The modern oldschool sniper rifle, European style (Steyr, Spurh, Schmidt & Bender)
The worst thing about Alberta is that impulse purchases are just too damn easy and common, case in point.
A trip to a gunstore for a quick look around, and the next thing I knew I had ordered a Steyr SSG 04. It started out when I asked if they could order in an 08, and was told yes, for about 3K$. Considering they are about an 8K$ rifle I said I would take one, only to be told that it wasn’t an 08 with the trick folding stock etc, but a more traditional 04. I decided I needed another 300 Win Mag, and placed the order anyway.
A few months later the 04 arrived.
It shipped with a cheesy, but effective hard case, a Harris Bipod, a 20MOA rail, and that’s it. Missing I felt were the mirage band, which is another 80$ but should be in there for free, and a sling. Steyr sends you neither of these.
Likewise the rifle ships with only one 8 shot mag, a spare mag cost a mind-numbing 175$. The 23.5 inch barrel sports a fairly nice and effective break.
All in all the rifle with taxes in runs a little over 3K$ (I would recommend that if interested in any Steyr rifle, you might want to contact a dealer/importer, as even with importation fees you would likely save a bundle. SSG04s can be had in the US new, for as little as 1800$, that’s half of what some Canadian dealers want).
To stick with the Euro Classic theme, I opted for a Schmidt and Bender PMII 10X42 scope, one of the most classic pieces of ‘tactical’glass, and a Spuhr uni-mount to put it in.
The glass was a no brainer, the mount took a while to arrive at. I had wanted a one piece for certain, but finding a nice one, that was solid and quality was difficult, and the choices were few, though interesting. Eventually the Spuhrs dedication to Schmidt and Bender led me to choose that. With the original 04 coming with a 20 MOA mount, I opted for the 0MOA Spuhr mount,
and a few spare pieces, including a spare level glass, screws etc.
All in the Spuhr was around 400$, with a variety of spares. The integral bubble level can be seen here.
My intial testing of the 04 showed things worked well, and sub MOA out to 1000m was possible, though challenging with the fixed 10 scope I had chosen. GPS ranged shots onto a torso size target were repeatable, but getting down to below that with me shooting, and 10X was not in the cards.
For some reason the initial shooting of the 04 left me feeling the recoil was worse than I had anticipated, and so after some internet browsing I decided to upgrade the rifle to an 04A1, which is nothing more than adding the forward rails.
The rails add about a pound to the forward of the rifle, they are aluminum, but there are some BIG chunks of it. I was confident the weight would dampen the recoil a bit, even though it meant the loss of my 20MOA the original scope base had. Doing this one part at a time is NOT the cheap way to go, as the rails were a bargain from Phil Odell ( Ýou can find him here on CGN, and I heartily recommend doing all Steyr purchases through him, his prices cannot be beat on this side of the US border), but that bargain is still 1K$, so word to the wise, buy the 04A1 in the first place, and save some money.
Once the old 20MOA rail was knocked off (mild epoxy from the factory held it on solid), I simply screwed the rail assembly together, and attached it to the rifle with some permanent locktite to help hold it all down. I skipped epoxying it on, but I think it would be a good idea.
With everything in order from the rifle side, I decided to throw the glass and mount back on, and head to the range.
Getting on paper at 100m was the hardest part of the day, but once there the rifle made me very happy. As I am still working through a bad flinch I found I was still able, with factory ammo, to do half inch 3 shot groups, then as the flinch would get worse they would open up. But I have no doubt .5 MOA is doable, even with the right factory load, sub MOA is pretty much a guarantee for any competent shooter.
This particular target was 14 shots rapid fire (two mags in about 1 minute [each mag is 8 shots of 300WM]), and frankly considering my flinchyness, I was pleased with what would be a real world accuracy.
The trigger on the Steyr helps I find, it is like all the Steyr target rifles, mild first stage, then smooth as glass break at about 2.5lbs. The triggers, according to the US (lawyer approved) manuals are not adjustable, however… if you read the European manuals, the information for adjusting them is right there.
I will add that this is not the first SBS Styer I have had, and its nice to see that Steyr addressed the short comings on a few of their original tactical rifles from this line. Speciffically if you look back at some of the old adjustable butt and cheek pieces you could not held but note that the plastic stops they used would fail after repeated use due to wearing down. Steyr has addressed this with the addition of some simple old steel, ensuring the buttpad will not drop off the rifle if the adjustment screw is loosened, and the two part cheek piece is likewise held together with a screw.
Removal of the bolt is simple, and requires the raising of the cheek piece, then raising the bolt handle, setting the safety to the removal position and drawing the bolt back, then pivoting it out of the rifle. Its easy and can all be done with one hand.
The SBS bolt is easy to disassemble and clean, a release tab if pushed and the firing pin/cocking indicator, and shroud are removed.
The reality is that the prices on these rifles drives them right into Sako TRG42 price ranges, particularly here in Canada, and especially so of the 04A1. Being slowly nickled and dimed in putting this rifle together made the costs tolerable in doing it, but when sitting back looking at the costs it makes me realise I should have just bought the Sauer 202 Wolverine I really wanted. There is little to fault with the 04, it feeds and shoots smoothly and beautifully, is easy to maintain and setup, but it lacks some basics a rifle in this class should have, like a UIT rail, which other members of the Steyr tactical line sport, but which this rifle doesn’t. In the US and Europe this likely helped keep the price down, being a plain jane marksman’s rifle, earning it that SSG designation. But something as simple as the lack of a UIT rail to limits some of the useability of this rifle.
The worst thing about Alberta is that impulse purchases are just too damn easy and common, case in point.
A trip to a gunstore for a quick look around, and the next thing I knew I had ordered a Steyr SSG 04. It started out when I asked if they could order in an 08, and was told yes, for about 3K$. Considering they are about an 8K$ rifle I said I would take one, only to be told that it wasn’t an 08 with the trick folding stock etc, but a more traditional 04. I decided I needed another 300 Win Mag, and placed the order anyway.
A few months later the 04 arrived.
It shipped with a cheesy, but effective hard case, a Harris Bipod, a 20MOA rail, and that’s it. Missing I felt were the mirage band, which is another 80$ but should be in there for free, and a sling. Steyr sends you neither of these.
Likewise the rifle ships with only one 8 shot mag, a spare mag cost a mind-numbing 175$. The 23.5 inch barrel sports a fairly nice and effective break.
All in all the rifle with taxes in runs a little over 3K$ (I would recommend that if interested in any Steyr rifle, you might want to contact a dealer/importer, as even with importation fees you would likely save a bundle. SSG04s can be had in the US new, for as little as 1800$, that’s half of what some Canadian dealers want).
To stick with the Euro Classic theme, I opted for a Schmidt and Bender PMII 10X42 scope, one of the most classic pieces of ‘tactical’glass, and a Spuhr uni-mount to put it in.
The glass was a no brainer, the mount took a while to arrive at. I had wanted a one piece for certain, but finding a nice one, that was solid and quality was difficult, and the choices were few, though interesting. Eventually the Spuhrs dedication to Schmidt and Bender led me to choose that. With the original 04 coming with a 20 MOA mount, I opted for the 0MOA Spuhr mount,
and a few spare pieces, including a spare level glass, screws etc.
All in the Spuhr was around 400$, with a variety of spares. The integral bubble level can be seen here.
My intial testing of the 04 showed things worked well, and sub MOA out to 1000m was possible, though challenging with the fixed 10 scope I had chosen. GPS ranged shots onto a torso size target were repeatable, but getting down to below that with me shooting, and 10X was not in the cards.
For some reason the initial shooting of the 04 left me feeling the recoil was worse than I had anticipated, and so after some internet browsing I decided to upgrade the rifle to an 04A1, which is nothing more than adding the forward rails.
The rails add about a pound to the forward of the rifle, they are aluminum, but there are some BIG chunks of it. I was confident the weight would dampen the recoil a bit, even though it meant the loss of my 20MOA the original scope base had. Doing this one part at a time is NOT the cheap way to go, as the rails were a bargain from Phil Odell ( Ýou can find him here on CGN, and I heartily recommend doing all Steyr purchases through him, his prices cannot be beat on this side of the US border), but that bargain is still 1K$, so word to the wise, buy the 04A1 in the first place, and save some money.
Once the old 20MOA rail was knocked off (mild epoxy from the factory held it on solid), I simply screwed the rail assembly together, and attached it to the rifle with some permanent locktite to help hold it all down. I skipped epoxying it on, but I think it would be a good idea.
With everything in order from the rifle side, I decided to throw the glass and mount back on, and head to the range.
Getting on paper at 100m was the hardest part of the day, but once there the rifle made me very happy. As I am still working through a bad flinch I found I was still able, with factory ammo, to do half inch 3 shot groups, then as the flinch would get worse they would open up. But I have no doubt .5 MOA is doable, even with the right factory load, sub MOA is pretty much a guarantee for any competent shooter.
This particular target was 14 shots rapid fire (two mags in about 1 minute [each mag is 8 shots of 300WM]), and frankly considering my flinchyness, I was pleased with what would be a real world accuracy.
The trigger on the Steyr helps I find, it is like all the Steyr target rifles, mild first stage, then smooth as glass break at about 2.5lbs. The triggers, according to the US (lawyer approved) manuals are not adjustable, however… if you read the European manuals, the information for adjusting them is right there.
I will add that this is not the first SBS Styer I have had, and its nice to see that Steyr addressed the short comings on a few of their original tactical rifles from this line. Speciffically if you look back at some of the old adjustable butt and cheek pieces you could not held but note that the plastic stops they used would fail after repeated use due to wearing down. Steyr has addressed this with the addition of some simple old steel, ensuring the buttpad will not drop off the rifle if the adjustment screw is loosened, and the two part cheek piece is likewise held together with a screw.
Removal of the bolt is simple, and requires the raising of the cheek piece, then raising the bolt handle, setting the safety to the removal position and drawing the bolt back, then pivoting it out of the rifle. Its easy and can all be done with one hand.
The SBS bolt is easy to disassemble and clean, a release tab if pushed and the firing pin/cocking indicator, and shroud are removed.
The reality is that the prices on these rifles drives them right into Sako TRG42 price ranges, particularly here in Canada, and especially so of the 04A1. Being slowly nickled and dimed in putting this rifle together made the costs tolerable in doing it, but when sitting back looking at the costs it makes me realise I should have just bought the Sauer 202 Wolverine I really wanted. There is little to fault with the 04, it feeds and shoots smoothly and beautifully, is easy to maintain and setup, but it lacks some basics a rifle in this class should have, like a UIT rail, which other members of the Steyr tactical line sport, but which this rifle doesn’t. In the US and Europe this likely helped keep the price down, being a plain jane marksman’s rifle, earning it that SSG designation. But something as simple as the lack of a UIT rail to limits some of the useability of this rifle.
