The Rimfire Report: A First Look At Springfield's New 2020 Rimfire Rifles

Hello and welcome to another edition of The Rimifre Report! We’ve had a lot of awesome rimfire rifles released this year and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to review the vast majority of them as they came out. While I was still working with the Bergara rifles we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, I also received two of Springfield’s newest rifles that were officially released to the public today. Springfield’s new 2020 Rimfire rifles are 22LR scaled-down miniatures of the company’s previously released Model 2020 line of premium bolt action hunting rifles. What’s cool about these new rifles is that they’re compatible with standard 10-round Ruger 10/22 magazines, and also feature a new 60-degree bolt throw with tons of other cool features packed into the guts of the rifle to give it an edge over other bolt-action 22LR rifles in its class. So today I’ll be giving you my first impressions of one specific model – the 2020 Rimfire Classic.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

In total, the Model 2020 Rimfire series comes in 6 different flavors. The least expensive of all of them is the plain black synthetic target version which comes in at just $434 MSRP. If you’re looking to get AAA-grade walnut stock, you’ll have to pay $1,099 MSRP for one. However, the Classic rifle with the walnut stock comes in 4 different grades ranging from “satin” and then from “A “to “AAA” quality walnut. Springfield sent along one of the Model 2020 Rimfire Classic rifles featuring a “AA” grade walnut stock, this particular model has a listed MSRP of $839. I would compare the different grades of Turkish walnut to one another, however, I only have one other Model 2020 Rimfire to compare it to and it also happens to be a synthetic stocked model featuring a sage color with black webbing highlights.

The Classic model also features a standard 20″ #1 Sporter Contour barrel that is matte blued while the Target model featured above has a heavy contour profile barrel. Of these two variants that Springfield sent, they equipped the Rimfire Classic model with a Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9×40 Rimfire MOA optic. One thing of note about the new Model 2020 rimfire rifles from Springfield is that they all feature a removable interrupted Picatinny rail for mounting various optics. The interrupted part of the rail coincides with the ejection port for the action presumably to aid in consistent ejection.

The core of the rifle, its action, features dual cocking cams, a 60-degree bolt throw which is a great feature to have when shooting prone, and a hardened chrome bolt along with a replaceable threaded bolt handle for those who’d like to customize their rifle. My initial value assessment places the Turkish walnut versions of the rifle a bit on the overpriced side for my preferences since I almost always prefer synthetic stocks. Both of the synthetic stock versions are the ones I might actually buy with the black version being the least expensive and also probably the one I’d prefer to have anyway.

I took both of the rifles out to the range to test them and run a bunch of ammunition through them for reliability purposes. Something really cool I learned upon getting a little bit more familiar with the rifles is that they feature a really odd/neat-looking breech face. Instead of being flat like most rimfire breech faces, these ones are tapered. Presumably, the tapered breech faces provide a less obstructive path for feeding cartridges into the chamber and/or provide for an increased surface contact mating area between the bolt and the breech. This design decision might contribute to the reliability I have seen so far from both of them on the range.

I tried to use a BX-15 magazine from Ruger with the Model 2020 waypoint rifle and this did not work entirely. The BX-15 magazine was able to be seated, and there is even a small “click” when you set it fully. However, every time the magazine will simply pop out of the rifle with just the slightest amount of rearward pressure applied. So while Ruger BX-1 10-round magazines work fine, it seems the higher capacity options are off the table for the Springfield Model 2020 Rimfire rifles. The rifle comes with two Springfield factory magazines that are virtually identical in every way to Ruger’s BX-1 rotary magazines.

While feeding and extraction were flawless for me from both rifles, I didn’t quite like the bolt throw from the Walnut stocked version of the rifle. When I was shooting the walnut version to get our groups for the day, I found that the bolt throw was kind of sticky on both the forward and the rearward travel. I didn’t run into this same issue with the synthetic stocked version so this might just be a quality control issue. The only real difference between the two rifles’ actions is that the Classic features a round bolt handle and the Target model has a truncated cone for a bolt handle. Swapping the bolt handles out yielded no difference in performance from the host rifle so presumably the action on the Classic model might need a little TLC.

The most important metric I was after, accuracy, was put to the test using CCI Standard Velocity, as well as a few loose rounds of SK High-Velocity Match ammunition I found floating around in my rimfire ammo stash. With CCI Standard Velocity we netted about 1.5″ to 2″ groups at 50 yards. I’m certain that with a higher magnification scope, we could shrink these a little further but I wanted to try grouping the rifle with the optic that Springfield sent along with the rifle. I got even better results with the SK High Velocity match with the group being about 1″ in size. Long story short, I think it’s safe to assume Springfield’s claims about their rifle’s accuracy are…accurate.

I think the new Model 2020 Rimfire rifles are offering up quite a bit upon launch. The core of the rifle, the action, is pretty good but might need a bit more attention in the quality control department with one out of the two of my rifles having a somewhat “sticky” bolt throw and the other being more or less flawless. The 60-degree bolt throw is a nice feature that I think is becoming more and more common on rimfire bolt-action rifles and it’s a welcome addition to Springfield’s new rifles.

In the accuracy department, I think these rifles are superb. A 1″ grouping at 50 yards isn’t exactly a crowning achievement but it’s pretty good when you consider that is about the same level of accuracy that I was able to squeeze out of my Ruger Precision Rimfire with the same two types of ammo at the same distance. I think there is a case to be made for the synthetic stocked model being a good starting place for Rimfire PRS shooters. With this level of accuracy, you should be able to show up to a competition with match ammunition and do very well provided you do your part.

To sum things up, my initial impressions of the Springfield Model 2020 Rimfire rifle is good, I would say that it would probably be safe to buy one of the more affordable models unless you’re really into high-grade Turkish walnut. The AA-grade walnut that came with the rifle I was sent had a nice grain and tone to it, but ultimately this is something I don’t really care that much about as I’d rather have the durability and weather resistance of a synthetic stock. Ironically enough, I think that’s where the real value of this new series exists – in the two sub $500 synthetic models.