pcgod, you're right about the LTR being designed as a LE rifle. It's the last version of the justly famous PSS (Police Sniper Series) rifles.
The original version PSS rifles have 26 inch solid bull barrels and a heavy palmswell stock (H-S or McMillan - I don't remember) and weigh about 10 pounds.
The LTR's have 20 inch heavy fluted barrels, lighter H-S stocks with no palmswell and weigh about 8.5 pounds.
About muzzle velocity...earlier this year one of the LE Firearms magazines took a .308 chambered rifle with a 26" barrel and proceeded make sequential one inch cuts off the barrel, measuring muzzle velocity each time. They went down to 16" if memory serves. What they found was that MV was not substantially effected til the length was reduced under 20 inches. I remember the loss as being less than 50 ft/sec at 20 inches. Almost within the Standard Deviation for 26 inches. So maybe Remington did their homework.
Word of mouth from several sources says the LTR was designed from the get-go optimised for Federal Gold Medal Match ammunition. At 1000yds, 168gr GM308M1 is not stable for me. The 168gr bullet with a MV 0f 2550 ft/sec goes transonic around 900yds. I get some keyholing. GM308M2 on the other hand is stable at 1000yds. The 175gr bullet with an identical 2550 MV has been stable to 1200yds for me.
And you're right about the LTR being a great deer/antelope rifle. If my family had to live off the land for a while, the LTR will go with us. It's just a real light, handy, sturdy little rifle.
And sltfshr...the R5 Variant is a LTR with a tighter match chamber. Probably has hand-selected parts. They were supposedly done for some Federal boys but a small quantity made it to the commercial market.
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