There are actually four versions of the Evoke, and the different stocks are what set them apart. On the standard Evoke, the stock is a flat OD green color. The Mossy Oak version of the Evoke, which has a retail price of $948.99, has a stock with the Mossy Oak Bottomland camo finish. Next is the Hunter version of the Evoke. Christensen Arms finishes the Hunter’s stock with one of their own camo patterns, and it retails for $998.99. The final version of the Evoke is the Precision model. It retails for $1,048.99; it’s the most expensive of the four, but it has Christensen Arms’ hex camo pattern, and it also comes with an adjustable carbon-fiber cheek riser.

All versions of the Evoke include a short, three-slot, Picatinny rail section at the tip of the forend, and this rail section has an integral sling mount attachment point. All Evoke rifles also have what Christensen Arms calls a hybrid grip angle that’s nearly perpendicular to the barrel. A very neat and attractive feature of the Evoke’s stock is the texturing on the grip panels at the grip and along the forend. Not only does this texturing look good, but it also provides a very sure gripping surface when the rifle is wet. I know this as fact because during the first range session with the rifle, a downpour nearly drowned me and the rifle. Finally, and important is the fact the Evoke rifle—regardless of the version—comes with a three-shot, sub-MOA guarantee and a limited lifetime warranty.

Range Time

Before I get into the shooting, I want to address the only issue I experienced with the rifle. Sometimes I struggled to remove the three-round MDT magazine. I could clearly see when I depressed the release that the latch freed the magazine, but sometimes the magazine was just damned stubborn and did not want to come out. At other times it was easy to remove.

Upon further investigation I discovered that I only had the magazine removal issues when I aggressively inserted it. Then, the front of the magazine went just a tad too far in. However, regardless of how I inserted the magazine, it always fed cartridges without failure. If I gently inserted the magazine, it was easy to remove, but not a drop free. I’m not a fan of a drop-free magazine on a hunting rifle, because I’ve seen that lead to trouble too many times. Is this an issue endemic to all Evokes? I don’t know, but it’s something you can check when handling an Evoke before you buy it.

At nearly 7½ pounds, the Evoke is on the heavy side, but I thought the rifle balanced well with a bit of muzzle heaviness for offhand shooting. The 20-inch barrel on the 6.5 Creedmoor version is suppressor friendly, and, as you would expect, a suppressor made the Evoke even more muzzle heavy. Is a muzzle-heavy rifle a bad thing? Yes and no. Muzzle heaviness can help you when shooting off-hand and seems to help stabilize a rifle a bit when shooting from a rest. The only time it becomes a hindrance is when you’re trying to handle the rifle swiftly or when trying to track a moving animal for a shot. If you have no plans to shoot at moving critters, and if you always at least intend to shoot from a rest, it will not negatively impact your shooting at all.

Speaking of shooting from a rest, the short section of Picatinny rail that’s integral to the Evoke’s forend was perfect for bipod or tripod attachment. I attached a Spartan Precision Pic rail adapter and did a lot of shooting from their Ascent tripod and their Javelin bipod. If you like to shoot with either a tripod or bipod, you will really, really, appreciate this rail section because it greatly simplifies the process. That short section of Picatinny rail remained solidly attached to the Evoke’s stock throughout all the shooting.

I tested three loads in the Evoke for precision while shooting from a sandbag rest at 100 yards, by firing three, five-shot groups with each load. Two of the loads tested averaged just a bit more than an inch, but the rifle really liked Hornady’s 143-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter load. Every group fired with that load was less than an inch and the average for three, five-shot groups was a very respectable 0.61 inch.

Shooting Results

LOAD	VEL	SD	ENG	PRECISION
Remington 129-grain Core-Lokt Tipped	2,992	27	2,564	1.13
Nosler 140-grain Whitetail Country	2,723	14	2,305	1.21
Hornady 143-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter	2,736	6	2,377	0.61
AVERAGE				0.98

The Last Word

Like with all rifle manufacturers that offer an affordable, entry-level rifle, I’m sure Christensen Arms hopes that those who purchase an Evoke may someday upgrade to another, higher-end, Christensen Arms rifle like the Ridgeline FFT, which costs about twice as much as the Evoke. That might very well happen, especially since the Ridgeline FFT rifle is noticeably lighter. However, a lot of hunters might very well be content with their Evoke and never purchase another rifle. I think this is a practical possibility, especially if the magazine issue I experienced was just a fluke with the test rifle and not representative of the entire line.

Any way you look at it, the Christensen Arms Evoke is a great representative of how hunting rifle manufacturing has evolved. Christensen Arms has loaded this rifle with many of the features the modern hunter expects, it shoots well, and Christensen is offering it at a fair and reasonable price.

CA Evoke Hunter 6.5 CM Deals

Guns.com	$896
EuroOptic	$900

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

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