The Ritter & Stark GmbH company was established in 2015 in Austria to develop and manufacture state-of-the-art long-range shooting rifles for civilian and professional customers. 

Unfortunately, the Austrian company ceased all operations in May 2018 following an insolvency sentence by the Klagenfurt courthouse. A German-based company of the same name also exists – Ritter & Stark GmbH, headquartered in Frankfurt – but as of today it's unknown whether or not it will be able to resume the activities of its Austrian counterpart, and we will have to wait and see how things will evolve.

The Austrian company employed a fully Russian development team; many of the Ritter & Stark's engineers were involved with the development of the ORSIS T-5000, currently one of the world's best and definitely one of the most advanced to have been developed in Russia in the past years.

It's no wonder if there are several similarities between the T-5000 and the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR Modular Tactical Rifle, a bolt-action long-range rifle first announced in 2016 and launched in 2017.

A modular, multicaliber design, the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR is currently one of the most advanced among the many bolt-action long-range tactical rifles built by various companies, and offers high performance for long-range shooting sports as well as for tactical applications, sniping and counter sniping.

The Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR modular tactical rifle is built around an aircraft-grade aluminum chassis that's machined out of solid billet for superior stability and solidity.

The chassis is fitted with a detachable octagonal handguard featuring a full-length top Picatinny rail and slots allowing the installation of tactical accessories through the M-LOK system or M5 screws.

The pistol grip is removable, and replaceable with any AR-15 compatible grips, and the sidefolding stock – fully adjustable for height and length of pull – can be removed.

The chassis is threaded for an AR-15 type buffer tube, allowing the use of fixed stocks should the user decide to do without the sidefolder.

The bolt group of the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR rifle is machined out of steel and comes with a matte black full outer protective finish. It is housed directly within the chassis, with a rotating bolt head whose lugs lock directly on the barrel instead than on the chamber face. This reduces vibrations and increases stability, alignment precision, headspace, and repeatability.

The bolt group is universal, basically identical in all the three calibers made available for the SX-1 MTR. The bolt head is the only component of the bolt group to need replacement during the caliber conversion procedure.

A three-position safety switch is located at the rear of the bolt group: the safety also allows to operate and open the bolt to extract a loaded cartridge from the chamber.

The muzzle brake is likewise easily replaceable with other options, silencers included. 

The barrels manufactured for the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR rifles are true engineering masterpieces: the patented process, according to the company, "avoids the transmission of thermal effects and mechanical stress to the material" and allows to "produce barrels with unique uniformity and within tolerance zones that were not possible in a serial production before".

Fully floating and fluted, machined out of solid bar stock, the barrels of the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR rifles lock into the chassis via three bolts and are thus easily removed for caliber interchangeability. The barrel rail can be removed and replaced with others should the operator require a different level of elevation or cant.

A MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny rail with 40 MOA of cant is bolted directly to the barrel, and not to the receiver, meaning that separate barrels can be transported with a pre-installed optical sight and mounted to the rifle requiring no zeroing afterwards.

All Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR rifles come with a replaceable, Remington 700 compatible trigger groups. The platform is available in three calibers: .308 Winchester (7,62x51mm), .300 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum.

The patented caliber conversion system keeps the barrel solidly and accurately positioned within the chassis on a wide area of contact and ensures an extremely high level of stability: the company guarantees sub-MOA accuracy (0.5 MOA to be precise) for a minimum of 5000 rounds before any loss of accuracy can occur.

The SX-1 MTR feeds through detachable magazines; the magazine well comes equipped with a removable polymer adapter, held in place by a single bolt. This is part of the patented caliber conversion system, allowing the use of four different types of detachable magazine depending from the caliber: 5-rounds and 10-rounds Accuracy International magazines or 5-rounds, 10-rounds and 20-rounds AR-10 / SR-25 magazines can be used in 7,62x51mm, while either 5 or 10 rounds AI magazines are used for .300 and .338.

Due to the problems occurred to the company this year, the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR is currently available only in limited quantities. Nonetheless, it remains an excellent long-range shooting rifle, despite the expensive price of 7.000+ euro or USD it was offered, by the way a lower price if compared to Accuracy International or other similar mainstays in the segment.

Originally designed for serious shooters and professionals, as already happened for a number of other war horses in the past, thanks to its features and quality the Ritter & Stark SX-1 MTR rifles looks like to have become a modern collectors' item. worth of consideration if you can afford it, and if you find one.