Savage Arms 10FCP McMillan Savage 10 FCP McMillan
Caliber:	.308 Win (7.62x51mm NATO)
Barrel:	Savage Factory Heavy Contour
Barrel Length:	24" (610mm)
Twist:	RH 1:10"
Empty Weight (without optics):	10 lbs (4.55 kg)
Overall Length:	46.5" (1181mm)
Magazine:	4 round detachable magazine
Trigger:	Savage Accu-trigger
Stock:	McMillan A5 Fiberglass Stock, black finish
Finish:	Matte Blue
Price:	$1178 Suggested Retail (Street price should be a bit less)
I remember back in the mid 1990's walking through a gun show and coming up to a Timney Trigger booth and asking them if they had a replacement trigger for a Savage 110FP I had at the time. What was the response? They literally laughed. To them the Savage was not a real rifle. A lot has changed in the past decade or so. Not only does Timney have a replacement trigger for Savage rifles, but Savage has become a legitimate player in the main stream firearms market, especially now that Winchester is no longer making rifles. Savage has been around for a very long time but their model 10 and 110 rifles have always been considered a "budget" rifle though one with surprisingly good accuracy. Now the argument can be made that Savage is the company that is perhaps the most in tune with the shooting public and the modern trends as they have been quick to release products outside the norm like their recent long range varminter with a .22-250 barrel with a 1:9" twist in a factory rifle. Remington still only puts 1:12" twists in their 308 rifles, let alone anything besides 1:14" for a .22-250. But we are not here to talk about Varmint rifles, we are here to talk about Sniper rifles. Savage has been making the 10 and 110 FP for many years, but a few years ago they introduced the 10FP McMillan with a McMillan A2 stock. Around 2006-2007, I'm not sure of the exact date, they upgraded that offering and created the 10FCP HS Precision and 10FCP McMillan which now has the excellent McMillan A5 stock. This is the rifle that we are reviewing here. I would probably consider it the top of the Savage line for Tactical Rifles.  The Savage 10/110, and their Stevens 200 sister rifles, have been going through some action changes over the past few years. The rear portion of the action used to be flattened like the Remington 700 actions and in fact you used to be able to use any set of Remington 2-piece bases on a Savage action, but a few years ago they changed that so that the rear portion of the action is rounded just like the front as you can see in the picture above. While you can no longer use the same rear base as the Remington 700, you actually can now use the same exact base for the rear as you do for the front of the Savage when using two piece bases. I suspect not having to mill down the rear of the action saves labor and time, which means money, though the added height kind of gives it a tall or bulky look to the rear, but it is certainly still functional. Another change, even more recent, with the Savage actions is that they switched to a center feed magazine design which should help with reliable feeding, but it is a completely different floorplate and inlet design which pretty much rendered all of the after market stocks useless. This, in my opinion, may have been a mistake as a good aftermarket industry tends to help the longevity of a rifle, especially in the precision tactical world where stocks tend to get changed out. Of course, we are a very small market share and it was probably a calculated decision and risk they had to take. But be aware, B&C and other stock makers have not all switched to the new design, and some are holding off. If you are building a custom rifle like our sub $800 project outlined in the members area, you may need to hunt for an old style Stevens or Savage action. For this rifle, it has a detachable box magazine that holds four rounds. The DBM floorplates are unique but I don't know that anyone would be swapping out the excellent A5 stock too soon. The magazine itself is well enough made and functioned without a problem for us. It is a center feed design which seems to work quite well. Another round or two capacity would not hurt though. The barrel is Savage's standard heavy weight barrel of 24" length. It is a nice heavy profile and provides some weight out front to help tame recoil and muzzle flip. The crown is a standard Savage recessed crown. The twist on the Savage 308 heavy barrel rifles is 1:10" which will stabilize all the heavier weight bullets. The barrel is free floated all the way back to the receiver as well. Of course, the Savage barrel nut is there as well and some say that is one of the reasons why the savage rifles tend to shoot so well, it allows for a good tight head space from the factory. The theory there sounds logical to us and is somewhat ironic that a cost cutting measure would actually help improve accuracy. Of course, the stock is excellent. It is a McMillan A5 stock with the standard McMillan black paint applied and the typical 3 swivel stud arrangement, 2 in the front, 1 in the back. The A5 is the most popular McMillan stock and for good reason, it is a fantastic design. It is very comfortable to shoot and it really helps line up everything well for the shooter. There really isn't much to be said about the stock design, it speaks for itself. But, I will mention a few things about the stock on this rifle and the execution. The stock on these FCP McMillan rifles are not glass bedded and there are no pillars as you can see in the picture below: It is the same slightly rough finish that McMillan provides with their inletting. It is perfectly setup for glass bedding, but there is no glass bedding. Yes, these are factory rifles and not custom rifles and I actually did not expect for them to be bedded though that is the first thing I would do if I were purchasing one of these rifles, just go ahead and schedule the job with your gunsmith of choice as I think there is some easy accuracy to be gained. The stocks are not "sniper fill" either from McMillan, which is a denser fill to add weight and strength to the stock, and without pillars you will want to be careful not to torque the stocks down to the 65 inch-lbs that is so common. You'll probably want to be around 40 or 45 or risk crushing some of the stock. Because of the lack of glass bedding or pillars in the stock, I may recommend the 10FCP HS Precision for utilization right out of the box. They have the aluminum bedding block and the HS Stock Savage uses is the very nicely designed vertical pistol grip version which is very nice as well. But dont get me wrong, the A5 is great stock and the one we would probably prefer in the long run, just after it was glass bedded. The trigger is the Savage Accu-trigger which kind of caught the shooting world by surprise when it first came out and was one of the innovations I was talking about that Savage seems to be leading the industry in. The blade that protrudes from the center of the trigger seems a bit odd at first but in reality you quickly forget it is even there and in regards to the target settings on the heavy barrel rifle triggers from the factory, it is very light. We measured this trigger at just a tad over 1.5 lbs. That is lighter than I like tactical triggers as I personally prefer 2.5 - 3 lbs on tactical rifles. But the light trigger is very good for target shooting. This trigger does not have any take-up besides the little blade and it broke rather nice for a factory trigger. For the range session we mounted a New Hawke Frontier 6-24x50mm that we were reviewing at the same time in a set of Burris Signature Zee rings on a set of two piece weaver bases (the same front and back). We used medium height rings and everything mounted up without any problems. Well, it is January in Montana so you can expect the conditions to be a bit chilly, but if you shoot year around you learn to deal with it. As you can see from the photo above, there was snow on the ground as there usually is this time of year and it was a nice frigid 10 degrees F (-12 C), which we were glad we were at least in positive numbers as compared to a day or two before. The only downside to cold weather shooting when trying for accuracy is that you are bundled up fairly well which prevents good solid shooting fundamentals because of the thick jacket and the requirement for gloves. But we bundled up and headed out to see how we could do with the Savage. The rifle functions well enough, typical Savage action which is not as smooth as a Remington but still smooth enough. Everything fed and cycled fine from the magazine and in fact it was a non issue to single feed even with the magazine in, which actually surprised us. The lighter than we are used to trigger took some time to adjust to, but it was nice. With the thick jacket on, heavy weight of the rifle, long barrel and 308 match loads, which are fairly mild, the recoil was very tame with almost no movement off of the target when a shot was fired. Rapid follow up shots were very easy. The A5 stock also figures into that because of the way it is designed to help direct recoil straight back helping to minimize barrel flip. The accuracy of this out of the box rifle was good for a factory rifle. Even when contending with the weather conditions, we were able to get some good groups with Federal Gold Medal Match 168gr ammo. The average group size was .682 with a best group (the one pictured above) of .568", just a tad over .5 MOA. We did fire some HSM M118LR 175gr and the groups opened up a little. We also extended the range a bit and fired at a bit over 400 yards with no problems at all and accuracy at that range was good as well, but we did not measure groups. We normally like to take the evaluation rifles out to our long unknown distance range, but we were not able to this time. To conclude, the 10 FCP McMillan is a very solid rifle. It does need glass bedding and I would expect accuracy to improve with a nice bedding job, and I would even venture to say that the 10 FCP HS Precision may be a tad more accurate "out of the box" because of its bedding block. But the A5 stock is great and the rifle is very nice to shoot. The large bolt knob is nothing fancy, but very functional and a nice feature on a tactical rifle. The trigger aides in getting good groups, but I personally would adjust it a bit heavier for field work, even with the safety of the depression blade on it. All in all, Savage has done a good job of pushing the envelope for factory built rifles in terms of features and innovation and we hope they keep it up.

KMW - Long Range Solutions Custom Tactical Rifle KMW Custom .260 Tactical
Caliber:	.308 Win (7.62x51mm NATO) .260 Rem And others
Barrel:	Broughton 7.75 Heavy Varmint Contour (Other options available)
Barrel Length:	26" (660mm) any reasonable length available
Twist:	RH 1:8", 5 Grooves Again, its custom, many options depending on caliber
Empty Weight (no optics):	14 lbs (6.36 kg)
Overall Length:	45" (1143mm) In current configuration
Magazine:	5 or 10 round Accuracy International Magazines (Badger Ordnance Floorplate)
Trigger:	Ordered with Shilen Deluxe adjustable
Stock:	McMillan A5 others available
Finish:	CeraKote Matte Finish (OD Green)
Price:	$2500+ depending on configuration
Terry Cross is renowned as both a competitive shooter and as a custom rifle builder. His rifle building company is known as KMW Long Range Solutions which has a very nice reputation for their rifles and also some other innovations like the "Pod-Loc" for the Harris Bipods. A friend of Sniper Central, John, provided us with his new and unfired KMW custom .260 Tactical Rifle for evaluation to check our Terry's handy-work. As with most custom built tactical rifles this rifle was built to order and represents what the customer wants more so than what the builder might think is best. So, what you see here is a rifle that John wanted built, but it is also a good representation of what a typical KMW build would consist of. This rifle was built by KMW on the Surgeon Tactical action with the KMW bolt knob. The Surgeon actions are a custom action based off of the Remington 700 design. They have an integral recoil lug with an integral 20 MOA scope mounting rail as well as many other improvements on the standard Remington 700 action. Some of those notable features are a much more precise manufacturing tolerances that consists of having everything squared from the factory. They also have a bolt release on the left side of the action, fluted bolt, and other excellent features. These actions are very nice but yet they are easily fit to stocks that are inletted for the Remington 700 with only some minor fitting normally required. McMillan does inlet specifically for the Surgeon if requested. The action is a very solid and excellent design. This KMW build also incorporated the Badger Ordnance detachable magazine floorplate that uses the Accuracy International magazines. Because of the cartridge (.260 Rem) combined with the Surgeon Action, single feeding the rifle while at the bench is not easily done, but the feed from the magazine is very nice and works great. For a tactical rifle, I would take that trade off any day. Single feeding can still be done but it is a matter of sliding the round up in the chamber to get it started. While I would prefer the ability to single feed, let us be honest, this is a tactical rifle, and while you do run into times when it might be advantageous to single feed in certain situations, it does not happen too often. Single feeding into the surgeon action with the .308 works with no problems, it is just something with the shape and location of the .260 shoulder that causes the problem with the Surgeon. I do have to report that I did have a single failure to feed from the magazine; the bolt stripped the cartridge but it nose dived into the feed ramp area obviously preventing the round from being fed into the chamber. I am not sure if this was an error on my part when I loaded the magazine where I may not have had it seated correctly in the magazine or if it was another more serious issue. The magazines are a little tricky to load with the .260 ammo and it takes a little getting used to, but once you figure it out it is not bad and I did not have any other feeding problems. The magazine release protrudes down below the trigger guard by a fair amount which allows it to be easily manipulated to drop the magazine, even while wearing gloves. This is a handy and useful in tactical conditions. Though that magazine release can also be in the way on occasion and may get snagged while in use. But it does work well and the magazine helps protect it, though the magazines can also get in the way which is why I preferred to shoot it with the smaller 5 round magazines (shown in the pictures on this page). The stock used for this build was a McMillan A5 with saddle type adjustable cheekpiece and the McMillan adjustable buttplate. There is not much left to be said about the A5 that has already not been said. It is a great design and extremely comfortable to shoot. KMW glass bedded the action in the stock as well as about the first 2" of the barrel. The stock has a single swivel stud up front for the bidpod with a flush cup behind that and one in the rear for the sling. This stock was finished in a molded in dark camouflage from McMillan. The adjustable buttplate was left in the silver per the request of the customer (John), normally it would be finished in the same metal finish as the rest of the rifle. The barrel on this particular rifle is a Broughton 7.75 Heavy Varmint Contour which was specified by the customer. The barrel has a 1:8" twist which will stabilize the heavier 140+ grain high BC bullets available in 6.5mm (.264). The barrel has a nice recessed crown on it to protect it. All of the metal work is finished in Cerekote, and I actually did not like this particular finish. The ceramic coating is very durable and is a very nice finish, but this particular application job was done to be very rough and matte per the customers request and it had a rough feeling that goes beyond "matte". While it is completely functional and provides all the protection needed, it just didn't have that high quality smooth finish I would have preferred. KMW does do the cerekote application and it was again requested by the customer to make it as matte as possible, and it does look very functional and "duty" like, I just did not like it as much, but hey, its only the asthetics. The integral picatinny rail makes it very easy to mount scopes and for this evaluation the rifle had an US Optics 3.2-17x scope mounted, which makes for an effective tactical combination. The Shilen trigger was adjusted from KMW to 2 lbs, which is great for target shooting, but I think it is a bit light for tactical work, but of course, that can be adjusted to what the customer specifies. For accuracy evaluations we tested both the HSM 123gr Lapua Scenar match load and the hot Black Hills 139gr Lapua Scenar match load. The heavy weight of the rifle combined with the natural light recoil of the .260 Rem cartridge makes for a very solid and pleasant rifle to shoot. Rapid follow-up shots are easily achieved as the scope remains very close to the original point of aim. This new Surgeon action, with its tight tolerances, is not quite as smooth or easy to cycle as the Remington 700, though I suspect that this action will loosen up some with time and break-in. This rifle was brand new and had never been fired (outside of test firing by KMW). The rifle is very accurate, though it seems like there is even more accuracy to be had yet that I was not able to achieve. Again, with break-in over time it will probably settle down and do even better, and the reticule on the US Optics scope was a bit too thick for really precise work, though good for tactical work, so that probably effected group size as well. With all that being said, with the HSM 123gr Match ammo it averaged .516" over 10 groups which is very impressive. The four groups on the target pictured below averaged .421" with all of them being under .5". This is a solid sub .5 MOA rifle. The smallest group fired with the HSM ammo was .368" center to center followed by a .370". The Blackhills ammo didn't quite shoot as well with an average of .812" and a best group of .402", but that was only a couple of groups fired and I am sure those group sizes will come down as well. I have since been back to the range with some of the new Cor-Bon 123 and 139gr match ammo and the rifle really liked the 139gr load. I had a small group of .22" with the 139gr and another at .30", with the average being well under .5" for the groups fired. This KMW rifle is a real gem, it is nice looking, provided you like the look of camouflage tactical rifles, and is very comfortable to shoot with excellent performance. The Cerekote is a bit rough but there is not much else to complain about. Recoil is minimal and accuracy excellent. With the long range capability of the .260 Remington cartridge, this rifle is a very capable long range rifle. The Surgeon action is very nice with some very good features and Terry Cross has done a great job putting this rifle together. If you are in the market for a good custom tactical rifle, KMW is worth contacting and looking at.

DPMS Panther LR-308B DPMS Panther LR-308B w/flutes
Caliber:	.308 Win (7.62x51mm NATO)
Barrel:	4140 Chrome Moly, Bull Barrel, button rifled Test rifle had optional flutes
Barrel Length:	18" (457mm)
Twist:	RH 1:10", 6 Grooves
Empty Weight (no optics):	9.7 lbs (4.4 kg)
Overall Length:	37.6" (955mm)
Magazine:	19 round detachable
Trigger:	Standard AR-15 trigger group
Stock:	Standard A2 fixed stock
Finish:	Mil Spec anodized and Teflon coated
Price:	$1150
Over about the past decade, the AR-15 (M16) based rifles have really proven themselves as reliable and very accurate semi-auto rifles. As has been a natural progression of the rifles (actually, going back to its original development roots) 308 versions of the design have also become popular. While the AR10 based platforms are not as standardized as the AR15 based rifles, most of the major AR manufacturers have developed their own 308 based rifles. Because they are their own designs, many of the parts will not interchange between manufacturers, unlike the AR15 based rifles. The DPMS Inc. Panther Long Range (LR) rifles is one of the major players in the AR10 rifle market, and was where we went for our first evaluation of an AR10 308 based rifle. This rifle was sold before we reviewed it and was ordered to the specs of the customer, whom we are grateful for working with us on this review (thanks Wayne). This rifle is a DPMS Panther LR-308B which comes standard with an 18" teflon coated bull barrel. The only additional non-standard option is the fluted barrel. Unless you are buying a rifle from a stocking dealer, expect to way about 10 weeks for a LR-308 rifle ordered from DPMS. It was actually only about 9 weeks for this one to show up and when it did it was nicely shipped in a hard case, wrapped in thick plastic, and with a nice little deployment type kit. The rifle is well proportioned and a good looking rifle, looking very much like a large AR15 (Imagine that). The matte anodizing is even and smooth and everything feels and looks to be of good quality. There is no movement between the upper and lower receivers and everything functioned smoothly. The one exception was the first time I tried to break the upper and lower receivers apart. The fit was so tight it took about 10 minutes of fiddling and pushing and prodding before I could get the halves to separate. It has been a breeze ever since then and I'm not sure what caused the unwillingness to separate but it all works great now. The upper is of the LR-308 smooth design with no brass deflector or dust cover. This is an added cost option if interested. I prefer the dust cover and brass deflector, but I have no problems with the way it is, and it does give a sleek appearance with no appendages sticking out. The operation of the rifle is traditional AR as is the breakdown and maintenance. There are small differences in the bolt (besides the size) and other details, but for the end user, the operation is very similar and is easy to pick up for those who are familiar with the AR15/M16. As you would expect with the shorter 18" barrel, the rifle is fairly compact and easy to point and shoot. It feels well balanced while shouldered. I would argue that a rifle similar to this design would be an excellent candidate for a Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) and that is how I wanted to approach it for this review. As I mentioned before, I would prefer a brass deflector and dust cover on a DMR, but that is a fairly cheap add-on and not necessary for a personal use rifle. The length of the barrel and overall length of the rifle is probably just about right for a DMR rifle, being very similar to M16A2 and M4 lengths. While the weight of the rifle is a few pounds heavier than a M4, it is certainly manageable. For a DMR rifle I would probably also opt for a longer hand-guard if possible, but the short length one on this rifle posed no problems. The trigger is traditional AR, terrible. Well, maybe terrible is a bit strongof a word , but when you are used to nice 3-3.5 lbs triggers (or even less) a notchy 7.75 lb trigger is "terrible". For a DMR rifle, it is probably okay, but for a precision rifle, it is not. For those of you not familiar with the role of Designate Marksman (DM), it is to extend the precision range of the standard infantry squad. While not typically fully sniper trained, they are familiar with long range shooting principles and have been trained in those skills. They are attached to the infantry squad and are an integral part of them. Having a rifle that is similar in functionality and can fire standard infantry issued ammo, from the M60/M240 in this case, is desirable. Extreme accuracy is not completely necessary, but I would think 1-1.5 MOA with machine gun ammo would be acceptable. For these reasons, a light precision trigger isn't required, but for a rifle being used by an LE agency or deployable snipers, a replacement would be necessary, and a match trigger is available, but is fairly expensive. The integral picatinny rail is very nice, but as is typical on AR rifles, you will need to be sure you can get a scope mounted far enough forward for proper eye relief. There are mounting systems by ARMS and others that can aide in this (see our RRA review) though for us, the Sightron 4.5-14x Scope was long enough to allow us to use some standard tactical rings and still get proper eye relief. The rifle has a standard short free float hand-guard and a picatinny gas block in case you need to mount emergency iron sights, which is another very good feature on a DMR rifle which can take a decent amount of abuse riding in an APC or running through the woods, which may make a scope inoperable. The rear stock is a traditional A2 stock with nothing fancy, and works very well on the rifle. There was/is no need for a cheekpiece for this scope, and that is usually not a problem on AR rifles where the mounting point is very low in relation to the eye when there is no carry handle. At the range the rifle performed quite well. There were no failure to feeds or jams and the recoil was nicely dampened and mild for the weight of the rifle. The muzzle flip was fairly minimal, especially for an 18" barrel which allowed for very rapid follow up shots. While follow up shots are fairly important for a sniper, they are even more important for a DM who may find themselves in an all out firefight which snipers try to avoid. Dinging the 300yard, 12" gong every 1 - 2 seconds using mil-dot hold overs is quite easy and demonstrated excellent capability as a DMR. Though I would suspect many of you are wondering about ultimate accuracy. This is where the trigger really hurt it. The trigger pull was a measured 7.5 lbs, long, and notchy. Not good for precision shooting and I had a difficult time getting three shots off that I felt were good. The rifle itself demonstrated very good accuracy as I was pretty much calling every flyer with a direction and that is where the bullet was hitting. I had to really concentrate on that trigger pull and remaining steady in order to get a few good groups off, and I'm most certain the potential of the rifle is greater than I was able to achieve. The small group of the day was .40", but was the only group under .5" and is pictured on the right in the picture below. The group on the left measured .56". The average for the groups where I really concentrated on precision with both federal GMM 168gr and HSM 175gr was below .7". As you can see the rifle is accurate, and I believe it can be even more accurate with a good trigger. The question then becomes what is the rifle going to be used for? If it is a personal rifle used for range work, or even for a LE agency as a primary or secondary sniper rifle, then certainly the upgraded trigger is desired. But if the rifle is going to be used as a DMR, I would probably leave the heavier trigger, as it'll be a desired safety factor in infantry combat operations with DM's wearing gloves, hitting the dirt hard, etc. With the heavy trigger it still can be shot sub MOA which is about what I would want with a DMR rifle. The 19 round magazines appear to be well made and functioned without a problem for me, though I did not fill them all the way and leave them that way for an extended period of time which would probably be a good test. I also wanted to test some surplus 147gr machine gun ammo for accuracy, but I had none available at the time. For a DMR, I would want the rifle setup for use of the machinegun ammo and would desire 1 MOA, though I think 1.5 MOA would probably be good enough. I would prefer the 147gr because all infantry units would already have that ammo on hand and not have to worry about the logistics of M118LR or other specialized ammo. I view the desired precision range on a man sized target to be about 600m with a DMR, and I believe that should be achievable with the 147gr ammo. I was fairly impressed with the performance of the rifle and I do view that it would fit very well as a DMR rifle, especially with the brass deflector and dust cover option added. The accuracy was very good considering the trigger that came with the rifle. The price of the rifle is quite good considering you are getting a very accurate semi-auto .308 rifle. With an upgraded trigger I would venture to say you would be getting a .5 MOA rifle. All and All, I enjoyed my time with the rifle and wouldn't mind having one myself.

Rock River Arms Varmint A4 RRA Varmint A4 as we tested it with Armalite Scope Mount(EX0022)
Caliber:	.223 Rem
Barrel:	Wilson Heavy contour Stainless Steel - .920" at the muzzle
Barrel Length:	16" (406mm), 18" (457mm), 20" (508mm), 24" (610mm) -test rifle was 24"
Twist:	RH 1:8"
Empty Weight (no optics):	7.9 lbs (3.6 kg) - 16" 8.7 lbs (4.0 kg) - 18" 9.2 lbs (4.2 kg) - 20" 9.7 lbs (4.4 kg) - 24"
Overall Length:	34.25" (870mm) - 16" 36.25" (921mm) - 18" 38.25" (972mm) - 20" 42.25" (1073mm) - 24"
Magazine:	Standard AR-15 Detachable magazines
Trigger:	RRA National Match Two Stage Trigger
Stock:	Full length A2 buttstock, freefloat aluminum handguard, hogue pistol grip
Finish:	Matte Black Anodized
Price:	$1015 - $1045 MSRP.
It is not common for us to review .223 rifles, as the caliber is not normally suitable to long range sniping. Even with the new 80 & 90gr high BC .224 bullets, there is still inadequate energy on target at long ranges for the caliber to be effective. But, in certain conditions, like MOUT (urban) environments or in situations where one is wishing to extend the range of the fire team or squad, a precision .223 rifle makes a lot of sense and if one's team is familiar with the M16/M4/AR platform, than a precision AR rifle is the ticket. We were able to test an off the shelf (thanks goes to John for letting us eval his rifle) Rock River Arms (RRA) Varmint A4 rifle. The RRA's have had a very good reputation for high quality products at a good price. So, this rifle is as good as any. There are several candidates that also would have worked from other manufacturers such as DPMS, Bushmaster, Armalite and others, but we had to pick one and wanted to see if RRA's reputation would hold up. The RRA rifle we reviewed is their Varmint A4 with a 24" barrel. This rifle was produced before they started to put the "winter" trigger guard on, so it has the flat trigger guard. But besides that, this rifle is the way you would get one if you purchased one from RRA today. The barrel is a Wilson Arms 24" stainless heavy barrel that is 1.05" thick under the hand guards and .92" from the gas block to the muzzle. The RRA Varmint rifles come with a Wylde chamber, which is a mix between .223 and 5.56. For those of you that do not know, the 5.56x45 NATO is NOT exactly the same as a .223 Rem. The 5.56 spec allows for slightly longer chambers for higher pressures. The .223 has a tighter chamber around the neck and is shorter which allows for a bit better accuracy. You can shoot .223 ammo in a 5.56 chamber, but it is DANGEROUS to shoot 5.56 (surplus for instance) ammo in a .223 chamber. BE CAREFUL. What the Wylde chamber does is allow for 5.56 ammo with slightly tighter chamber for better accuracy. So you can shoot both 5.56 and 223 safely with good accuracy. Now, I may have gotten a little bit of the chamber details a bit off, but one can search the internet and read about it in detail if you would like. It is sufficient to say that you can shoot .223 and 5.56 ammo out of the RRA without problem. The upper is an A4 flattop upper sporting aluminum free float handguards. There is nothing special or unique about the upper, bolt carrier group, and other pieces. But it they are very high quality with a very nice finish. Everything is tight, smooth, and has a good uniform finish to it. Quality is indeed high. The lower is a typical AR-15 lower with a fullsize A2 buttstock. The handgrip is a Hogue rubber grip that is a nice touch. It provides a very good grip in all conditions and is comfortable. It fit my hand very nicely. The trigger is something that I would like to mention. The varmint rifle comes standard with the RRA NM two stage competition trigger, and it is VERY nice, it is perhaps the single part on the rifle that that I liked the most. The first stage is very smooth and light and then you feel the resistance of the 2nd stage. There is no take-up on that 2nd stage and it breaks clean at about 4.5 lbs. No, it is not as nice as a jewell or timney that you would find on a bolt action, but for an AR trigger, it is VERY nice. I compared it side by side with a standard DPMS trigger and it as night and day better. Granted, it was a standard DPMS and a NM RRA trigger, not totally a fair comparison, but it did point out how nice it was. Again, the fit and finish on the lower were very good to excellent. Of course, the fit between the upper and lower are critical, and was fantastic on this rifle. There was no play or movement. It was tight and solid. Everything on the overall rifle showed quality and I am favorably impressed. Of course, the accuracy and shootability is the ultimate test. John had already mounted a Leupold Mark4 8.5-25x50mm M1 scope, which as many of you know, is an outstanding piece of glass. Yes, overkill for what I would say is the intended use of the rifle as we see it. But for a relaxing varmint/plinking rifle, it is awesome. The scope is mounted to the rifle using the Armalite scope mount system. For a squad rifle to extend range, a 3.5-10x, 3-9x or 6x would all be good choices. The 24" barrel would also be longer than I would opt for; I'm thinking a 20" would be ideal. But 24" is not out of the question either. The rifle handled nicely and was not too heavy. If part of a mech unit, it is probably a tad long for easy handling in the back of a M2 BFV, but I handled a M24 in the back for years and the rifle survived it, so it could work. Again, 20" may be a bit better for this application. But anyway, off to the range. RRA claims .75 MOA for these rifles, which I think would be good for an out of the box .223 semi auto, but we had heard stories of much better accuracy from these rifles and other .223 AR's. We brought along with us a few different .223 loads including Federal Gold Medal Match 69gr, Hornady Match 75gr BTHP, and some Winchester 62gr white box (cheap ammo). The GMM and Hornady would test ultimate accuracy, while the white box would be a test with cheaper military type ammo. I didn't think at the time to bring some of the 5.56 surplus I have. The first rounds fired was with the Winchester 62gr to clear the bore and check zero (make sure we were on paper!). After two fouler shots were fired, the rifle was settled and ready to go. The Winchester 62gr didn't do too well, but then again, I didn't expect it to. Our average group size was only about 1.3" but we did break the 1 MOA barrier on occasion. 1 MOA with military ammo would be very good for the intended role of this type of rifle and would extend the range of the squad very effectively to about 600 meters on man sized targets. For precision work the ranges would be less, but still, I think it would work very well in this role. It was time to move on to the good ammo. The first group fired with the Hornady 75gr match was right at the RRA claimed .75 MOA, but incidentally, that was the largest group fired with that ammo! Once we saw that the rifle could shoot, we actually really tried, and the groups tightened right up. The best Hornady group was .35" and the average was right at .5" (a tad over). Now that is some excellent accuracy! With a 75gr match bullet, longer ranges are more achievable and more energy is delivered on the target. The gold medal match was even better in terms of accuracy. The small group was .31" and the average was .39". WOW! What a shooter. Here are a few pictures of some of the groups.   As you can see, accuracy is very good with the match ammo, and decent even with the $4 a box cheap ammo. 1.5 MOA for a hunting rifle is great, and here we are saying it is only okay!! We have come a long way with tactical rifles. The rifle functioned without a problem, no jams, no feeding problems, and no problems of any kind. We did not subject it to severe function testing, so we really cannot comment about ultimate reliability, but it had no problems with the ammo we shot. I was happy to see there were no problems with the heavy 75gr bullets in terms of overall length. Of course, cleaning is never as easy as with a bolt gun, but that is the facts of semi auto life. In conclusion, we were very impressed with this rifle, its fit and finish, and especially its accuracy. Retail price is right around $1000 and I think this is a deal, especially since you can probably get them for a tad less than that from a dealer. I personally feel a 20" version with the barrel coated black, the winter trigger guard, and 6x leupold with SPR reticule would make a great SPR rifle for the infantry squad. Good job RRA with this rifle and thank you John for letting us borrow yours.

Weatherby Vanguard Varmint Special Weatherby factory photo
Calibers:	.223 Rem, .22-250 Rem, .308 Win
Barrel:	Medium contour (weatherby #3, .740" at muzzle)
Barrel Length:	22" (559mm)
Twist:	RH 1:12" (.223 & 308) RH 1:14" (.22-250)
Empty Weight:	8.25 lbs (3.75 kg) no scope & empty
Overall Length:	41.5" (1054mm)
Magazine:	Internal 5 round magazine with hinged floorplate
Trigger:	Weathery, fully adjustable
Stock:	Injection-molded monte carlo style synthetic stock
Finish:	Matte Blueing
Price:	$587 MSRP.
The Weatherby Vanguard Varmint Special kind of popped up out of no where, I had no advance knowledge that this rifle was coming out. One day I was looking through a dealer catalog and there it was. The rifle itself didn't really strike me as anything really special, but the price did. The retail price of these rifles should be just a little over $500, not bad at all for a synthetic stocked heavy barrel rifle. So, having not even seen one in person, I went ahead and ordered up a .308 version for Sniper Central evaluation. We have previously had very good experience with the Weatherby TRR and were hoping to have the same with this lower end rifle. One interesting thing of note is that the rifle we ordered and received from our distributor had the black stock with red spider webbing, but this color combo does not appear in the Weatherby online catalog. Red is an interesting color on a rifle, but it is not too bad, though I may suggest getting the tan with black if you truly plan to use the rifle for tactical use. For those of you that do not know this, the barreled actions that come on the Weatherby Vanguard series of rifles are produced by Howa over in Japan. Howa makes some pretty good rifles (see reviewhere) for a very reasonable price. The barrels on these rifles are shorter and different contour than Howa's own line of varmint rifles, and it is bedded in a stock not offered with any Howa. All Weatherby rifles are guaranteed to shoot sub 1.5" groups at 100 yards and they ship with a test target. The group on the test target that accompanied this rifle measured .79" (wow, pretty good) that was fired with Weatherby 150gr soft point factory ammo. We expected to do a bit better than this with match ammo, even though we did not have a machine rest to lock it into. But before we get to the performance, let us talk a little about the rifle itself. These are a traditional bolt action rifle and there are no real earth shattering new developments on these actions. They are smooth, strong enough and work. The bolts have some small flutes on them to help with preventing grit and grime problems and there are also three gas ports in case of a catastrophic failure. The bolt handle itself is a decent enough shape and easy to handle in most conditions. The trigger is fully adjustable, but they say the sear engagement must be set by a Weatherby service facility. The trigger came from the factory breaking at about 4.5 pounds and with a little bit of take up, not bad for a factory setting, and we left it the way it was for this evaluation. The trigger is a thinner profile and has non slip ribs. The hinged floorplate is nothing fancy and gets the job done. The stock is a synthetic stock and has a nice Monte Carlo cheek piece to get your eye in line with the scope fairly easily. It has a nice spider webbed non slip finish with a fairly angled pistol grip. I prefer my grips to be more vertical on my tactical rifles, but you get used to it, and it is very similar to hunting rifles. The forend of the stock is thin, with a flat bottom. It is only about 1.25" wide (I forgot to measure it) and I would much prefer a wider beavertail style forend. But, the flat surface does offer a nice mounting point for a harris bi-pod, which we used on this rifle during some of the shoots. The barrel isnot free floated, and I wonder if there is a little more accuracy potential there if one were to free float the barrel. We used some Weaver steel two piece bases, the same model that fits Remington 700 rifles, and then some Leupold rings to mount the Bushnell Elite 3200 tactical 10x scope. With everything mounted and bore sighted, we headed off to the range (several times actually). We used Black Hills 175gr, Federal 168gr, and ABT 175gr match ammo. The rifle functioned with no problems furing all our shooting sessions and was generally pleasant to shoot. The lighter weight and shorter barrel lead to more muzzle flip and recoil than most tactical rifles but was still better than a hunting rifle in the same caliber. We did not run it through the dirt and gravel, but the finish has held up well and in the end, the rifle has been completely functional and capable. The average group size for all the different match loadings has been around that .8" range that the factory test target produced. The ABT has been around 1.0" and the federal and black hills a bit less, around that .7". We did get one nice group with federal GMM that measured .415" and is featured in the photos on this page. Overall, this rifle is a very solid rifle for the price. The price is as low, and perhaps lower, than the Savage 10FP LE rifles, though the accuracy is not quite as good, the stock is better, and I like the traditional adjustable trigger better than the accu-trigger found on the Savage rifles. The Savage Rifles have heavier barrels and more options, but this Weatherby is a solid offering. This rifle would make a decent and affordable patrol trunk rifle, providing decent accuracy and added high power backup.

Patriot Arms Inc. - Genesis
Calibers:	.308 Win (7.62 NATO)
Barrel:	Broughtons #5.5 or #7 Contour
Barrel Length:	20"-24" (508mm-610mm) 20" (508mm) on test rifle.
Twist:	RH 1:11"
Empty Weight:	9.5 lbs (4.32 kg) 20" with scope, no bi-pod
Overall Length:	Depends on barrel length and LOP of stock
Magazine:	Internal, 5 Round, Hinged Floor Plate
Trigger:	Remington, 2.5-4lbs (test rifle was 1lb, 12oz)
Stock:	McMillan A1
Price:	$1850 With Customer Supplied Action
Patriot Arm's Inc. was introduced to me by one of the good folks on our forums (Thanks Jeff). Jared is the owner of the company and is a great guy. He agreed to send out a production rifle he was building for a customer for evaluation. The "Genesis" as its called is a custom tactical rifle that comes in a set configuration with some options available to the customer when ordering. The rifle that was sent to me is a sold customers rifle and represents a typical production rifle. The rifle is based on the traditional Remington 700 BDL Action. It had a black/OD/grey marble colored McMillan A1 stock that was glass bedded. It had a 5.5 Contour Broughton's barrel (Other barrels are available upon request). The barrel was 20" with a 1:11" twist. The crown of the barrel is worth noting, it is a deeply recessed 11-degree crown that is done by Patriot Arms, and I like it as it offers great protection from getting dinged up. The trigger is a Remington factory trigger that has been reworked by Patriot Arms. On this test rifle the trigger was set to 1 (one) pound 12 ounces. While it was exceptionally set, it was way too light for tactical work. It was great for getting group sizes on the range but I was very ill at ease when doing the field evaluation on my unknown distance range. I asked Jared about this and he said his triggers normally come at 2.5-4 lbs and the trigger I had is NOT typical, which is good. Overall, the rifle as tested is light (9.5 lbs with optics) and compact, and was pleasant to handle in the field. The metal work was finished in matte black, with the bolt was finished in gray. The metal work is available in Black, Gray, or OD Green. Available colors for the A1 stock are OD/gray/black (marble), Woodland Camo, Desert Camo, Solid OD. For 100y group sizes I used Federal Gold Medal Match 175gr, PMC 168 Match, and US Military M118 173gr. The rifle came with a leupold 6.5-20x Vari-X III Tactical Scope. As usual, the glass was excellent! I shot my groups at one of the local ranges, Deer Creek, it was broken clouds and about 80 degrees, altitude is 3200ft. The summary is simple, this rifle is a shooter! Federal GMM had the small group of the day at .18", PMC had the small average of the day, shooting a .19" as a small and averaging .34". That is exceptional considering some groups had called flyers, etc. The barrel does heat up quick and after about 10-12 rounds the groups open up. The rifle, being short and relatively light, does exhibit more muzzle jump than the bigger and heavier rifles like an M24. The rifle HATED M118 (the older style ammo) and I couldn't get a sub 1 MOA group with M118. That is not unusual for some rifles. This is a solid .25 MOA rifle, as evident by when I did my part, it always did its. I don't know if all Patriot Arm's rifles are .25 MOA rifles, as there is no guarantee of the sort, but this was an "off the shelf" rifle and it shot beautifully. I also shot the rifle long range at my unknown distant range. I used PMC Match exclusively and shot from 300-600 yards at my hardened steel plate. I even shot prone unsupported at 300 yards for a handling exercise. The rifle performed well at all the ranges and seemed to hold to published ballistic charts fairly well, indicating that we are getting velocities close to published numbers. I have no faults with using the rifle at all the ranges I tested it at. This rifle was a real joy to shoot and I'm glad to know about Patriot Arms now. Jared has a great rifle going and seems to be turning out a great product. The price seems good especially if all rifles perform as this one did. I highly recommend the Patriot Arms Genesis rifle. He has decided to offer a deal to Sniper Central readers. If enough of you put together an order of 12 rifles, Jared will throw in a Sako extractor for free on all the rifles.

Weatherby TRR - Threat Response Rifle
Calibers:	.223 Rem (5.56 NATO), .308 Win (7.62 NATO), .300 Win Mag, .300 Wby Mag, .30-378 Wby Mag, .338-378 Wby Mag
Barrel:	Krieger #4 Contour
Barrel Length:	22" (559mm) .223 Rem, .308 Win. 26" (660mm) .300 Win Mag, .300 Wby Mag 28" (711mm) .30-378 Wby Mag, .338-378 Wby Mag
Twist:	RH 1:12" (.308 Win)
Empty Weight:	8.5 lbs (3.86 kg) 22" TRR with no optics
Overall Length:	42.13" (1070mm), 46.13" (1172mm), 48.13" (1223mm)
Magazine:	Internal, 3 or 5 Round, Hinged Floor Plate
Trigger:	Weatherby, Fully Adjustable
Stock:	Composite with aluminum bedding block
Suggested Retail Price:	~$2400 USD (TRR in .308 or .223)
Weatherby decided to enter the tactical rifle field, and they developed the Threat Response Rifle (TRR), which is based on their Mark V action. The TRR is also available as the Threat Response Magnum, which is chambered in .300 Win Mag and various other Weatherby Mags. Weatherby sent a TRR chambered in .308 for an extended evaluation and I was able to use the rifle in various conditions, which are common to tactical riflemen. The TRR, in .308 form is a compact tactical rifle with a 22" barrel and a fairly compact and light stock. This stock is also standard on the Weatherby varmint rifles, but not in black. This combines to create a rifle that is easy to handle and well suited to law enforcement tactical use, especially in areas that are more urban in nature. Because of the lighter weight, the rifle has a little more recoil then a heavier rifle like the 700P, but it is still very comfortable to shoot, and offers less recoil then a standard hunting rifle. The stock is Kevlar composite with an aluminum-bedding block. The shape of the stock is different from the traditional HS Precision tactical stock in that it has a full Monte Carlo cheek piece and does not have palm swells. The forend is flat and slightly slanted which are both tactical minded, as it allows a stable shooting platform from various rests, and the slant from fore to aft allows small changes in elevation to happen by simply sliding the rifle forward or back. The stock is comfortable and handy, and the Monte Carlo cheek piece helps align the eye more naturally with the scope then does the 700P HS Stock. I would personally prefer palm swells and a slightly more vertical pistol grip, but over all, the stock is very comfortable and a very good design. The action is traditional mark V and has the short bolt throw, which is very nice for rapid follow up shots, and the action operated flawlessly and smooth throughout all shooting sessions. The trigger is Weatherby's own and is fully adjustable. The test rifle had the trigger set at about 4 - 4.5 lbs and had a slight creep before let-off. That creep should be able to easily be adjusted out, and it wasn't too much of a bother. I prefer the wider trigger face on the Remington triggers, but there were no problems and it worked well. The barrel is a 22" Krieger #4 target contour. All Krieger barrels come from the factory cryogenically treated. The shorter barrel didn't seem to effect velocities all the much, with average velocities being slightly higher then published for the ammo used in the evaluation, though all shooting happened at about 3200' above sea level, which speeds up muzzle velocity when at the same temperature. The overall fit and finish of the rifle was very good, as were the overall ergonomics and handling of the rifle. How did it perform? Very well. The rifle came with two test targets that were fired with Federal Gold Medal Match ammo. The two targets were both right at .68 MOA, which is very very good for a factory-produced rifle with factory-loaded ammo. So how did it perform for me? Well, I actually got groups that were better then the factory targets. The overall average was right in the .65 MOA area, backing up the factory test targets. Here are two of the better groups .47 MOA .44 MOA I shot both federal gold medal match 168gr and also Lake City M118 Special Ball. The rifle showed very good consistency with both loads, with the federal (expectantly) averaging better then the M118 (.65 MOA vs. .90 MOA). The chronograph showed nothing extra ordinary, with velocities being almost identical to my Bravo-51 with a 22" Barrel (no surprises there!). At longer ranges the rifle performed equally as well, and the rifle was comfortable to shoot from all positions, though the Monte Carlo stock makes it difficult to shoot left handed if you needed to in a pinch (when shooting around certain obstacles, etc). Overall, the performance was outstanding for a unmodified mass produced rifle, and this rifle would serve very well as a threat response rifle. Handling is easy and quick with the short and light (relatively) size of the rifle. It is in direct competition with the Remington 700LTR, and I feel it compares very well with accuracy as good as or slightly better, and it has a nice short throw bolt, though the price is a bit more. Thanks goes to Mike from Weatherby for arranging the rifle for evaluation.