(Review) Remington’s 700 Milspec 5R .308 Win. sniper rifle with Nightforce NXS Compact 2.5-10 x 32 scope
Remington 700 Milspec 5R .308 Win. Sniper Rifle
Founded in 1816 in upstate New York, the Remington Arms Company is one of the nation’s oldest, continuously operating, manufacturers of firearms and ammunition and is one of the largest domestic producers of shotguns and rifles. Also, it is the only surviving U.S. manufacturer of both firearms and ammunition. Today, Remington Arms Company, LLC, headquartered in Madison, N.C. where they design, produce and sell sporting goods products for the hunting and shooting sports markets, as well as the military, government, and law enforcement markets.
Today, Remington will occasionally produce a Limited Edition run of a particular rifle, shotgun, or handgun, and such is the case with the Remington 700 Milspec 5R sniper rifle. This rifle features a black, HS Precision, composite, stock with a 24 inch, stainless steel, barrel chambered for the .308 Win. (7.62 x 51mm NATO) cartridge with R5 rifling and an 1:11.2” RH twist mated to a stainless steel Remington 700 bolt action and Remington’s X-Mark Pro trigger along with a five round, internal, box magazine. Last, it features an overall length of 43 3/4” and an overall weight of 8 1/4 lbs.
The first thing we noticed when handling this rifle is the heavy contour of the Milspec barrel which is the same as that found on Remington’s 700P and Varmint rifles. However, although the Milspec 5R does have a heavy barrel profile, the diameter is noticeably smaller than that of the standard, military issue, M24 version of this rifle which lends credence to the rumor that these rifles first came about as a mating of M24 barrels that did not quite meet the required specifications and thus, they were re-contoured and mated with model 700 actions and offered as limited edition rifles (probably due to the R5 rifling). Next, we noticed the barrel on the Milspec R5 was two inches shorter than standard on the M24 and yet, the combination of the heavy barrel contour and the shorter length combined with the HS Precision stock caused the rifle to balance unusually well and the action was very smooth as is to be expected from Remington. However, we did notice that the Milspec 5R rifle has an aluminum alloy floor plate instead of the steel floor plate used on the M24 and thus, it is likely to be slightly less durable. In addition, we noticed that this rifle came with the new X-Mark Pro trigger which no longer features the ribbed shoe and the adjustment system has been reduced to one screw to adjust trigger pull weight. However, the trigger did break crisply and without excessive overtravel. In addition, although the 1:11.2” RH twist was originally designed for the M118 173gr. sniper’s round at the time, this rifle seems to capable of 1/2” to 3/4” MOA groups with a large diversity of bullets weights; possibly due to the R5 rifling. Consequently, we found the Remington 700 Milspec 5R rifle to be a very comfortable and accurate rifle with all of the quality you would expect from Remington.
Nightforce NXS Compact 2.5-10 x 32 Rifle Scope
In the country of Australia, night hunting is not only legal, it is also extremely popular! Consequently, avid hunter and shooter Dr. Ray Dennis founded Lightforce Australia Pty. Ltd. with the single purpose in mind of manufacturing the finest spotlights on the planet. However, Ray soon discovered that although he had achieved his goal of producing the finest spotlights available, there were no rifle scopes on the market capable of taking advantage of his superior quality spot lights. Therefore, Ray decided to design and build his own scopes too! Thus, following his previous principals, Ray gathered the finest materials and incorporated the most advanced technology to build the most rugged and most precise riflescopes on the market today.
Therefore, the Nightforce NXS Compact 2.5-10 x 32 scope is an excellent choice for mounting on the Remington 700 Milspec 5R sniper rifle for firing out a range of 600 yds. It features a variable magnification of 2.5X to 10X, an Objective lens of 32mm, a Field of View at 100 yds. of 44 ft. to 11 ft., an Exit Pupil of 13.3mm to 3.3mm, and an Eye Relief of 3.7 inches. In addition, it is available with your choice of four different reticles depending on your preference and intended purpose. Last, this scope measures a compact 12 inches overall and weighs 19 oz.
Consequently, the 2.5 -10 x 32mm NXS Compact has proven to be extremely popular with shooters looking for a rifle scope that delivers the maximum in size-to-weight performance. In addition, the large Exit Pupil makes acquiring your target quick and easy and the internal design of the NXS eliminates parallax focusing issues. Plus, it is specifically designed to outperform other rifle scopes with much larger Objective Lens diameters by gathering more light for a clearer sight picture. In fact, the quality of the glass is superb and we feel that it definitely enables the shooter to easily acquire targets under different lighting conditions at different ranges. In addition, we had no trouble seeing the reticle, even against different types of backgrounds such as grain fields, hardwood forest, pine forest, and prairie. Last, we have seen many different brands of rifle scopes fail when the rifle they are mounted on is leaned against an object and then the rifle either inadvertently falls over or is accidently bumped. But, it is very obvious that the Nightforce NXS Compact scope is robustly built and thus, it is a scope that can be depended upon for reliability when mounted on any rifle that will be used in rugged terrain.
Therefore, the combination of the Remington 700 Milspec 5R .308 Win. Sniper Rifle with Nightforce NXS Compact 2.5-10 x 32 Scope is an excellent choice for precision shooting out to 600 yds.