Earlier I reviewed the Cypher X SCAR17Shorty, a SCAR 17S pistol cut down to 13″. When the opportunity to review the new Springfield Armory SAINT Victor 308 Pistol presented itself I jumped at it. I was curious what a 10.3″ .308 pistol would be like. I was pleasantly surprised and it exceeded my expectations.

Springfield SAINT Victor

The SAINT Victor .308 pistol is a 10.3″ barreled AR-10. It is surprisingly short and yet has an OAL of just over 28″ with the brace collapsed. Empty it weighs 8 lbs 6 oz. Out of the box, it is no frills but has certain accessories that I was not expecting. There are no iron sights on this gun. Yes, you can add them yourself but I was surprised that Springfield chose to offer this in an optic-ready configuration. At the muzzle end of the SAINT Victor .308 pistol is a two piece forward blast diverter.

The barrel has a 1:10 twist.

The SAINT Victor comes with a single Magpul index panel from their MLOK Hand Stop Kit. Not sure why the SAINT Victor does not come with the rest of the hand stop kit.

The SAINT pistol comes with a flat bow nickel boron coated trigger and a BCMGUNFIGHTER™ Mod 3 pistol grip. I like this grip a lot. It is more vertical and thus more ergonomic for shorter LOP.

Accessorizing The SAINT Victor 308 Pistol

There is not much that the SAINT Victor .308 Pistol needs. I did add a Night Optics Night Chase IR laser/IR illuminator. It is a small compact setup built into a front sight. I don’t really care about the front sight since I am not going to use a rear sight on this gun due to my optic choice but I wanted something to aim with at night with night vision. I rather would have preferred a multi-function aiming laser (MFAL) like a DBAL D2 or my MAWL-C1+ but the handguard for the SAINT Victor pistol only has rail segments at the front and back. While this is great for C-clamping the handguard, it severely limits your options on top. Yes, there are 7 rows of MLOK slots along the handguard but I don’t like mounting lasers on the side if I can help it.

The other accessory I added was a SIG Sauer TREAD vertical grip since the SAINT Victor OAL is just over 28″. For optics, I went with an ELCAN Specter DR 1.5-6x.

Shooting The SAINT Victor 308 Pistol

The forward blast diverter works very well. My friend Kythe tried the Victor pistol and while I was standing next to him, ejection port side, I did not feel muzzle blast concussions like I do with the SCAR17Shorty. Watch how much muzzle climb there is.

Even though the SAINT Victor .308 pistol only has a 10.3″ barrel, I was able to make hits out to 800 yards on steel using the BDC in the ELCAN Specter DR.

Here is some POV I shot with the SiOnyx Aurora Pro. I managed a hit out to 1000 but that was without looking through the Aurora Pro and I did not have a camera filming the hit. But I managed a hit.

Final Thoughts On The SAINT Victor 308 Pistol

I am pleasantly surprised by what this gun can do. It does kick quite a bit but I think that is due to the forward blast diverter turning the muzzle blast into a small rocket engine which pushes the gun harder toward the rear. That darned physics of equal and opposite reactions. I would have liked to try the SAINT Victor without the blast diverter but the muzzle brake is tucked rather far into the handguard and I am concerned that it will not be a good idea to shoot it like that. The slick top side of the handguard is both nice and annoying at the same time. It’s nice because you can grab the entire handguard and try to control the muzzle climb better. But it severely limits your options for adding accessories to the top like a tape switch for your light or in my case any of my laser systems aside from the TLR-VIRII and Night Chase.

At an MSRP of $1,363, the SAINT Victor is not overly expensive and deceptively small for a .308 caliber firearm. It comes with a 20rd Magpul PMAG but if you want more rounds you can get the Magpul D-50 and have 50 rounds of 7.62×51 for immediate disposal. One aspect of the SAINT Victor .308 pistol that I was unable to test was to see how good or bad it would be to suppress it. My friend has cans but I could not get the muzzle brake off and I was concerned that the handguard might be too narrow.

 

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