MDT XRS Chassis: Best Beginner Chassis?

Like peanut butter and jelly, butter and shrimp, or tequila and bad decisions – a rifle and a chassis are simply meant to be together. But with so many awesome chassis on the market, finding the perfect one for you can be hard and mistakes are very expensive. MDT is one of the best manufacturers on the market and their XRS chassis is a fairly new addition to their lineup.

How does it shoot? Is it worth your consideration? All that and more coming up!

Modular Driven Technologies

MDT is one of the huge names in the chassis world and continues to push the industry forward through groundbreaking innovation.

From their first game-changing chassis to their newest release, MDT has made hit after hit.

The TAC21, the ESS, the ACC, and the HNT26 are industry-defining chassis for hunting, competition, and duty use.

And that’s before we talk about the Ckyepod bipod, their muzzle brakes, scope rings, and a list of accessories.

Bottomline – MDT is one of a few elite chassis makers. If you want to get the most out of your precision rifle, an MDT chassis must be in the conversation.

XRS Chassis System Features & Specs

While chassis are pretty awesome and offer a lot of advantages, some people still want a more classic rifle feel. The XRS is MDT’s attempt to fulfill that need for people. While the heart of the XRS is a chassis, it has a much more classic rifle stock feel and shape.

It’s also a lot least expensive than their big-ticket chassis like the ESS or ACC.

Built around a 6061 aluminum core with a V-block bedding system, the XRS doesn’t skimp out on features. Instead, it has almost all of the features you would expect from a modern chassis.

Length of pull is adjustable via spacers that are included with the XR. The cheek rest is quick adjustment via set screws, and the grip comes with two options – a more vertical shape for a more chassis/precision rifle feel and a sloped grip for a more classic hunting rifle feel.

The forend is a long 12″ with M-LOK on the sides and bottom for mounting accessories. Bipods, slings, weights, or anything else all go there.

If you want, you can replace the bottom of the forend with an ARCA rail version – but it’s sold separately.

And to top it all off – the XRS uses AICS magazines and has an ambi-magazine release.

All in all, this is a chassis that is dressed up like a rifle stock. If you’re looking for walnut and gloss, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for the performance of a chassis with a less tacticool look – I think this fits the bill nicely.

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Testing & Shooting The XRS

I’ll give you the spoilers now, I really enjoyed shooting the XRS. Personally, I’m a big fan of big chassis like the MDT ESS or ACC, MPA Hybrid, and KRG Whiskey 5. When I put a rifle in a chassis I normally go big or go home.

The XRS is a departure from that, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like one. It is definitely lighter, only around 3.9 lbs, and the balance is different than my normal ACC or MPA – but other than that it felt very similar.

Balancing on barricades isn’t hard – the integrated barricade stop helps a lot, magazines are smooth to remove and insert, and adjusting the length of pull even to my wingspan was easy (normal people have a 13″-ish LOP, I have an annoying 15″ LOP).

Fundamentally, the XRS does what a good chassis should do.

I tested my XRS using two rifles – a Terminus Zeus in 6.5 Creedmoor and a Bergara B-14r in .22 LR.

Normally my Zeus lives in an MDT ACC chassis, but I threw it in the XRS for a few weeks to see how I liked it since the Zeus is my main comp centerfire rifle.

The Bergara B-14r was the .22 LR I used for all of last season shooting NRL22, so it’s also a rifle I’m very familiar with.

Both rifles performed wonderfully, surprisingly well in fact.

XRS Centerfire Performance

Right off the bat, I love my Terminus Zeus – it’s a great rifle and normally shoots under 1/2 MOA. I have a 24″ MTU Bartlein 6.5 Creedmoor barrel on it and I was expecting it to be really unbalanced in the XRS, but I was totally wrong.

Even though the XRS is only 3.9-ish lbs, it balanced wonderfully and just in front of the magazine. If I was planning on taking this to a competition I would adjust it slightly with a weight or two so I could run a bipod on it, but it was very close to perfect as is.

Shooting the Zeus in the XRS felt great! Ergonomics was right on and the beefy grip felt nice to hold.

Something I don’t love is there isn’t a dedicated thumb rest on the XRS, but wrapping my thumb around the back of the grip felt very comfortable once I realized my thumb reached.

If you have smaller hands, you might not get the same level of comfort as I did.

Running barricade drills felt good with the XRS partly because it’s a lot lighter than I’m used to. Lightweight rifles aren’t great for PRS when you’re trying to track your shots, but running drills and having a good time it was nice to work with a rifle that didn’t weigh almost 20 lbs for once.

Accuracy was spot on. I’ve put a lot of rounds down with my Zeus and I know that even on a bad day it’s a 1/2 MOA rifle in my normal chassis – that really didn’t change with the XRS. On average I would say my groups were slightly larger, but that’s because of the weight change.

That’s a sign of a great chassis if you ask me.

XRS Rimfire Performance

I’ve upgraded away from the Bergara as my main NRL22 rifle, but I still love this little guy.

However, running it in the XRS wasn’t my favorite mostly because of the balance. While the XRS felt awesome with a centerfire rifle with a heavier action and a much, much heavier barrel – the short barrel of the B-14r and the much less overall weight made for a rear heavy package.

However, this is almost completely solved by running a bipod. Plus, the XRS has M-LOK on the sides of the forend where you can attach some weights to really balance out the rifle.

So while it wasn’t perfect out of the box like it was with my Zeus, it’s entirely workable and really to be expected.

This is more showing that I got lucky with the Zeus than anything.

Once I added a bipod to the XRS with the B-14r in it, things felt much better, almost perfect.

Again, drills felt natural, accuracy was great, and the chassis handled wonderfully.

Getting in and out of barricades was easy, getting a great position on a bag was fast, and hits came by the fist full.

After several weeks of running the XRS in multiple platforms, I gotta say I really dig it.

Wrapping Up

For centerfire or rimfire rifles, I strongly recommend the XRS. 

If you want the best there is, you’ll have to spend a lot more and get something like the ESS. But for a more budget-friendly option that gets the job done and gives you most of the features you want, the XRS is great.

For competition shooting, I would get a set of weights so you can finetune the balance, but for everything else, I think it’s good to go right out of the box.

If you’re using ARCA attachments for your bipods and tripods, don’t forget to get the ARCA forend as an extra accessory.

Otherwise, pick the color you like and the inlet you need and get shooting!

For some more great content, check these out!

• Best Rangefinders
• Best Long Range Rifles