H-S Precision Sporter Lightweight

H-S Precision traces its beginnings to 1978, when founder Tom Houghton started making barrels with traditional cut rifling. Houghton was also one of the innovators of fiberglass stocks and the first to strengthen them with Kevlar and incorporate an aluminum bedding frame. The natural next step for Houghton was a line of rifles based on his Pro-Series 2000 stainless steel bolt action in 1992.

Houghton died in 2014. However, his daughter and a son continue with the company, overseeing employees manufacturing rifles, stocks and barrels at the H-S Precision factory in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Josh Cluff, H-S vice president of sales and marketing, said the Pro Series action is loosely based on the Remington Model 700. “The Pro Series has the same spacing and it’s also a push-feed like the Model 700,” he said. “However, the Pro Series uses larger 8-40 scope base screws, an oversize extractor and a three-position safety.”

H-S manufactures every part of its rifles, from the recoil pad, trigger and barrel, and also the tools to manufacture them, from chamber reamers, tooling fixtures, stock

molds and every other implement required to manufacture rifles. Those rifles include a number of competition, tactical, hunting and takedown models all based on the Pro-Series 2000 action.

For the last two months I’ve been shooting a Sporter Lightweight (SPL) hunting rifle chambered in .300 Winchester Short Magnum. The SPL is H-S’s most popular rifle.

The SPL is made with a short or a long action, and its metal is covered with a protective coat of Teflon. As near as I can count, the SPL is chambered in 53 cartridges from the .204 Ruger to .30-378 Weatherby Magnum. Options include a Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad, muzzle brake, mercury recoil reducer, CERAKOTE metal protection, spare magazine, Talley rings and bases and 28 stock colors from plain black to combinations of colors and camouflage. Barrel length choices are 20, 22, 24 or 26 inches with a Magnum Sporter contour. The SPL I’ve been shooting is a short action with a 24-inch barrel featuring six straight flutes that start about 4 inches in front of the action and taper off about 2 inches from the muzzle.

Like the Remington Model 700, the Pro-Series has a recessed bolt face with a plunger ejector on the left side. The Pro-Series’ hooked extractor is larger than the Remington’s small C-spring extractor. It slightly protrudes from the right locking lug to produce a nearly solid bolt face rim. A red dot is visible on the rear of the firing pin when it is cocked. The rear of the firing pin rests inside the bolt sleeve when the firing pin is lowered, so there is never a worry that an accidental blow to the rear of the bolt could drive the firing pin forward and fire a cartridge. The three-position wing safety on the rear of the bolt requires a decided pull to fully engage. Pushing it forward one notch allows opening the bolt with the safety still engaged. Pushing it fully forward allows pulling the trigger.

The trigger was designed by H-S engineers. It’s an open design that will not freeze-up during cold weather when water or horse sweat seep in. The trigger is adjustable from 2.5 to

5 pounds. “We usually set the trigger at 3 pounds on hunting rifles,” Cluff said. The trigger on the SPL was set at 3 pounds, and it tripped at that weight each and every time.

Most H-S rifles are made with a detachable straight stack aluminum magazine. A tab on the front of the magazine locks into a slot in the steel magazine and trigger guard frame. A steel latch locks the rear of the magazine and places upward pressure on it to prevent movement and rattling. The release button is inside the trigger bow. Pushing it disconnects the latch, and the magazine pops out into your hand. Cartridges are held in a straight stack to feed directly into the chamber. The magazine holds three .300 WSM cartridges.

H-S constructs stocks for its rifles and also sells aftermarket rifle stocks for CZ, Cooper, Weatherby, Winchester and Howa. Stocks are built with a polyurethane foam core surrounded with Kevlar, fiberglass and woven carbon fiber. Each stock is individually fitted to a barreled action, with the rifle’s serial number written on the inletting.

An aluminum frame is bonded into the stock and completely cradles the bottom of the round receiver around the tang and on up to a deep mortise that secures the recoil

lug. The frame behind the mortise consists of a 1.45-inch thick block that separates the recoil lug from the magazine opening. That block would never budge when absorbing the recoil produced by any shoulder-fired rifle cartridge. The front guard screw goes through the middle of the block to pull the round bottom of the receiver tight against the block.

“Stock profiles are determined by the model and barrel profile,” Cluff said. The SPL hunting rifle features a stock with a fairly slender grip and 10.5-inch long forearm. Standard length of pull is 13.5 inches. Optional length of pull varies from 12.5 to 14.5 inches. A plain rubber recoil pad is standard. A Pachmayr Decelerator pad is extra.

H-S rifles its 416R stainless steel barrels with what it calls 10x cut rifling that forms a 10-degree radius on the leading edge of the lands. The radius deforms bullets less as they rocket

through the rifling and also leaves less copper fouling. “We hand-lap bores after they are rifled,” Cluff said. “But not much because we want to preserve the 10x radius.”

A look into the bore of the SPL rifle with a borescope showed a few thin and short streaks of copper fouling after firing 50 .300 WSM cartridges. Mostly the copper was on the top of the lands.

In the past, a borescope was the standard tool used to find defects in a barrel bore, such as tooling marks. Air gauges also measured barrel uniformity. H-S, though, inspects every barrel it makes with a three-dimensional laser scanning machine originally developed for NASA. “The laser probe scans every dimension of the bore over its entire length,” Cluff said, “and provides a 3D printout of the bore showing land and bore diameter, groove width and depth, rifling twist rate and any imperfections.”

H-S test-fires every rifle before shipping them from its factory. H-S Precision guarantees 0.5 MOA groups for its rifles chambered in .30 caliber and smaller cartridges. Rifles chambered in larger caliber cartridges are promised to shoot 1 MOA groups.

The SPL tipped the scale a candy bar’s weight over 7 pounds. The rifle’s heft increased to 8 pounds, 14 ounces with a Leica Magnus 2.4-16x 56i scope in Talley Lightweight scope mounts. At that weight, the recoil from the .300 WSM was not unpleasant.

If I’m going to shoot a .300 magnum, it’s the .300 WSM. Rifles for the short .300 weigh nearly a pound less than rifles chambered for the standard-length .300 Winchester Magnum. Both cartridges fire 180-grain bullets close to 3,000 fps. The short .300, though, burns upwards of 10 grains less of the same powders as the standard length .300 to produce that velocity. If an accuracy advantage exists between the two cartridges, it goes to the .300 WSM.

The SPL rifle met the H-S pledge of 0.5 MOA groups shooting Hornady 168-grain A-MAX bullets handloaded with IMR-4350. Shot with the support of a bench, that load placed three A-MAX bullets in 1.65 inches at 300 yards. Groups at 300 yards measured 3.42 and 4.20 inches shooting prone with the rifle braced on a Harris bipod. One bullet after another clanged a steel plate at 400 yards. Mainly due to laziness, I never walked down to measure bullet spread.

Only seven shots were required to heat the SPL’s to barrel cooking-hot. Still, Sierra 180-grain Pro-Hunter bullets did not wander, and handloaded with VV-N560 and Reloder 22 nearly achieved the H-S promise.

Nosler 175-grain RDF bullets shot okay with three different powders. The full diameter of the bullets was inside the case neck with a cartridge length of 2.84 inches. At that

cartridge length, the RDF bullets had to make a long jump of .135 inch to contact the rifling. A Hornady Lock-N-Load Concentricity Tool showed the bullets varied, at the most, .002 inch from straight with the cases. I shot a second batch of RDF bullets loaded with Hunter powder to give the bullets a second chance. Results were about the same.

Moving away from the bench, I shot the SPL loaded with Sierra 180-grain Pro-Hunter bullets hand-loaded with VV-N560 powder. Sitting with the rifle supported on crossed sticks, bullets slapped a 10-inch diameter steel plate back and forth at 300 yards. Recoil knocked the sight of the plate out of the scope’s view. Keeping my head locked down on the stock comb and the trigger pressed all the way through the shot, the view of the swinging plate appeared after a second. The stock’s rough texture, slender grip and full forearm provided a solid hold to absorb some recoil. The straight comb directed the remaining recoil straight back. The tall bolt lift provided plenty of leverage to break the locking lugs free from their seats. A hard yank on the bolt handle threw fired cases out into the grass.

The Leica scope’s 56mm objective lens towered over the rifle like a sail on a ship. Shooting prone, I had to lift my cheek all the way off the comb and crane my neck to see through the scope. A folded jacket sleeve draped over the comb helped raise my eye behind the scope. The rifle was steady with its forearm supported by a bipod and the rest of the jacket folded under the toe of the stock. All I had to do was pull the trigger without disturbing aim. The rifle shot quite well at 200 and 300 yards, and I enjoyed shooting the remainder of a box of .300 WSM cartridges.

I do not have a single disparaging word about the Leica scope. For hunting, a scope with a slimmer objective lens would sit lower on the rifle and provide tight cheek contact on the stock comb, like a Leica Magnus 1.5-10x 42mm.

As I am always looking for that perfect rifle for the long haul of elk hunting, the H-S Precision SPL comes pretty close. Its tough stock and Teflon-coated metal will shed any knocks along the way. Its good accuracy from hunting positions will deliver when the eleventh hour of a hunt arrives.