Weapons and firms. Last time we got acquainted with some examples of semi-automatic American rifles for sport shooting and hunting. We were surprised at how many manufacturers there are in the States, and all of them have enough income from the sale. Why? Yes, simply because the law considers shooting (legal) to be one of the sports in the United States, and it does not see any difference between shooting at specially organized competitions, shooting in nature on weekends at beer cans in parallel or after a good barbecue and hunting. And from a technical point of view, there really is no difference: in all these cases there is a shooter and a weapon, for which certain ammunition is present; there are goals, and there is a distance to them; the wind usually blows in the space between the shooter and the target; and the result of marksmanship is always a reward - a medal, hunting trophies, or even just the thought of how cool I shot in front of my girlfriend and at least a little like Buffalo Bill.
Weapons of Interest
But such shooting also requires appropriate weapons. It takes a long time to shoot from a double-barreled gun, and you need to reload, a rifled magazine rifle needs to be reloaded by moving the bolt. And as you know, mother laziness was born before us. So it is not surprising that civilian semi-automatic rifles have become so popular today. After all, these are essentially simplified copies of military weapons, but deprived of the ability to conduct automatic fire, including the mode of fire in fixed bursts. Many are just pleased to "shake the old days" and hold in their hands a copy of the weapon with which he served in the army. Therefore, it is not surprising that the popularity of such weapons is growing rapidly. It even had its own special designation - MSR, Modern Sporting Rifles, or "modern sporting rifles."
It is clear that Modern Sporting Rifles are not only rifles from the AR-15 family. Civilian versions of such "machines" as Steyr AUG, IMI Tavor, Bushmaster ACR, etc., in principle, can also be attributed to them. In Russia, Modern Sporting Rifles are versions of AKM and SKS. But, nevertheless, as they say - "historically," so that it is rifles of the AR-15 type are referred to as MSR weapons. This is how a trend arose, and a trend is such a "scrap" against which there is no admission. Everyone is buying, everyone is shooting, but why am I worse? So I bought it. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the manufacturers of the numerous family of "arches" in the States are flourishing. People like this type of weapon, but they demand … "variety", "choice", and that's why the market presents it to them!
The market is the head
As a result, in the same USA, small assembly companies and tuning workshops appeared, which assemble AR-15 rifles from fully finished or semi-finished factory-made parts, many of the most serious manufacturers, including the company itself, were engaged in the production of the famous Stoner "black rifle" "Armalite", where he just created it, and even Remington Arms, which, in theory, itself should have set the mods on the arms market, and not follow them blindly. That's what demand means. But, however, it follows them, which means the desire of a qualified consumer who knows what he wants and can what he wants to buy!
So Savage Arms from Westfield, Massachusetts, which had previously produced exclusively classic rifles with a butterfly valve, just stopped being "lazy" and turned to the "needs of the working people."
The first four models
Starting with the production of AR15, the company immediately launched four models on the market, so that there was plenty to choose from: chambered for.308 Winchester (7.62 × 51 mm NATO) and 6.5 mm Creedmoor cartridges, and the other two - of course, the most common today "Small" cartridge.223 Remington. But with the names it was like this: patent restrictions do not allow outside manufacturers to use the names "AR-15" and "AR-10", since they belong to the company "Armalight", so they had to call them MSR-15 and MSR-10. Which is quite permissible, since it can be deciphered like this: "modern Savage rifles", which directly indicates their manufacturer and … the very appearance of this modern small arms.
"Patrol" and "Scout"
Well, now we will take a closer look at the MSR-15 Patrol and MSR-15 Recon rifles. In the Savage range, these rifles are chambered for 5.56mm cartridges. Recon is an abbreviation of the English word reconnaissance. Well, the difference between these samples lies only in the fact that the "patrol" version of the AR-15 is somewhat simpler, but the Recon should obviously be more difficult, because no one will be sent to reconnaissance. Here you need a master of his craft and the weapon must match him!
Without further ado from the evil one
Both of the above MSR-15 rifles are made according to a well-developed scheme, when gases are discharged from the barrel into the cavity of the bolt carrier through a long tube and act directly on the bolt itself. Over fifty years of using this scheme, it has become apparent that it works well and is very simple in every way. Although, of course, no one said that it is completely unnecessary to clean and does not need to be lubricated at all.
All parts of the "Patrol" and "Scout", both those inside and outside, fully comply with all Mil-Spec military specifications. This means that any standard parts of these rifles can be replaced with exactly the same standard parts from other manufacturers, and no matter how you change them, the rifles will still work.
The Savage Arms MSR rifles also have internal differences. For example, the MSR-15 Patrol uses an "improved military-grade trigger". But the MSR-15 Recon trigger is more cunning. It is manufactured by Blackhawk, which claims all parts are nickel-boron to reduce friction. Interestingly, the nickel boron coating is slippery to the touch, so it seems like the metal is already covered with a layer of grease.
The most important thing after the cartridge is the barrel
The weapon is chambered for. If there is no cartridge, there is no weapon, but if there is a cartridge, then the barrel will be the second most important. And here the company "Savage" can be said to have tried.
Outwardly, all the barrels of the MSR-15 series rifles look traditional: the standard length is 410 mm, and both the "Patrol" and the "Scout" have standard flame arresters on the barrels. But this is outside, the most interesting is inside them.
So, the pitch of the rifling of the barrel bores of these rifles is 8 inches (203 mm), while in the army rifles of the NATO block, the pitch of the rifling is 7 inches (178 mm). Meanwhile, as you know, the main role in stabilizing the flight of a bullet is played by its length, and by no means its weight, and that longer bullets need to stabilize the barrels with a smaller rifling pitch. Well, they try to choose the step of the rifling in the rifle according to the heaviest bullet (which is just very important for military weapons!), Which will be used in this caliber. Moreover, you can shoot from such a barrel with lighter bullets than those for which it was originally designed, without compromising stability and accuracy. If you shoot heavier, then the bullet will "somersault". So it is believed that for.223 Remington cartridges, it is the eight-inch rifling pitch that is optimal.
Next are the chambers, which in both rifles are somewhere in between, suitable for both commercial.223 Remington ammunition and military 5, 56 mm NATO standard ammunition. It is clear that it is small, but it exists and increases the shooter's chances of accurately hitting the target. The army chamber, let's say, is more versatile for cartridges of this caliber, because in war, as they say, "like in war": never look at the brand of loaded cartridges. But at home, in a calm atmosphere, why not use the most suitable ammunition in all respects. After all, a hobby is a hobby because it is not customary to spare money for it!
Trunks also differ in their grooves. In the barrels of their MSR-15 rifles, in addition to a new chamber and a rifling pitch, Savage engineers made not four, but five grooves, and also changed their shape. All this made it possible to achieve almost the maximum possible for commercial cartridges, which should be used from them to shoot, flatness and accuracy of fire.
It is also known that non-chrome-plated barrels, like stainless steel barrels, have the best potential accuracy. If only they were well made. The reason chrome plating of the bore is potentially dangerous, although it protects its surface from corrosion, is due to the fact that a thin chromium film inside the barrel under prolonged cyclic loads (both mechanical, thermal, and chemical) can crumble and flake off. which will ultimately deprive him of protection. Especially dangerous for the chrome-plated barrel are cheap ammunition equipped with primers that cause accelerated corrosion and bullets with a mild steel sheath. There are "good" ammunition, but they are expensive - which is why the search for the best barrel protection is ongoing.
And so the engineers of the Savage Arms company took all this into account and found a much simpler and very elegant solution. The bores of their MSR rifles are protected by a coating made with Melonite QPQ technology. Its essence lies in the saturation of the surface layer of the metal of the trunk with nitrogen and carbon compounds. Only a couple of tens of microns, which does not affect either the shape or size, but the surface treated in this way receives both increased hardness, and thermal and wear resistance. But the most important thing is that since there is no film in the barrels and their geometry does not change, their accuracy remains at the level of the best non-chrome-plated barrels. This is what modern technologies are … which are not even visible to the eye.
The "devil" is hidden in the details …
It remains to consider various interesting "little things" that complement the main advantages of these rifles, which are in their trunks. Recall that their forend is made of aluminum in the form of an octagonal tube and with a solid Picatinny rail along the entire length of their upper surface. The gas outlet tube is entirely hidden under the forend, and, like the barrel, does not touch it anywhere.
The MSR-15 Patrol barrel is not hung, so it has a different high-strength polymer forend with a textbook A-shaped front sight. Moreover, the company "Savage" orders it from another well-known American company "Blackhawk", known for the production of just such "auxiliary" parts and accessories.
Although thanks to the Picatinny rails it is possible to immediately install a collimator or any other sight on both rifles, the Scout has both a rear sight and a front sight (moreover, a folding rear sight is also included in the "Patrol" package). From a practical point of view, they, of course, are not really needed, but they are quite capable of being backup sights just in case of an emergency.
Telescopic butts and pistol grips for MSR rifles are also Blackhawk products. The stock is made of high-strength black plastic, and the pistol grip is also made of it. The perfection of its shape is complemented by a complex pattern of textured corrugation on the surface. That is, a reliable holding of the rifle in the hands with such a grip is guaranteed.
So it would hardly be an exaggeration to believe that the Savage firm has quite coped with the creation of highly competitive samples of its own AR10 and AR15, and what will happen next, time will tell!
