Springfield’s Powered-Up SAINT

By GUNS Magazine

Back in the old days if you wanted an American-made .308 battle rifle, you could opt for a Springfield Armory M1A or just go without. M1A acolytes will tell you their mystical rifle will ring steel a continent away, reliably get you a date with a supermodel, save you money on your taxes, and cure malodorous feet. Unwilling to rest on their laurels, Springfield Armory has now stretched their legs yet further.

In The Beginning…

I figured we die-hard American gun nerds needed a new AR15 like we needed a rectal exam. (Which sometimes you really do. Just bend over and get it done. It’s even less fun for your doctor. Trust me, I know.) Then I actually handled a Springfield SAINT Victor, and it was love at first squeeze.

A well-reasoned black rifle packed with premium features all at a Common Man price, the original 5.56 SAINT established itself as a lot of gun for the money. Now we have seen stripped down as well as tricked out SAINTs in both rifle and pistol configurations. With this foundation, the folks at Springfield Armory realized the only place to go was up.

Their new SAINT Victor .308 packs everything righteous and wholesome about the smaller SAINT into a package projecting serious .30-caliber horsepower. It sports the same top-end furniture, well-reasoned features and true battle rifle power, all in a package weighing a paltry 7 lbs. 11 oz.

Pertinent Particulars

The lightweight SAINT Victor packs all the cool-guy stuff defining the SAINT genre into a trim .30-caliber chassis. Bravo Company makes the furniture, so you know it perfectly interfaces with the human form while remaining nigh indestructible. The Accu-Tite Tension System combined with a 16″ lightweight CMV Melonite finish barrel drops your rounds right where you want them.

The enhanced nickel boron-coated single-stage flat trigger is crisp and comfortable for long-range work, but remains sufficiently responsive for close-quarters combat. The overall impression is glassy smooth. Unique SA locking tabs keep the full-length 15″ M-Lok aluminum free-float handguard rock solid. It offers plenty of real estate to support anything you might want to hang out there. The direct gas-impingement action runs through a pinned low profile gas block tucking nicely underneath the handguard.

The gun even comes with a quality set of flip-up iron sights so you can shoot it right out of the box. This may seem a small thing, but in the world of modern small arms, small things are what separate the players from the posers. You would have had to scrounge up some iron sights for the rifle anyway, so in this case it’s just one less thing you’ve got to fret about.

The weird thing is you get all this top-end stuff, along with true .30-caliber thump, all at less than 8 lbs. As a skinny guy who has humped a belt-fed machinegun through a fairly grueling forced march or two, I can attest every ounce matters.

Saint’s Alive!

The new SAINT Victor .308 offers the sorts of premium features you’d find on those crazy expensive custom guns along with long-range power and a proven name you can trust all at a reasonable price. All this also now comes at about the same weight you’d expect of your favorite piston-powered poodle popper.

The unique Springfield Armory muzzle brake excises most of the nasty out of those big fat .30-caliber rounds. I had honestly expected the shooting experience to be a tad overwhelming given the gun’s modest weight. Such was simply not the case. I could bang rounds downrange until I ran dry without feeling battered. If I paid attention and used quality ammo I could squeeze out sub-MOA at a football field.

If you want to be safe from zombies riding in cars or hiding behind walls but don’t want to lug around some backbreaking howitzer, the SAINT Victor .308 is your iron. It throws seriously manly bullets a seriously long ways while remaining a dream to tote. Trim, tailored, and tough, the SAINT Victor .308 is a holy terror on the range.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Will Dabbs and shared with us by GUNS magazine. You can see the original article here.

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