Here is the review without the pictures...
STS Custom .300 Win Mag
Rifle Review
by
Paul McCoy
Texas Combat Shooters
Rifle Manufacturer: Superior Tactical Solutions-Henderson, KY.
Caliber: .300 Win Mag
Chassis: Accuracy International 1.5
Barrel: Broughton 25” fluted/threaded
Barrel Diameter: .970” at thread break
Action: Remington 700 Custom
Bolt: Remington 700 Fluted
Trigger: Timney @ 2.5lbs (Shilen initially but was replaced at my request)
Bipod: Caldwell
Scope: IOR Valdada 3.5X18X42
Muzzle Brake: APA “Fat Bastard”
Mono-pod: Accu-Shot
Ammunition:Sierra Match King 190 HPBTw/73 grains of Hogdon H4831
Hornady 208 AMAX with 71 grains of Hogdon H4831
Brass: Winchester fired once then neck sized
Primers: Remington Large Rifle Magnum
Let me start by saying I am in no way affiliated with Superior Tactical Solutions nor have I received any compensation for this review. I guess the beginning is always a good place to start.... I found a link to Superior Tactical Solutions on a gun related web site and thought for the advertised price this gun appeared to be a great value. I did some research on the company and found some rather unflattering stories relating to long delays on delivering firearms and some very unhappy customers. I did some further checking and found that those events took place rather early in the company's existence and that no one had a bad word to say about the quality of the rifle work received from STS. I spoke to Brad Turner, the owner, on the phone and voiced some of my concerns and he promised to have my rifle delivered in 16 weeks and if not I would have the option of getting my deposit back in full.
Having talked to Brad and with the deposit refund stipulated in writing I moved forward with placing the order for my first custom rifle. While I was guaranteed a 16 week delivery, the estimate was for 12 weeks. I was also guaranteed ¼ moa accuracy at 100 yards! I chose a 25” fluted Broughton barrel with 5/8”X24 threads. Brad was happy to answer any questions I had about the design of the rifle and my intended use for it. Overall the process of designing and ordering the rifle was trouble free and the only pain was to my wallet.
I don't honestly remember when I received a call from Brad that my rifle was ready but it was around 14 weeks if I am not mistaken. It had not occurred to me buy a gun case and have it shipped to STS so Brad took care of that for me and charged me a very reasonable price for the case. In the end, the gun was delivered on time and without any problems whatsoever.
The gun arrived in the Accuracy International dark green color which I quickly changed to Duracoat
“Desert Sand”. I also coated the barrel and action with “Matte Black” Duracoat. I attached the APA “Fat Bastard” muzzle brake, Caldwell Bi-Pod, Accu-Shot Mono-pod, and the IOR Valdada Scope. The rifle comes standard with a Badger Ordinance 20 moa rail installed. The installation of all the accessories went flawlessly and I will quickly review the performance of each before we get started on the rifle.
Muzzle Brake: APA “Fat Bastard” muzzle brake: This thing is a work of art! I can not imagine a more well designed or effective brake for a tactical rifle. While the rifle is fairly heavy, it is still a .300 Win Mag and should have a noticeable recoil. In truth, it has almost no recoil and I have shot 80 rounds through the rifle in one day and you could shoot a 1000. The recoil can best be compared to that of a suppressed 308 which as some of you know is pretty minimal. This muzzle brake is slightly more expensive than many others but worth every penny!
Bi-Pod: Caldwell Bi-Pod: For the money this unit works very well. I have no complaints at all.
Mono-Pod: Accu-Shot Mono-pod: This is another piece I would have to describe as a work of art! These mono-pods are designed for a specific model of chassis and I have one on both of my rifles. Each installed in a matter of minutes without any special skills other than me drilling one small hole in my Sako stock. The AI unit installed with no modifications at all. Now that I have owned a mono-pod equipped rifle, I can not imagine being with out one. They are a great tool to help you consistently repeat your scope picture with very little stress on your arms. Again, these are not cheap but worth their weight in gold!
Scope: IOR Valdada 3.5X18X42 with 35mm tube. I stumbled upon Valdada scopes by accident like many of you. There were allot of good stories in past years and a few bad ones. I took a chance when I ordered my first IOR which sits on my Sako .338. It is a 6.0X24X50 with 35mm tube and I could not be more impressed or pleased with it. There was no doubt what was going on my STS .300 when it arrived. I went with the 3.5X18X42 in part to gain more moa adjustment than available on the 6X24 model. With 70 moa available plus the 20 moa ramp on the rifle I knew reaching 1000 yards with this scope should be no problem. The MP-8 dot reticule is in my opinion the best reticule available on any scope today. We typically shoot at 5” clay pigeons from the 1000 yard line and with this reticule we are able to hold at a given position on an individual pigeon. Both of my scopes are second focal plane models and while I understand there are some advantages to first focal plane scopes, I don't care for them. Just my personal preference and which style will work best really depends on what you will use the scope for. The bottom line is I and others have compared these scopes side by side with Nightforce and no one has yet to pick the Nightforce as having a clearer site picture. If I was going to hammer nails or smack someone in the head with a scope then the Nightforce might very well be my first choice as it is probably much closer to indestructible than my IORs but for long range shooting, the Valdada is the way to go!
Trigger: Initially the rifle came with a Shilen match trigger. I found the trigger to be extremely narrow with squared edges and a square faced shoe. In a word, I hated it. I called Brad and he said I was not the first customer to feel that way and he gladly agreed to exchange it for a Timney trigger at no charge. He gave me instructions over the phone on how to remove it and within 5 days I had the Timney and did the installation myself. Wow, what a difference! The Timney had a 1/4” or more wide shoe with rounded edges that was much more to my liking and it had the same crisp feel as the Shilen. Brad indicated to me during this process that his policy was 100% customer satisfaction, whatever it took.
So lets start with the cosmetics of the rifle. Anytime I go to the range people have questions about the rifle. This rifle will definitely get you some attention at your local lead pit.
I have put about 200 rounds down the tube at the time of this review. The only way I could be any
happier with the rifle would be for the ATF to release my tax stamp so I could pick the suppressor up from Andrew at Lone Star Armory!
The chassis is an Accuracy International model 1.5. People seem to either love or hate the A.I. Chassis. I have no complaints about the way the chassis shoots. In fact, my only complaint is that the 1.5 chassis doesn't allow you to remove the bolt without removing the adjustable cheek piece. This doesn't sound too inconvenient but when you shoot as often as I do it really kind of becomes a pain. The answer of course is the folding A. I. 2.0 model chassis which alleviates this problem. I will definitely get the 2.0 on my next rifle. Both model chassis feature adjustable cheek pieces and length of pull adjustment through the use of spacers. I have disassembled this entire rifle a number times, (painting, trigger swap, ect) and the process takes about 15 minutes start to finish unless your removing the trigger and that is pretty straightforward as well.
The barrel is a Broughton 5c with the canted lands. I don't know how much many of you know about Broughton barrels but about half the people winning in any type of long range shooting competition are doing so with Broughton barrels on their rifles. Mine has a base diameter of 1.25” and is 9.70” at the thread break! It weighs 9lbs just by itself. I weighed the gun on my trusty digital bathroom scales and came up with a perfect 17.5lbs! That is exactly what I wanted this rifle to weigh. Once I add another 2lbs of suppressor we will be at the ideal weight for a long range rifle. The current setup without a suppressor but with a the APA muzzle brake yields recoil some where between an AR-15 and a .308 caliber tactical rifle with a good muzzle brake. Needless to say I am excited to see how much more recoil reduction we can achieve with the YHM suppressor tube on the end.
Setup as it is now the rifle is simply a pleasure to shoot. It feels good when your on the scope. The replacement Timney trigger is spot on perfect and the site picture through the Valdada scope makes target acquisition at long range much easier than it would normally be. When you're trying to shoot a 4”-5” target at over one-half of a mile, being able to hold at 3 o'clock or 6 o'clock on the pigeon to offset mild wind movements is absolutely critical. Having a gun that is Afghanistan accurate is important at long range, but without good glass you have tool that will be much less effective.
I equipped both my rifles with the Accu-Shot mono pod and Caldwell bi-pod. This allows you to adjust your front and rear height so that most of your focus can be on holding correct windage. Once you use a mono-pod you will never be without one again. They just make shooting accurately easier for those of us who have no formal or military training and I certainly need all the help I can get.
The magazine is an A.I. It is a single stack type holding 5 rounds. I have experienced no malfunctions involving the magazine since I received the rifle. It fits tightly in the chassis and installs and removes easily.
The Accuracy International chassis is in a phrase, “overbuilt”. The internals are made from heavy billet aluminum and the chassis is cut from one large piece. The chassis itself could be used as a weapon, no kidding. It is that tough! The cheek piece is adjustable up/down and left/right. The butt pad is adjustable for length of pull through the use of spacers and it is all very heavy duty hardware. Everything you see inside this A.I. Chassis system confirms that it was purpose designed for the rugged conditions encountered by the many special forces units around the world who deploy this system in the worst conditions imaginable. I don't want to go to war in some God forsaken hell hole but if I did, this is the rifle system I want with me!
I have worked up two different loads thus far. The first is using the Sierra Match King Hollow Point Boat Tail bullet at 190 grains. I combined this with Hogdon 4831 powder at 73.0 grains. This was put into Winchester brass and ignited with Remington large magnum rifle primers. My second load was using the Hornady 208 Amax bullet with 71.0 grains of Hogdon 4831. This showed to be a “compressed” load per the manual and it was! The 208 Amax is a very long bullet and by the time I got the overall length of the cartridge to the maximum specified in the manual, about ¾ of the round was inside the brass to the point that it appeared we were into the ogive. Those of you who have never done any reloading or have never compressed gun powder can't appreciate how unnerving it is to hear the powder be crushed as you seat the bullet. I didn't like it, but I got through it.
At the range I was able to hit paper on the first shot and had the rifle zeroed within 4 rounds or so. I did clean the barrel and action after each of the first 5 shots. I then cleaned it after the next 5 shots and then after the next 10 shots. There are allot of theories on breaking in a new rifle. This is the procedure I use and it seems to work well. As mentioned previously, the first thing you notice when shooting this gun is the lack of recoil. It is very little more than you would get with an AR-15! While the muzzle brake is extremely effective, you don't want to be sitting at the shooting table next to me. It is not uncommon for the blast leaving the brake to knock the shooting tripods off of the tables on either side of me. I wear foam plugs and pullover ear protection anytime I shoot a rifle with a muzzle brake installed.
To date my best 5 shot group at 100 yards has been about .472”. Now in all fairness to the builder, I have had no formal training in shooting precision rifles so that is the best I can do. I have had a number of 3 shot groups that were under ¼ moa the best being .180! I noticed no appreciable difference at at 100 yards between the 190 SMK and the 208 Amax bullet's accuracy. Where the 208s really shine is at 500-1000 yards. Here is a picture of a standard military silhouette where I was able to make 5 head shots at 500 yards without a miss! This was done with the 190 SMK rounds with the wind blowing 5-15 miles per hour from about the 7 o'clock position.
We typically shoot 4” clays at 500 yards and hitting them with this rifle is easy to the point of being boring. I think my best run has been 8 clays out of 10 shots at 500 yards.
Once you move out to 1000 yards the heavier 208 Amax really comes into its own. The 190 SMK bullet is still supersonic and stable but the wind is much more of an issue at these distances and the extra weight of the 208 makes things much easier. Our last trip to the range I was able to shoot 4 for 4 on the 24” steel square plate at 1000 yards. The wind was whipping pretty good by this time and I was unable to hit a clay at that distance although I missed by less than 8” each time I tried.
This is my first custom built rifle and I wasn't sure what to expect. My expectations were high to say the least and I can honestly state that the rifle is better than I had hoped. The ¼ moa guarantee seemed a bit hard to believe but I feel comfortable saying that the rifle will deliver that when used by someone that has some talent! Also, I have done little in the way of load development so there is still some more accuracy to be gained there as I move forward. Typically when you install a suppressor you get about ¼ moa improvement in accuracy as well so I am excited about where we will likely wind up when all is said and done.
Overall my first custom rifle experience has been wonderful. I have nothing but good things to say about Brad Turner and Superior Tactical Solutions. He delivered the rifle on time and with the accuracy promised. I will add to this review when the suppressor arrives!
Paul McCoy
Competition Director
Texas Combat Shooters
STS Custom .300 Win Mag
Rifle Review
by
Paul McCoy
Texas Combat Shooters
Rifle Manufacturer: Superior Tactical Solutions-Henderson, KY.
Caliber: .300 Win Mag
Chassis: Accuracy International 1.5
Barrel: Broughton 25” fluted/threaded
Barrel Diameter: .970” at thread break
Action: Remington 700 Custom
Bolt: Remington 700 Fluted
Trigger: Timney @ 2.5lbs (Shilen initially but was replaced at my request)
Bipod: Caldwell
Scope: IOR Valdada 3.5X18X42
Muzzle Brake: APA “Fat Bastard”
Mono-pod: Accu-Shot
Ammunition:Sierra Match King 190 HPBTw/73 grains of Hogdon H4831
Hornady 208 AMAX with 71 grains of Hogdon H4831
Brass: Winchester fired once then neck sized
Primers: Remington Large Rifle Magnum
Let me start by saying I am in no way affiliated with Superior Tactical Solutions nor have I received any compensation for this review. I guess the beginning is always a good place to start.... I found a link to Superior Tactical Solutions on a gun related web site and thought for the advertised price this gun appeared to be a great value. I did some research on the company and found some rather unflattering stories relating to long delays on delivering firearms and some very unhappy customers. I did some further checking and found that those events took place rather early in the company's existence and that no one had a bad word to say about the quality of the rifle work received from STS. I spoke to Brad Turner, the owner, on the phone and voiced some of my concerns and he promised to have my rifle delivered in 16 weeks and if not I would have the option of getting my deposit back in full.
Having talked to Brad and with the deposit refund stipulated in writing I moved forward with placing the order for my first custom rifle. While I was guaranteed a 16 week delivery, the estimate was for 12 weeks. I was also guaranteed ¼ moa accuracy at 100 yards! I chose a 25” fluted Broughton barrel with 5/8”X24 threads. Brad was happy to answer any questions I had about the design of the rifle and my intended use for it. Overall the process of designing and ordering the rifle was trouble free and the only pain was to my wallet.
I don't honestly remember when I received a call from Brad that my rifle was ready but it was around 14 weeks if I am not mistaken. It had not occurred to me buy a gun case and have it shipped to STS so Brad took care of that for me and charged me a very reasonable price for the case. In the end, the gun was delivered on time and without any problems whatsoever.
The gun arrived in the Accuracy International dark green color which I quickly changed to Duracoat
“Desert Sand”. I also coated the barrel and action with “Matte Black” Duracoat. I attached the APA “Fat Bastard” muzzle brake, Caldwell Bi-Pod, Accu-Shot Mono-pod, and the IOR Valdada Scope. The rifle comes standard with a Badger Ordinance 20 moa rail installed. The installation of all the accessories went flawlessly and I will quickly review the performance of each before we get started on the rifle.
Muzzle Brake: APA “Fat Bastard” muzzle brake: This thing is a work of art! I can not imagine a more well designed or effective brake for a tactical rifle. While the rifle is fairly heavy, it is still a .300 Win Mag and should have a noticeable recoil. In truth, it has almost no recoil and I have shot 80 rounds through the rifle in one day and you could shoot a 1000. The recoil can best be compared to that of a suppressed 308 which as some of you know is pretty minimal. This muzzle brake is slightly more expensive than many others but worth every penny!
Bi-Pod: Caldwell Bi-Pod: For the money this unit works very well. I have no complaints at all.
Mono-Pod: Accu-Shot Mono-pod: This is another piece I would have to describe as a work of art! These mono-pods are designed for a specific model of chassis and I have one on both of my rifles. Each installed in a matter of minutes without any special skills other than me drilling one small hole in my Sako stock. The AI unit installed with no modifications at all. Now that I have owned a mono-pod equipped rifle, I can not imagine being with out one. They are a great tool to help you consistently repeat your scope picture with very little stress on your arms. Again, these are not cheap but worth their weight in gold!
Scope: IOR Valdada 3.5X18X42 with 35mm tube. I stumbled upon Valdada scopes by accident like many of you. There were allot of good stories in past years and a few bad ones. I took a chance when I ordered my first IOR which sits on my Sako .338. It is a 6.0X24X50 with 35mm tube and I could not be more impressed or pleased with it. There was no doubt what was going on my STS .300 when it arrived. I went with the 3.5X18X42 in part to gain more moa adjustment than available on the 6X24 model. With 70 moa available plus the 20 moa ramp on the rifle I knew reaching 1000 yards with this scope should be no problem. The MP-8 dot reticule is in my opinion the best reticule available on any scope today. We typically shoot at 5” clay pigeons from the 1000 yard line and with this reticule we are able to hold at a given position on an individual pigeon. Both of my scopes are second focal plane models and while I understand there are some advantages to first focal plane scopes, I don't care for them. Just my personal preference and which style will work best really depends on what you will use the scope for. The bottom line is I and others have compared these scopes side by side with Nightforce and no one has yet to pick the Nightforce as having a clearer site picture. If I was going to hammer nails or smack someone in the head with a scope then the Nightforce might very well be my first choice as it is probably much closer to indestructible than my IORs but for long range shooting, the Valdada is the way to go!
Trigger: Initially the rifle came with a Shilen match trigger. I found the trigger to be extremely narrow with squared edges and a square faced shoe. In a word, I hated it. I called Brad and he said I was not the first customer to feel that way and he gladly agreed to exchange it for a Timney trigger at no charge. He gave me instructions over the phone on how to remove it and within 5 days I had the Timney and did the installation myself. Wow, what a difference! The Timney had a 1/4” or more wide shoe with rounded edges that was much more to my liking and it had the same crisp feel as the Shilen. Brad indicated to me during this process that his policy was 100% customer satisfaction, whatever it took.
So lets start with the cosmetics of the rifle. Anytime I go to the range people have questions about the rifle. This rifle will definitely get you some attention at your local lead pit.
I have put about 200 rounds down the tube at the time of this review. The only way I could be any
happier with the rifle would be for the ATF to release my tax stamp so I could pick the suppressor up from Andrew at Lone Star Armory!
The chassis is an Accuracy International model 1.5. People seem to either love or hate the A.I. Chassis. I have no complaints about the way the chassis shoots. In fact, my only complaint is that the 1.5 chassis doesn't allow you to remove the bolt without removing the adjustable cheek piece. This doesn't sound too inconvenient but when you shoot as often as I do it really kind of becomes a pain. The answer of course is the folding A. I. 2.0 model chassis which alleviates this problem. I will definitely get the 2.0 on my next rifle. Both model chassis feature adjustable cheek pieces and length of pull adjustment through the use of spacers. I have disassembled this entire rifle a number times, (painting, trigger swap, ect) and the process takes about 15 minutes start to finish unless your removing the trigger and that is pretty straightforward as well.
The barrel is a Broughton 5c with the canted lands. I don't know how much many of you know about Broughton barrels but about half the people winning in any type of long range shooting competition are doing so with Broughton barrels on their rifles. Mine has a base diameter of 1.25” and is 9.70” at the thread break! It weighs 9lbs just by itself. I weighed the gun on my trusty digital bathroom scales and came up with a perfect 17.5lbs! That is exactly what I wanted this rifle to weigh. Once I add another 2lbs of suppressor we will be at the ideal weight for a long range rifle. The current setup without a suppressor but with a the APA muzzle brake yields recoil some where between an AR-15 and a .308 caliber tactical rifle with a good muzzle brake. Needless to say I am excited to see how much more recoil reduction we can achieve with the YHM suppressor tube on the end.
Setup as it is now the rifle is simply a pleasure to shoot. It feels good when your on the scope. The replacement Timney trigger is spot on perfect and the site picture through the Valdada scope makes target acquisition at long range much easier than it would normally be. When you're trying to shoot a 4”-5” target at over one-half of a mile, being able to hold at 3 o'clock or 6 o'clock on the pigeon to offset mild wind movements is absolutely critical. Having a gun that is Afghanistan accurate is important at long range, but without good glass you have tool that will be much less effective.
I equipped both my rifles with the Accu-Shot mono pod and Caldwell bi-pod. This allows you to adjust your front and rear height so that most of your focus can be on holding correct windage. Once you use a mono-pod you will never be without one again. They just make shooting accurately easier for those of us who have no formal or military training and I certainly need all the help I can get.
The magazine is an A.I. It is a single stack type holding 5 rounds. I have experienced no malfunctions involving the magazine since I received the rifle. It fits tightly in the chassis and installs and removes easily.
The Accuracy International chassis is in a phrase, “overbuilt”. The internals are made from heavy billet aluminum and the chassis is cut from one large piece. The chassis itself could be used as a weapon, no kidding. It is that tough! The cheek piece is adjustable up/down and left/right. The butt pad is adjustable for length of pull through the use of spacers and it is all very heavy duty hardware. Everything you see inside this A.I. Chassis system confirms that it was purpose designed for the rugged conditions encountered by the many special forces units around the world who deploy this system in the worst conditions imaginable. I don't want to go to war in some God forsaken hell hole but if I did, this is the rifle system I want with me!
I have worked up two different loads thus far. The first is using the Sierra Match King Hollow Point Boat Tail bullet at 190 grains. I combined this with Hogdon 4831 powder at 73.0 grains. This was put into Winchester brass and ignited with Remington large magnum rifle primers. My second load was using the Hornady 208 Amax bullet with 71.0 grains of Hogdon 4831. This showed to be a “compressed” load per the manual and it was! The 208 Amax is a very long bullet and by the time I got the overall length of the cartridge to the maximum specified in the manual, about ¾ of the round was inside the brass to the point that it appeared we were into the ogive. Those of you who have never done any reloading or have never compressed gun powder can't appreciate how unnerving it is to hear the powder be crushed as you seat the bullet. I didn't like it, but I got through it.
At the range I was able to hit paper on the first shot and had the rifle zeroed within 4 rounds or so. I did clean the barrel and action after each of the first 5 shots. I then cleaned it after the next 5 shots and then after the next 10 shots. There are allot of theories on breaking in a new rifle. This is the procedure I use and it seems to work well. As mentioned previously, the first thing you notice when shooting this gun is the lack of recoil. It is very little more than you would get with an AR-15! While the muzzle brake is extremely effective, you don't want to be sitting at the shooting table next to me. It is not uncommon for the blast leaving the brake to knock the shooting tripods off of the tables on either side of me. I wear foam plugs and pullover ear protection anytime I shoot a rifle with a muzzle brake installed.
To date my best 5 shot group at 100 yards has been about .472”. Now in all fairness to the builder, I have had no formal training in shooting precision rifles so that is the best I can do. I have had a number of 3 shot groups that were under ¼ moa the best being .180! I noticed no appreciable difference at at 100 yards between the 190 SMK and the 208 Amax bullet's accuracy. Where the 208s really shine is at 500-1000 yards. Here is a picture of a standard military silhouette where I was able to make 5 head shots at 500 yards without a miss! This was done with the 190 SMK rounds with the wind blowing 5-15 miles per hour from about the 7 o'clock position.
We typically shoot 4” clays at 500 yards and hitting them with this rifle is easy to the point of being boring. I think my best run has been 8 clays out of 10 shots at 500 yards.
Once you move out to 1000 yards the heavier 208 Amax really comes into its own. The 190 SMK bullet is still supersonic and stable but the wind is much more of an issue at these distances and the extra weight of the 208 makes things much easier. Our last trip to the range I was able to shoot 4 for 4 on the 24” steel square plate at 1000 yards. The wind was whipping pretty good by this time and I was unable to hit a clay at that distance although I missed by less than 8” each time I tried.
This is my first custom built rifle and I wasn't sure what to expect. My expectations were high to say the least and I can honestly state that the rifle is better than I had hoped. The ¼ moa guarantee seemed a bit hard to believe but I feel comfortable saying that the rifle will deliver that when used by someone that has some talent! Also, I have done little in the way of load development so there is still some more accuracy to be gained there as I move forward. Typically when you install a suppressor you get about ¼ moa improvement in accuracy as well so I am excited about where we will likely wind up when all is said and done.
Overall my first custom rifle experience has been wonderful. I have nothing but good things to say about Brad Turner and Superior Tactical Solutions. He delivered the rifle on time and with the accuracy promised. I will add to this review when the suppressor arrives!
Paul McCoy
Competition Director
Texas Combat Shooters
