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Sun Project M40A1 XB
A Review by Thomas Richardson
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History, real rifle
At the beginning of the Vietnam War, the United States Marine Corps
wished to purchase bolt-action sniper rifles to replace the current
issue rifles. Remington Arms Co. offered it’s M40 Sniper Rifle,
based off the M40XB target rifle action, which was built in
Remington’s custom shop and was basically a tuned Model 700 action
with heavy barrel. An initial order of 800 rifles was offered to the
USMC. Remington Arms built a total of 995 rifles for the USMC.
When the original rifles began to wear out, the Marine Armourers in
Quantico began to rebuild the rifles. The new rifles were designated
the M40A1, and featured a new scope (Unertl 10x Mil-dot, original
was Redfield 2-9x Wide field with rangefinder reticule), and a new
polymer stock supplied by McMillan Bros. Parts replacement was
furnished by Remington, which supplied the actions, and Winchester,
which supplied smaller pieces such as the floor plates.
The rifles were extensively used throughout the Vietnam War, and
following conflicts. The USMC still uses a variant of the M40A1, now
designated the M40A3. The rifle features the same action, but a bull
barrel and a new fiberglass “pistol grip” style stock, still
supplied by McMillan Bros.
First Impressions/Introduction
I chose the M40A1 XB due to my need for Vietnam-era sniper rifle,
the upgrade availability over the standard A1 model, and the pure
joy of full metal and wood. My order was placed with DEN trinity
late Sunday night, and I payed for it Monday evening. The package
was shipped via UPS Wednesday evening, and arrived on my doorstep
early Friday afternoon. I highly recommend DEN trinity for your next
airsoft purchase.
The package arrived in a green, paper wrapped box, which turned out
to be the M40’s actual box. DEN had turned the packaging inside out
for ease through customs. They had also painted the first 3/8” of
the barrel orange, to comply with import laws.
When I first picked up the rifle, I was very impressed. The rifle
weighs roughly 7.5 pounds completely stock, unloaded. As of yet, I
have been unable to find an external part that is NOT metal or wood,
which accounts for the weight. Some might say that is a bit heavy
for a stock gun, but it helps that the gun is 45 ½” long, it
balances very nicely.
External parts
The finish of all the metal parts is top notch, and everything,
including the chamber, looks authentic. Most of the controls on the
rifle (bolt, trigger, safety, etc.) are finished in a brown metallic
gloss finish, it would seem. The barrel and receiver are a nice
matte black, and the magazine and scope mounts appear to be blued.
The quality and cuts on the wood are very nice. Sun Project chose a
nice wood and finished it very well. There are some small burr
sections on the edges of the magazine well (one small spot), and
slight burring near the safety, which was easily taken off with a
file. Overall, I am very impressed with the rifle’s stock.
Fit and Finish, Internal Parts
I disassembled the rifle to find parts that look good and fit
together almost as well as the external pieces. The reason I say
almost is that I encountered a small issue when first test firing
the rifle; the trigger would stick back after I had pulled it. I
located the source of the problem, and it was nothing a little
filing couldn’t fix. It turned out that the trigger itself was
getting stuck on the rifle’s sear. I simply took a fine file and
polished up the touching faces of the parts. The problem was solved.
Most of the internal trigger pieces are held in place by pins; they
are not very tight. Be sure to watch for loose pins when
disassembling the rifle.
Accessory Mounting
Here’s a good bit of news for everyone reading: The Sun Project
M40A1 XB will accept all scope mount bases meant for the Remington
700. I have replaced the stock Weaver rail type bases with direct
mounting; see through high rings for 1” scopes. The reason I did so
is that I needed the extra space to allow my large hands to have a
proper grip on the bolt handle when cocking the rifle. It also gives
the rifle a more “classic” look; I guess you could call it.
The rifle has two positions from which you could cock it. The top
picture demonstrates the non-traditional, faster method; the second
picture demonstrates how the real M700 would be cocked to ensure
proper spent casing ejection.
The rifle does not come supplied with sling swivel studs from Sun
Project. The real Remington 700 studs will work just fine, but I had
none on hand. I used the studs from my Savage Model 99 rifle. The
rear stud screwed in with no problems at all, but the front stud was
another issue entirely. The bolt for the front stud was not wide
enough to thread into the hole Sun Project made in the stock for the
stud, so I had to improvise. I found an appropriately threaded nut
in my garage, and simple tightened it into the stock to keep the
stud from falling out.
In order to mount a bipod that mounts to the sling swivel stud,
you’ll want to tighten the stud/nut combo tight enough to not allow
it to rotate. I’d recommend the Harris line of bipods personally, as
they have padded contact areas so as not to mar the wood’s finish
Accuracy Tests
I performed a series of tests to determine the accuracy of the
rifle. I used a ½” bulls eye target from www.protargets.com at 30’,
utilizing an Outers 9-13” bipod and a series of paperback book to
support the rear of the rifle. I used .25g and .28g Infinity brand
BBs for the respective tests. Accuracy isn’t as good as I had hoped
it to be, but that is most likely due to the inconsistent cross
breeze that occurred during the testing.
At each target, I aimed precisely at the center using the scope
already mounted on the rifle (non-zeroed S&W 4-18x42 Mil-dot). The
vertical drop experienced on both tests is partially due to the
un-zeroed scope, but is also due to the fact that the fixed o-ring
hop-up for this rifle is meant for .2g BBs. The o-ring is easily
replaced, but finding the exact size o-ring for your needs is a
large task, requiring much trial and error. The –009 o-ring is
mentioned as being perfect for highly upgraded rifles utilizing .36g
BBs, but that is all I have heard regarding sizes. If you wish to
tune the rifle’s hopup effectively, I would suggest buying one of
the many o-ring kits that can be found on the Internet, such as the
one here.
Now back to the accuracy tests. With the .25g BBs at 30ft and a
slight crosswind, I was able to get a grouping of 1.5”x2/25”, with
10 shots. With the .28g BBs, 6 of them dropped so significantly that
they did not even hit the target, but the remaining 4 shots retained
a 1.5”x.75” grouping. I will soon be making a trip to the local
hardware store to purchase a variety of o-rings, in an attempt to
properly tune the hop-up for the BB weight I will be utilizing.
Although the accuracy tests at 30ft are not as good as some of the
other available rifles, I have found that the shot groupings are
maintained (Very similar results) at distances of up to 80ft.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get the targets back to make a final
tally of the shots before the wind blew them away. I will reattempt
at a later time.
Rifle Disassembly
Disassembling the rifle could not be simpler. All you must do to
break the rifle down to the action and barrel assembly is remove the
screw just in front of the magazine well and the screw at the rear
of the trigger guard. From there, the outer barrel/chamber simply
unscrew from the receiver. Simply remove the clearly visible screws
and you can slide the inner barrel/chamber out of the outer barrel.
Sun Project really did make the rifle quite simple to disassemble.
All the screws to take the rifle down are clearly visible, and the
entire process is really easy.
Final Thoughts
I really couldn’t be happier with my new rifle. Well, maybe I could,
but that is going to require a bit more money put into it. The small
problems I experienced while conducting the review are easily
remedied, and I feel they allowed me to get to know the rifle
better. The Sun Project M40A1 XB would be a perfect rifle to get an
individual started in the field of sniping, due to its’ very simple
disassembly and decent stock accuracy. It is also much simpler to
upgrade than other rifles, as it utilizes only one sear, where as
some other rifles use as many as 3. The fixed o-ring hop up is very
consistent, unlike some rifle’s adjustable hop-up systems. Overall,
I feel this rifle was well worth the money I spent to purchase it.
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