I belong to a group that meets regularly at the local range for some pistol and carbine shooting. We met last weekend to shoot some pistol drills using the IQ Targets and Deadman's Hand training cards from RE Factor Tactical. By the way, this is a great set up for practicing on your own or with friends.
Link to RE Factor Tactical's website:
https://www.refactortactical.com/category/shooting/
https://www.refactortactical.com/category/shooting/
One of our groups is a Rep for Springfield Armory, so he brought one of the new SAINT AR-15's for us to check out and fire a few rounds through. Those of us who like to keep up on whats new in the firearms world were all pretty excited to see it, and were pleased with what it is.
Overall let's face it, the SAINT is an AR-15. They really just come in two basic categories, good and junk. The junk are just that and then the good gets divided up into more sub categories that come down to how good the fit and finish is and what comes with it for bells and whistles.
As one would expect from Springfield, since it is a big name that is late to the AR game, they got it right with a out of the box AR that is good. We took turns shooting it and running some drills with no issues. With a quick look over by everyone, there didn't appear to be any corners cut by Springfield in the manufacturing process.
When I first read about the SAINT, the Accu-Tite receiver mating system Springfield was touting about made me a bit nervous. Thinking perhaps Springfield's AR-15 would be built too tight to accept a different upper receiver to it's lower. But that is really a small concerns, since few people have multiple uppers for one lower. Some of us start out with an extra upper, but they typically become an excuse to get or build another lower receiver assembly.
While I'm an unapologetic Magpul fanboy, the Bravo furniture is pretty nice. The stock is very tight and the grip filled my hand well. The keymod forearm is great, but I would perfer it to be M-lok. Again, Magpul fanboy.
The improved GI trigger is pretty nice as well. Very smooth with a positive reset. A noticable imporvement ver a the standard GI style trigger most AR's come with. I didn't try the iron sights that come with it, because my friend also reps Trijicon so it was topped with a demo ACOG. But they did look solid.
Bottom line: If you're looking for an entry level AR that's good to go out of the box; the Springfield Armory SAINT is a winner.
Springfield Armory's website:
http://www.springfield-armory.com/saint-series/
If you follow the above link you'll note the header of the web page says "SAINT Series." One can only assume by that title is more AR's are in the work at Springfield. Perhaps other barrel sizes and options for the AR-15, or even an AR-10 version are coming soon. I'm willing to bet we'll hear more at SHOT Show in a few months.
At first I thought it seemed strange that Springfield released the AR-15 SAINT when they did, instead of waiting for SHOT Show. My first thought was they wanting to cash in with the pre-election firearm purchase spike that we get every election cycle. But maybe they just wanted to get the buzz going before SHOT Show when they announce their full SAINT line up? Guess we'll see.
At first I thought it seemed strange that Springfield released the AR-15 SAINT when they did, instead of waiting for SHOT Show. My first thought was they wanting to cash in with the pre-election firearm purchase spike that we get every election cycle. But maybe they just wanted to get the buzz going before SHOT Show when they announce their full SAINT line up? Guess we'll see.
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