Occasionally I get to shoot some pretty special rifles. Sometimes I get to shoot some genuine sniper rifles actually used by the the real deal. Today was no exception. This particular rifle started its life in the A3G format working for a particular US agency before being refurbished into the A5M XP format you see here and later retired and sold on the civilian market. It has a pretty interesting history; however, that may be for a future article.
The FN SPR is a series of rifle based on the pre 1964 Winchester Model 70. It is a controlled round feed bolt action with a 90 degree throw and a cold hammer forged chrome lined barrel.
My friend (lets call him Jez) who owns this rifle generally makes replicas of genuine US Military sniper rifles; however, this time he went with an off the shelf option as used by various US LE SWAT agencies including the FBI HRT.
Overall the build quality of the rifle is excellent. The action is smooth, the lockup is solid and personally i would love to own one myself; however, this particular rifle is proving to have accuracy issues we are investigating.
For the last few months he has owned it he has tried factory match ammo and hand loaded ammo only managing to get around 1.2 MOA with a best of 1 MOA or so. Most groups are generally larger than this. This is not good enough for a SWAT sniper rifle. This has caused Jez to doubt himself and the rifle.
Today I watched him shoot the rifle as a bit of a coach. His fundamentals are pretty spot on and he followed the marksmanship principles we were all taught at basic training in the Australian Army which I still follow to this day.
Marksmanship Principles
The Position and hold must be firm enough to support the weapon
The weapon must point naturally at the target, without any undue physical effort
Sight alignment and aiming must be correct
The shot must be released and followed through without any disturbance to the position of the weapon.
These marksmanship principles are the basis of all my long gun shooting unless in a combat shooting scenario; combat shooting has its own rules.
Time for me to get behind the rifle and see what it can do. I loaded up 5 rounds of my known load that seems to work in most 308 Winchester rifles. 1st round, 2nd round and 3rd round all stacked. 4th round high. 5th round left. What happened? I applied the marksmanship principles, had a consistent amount of load on the bi-pod and released all my shots at the same point in my breathing cycle.
I tried another group and another. Similar results all round. Stack 2 or 3 and have a couple of flyers. I know it isn’t me as I produced this group below with my AI AX308 not 5 mins before.
What could it be? Action screw torque settings? Bad bedding job?
More to follow.
Funny story. I bought a rifle exactly like you are describing and may be having similar issues. I’ve heard of people having the chrome lining flake in some cases. That’s what I’m starting to suspect. As far as CHF inherently have enough residual stress to wander when hot, just shoot a tikka. There is obviously a way to get them to shoot. Looking forward to the follow up
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James Jay, you may very well have some good shooting hammer forged barrels. I’ve had a couple that shot well warm, but many more that didn’t. It’s why 90% of barrels used on top match rifle builds are not hammer forged. Generally cut or button rifled are preferred. Hammer forged barrels are generally quite consistent when cold, and tough as nails.
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FN makes some of the best, most accurate, and durable production firearms in the world. I personally own a spr a5m Xp and I think that I may of found the problem. You stated that it was reformatted from an a3g into a a5m, that by itself, and I am assuming that he actually did major work on it, lends to maybe the work done to it hampered the accuracy in some way. FN clearly states that their firearms should not be altering and doing so voids the functionality or accuracy of said firearm. So I think somehow, by horrible accident he turned his tack driver into a wall hanging talking piece, and I feel terrible for him. Still waiting for the follow up article. Thanks
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Hey mate. The work was done factory by FN USA. It was done correctly. Part 2 will be coming.
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Wow……then I will really be waiting for the next installment. I hope it wasn’t something serious or that could not be fixed. Thanks for the quick reply.
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I’d say it was all the stress in that hammer forged barrel. When it gets warm it’s all over the place.
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Negative sir. You could not be farther from the truth. I own said barrels and they are phenomenal works of precision and craftsmanship.
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