The choice of the Delta51 over the Tango, Bravo and X-Ray came down to a few factors. First, needed some level of modularity in the stock system. Teammates are 6'5" down to 5'5" so length of pull, head placement was important. Our Tangos did not have cheek risers so we were building them up with cut foam from sleeping mats. Mike and I discussed the McMillian A3 and A5 stocks and liked the A3 better. Second, the vast majority of modern long rifle spots were working off a tripod. Five of us were in Max Ordinates first LE class with Tyler Hughes and he revolutionized our program. Hands down the one individual that had a major impact of moving us to another level in our capability and training methods. Working off a tripod I preferred the more 90 degree-ish bend of the A3 over the more off-hand angle of the Tangos. My first issued long rifle was a suppressed Tango51...shot lights out but I thought it was a bit too light and did not like the grip angle when working off tripods. Mike can explain what the thinking was a few generations before me and why they selected the Tango 51. Third, we elected to stay with the internal box magazine versus an external one since we've never had a need for a high capacity sniper rifle. Fourth, major impetus was we needed a forward rail for use with clip on night vision devices...the A3 was a better stock platform over what was used on the Tangos. Fifth, we preferred slightly shorter guns that were suppressed to gives us the ability to work inside structures. Triggers were Timney and then went to Trigger Tech or vise versa. I preferred the slightly wider version.
At the same time we were testing rifles we were parallel testing ammunition. The Tangos and Bravos we had were built for Federal Gold Medal Match and shot that round fantastic. They shot Federal T308T even better. I believe its called Tactical Tru...great round and when we tested it over GMM in ballistic gel protocols that was an easy decision. The icing on the cake was the Federal LETT2 bonded round shot sub minute from the Deltas and I've taken it out to 930-950ish on the same DOPE. All the stars lined up and we found the rifle, ammo and optic that did exactly what we wanted. Don't think Nightforce had the NX8 2.5X 20 out yet but cost was also an issue. We were purchasing over 20+ full rifle setups.
At the same time we were testing rifles we were parallel testing ammunition. The Tangos and Bravos we had were built for Federal Gold Medal Match and shot that round fantastic. They shot Federal T308T even better. I believe its called Tactical Tru...great round and when we tested it over GMM in ballistic gel protocols that was an easy decision. The icing on the cake was the Federal LETT2 bonded round shot sub minute from the Deltas and I've taken it out to 930-950ish on the same DOPE. All the stars lined up and we found the rifle, ammo and optic that did exactly what we wanted. Don't think Nightforce had the NX8 2.5X 20 out yet but cost was also an issue. We were purchasing over 20+ full rifle setups.