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Springfield's New Model 2020 Redline Lightweight Hunting Rifle: Review

Lightweight with all the modern features we've come to expect, Springfield Armory's new Model 2020 Redline rifle is one of the best bolt-action hunting rifles on the market today.

Springfield's New Model 2020 Redline Lightweight Hunting Rifle: Review
The author says Springfield's Model 2020 Redline lightweight bolt-action rifle is the epitome of modern hunting rifles.

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Springfield’s new lightweight bolt action is one of the most honest precision hunting rifles I’ve shot. It not only meets the company’s 0.75-MOA accuracy guarantee, but it does so with eight of the 10 factory loads I tested in it. This rifle is the epitome of the modern hunting instrument. It’s designed for precision, yet it’s built to be light enough to pack into the mountains. To help us inconsistent humans make the most of the lightweight rifle’s precision, the stock is engineered with ergonomics that minimize our ability to screw up the shot. In short, the Model 2020 Redline is an off-the-shelf rifle that performs with semicustom rifles that retail for twice as much. For shooters familiar with Springfield’s excellent Model 2020 Waypoint, the Redline is a similar rifle, built using the same model action; same make carbon-jacketed barrel; and same trigger, trigger guard, and magazine well. The Redline’s stock is significantly different, and available barrel lengths are much shorter (16- and 20-inch versions instead of 22-inch versions for the Waypoint). Redline rifles are made to be lighter and a bit less expensive than the Waypoint.

Concept and Components

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Springfield’s Model 2020 action is smooth-operating and reliable. The pinned, full-length optic rail is a nice fea- ture for strength and convenience. The magazine well is AICS-compatible, and the mag release in the front of the trigger guard is protected but easily activated.

In case you’re not familiar with Springfield’s line of bolt-action hunting rifles, let’s start with the action—the heart of the rifle—and unpack this fine shootin’ iron. This is a premium action, the equivalent of many semicustom actions. Receivers are machined from steel bar stock—after heat-treating. Machining post-heat-treat requires running the machines slower and diligently maintaining cutting-tool edge sharpness, but that results in a truer product than when machined pre-heat-treat. The bolts feature dual, opposing locking lugs, harking back to the proven Mauser design. A robust 0.25-inch-wide extractor is dovetailed into the ejection-side locking lug in the 3 o’clock position, and it reliably hauls fired cases from the chamber. This location is the best for any extractor, and you’ll never have ejected cartridge cases angling up and bouncing off your scope’s windage turret and back into the action—a condition all too common with modern precision scopes and their oversize side turrets.


As for the ejector, it’s a spring-activated plunger located at about 8 o’clock in the boltface. The bolt bodies are fluted to reduce weight and to provide a place for detritus to accumulate rather than potentially gumming up the function. The bolt handle runs completely through the bolt body, in full diameter. It’s a super-strong handle-to-bolt attachment; you’ll never break that handle off. I’ve seen brazed-on Remington 700 bolts broken off by excited sportsmen with a stubborn shell stuck in the chamber. That won’t happen with the Redline. The bolt shroud is a sleek, petite part that lends to the racy lines of the Redline. A rectangular rear section of the firing pin protrudes from its rear, providing a clear visual and tactile indication when the action is cocked. Springfield chose the proven TriggerTech Field model trigger for the Redline. It’s user-adjustable from 2.5 to 5 pounds. My rifle’s trigger came from the factory set at precisely 3 pounds, 10 ounces. I tested pull weight with my Lyman digital trigger gauge and found less than 2 ounces of variation over a series of five measurements. That’s nice and consistent.

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The muzzle threads of the tensioned, carbon-jacketed BSF barrel are 5/8-24, making it easy to swap the radial brake for the included thread protector or to install a suppressor. Grayboe’s Trekker composite buttstock features unique cutouts to reduce weight and excellent engineering to provide precision-enhancing ergonomics. Note the little blue bubble level installed in the tang area.

The bottom metal features contemporary, squared styling. The Redline comes with a nice, flush-fitting, three-round MDT polymer magazine, and the magazine well is a well-engineered design optimized for AICS-pattern magazines. I ran the rifle with the MDT mag and also with a 10-round double-stack ARC (American Rifle Company) steel magazine; both worked perfectly. The mag release is incorporated into the front of the trigger guard, and it is secure yet readily activated. Most of the metal parts are finished in a nice OD green Cerakote. The bolt is nitride, and the aluminum optic rail pinned and screwed to the top of the receiver is finished in a matte black hardcoat anodizing. Springfield Armory uses carbon-fiber-jacketed barrels by BSF on all Redline rifles. These are clearly great barrels, and I’ve never heard of one that doesn’t shoot well. The two I’ve tested (a 6mm Creedmoor Waypoint and this 6.5 Creedmoor Redline) both achieved half-MOA accuracy under fairly rigorous tests.

Unlike most barrels with a carbon-fiber exterior, BSF does not wrap its barrels with carbon-fiber strands in an adhesive, let it cure, and then grind the carbon fiber to correct profile. Rather, BSF builds barrels with a roll-wrapped carbon-fiber sleeve, and the barrel is “tensioned.” Tensioning a barrel suspends a steel core inside a shell and applies stretch to the core using a shell that’s ever-so-slightly longer than the core. It’s an old accuracy-enhancing technique that long-range revolver silhouette competitors used. Inside the carbon-fiber jacket the steel core is fluted, allegedly to aid cooling, and does not contact the carbon fiber at any point between its ends. Now, this method of suspending and tensioning a steel barrel in a jacket is touted to do two things: increase accuracy and keep the barrel cooler. I’ll buy the first claim because it’s been proved by thousands of shooters over the years and because I’ve seen how these rifles shoot. However, in a very distant life I was a firefighter, and heat-conduction training suggests that trapped air insulates, rather than conducting heat. I’d bet dollars to donuts that these barrels appear to stay cool, but that the dead-air space inside actually insulates the core and inhibits fast cooling.

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That said, it just doesn’t matter. Why? Because the Waypoint and Redline flat-out shoot. Groups are small, and accuracy does not degrade over long, hot shot strings. Up front, the Redline barrels are threaded 5/8-24 and come fitted with a nice SA radial muzzle brake. For shooters who prefer recoil to muzzle blast, a thread cap is included. Savvy shooters will put both the brake and the thread cap in the spare-parts drawer and install a suppressor. Interestingly, the breech of the barrel appears to have a longer steel shank than is necessary, particularly considering the Redline’s purpose as a lightweight hunting rifle. The steel shank extends about 4.15 inches forward of the receiver. Carbon-fiber barrels by Proof Research and other makers generally have less than 2 inches of all-steel diameter before transitioning to the carbon-fiber wrap. Unless the long steel shank is a crucial element of the tensioned barrel construction, the long shank seems a needless increase in weight. As mentioned earlier, the Redline comes with a choice of 16-inch or 20-inch barrel. This is clearly a model meant to serve two shooter demographics: hunters who want compact, easy-maneuvering rifles and hunters who intend to use a suppressor.

Springfield Armory 2020 Redline Specs

  • Type: Bolt-action repeater
  • Caliber: 6.5 Creedmoor
  • Capacity: 3 rds. 
  • Barrel: 20 in. 
  • Overall Length: 40.5 to 41.75 in. 
  • Weigth: 6.25 lbs. (tested)
  • Stock: Grayboe Trekker composite
  • Length of Pull: 13.25 to 14.25 in. 
  • Finish: Green Cerakite action, olive with black webbing stock
  • Sights: None, full-length optic rail
  • Trigger: 3.6 lbs. (tested)
  • Safety: two-position
  • MSRP: $2,299
  • Manufacturer: Springfield Armory

Initially, just two calibers are offered: 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Winchester. I ordered the 20-inch barrel chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. It’s not quite as compact and maneuverable as the 16-inch version, but it is short enough to pair beautifully with a suppressor and generates enough velocity to be useful at Western hunting distances. Now we come to the most visually unique part of the Redline—the Grayboe Trekker stock. Grayboe was founded by a member of the McMillan family, so it’s rooted in stock-making royalty. Stocks are not made from carbon fiber or fiberglass using the traditional hand-laid process; rather they are constructed using a proprietary process that saves time. Saved time means lower cost and ready availability. Composite-stock connoisseurs gently suggest that Grayboe is a glorified injection-molded stock with some fiberglass mixed in. Me, I’m not so negative. If the stock performs well, I like it. And I’ve been impressed with every Grayboe stock I’ve put my hands on. They do tend to be heavier than premium hand-laid carbon-fiber stocks. The Trekker model used on the Redline is specced at 28 ounces, which is the upper end for most precision mountain-rifle stocks these days.

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Excellent accuracy was the norm with Springfield’s 6.5 Creedmoor Model 2020 Redline. Eight out 10 factory loads tested produced sub-0.75-MOA accuracy.

Most arresting about the Trekker stock is the big bite cut out of the bottom of the buttstock. It’s to reduce weight and is groundbreaking. The near-vertical grip is slender and feels great; more importantly, it positions the shooting hand and wrist torque-free. Grayboe installs a blue anticant bubble level in the stock just aft of the action tang. It’s hard to see while in shooting position, but it’s cool nonetheless. The top of the comb is high, helping position the eye properly behind the scope. A sling-swivel stud is secured in the steeply angled toe of the stock. Perhaps best of all, the Trekker comes with five quarter-inch stock spacers, so you can set your length of pull to frame-fitting perfection. Aft, a deep, squishy rubber recoil pad moderates recoil. Up front, the fore-end is generously free-floated around the barrel. So generously, it is one of the few complaints I’ve heard about Grayboe stocks. Most have huge fore-end channels, and some shooters consider the gap between the barrel and the stock unsightly. Others express concern that water, snow, and dirt will accumulate there. You’ll never have to worry about stock-to-barrel contact throwing a shot, though. Finger grooves extend down each side of the fore-end, giving it a comfortable, secure feel in the support hand. The fore-end bottom is flat and is fitted with two sling-swivel studs, allowing you to install a traditional bipod and still have a sling attachment point.

Range Results

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To wring out the Redline at the range, I installed one of Burris’s very innovative Veracity PH scopes (see the accompanying sidebar) in Nightforce low-height rings on the factory-mounted optic rail. Even with the scope mounted as low as possible to the rail, there was a 3/8-inch gap between the scope’s bell and the barrel. The Redline’s action is compatible with any Remington 700-type scope bases, and if I were going to keep it, I’d remove the Picatinny optic rail and mount the scope much lower and tighter to the barrel using Talley Lightweight Alloy one-piece ring/bases. That would allow a much better cheekweld, and it would reduce weight by a few ounces. Stock length of pull was just about right for me, so I opted not to install any additional spacers. However, I spun the radial muzzle brake off and screwed on a Gunwerks 6IX suppressor. It’s a lightweight, durable can that weighs only 11 ounces and is just 6.2 inches long. Given the light-but-precise nature of the Redline, I picked a Spartan Pro Hunt TAC bipod and installed the included adapter on the front swivel stud. With a double stack of 6.5 Creedmoor ammunition, I sallied off to the range, braving 25-degree Fahrenheit temps and sideways-blowing snow. If the Redline could strut its stuff in these conditions, I figured, it was a winner. After bore sighting, I fired a three-shot group at the 100-yard target. It measured 1.19 inches. The next group measured 0.64 inch, and the third—without allowing the barrel to cool—measured a tidy 0.49 inch. After that first three-shot group out of a clean barrel, the rifle shot only two other groups that measured more than an inch—out of 30. Every single one of the 10 factory loads I tested averaged less than one MOA (1.047 inches). Eight of the 10 met Springfield’s 0.75-MOA accuracy guarantee. That’s exceptionally good—typically in such tests two or three meet the accuracy protocol.

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Even more impressive, I ran each different load through the rifle—three consecutive three-shot groups—without allowing the barrel to cool. This is an aggressive test that reveals whether accuracy degrades or point of impact shifts as the barrel heats up. Neither occurred. It’s a testament to the quality of the BSF barrel. Another beneficial attribute that I noted with interest is the Redline’s tendency to put different loads from different manufacturers and with different bullet weights on the same point of aim at 100 yards. That’s a really desirable characteristic in a hunting rifle. I alternated between the included three-round magazine and my double-stack 10-round ARC magazine while conducting accuracy testing, and I watched carefully for any proclivity to misfeed or malfunction in any way. There was none. Reliability was perfect—rarer than one would anticipate, particularly in detachable-magazine-type actions fed by a variety of magazines. My only observation was that when the three-round magazine was fully loaded, it took considerable pressure to seat it fully into the action when the bolt was closed. It could be done, but I couldn’t just slap it into place and expect it to click in and stay. This is a fairly common feature of small, flush-fit magazines built to fit AICS magwells, so it’s nothing to be concerned about. Recoil, with the suppressor installed, was negligible. The 6.5 Creedmoor is mild to begin with, and when housed in an ergonomic, suppressed rifle, it’s a pussycat to shoot. As I write this it’s the very end of 2023. This year I’ve tested myriad new rifles in 6.5 Creedmoor, most from reputable brands and most touting new carbon-fiber barrels and technology. Without hesitation, I’ll state that the new Redline is by far the best of the lot.

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