Last year at the Kamloops Frosty Farky F-Class match fellow Gun Nut friends of mine persuaded the dear other half to shoot day two of the match. Though she had only shot a few times and never past 100m she agreed to ‘have a go’. Using my ATRS Defiance and FGMM ammo she shot 66/75 and 69/75 and got the shooting bug which necessitated me getting her a rifle of her own. I had a Remington SPS in .223 which provided the donor action and Sean at North Shore Barrels (NSB) spun on a new match grade barrel, installed a Jewel trigger, replaced an ugly tactical bolt knob with a better one, trued the action and cerakoted the metalwork. Upon the rifle’s return I dropped it into a spare AICS 2.0, put on a Harris 6-9 S-type bipod and mounted a NF NXS 8-32×56.

While NSB had a number of barrels in stock I really wanted the fattest barrel that the AICS could accomodate and so the work took a bit longer than expected since the barrel had to be sourced but eventually the barrel I selected arrived – a Broughton 5c 1:7 twist that looks more like an axle than a rifle barrel and is 1.2″ at the muzzle – and I must say I do like it. Makes for a heavy ( just over 18 Lbs total weight ) rig but this is a range not a walking gun.

Of course the Jewel triggers are always a joy to use and represent a huge improvement over the stock factory trigger but a little fitting is required to ensure that the safety works in the AICS and that is a small job with a Dremmel tool that is on my to-do list.

NSB appear to have done a very nice job and the finishing looks excellent. Sean kept me fully informed of progress which is something I appreciated as while I know that delays can ( will ) occur in a rifle build I’d much rather be informed than being kept in the dark about what’s happening or not happening.

While my use of this rifle will likely be limited to load development I’m really happy that what I pictured in my mind when deciding to have the SPS remodeled worked out and I’m also pleased to be able to report that so far the rifle shows great promise – producing groups just outside an inch at 300 yards with Berger 80g VLD’s over 24.4g of Varget. I will be experimenting further with some other bullets/loads but I think another genuine half-MOA rifle has been added to the collection.

Here are some pics for you to enjoy