Reviews B&T SPC223: Swiss-Made Premium SBR Iain Harrison September 11, 2025 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. Photos by Kenda Lenseigne We deliberately don’t feature a lot of ARs in RECOIL. Not because we’re not fans —quite the opposite — but because every man and his dog is in the AR biz, and we’d rather cover guns that are a little less vanilla. Granted, the carbine we reach for most is an AR, and there aren’t many designs which offer a significant improvement over Stoner’s creation but let’s face it, as my sainted grandmother would say, they’re common as muck. Why then does this carbine from B&T merit discussion? While it may look like every other AR-15, that appearance is just skin deep. As you dig into the feature set, you come to the realization that the Swiss actually know a thing or two about small arms design, and the attention to detail manifested in the SPC is eye catching, to say the least. Developed at the request of German police units, the only AR-compatible components are the fire control group, pistol grip, buttstock, and charging handle. It’s an AR in outward appearance only, with almost everything else being a clean-sheet design. Take the bolt carrier group, for example. Hogged out of a piece of aluminum bar stock, the SPC223’s upper receiver features steel reinforcement points. When companies started shoehorning short stroke piston systems into ARs, they typically substituted the original gas key for an abbreviated version, which looked like the front half had been lopped off. The remaining steel served as an impact face for the rear of the piston or op rod. It was quickly discovered that this was far from ideal, and apart from stressing the screws securing the key, led to the rear of the carrier tipping downward as it started its rearward journey due to the impact face being both offset and at the front of the carrier. In the SPC, B&T’s engineers carved the carrier and key from one piece of steel and shifted the impact face to almost the midpoint. As there’s no forward assist, B&T have added a pocket to the side of the carrier, which will accept the case head of a 5.56 round. If you need to quietly make ready, you can use a case to ensure the bolt is fully home. The multi-lug bolt looks decidedly AR-ish, but its lugs are thicker and longer than normal, adding strength to this critical part, and the cam pin hole is stepped. This provides extra material to head off stress-related breakage and ensures the bolt can’t be assembled backward. SIG’s Romeo 8T-AMR has an enormous, clutter-free window. The reticle automatically changes brightness and shape when the magnifier is swung. It usually comes as a surprise when people learn their favorite rifle, the one fielded by their nation’s military for five decades isn’t drop safe. To mitigate this problem, and the occasional slam fire, B&T added a spring to the firing pin, as well as a firing pin safety that’s deactivated by the hammer, right before it hits. Steel reinforcement is added to the aluminum upper receiver wherever steel components interact with it, such as the charging handle latch, the rear of the op rod, and the cam pin path, in order to increase longevity of this serialized component. The SPC’s captive rear takedown pin secures both the lower receiver, and the buttstock assembly. Drive it out, pull the buffer tube and its guts to the rear, then check out the hydraulic-damped buffer that keys into the BCG’s rear, further reducing carrier tilt. Pop the front takedown pin and you can then remove the glass-filled nylon lower receiver, which accepts both AR pattern fire control components and pistol grips. Controls are fully ambi, including bolt hold open — though we found the bolt release function a little difficult to operate with the master index finger. Better to stab it with your thumb when seating the mag, like an AR. This being a European design, the safety can be applied no matter what position the hammer might be in, and it’s easy to manipulate the levers with both thumb and knuckles of the index finger. Cool details abound. Note non-serialized polymer lower receiver, mid-carrier impact face, full ambi controls, hydraulic buffer, and dual-ejector bolt. The SPC’s 10.75-inch-long handguard is beautifully executed, matching the receiver’s profile and providing seven M-LOK slots around its circumference, as well as a Picatinny rail at the 12-o’clock location. A pair of pinch screws biting into steel inserts clamp the rail to the receiver, and there are a pair of anti-rotation QD sockets up front. A machined slot provides access to a three-position gas block, which like the BCG has a pocket to accept a case head, rather than the usual bullet, to rotate it to the selected setting. Our SPC came from the factory as a dedicated SBR with a 12.1-inch barrel, though a Title 1 version with a 16-inch tube is available, and if you really must, there’s a braced pistol in the catalog, too. Through some special Swiss voodoo, the maker claims velocities comparable to a 16-inch barrel are achievable from the 12-incher, so naturally we had to put that to the test. Instead of the usual three-prong flash hider, the SPC came with one of B&T’s latest 3D printed titanium suppressors, remarkable in that it manages to wrap a Ti body and internals around an Inconel blast baffle, thus combining the best of both worlds and managing to avoid the fireworks show normally associated with titanium cans on short barrels. Remarkably light at just 9.75 ounces including the adapter, the XH556-SC adds very little mass to the muzzle end of the gun and keeps things short and well balanced. Truly continuous top rail has a split Picatinny lug where the rail joins the upper and steel inserts where the piston enters. With the carbine suitably decked out, we headed to the range to blow through some drills and turn live into brass. B&T SPC223 FACTORY SBR SPECS: Capacity: 5.56 NATO Capacity: 30 rounds Barrel Length: 21.1 inches Overall Length (as shown): 34 inches Weight (as shown): 9.2 pounds MSRP: $2,700 Average Velocities in FPS 16-inch12.5-inchSPC MKE M1932,9082,8332,743 SIG 77-grain OTM2,4042,3732,232 ROUNDS DOWNRANGE You immediately notice the effects of the hydraulic buffer, which spreads recoil impulse over a longer timeframe. Compared to the conventional AR carbines we brought for a benchmark, the SPC is very soft-shooting, not that there’s a whole lot of recoil to contend with when shooting 5.56. We’re not used to piston guns that are able to turn in consistent sub-MOA performance, but maybe we should expect it. B&T’s carbine had no problem stacking rounds through the same ragged hole, and what was even more remarkable was that it would do it with different bullet weights. In both deliberate and rapid fire, the SPC showed that a properly made and finished, two stage Mil-spec trigger is no hindrance to accuracy, which begs the question of why we put up with so many that are absolute garbage in terms of quality of pull. Evidently, it takes spending almost 3 grand for the Swiss to show us how it should be done. As far as B&T’s claim for enhanced velocities from their 12-inch tube, we saw no evidence. We shot two types of ammo through two different comparison barrels and the results were pretty much what you’d expect. Granted, the two carbines we chose as a basis for comparison were well-used (and our 12.5-inch work gun has a “fast” barrel), whereas the B&T had only a hundred rounds or so through it at chronograph time, which may have affected the outcome, but we didn’t see anything remarkable in terms of speed. We’re usually leery of putting Ti cans on short barrels, but the previous model of this suppressor passed a Table 2 test with flying colors. The addition of an Inconel blast baffle is icing on the cake. The B&T SPC is a very competent, highly refined design which demonstrates excellent attention to detail. It wouldn’t be our choice as a first semiauto, occupying the same rarefied heights as KAC or HK, but if you feel like you’ve earned a top-tier 5.56 carbine and wanted something off the shelf rather than a custom build, then why not? It’s tempting to make a Swiss watch analogy, but that would be obvious and lazy, so we’ll resist the urge. SIG ROMEO8T-AMR AND JULIET3T MAGNIFIER Despite its compact footprint, the Romeo8T has a larger lens than even our beloved EOTech XPS3, leading to greater situational awareness of the world that exists outside of the sight. The biggest leap in performance, however, is in its reticle, or rather reticles. Let’s say you’re approaching a target building at night under NODs. Right before you breach, you flip up your tubes and hit the NV button on the sight, which instantly changes the circle-dot reticle from night vision to white light mode, increasing its brightness and allowing you to clear the building. As day breaks, you see a truckload of shady-looking dudes show up a couple of blocks away, so you flip down the magnifier to get a better shot, which simultaneously changes the reticle to give you holdovers for distance and drops the brightness, so the target image isn’t blown out. No fiddling with buttons or messing with a zoom throw lever required — just one gross movement with your support hand. The combination weighs a couple of ounces more than a Nightforce NX8, before you factor in a mount, so it’s pretty much a wash in terms of mass compared to the lightest LPVOs. Battery life from its transverse-mounted CR123 is a claimed 50,000 hours on the lowest setting — or a bit more than half a decade — and the unit can be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes without ill effects. The Juliet3 magnifier has decent edge-to-edge clarity and has fairly neutral color rendition. Both red dot and magnifier appear to have good-quality mounts, something which is never a given in this price range. Overall, we’re impressed with the engineering and thought that went into this combo — the only way we’d improve it is to go with a 5x magnifier, but that would bump up the $1,000 MSRP. Why you can trust RECOIL Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyer’s guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. Our reviewers are the backbone of our operation and come from diverse shooting backgrounds: Former law enforcement, military veterans, competitive shooters, seasoned hunters and plain old firearms enthusiasts. Furthermore, we’re not just gun experts, but dedicated journalists who adhere to the strictest standards of our profession. At RECOIL, editorial independence is the foundation of everything we publish and the cornerstone of reader trust. Our editors, writers and content creators make all editorial decisions independently, free from outside influence. That boils down to: advertisers don’t dictate our coverage, the outcomes of our reviews or what we recommend in our buyer’s guides. First and always, our commitment is to our audience—ensuring every review and article is accurate, unbiased, and driven by real-world experience. Whether you’re selecting your next firearm, upgrading your gear, or exploring the latest innovations in the shooting world, RECOIL provides the trusted insights you need to make informed decisions. Learn more about our Editorial Standards and how we review products. NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Target Pack from RECOILFor years, RECOIL magazine has treated its readers to a full-size (sometimes full color!) shooting target tucked into each big issue. Now we've compiled over 50 of our most popular targets into this one digital PDF download. From handgun drills to AR-15 practice, these 50+ targets have you covered. Print off as many as you like (ammo not included). Get your pack of 50 Print-at-Home targets when you subscribe to the RECOIL email newsletter. 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