Springfield Armory 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion Overview

Springfield armory introduced a ray of light into an in a different way darkish and chaotic yr with their aptly-named 2020 Waypoint rifle. For the primary time, the corporate that specialised in semi-auto rifles and pistols presented a hunting-focused rifle that well integrated some goal rifle options in a graceful, trendy package deal. Ultimate yr they adopted up with the 2020 Redline, a chiseled-down, light-weight mountain rifle that put the 2020 motion in a Grayboe Trekker inventory. 

The most important lifeless area within the 2020 line thus far has been a long-action fashion that may accommodate cartridges just like the .30/06, 7mm PRC, and others — however now not. The brand new 2020 lengthy motion will give shooters extra choices in Springfield’s platform, and I used to be moderately excited to check a pre-release fashion of the Springfield Waypoint 2020 Lengthy Motion in 7mm PRC.

See It

• Cartridges: 7mm PRC (examined), .270 Win., 7mm Rem. Magazine., .30/06 Springfield, .300 Win. Magazine., .300 PRC
• Barrel: 24 inches, carbon-wrapped, 1:8 twist, threaded 5/8-24
• Receiver: Stainless, Mil-spec inexperienced Cerakote end
• Inventory: AG Composites with adjustable comb
• Cause: TriggerTech, 3 kilos, 10 oz (measured), adjustable from 2.5 to five kilos
• Weight: 8 kilos, 5 oz (measured with empty mag)
• MSRP: $2,670

Key Options

• Remington 700 footprint
• Lengthy-action design
• Carbon-fiber barrel
• Inexperienced Cerakote end on barrel and receiver, Nitride end on bolt
• Makes use of AICS-pattern magazines
• Muzzle threaded ⅝-24 (radial muzzle brake and thread protector incorporated)
• AG Composites inventory has vertical grip and adjustable comb
• Aluminum-backed M-Lok slots for mounting bipod or ARCA
• QD sling cups

Overview Highlights

• Complete-sized searching rifle that accommodates goal rifle options
• Just right accuracy
• Great adjustable cause
• Suppressor in a position
• Mag required tweaking
• Accuracy: 1.107 inches (moderate of nineteen 5-shot teams with 3 sorts of ammo)

The 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion: A Welcome Addition

The 2020 Waypoint used to be successful for Springfield again in 2020, however its release timed completely (or imperfectly) with the high-speed-come-apart in provide chain and production that we skilled then — and are nonetheless recuperating from. Taking pictures Editor John B. Snow coated the 2020 Waypoint in a complete evaluation, and regardless of being well-received, the 2020 by no means gave the impression to hit the cabinets en masse. Nonetheless, Springfield has been churning away, taking a look to fill out their line and construct out the 2020 motion to its doable. I examined, and shot a pleasing Dall ram with their light-weight 2020 Redline fashion in 2023, and the addition of long-action calibers to the 2020 Waypoint line is a welcome — if no longer late — addendum.

Breakdown of the Springfield 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion

The guts of the 2020 Waypoint is its motion, which is of the Remington 700-footprint, two-lug, push-feed selection. It’s stainless-steel and contours tight raceways, power vents on each side, and is lined with an olive inexperienced Cerakote end. This lengthy motion fashion comes same old with a one-piece Picatinny rail optic mount that accommodates a 20-MOA attitude to deal with long-distance taking pictures. The receiver itself accepts any Remington 700 sample optics bases although, and the rail might be swapped for a collection of Talley light-weight rings. 

The 2-lug bolt has a black nitride end and is properly fluted. It’s a graceful design and contours tool-less takedown and a replaceable thread-on bolt knob. Extraction is completed with a sliding plate extractor embedded within the starboard-side locking lug and empties are kicked freed from the motion by means of a unmarried spring-plunger ejector that protrudes from the bolt face. As with different 2020 fashions, the motion is butter-smooth when the bolt lugs are dabbed with a bit of of gun grease or oil, however after quite a lot of taking pictures, fouling has a tendency to make the nitride-coated bolt a bit of sticky whilst working alongside the Cerakoted raceways. A snappy wipedown therapies the problem.

The motion is fed by means of a 3-round Accuratemag AICS-pattern metal mag, and I needed to do a little feed lip amendment to get it to serve as easily — no longer an unusual prevalence with a majority of these magazines. This .300 Win. Magazine. mag’s feed lips have been moderately tight on the entrance, no longer permitting the cartridges to indicate upwards as they have been stripped from the mag. This could jam them into the feed ramp and motive a stoppage. Thankfully, I used to be ready to briefly treatment the problem by means of bending the entrance of the feed lips barely outward. Now the mag a lot extra simply and cartridges chamber easily.

Carbon-Fiber Barrel

2d to the motion, the BSF carbon-fiber barrel is a key characteristic of the 2020 Waypoint. As with the short-action Waypoint, I be expecting that all-steel-barrel fashions will probably be presented, but it surely’s being introduced in carbon. The 7mm PRC that I examined sports activities a 24-inch 1-in-8-twist tube that in a different way is moderately just like the barrel at the 6.5 Creedmoor Redline I examined remaining yr. It comes with a muzzle threaded in ⅝-24, which will probably be appropriate with any same old suppressor {hardware}, and out of the field, it’s geared up with an OD inexperienced radial muzzle brake. For the ones like myself who would fairly take a beating than shoot every other muzzle-brake-equipped rifle, it does come with an identical thread protector. 

Probably the most notable function of this carbon-wrapped barrel is that not like some others available on the market, this one isn’t “wrapped” in any respect. The metal portion of the barrel is grew to become down and fluted, then the inflexible carbon-fiber sleeve is put in over best — held in position by means of compression carried out with a thread-on nut on the muzzle. This creates a pocket of air between the metal and carbon — one thing that Springfield touts as making improvements to the barrel’s heat-dissipating homes. 

AG Composites Inventory

A 3rd function characteristic of the 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion is the AG Composites carbon-fiber inventory that’s completed in a sponged-on three-color camo sample. This can be a inflexible inventory that borrows successful options from pageant rifles to make the Waypoint a solid long-distance taking pictures platform. On the entrance it’s were given a flat-bottomed forend with aluminum-backed M-Lok slots to mount a work of Picatinny rail or a direct-mount bipod. On each and every facet, it has a QD sling cup and all of the forend is snag-free. 

On the rear, the buttstock options an adjustable comb piece that’s secured by means of a unmarried Allen-key bolt. The one drawback is that the brush must be dropped or got rid of to take away the bolt from the rifle, so upon getting it set, mark it with a silver sharpie or paint pen. The buttstock is capped with a pleasing rubber balk pad that’s contoured to check the angled strains of the inventory. The butt additionally has QD cups on each side and the ground, and the slim, flat backside floor of the buttstock is very best for driving on a rear beef up bag. 

Along side the slightly-swollen vertical pistol grip, the inventory supplies a solid basis for the remainder of the rifle. I spent moderately a bit of of time taking pictures the rifle from status, kneeling, and sitting positions off a barricade and tripod, and it balances truly nicely on a unmarried sport changer bag beef up. I capped the rifle with a Silencerco Scythe Ti suppressor and balk used to be moderately delicate. I used to be ready to recuperate from balk in time to look affects on metal at distances as quick as 300 yards.

A trade-off for this being a solid rifle, it’s giant. When you’re used to toting shorter-barreled ultralight weapons round, the 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion will really feel a bit of lengthy and bulky to hold or strap on a pack.

Springfield 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion Accuracy

Something that Springfield isn’t shy about is touting the accuracy in their 2020 Waypoint by means of sending it away with a .75-MOA ensure. Whilst that is a correct rifle, we don’t position numerous weight in accuracy promises, and we’re continuously running to outline a rifle’s accuracy in probably the most informative manner conceivable. The ensure is mainly that the rifle will shoot some sub-.75-MOA 3-shot teams with just right ammunition, or is able to it — and it completely will. Then again, we’ve come to appreciate that a couple of 3- and even 5-shot teams mainly let you know not anything in terms of predicting efficiency that you’ll be expecting at any given time. In truth, they are able to be deceptive if that’s all you’re leaning on. 

Taking into consideration that, I recorded a number of collection of 3- and 5-shot teams with each manufacturing facility and hand-loaded ammunition, but in addition compiled the ones collection into 20-shot aggregates, which provide us a extra actual take a look at the rifle’s real-world accuracy doable. A pattern measurement of 20 pictures additionally lets in us to calculate a significant Imply Radius — the typical distance each and every shot landed from the middle of the total team. I allowed the barrel to chill to ambient temperature between each and every team and didn’t hearth a continuing 20-shot string. 

The 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion shot Hornady’s Clothes shop 160-gr. CX a lot moderately nicely, averaging simply over ¾-MOA with 5-shot teams. I recorded a median speed over 40 pictures of three,029.2 fps with an SD of 14.7 fps, which used to be above the printed muzzle speed of three,000 fps. As you’ll see from the desk, averaging team sizes isn’t a correct mirrored image of a rifle’s cone of dispersion, or the realm heading in the right direction wherein any given shot may have an effect on. Even though the rifle unquestionably satisfies the ¾-MOA ensure, we might name this a 1.8-inch gun (give or take). Probably the most informative and predictive part of that accuracy knowledge is the .43-inch imply radius, which is beautiful just right for a searching rifle. 

The one different manufacturing facility load I had get entry to to, Hornady’s 180-grain ELD-Fit load didn’t fare as nicely in accuracy, however I noticed that during each instances, aggregates of 3- and 5-shot teams had very identical team sizes and imply radii — no less than inside the variability window for 20-shot samples. Which means that even supposing the unfold of the typical 3-shot team used to be smaller than that of the typical 5-shot team, the total team measurement and imply radius have been necessarily the similar, whether or not the 20-shots have been fired in 3- or 5-shot increments and barrel warmth wasn’t inflicting obtrusive accuracy loss.

I did some check loading with each H4831SC and Retumbo, and Retumbo produced very good speed SDs and just right accuracy, particularly with the 190-grain Hornady A-Tip bullets. I picked rate weights roughly 2 grains under max load and seated bullets to ebook OAL specs. My checking out and experimenting with rate weight nodes has demonstrated that converting rate weight will simplest truly alternate speed, so this offers me a just right illustration of the way the powder/bullet combo will carry out on this rifle.

Professionals and Cons

Professionals: The Springfield 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion is a pleasing mix of target-rifle ergonomics and searching rifle capability. It’s no longer too heavy, and well accommodates QD sling cups, trendy bipod mounting choices, and has a correct carbon-fiber barrel.

Cons: The 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion is slightly lengthy and heavy to be a super pack gun, and the AICS-pattern mag wanted some tuning.

Ultimate Ideas at the Springfield 2020 Waypoint Lengthy Motion

I believe {that a} long-action model of the 2020 Waypoint is moderately late, however understandably so. In a case of “higher past due than by no means,” this fashion and its related chamberings will very much bolster the 2020 lineup — in the long run giving the shooter extra choices. Like its family, it’s a smartly-configured, correct, and slick-operating searching rifle. Introduced in plenty of vintage and Trendy Cartridge Design cartridges, it’s going to unquestionably build up the platform’s enchantment to a extra large vary of shooters.