Springfield’s new 2020 Waypoint bolt-action rifle is one of the best of the new breed of ultralight precision rifles. It offers modern ergonomics coupled with extraordinary precision at a price well below that of most competing models. Yep, you read that right. The Waypoint is a bolt-action rifle, as far as I know the first bolt action manufactured under the Springfield Armory name since the Model 1903 was discontinued in 1949.

History buffs will rightly point out that the Springfield Armory of today is an altogether different company than the U.S. military armory of yore, which manufactured the bulk of our nation’s service rifles from 1777 until 1968. That’s true. However, a very cool parallel may be drawn between the historic company and the modern one. Both built rifles of a breed new to the American public, rifles that expanded riflemen’s capabilities and provided an entirely new world of long-range capability. I write, of course, of the Model 1903 and the 2020 Waypoint. The 1903 was the first truly successful American bolt action. Introduced to U.S. doughboys in the trenches of World War I, it demonstrated unprecedented levels of accuracy and long-range capability—particularly when compared to the popular lever-action and single-action rifles of the era.