Springfield Armory Saint Victor .308

The Saint first appeared on the cover of Guns & Ammo’s January 2017 issue and was received with fanfare. Since then, it has taken nearly 15 percent of the entire AR-­15 market share, and that’s huge considering that there are more than 200 manufacturers of AR-­type rifles today, many of which have been around a long time.

The secret behind Springfield Armory’s success with the Saint — besides an expansive marketing campaign — has been its value and quality of parts. If Springfield Armory was just advertising a poor product, the Saint wouldn’t dominate so much of this market. In fact, the Saint maintains an exceptional reputation while retailing for $919. With that it offers a conventional handguard developed with Bravo Company Manufacturing (BCM), and by “conventional” we mean that it’s a two piece, non-­free-­float polymer design complete with the old AR-­15 Delta Ring.

The inital launch was quickly followed by a model that featured a 12½-­inch, free-­float aluminum handguard complete with M-­Lok compatible slots that retailed for $1,073. Short-­barreled rifle (SBR) and pistol Saint variants are also available, as is the premier Saint Edge with top-­shelf components and features.