I think I have a winner.
As most of you know, I've been screwing around with Remingtons all summer, with very little success. After getting my third Remingturd in a row, I decided to go a different direction.
http://www.fnhusa.com/le/products/te...05&mid=FNM0024
The A3G has a hammer-forged, chrome-lined (more about this in a minute), fluted match barrel with a blueprinted and trued action, hand-lapped locking lugs, and every A3G is hand-bedded with Marine-Tex by GAP (and the logbook that comes with the gun is signed by the GAP 'smith who did the bedding job) before being released by FN. The rifle is fully Parkerized, and comes with a titanium 20MOA OPSinc Picatinny base mounted and bedded to the receiver.
FN's SPRs are unique in the precision rifle world in that they are the only precision rifles available with complete hammer-forged, chrome-lined match grade barrels. Traditionally, chrome lined barrels are thought of as less accurate - for two reasons: 1) most chrome lined barrels are not match-grade to begin with, and 2) achieving a uniform chrome lining is a difficult proposition. FN appears to have resolved this problem on both counts - which I doubt would be practical for a smaller manufacturer to implement because of the sheer expense of the equipment. Interestingly enough, the first SPR barrels were made from M240 barrel blanks. Current production SPR blanks are made from lots intended specifically for the SPR line.
The action is a pre-64 Model 70 type, with 3-position safety (fire, safe but bolt unlocked, and safe with bolt locked). For the guys who came in late, the pre-64 70 is a Mauser-type action that has full controlled round feeding (as opposed to the push-feed of the Remington action) a massive non-rotating extractor claw, and a fixed blade ejector (unlike the Remington's spring-loaded plunger). Interestingly enough, and again unlike the Remington, the bolt can be completely stripped by hand in seconds without any tools.
The gun is unconditionally guaranteed by FN to shoot sub-1/2MOA for 10,000 rounds, and comes with two test targets: one fired before the GAP bedding job, and one after. The pre-bed target measures .40", and the post-bed is a single ragged 0.208". No, I can hardly believe it either.
Handling - the McMillan A3 stock is VERY solid feeling, and the pistol grip's near-vertical angle suits my shooting style. The trigger breaks at a crisp 2.8# measured with my Lyman digital gauge, with zero creep and minimal overtravel. The feel of the action is silky smooth, compared to the AAC Remington I just got rid of (which felt like it had a handful of broken glass in it, comparatively speaking.) As you close the bolt, the lapped lugs are obvious - the bolt locks closed like it's on greased ball bearings.
I zeroed it at 100 as best I could in a gusty 20mph crosswind using Federal 7.62mm 175gr Gold Medal, and still managed a .788" 5-shot group in the rain and wind. I cleaned the gun (20 rounds expended at this point). The wind was dying down a little at this point, estimated 15 mph from my 4:00. It was raining too hard to put up any more paper targets, shitty, and grey at 1830, so my shooting partner zipped out on his four-wheeler to set my target (a 3x5" 3/8" piece of AR400) at some random-ish distance around 200-250. I figured this was a good test - cold bore shot, clean bore, etc. The last three Remingtons I had would throw their clean bore shot 2 MOA or so from the rest of the group.
My partner hung the spray-painted grey target in a tree with a piece of baling wire and rode back. I mil-ranged it at 210 and dialed in corrections for 200 and 15mph of wind at 4: .5mrad of elevation and .6 into the wind, held it, and squeezed it. The target disappeared and we were rewarded with a gratifying WHACK of impact - when the steel stopped swinging, I could see the splash on the paint 3/4 low and about 3/4" left of where I was holding.
Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, I did it 3 more times before the wire broke and the target hit the ground. When we went down and looked at it, all the splashes were right at an inch. I decided this was a good place to quit for the day.
So, I fired a total of 35 rounds, and though I'm too skittish to declare victory yet, so far, I tentatively like this ****ing gun. I'm going to shoot it in an underground range tomorrow to see what it's capable of at 100 when ENV conditions are completely out of the equation.
I'll take some pics sometime this week, but just look at the pic on the FN site and add a 3.5-15x50 NF on top. It'll get painted after I'm sure it's a shooter.
Cost vs. benefit? Well, you could pay the same for a custom Remington that may or may not have the accuracy guarantee - and it sure as hell won't have one for 10k rounds. And chrome lining to boot. Plus, I hate to think how long the wait time would be to get warranty service on a gun that you had to wait 18 months for in the first place.
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Originally Posted by a0cake
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