The Springfield Saint line of rifles have been pushing the boundaries of what a rifle is capable of being for under 1,000 dollars. The Saint Victor has an MSRP of $1,073 dollars, but retails for about 850. In a crowded AR market, it’s hard to stand out, but a classic and surefire method is to offer a lot of bang for your buck. The Springfield Saint Victor rifle is one of the latest models of the Saint and one of the most impressive. The Springfield Saint Victor comes in rifle, SBR, and pistol variant. The Saint Victor also comes in a 308 AR 10 model. Today I have the Victor rifle variant in 5.56.
What’s In the Saint Victor
The Victor offers shooters a 16-inch CMV barrel with a 1:8 twist rate. Around the barrel we have a 15-inch M-Lok aluminum free float handguard with Springfield Armory locking tabs.
The Saint Victor comes with SA flip-up iron sights which is a major relief in my eyes. The trend of selling rifles without sights, especially higher end rifles, is dumb. If a rifle doesn’t have sights its not a complete rifle. Beyond that the rifle comes with lots of Bravo Company furniture. This includes a Bravo Company Mod 3 pistol grip, a Bravo Company trigger guard, and a Bravo Company stock.
The pistol grip is nice, as is the trigger guard, but I love the stock. This has to be one of the more comfortable stocks and is certainly one of the most stable carbine stocks on the market. The Bravo Company Gunfighter stock offers an excellent cheek rest, is 100% beard friendly, and is an overall excellent stock. I could do an entire review just on it.
The Saint Victor also comes with a Spring Armory muzzle brake, a QD mount in the end plate, and a flat faced nickel boron trigger. The entire package is well put together and an impressive package for under a thousand dollars. I’d make one change and that’s to add an extended charging handle to make it easier to use with an optic.
The Saint Victor comes together to be a complete package of a rifle. The Victor is well made, and Springfield did an excellent job at designing it. The lower is a stock standard forged model, very similar to any other lower on the market. Be it an Anderson, a Colt, an 80% Lower, or any other Mil-Spec manufacturer. The Victor also only weighs 6 pounds and 9 ounces. I love lightweight rifles and the Springfield Victor is an all together excellent package. The Victor also comes with one Gen M3 Pmag and a soft carry case which is a nice touch.
Range Time With the Saint Victor
The Saint Victor is a handy little carbine and it’s lightweight and comfortable to wield. I really love the stock and the thin handguard of the Victor combined with the Bravo Company grip makes every point of contact a comfortable one.
The gun is quick and easy to shoulder making it an excellent for quick reactions. Going from low or relaxed ready to an accurate shot on target can be done is less than a second. I found this out through snap drills where I aimed to hit a headshot at 25 yards starting at the low ready.
The gun has very little recoil and the muzzle brake does its job very well. Admittedly it’s freakin loud and your fellow shooters to your right and left may not like it. The AR in 5.56 is already very easy to control, but the Victor’s brake makes it even easier.
The 15-inch M-LOK rail is plenty comfortable, but it also heats up fairly fast. I shot the Table 5 USMC close quarter’s shoot and by the end the rail was nice and toasty. On top of the fact it was 96 degrees and I was in the sun so that didn’t help. Gloves will be your friend if you decide to amp up your shooting.
Accuracy wise the gun is certainly impressive. The flat trigger offers very short travel and a is nice and crisp as it breaks. The reset is short and tactile. On top of that the included irons are solid and well done. At 100 yards the rifle is capable of producing 1 MOA groups or better in the prone position, and an optic obviously helps, but irons can do it too.
Killing It
Shooting the USMC Table 5 drill turned out to be an awesome way to test this rifle. This drill required engagements at multiple ranges and done so with a par time. I had zero issues getting a perfect score with the Saint Victor. I also ran through drills like the Box Drill and Failure to Stop drill well below the required par times.
The lightweight design also helps with getting the gun from the low ready and into action quickly. You can drive the rifle easily between targets, and between different points of aim on the target. Placing round after round in the head and chest of my targets offered little challenge with the Saint Victor.
Reliability wise I ran Monarch, Wolf Gold, and Hornady training ammo without any issues in the Victor. We hit several hundred rounds between multiple runs of the USMC Table 5 shoot and shooting for accuracy. Magazines used were the included PMag as well as my favorite Lancers.
All in all, the Saint Victor is an excellent rifle, a well-made, well designed and well outfitted rifle. The price point makes it very attractive for those looking for a high-quality rifle. It represents an amazing value, and while they are certainly cheaper rifles the Saint Victor is still an excellent bargain when you combine the features and design.
