How to decide between Remington and Savage?

mustang979 said:
I have not handled either a remi 700 or a savage 10 series. I was trying to avoid pestering sales guys until I could buy it. Having been in retail, I know they may not be fond of "looky looes" just kicking the tires.
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where are you located? I own a Savage 10 FCP in .223 I'm a long time Remington fan and personally don't like the newer Remingtons unless your talking about the high end varmint with a HS stocks then I'm all for it. for some reason the Remington 700 SPS and SPS police models just don't seem to be as well made as the Remington of old like the older BDL model pre-90's

I know there still 700 actions but to me it seem that remington is not using a quality steel & not putting in a good effort to build a quality product unless you spend over a G note on a new rifle. as for me if I could afford a nice high end Remington I would buy one or better yet get a very nice PGW timberwolf :p way out of my league
 
Have you decided on a caliber yet?

If you get a .223, you want at least a 1-9" twist, but it's really nice if you can get a twist faster than 1-9". I realize this will severely limit your selection, but you just can't be assured that a 9" twist will stabilize the 80+ grain bullets that are really the first choice for long range shooting.

Other good choices would be 6BR or .308Win.

Get yourself set up to make your own match ammo, if you aren't already.
 
rnbra-shooter said:
Have you decided on a caliber yet?

If you get a .223, you want at least a 1-9" twist, but it's really nice if you can get a twist faster than 1-9". I realize this will severely limit your selection, but you just can't be assured that a 9" twist will stabilize the 80+ grain bullets that are really the first choice for long range shooting.

Other good choices would be 6BR or .308Win.

Get yourself set up to make your own match ammo, if you aren't already.
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leaning towards a 308. a 223 would be cheaper on ammo, but I may way to take this rig hunting, so for the reason I think the 308 is the smarter choice for me. I thought about 6BR, but with the 308 I believe I have more options for buying ammo until I get setup to reload.
 
Yea, don't go 6mmBR unless you are serious about reloading.

Even still, get a reloading setup, even for 308 or 223. It gets expensive fast when you are learning to shoot factory ammo. That and a lot of frustrations with inconsistencies will be resolved with reloading.
 
MagnumPeanut said:
Yea, don't go 6mmBR unless you are serious about reloading.

Even still, get a reloading setup, even for 308 or 223. It gets expensive fast when you are learning to shoot factory ammo. That and a lot of frustrations with inconsistencies will be resolved with reloading.
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I do eventually want to get into reloading, so going with a savage is appealing in case I wanna switch over to another caliber once I do (like the 6br).
 
They'll probably shoot very similar as far as remington vs savage, it will probably depend more on what mood the guy was in when he built it, like any guns, there aren't any two exactly the same from the factory. You could probably save a couple bucks on the savage and a lot of guys love them, but for me, their loose feeling actions and accutrigger aren't my cup of tea.
 
Brocolt said:
where are you located? I own a Savage 10 FCP in .223 I'm a long time Remington fan and personally don't like the newer Remingtons unless your talking about the high end varmint with a HS stocks then I'm all for it. for some reason the Remington 700 SPS and SPS police models just don't seem to be as well made as the Remington of old like the older BDL model pre-90's

I know there still 700 actions but to me it seem that remington is not using a quality steel & not putting in a good effort to build a quality product unless you spend over a G note on a new rifle. as for me if I could afford a nice high end Remington I would buy one or better yet get a very nice PGW timberwolf :p way out of my league
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I'm a long time Remington owner and I'm disappointed in their product offerings the last few years. I do believe you're correct when you say the finnish of the cheaper 700's aren't what they once were but I understand why that's the case.

Remington had to cut costs (and quality) to compete with Savage in the economy (read: volume sales) end of the market. As far as I'm concerned, Rem made a poor decision when it went away from HS Precision to Bell & Carlson.

Triangular barrels and over priced "tacticool" POS stocks are all the rage it would seem. Not for me, I'm afraid. If I need a durable field rifle, I'm sure as Hell not going to cop out and buy substandard components meant for a severe duty rifle. But hey, that's just how I roll.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Savage's offerings over the last few years. Their willingness to listen to their customers and offer something innovative has really impresseed me.

As prices of high quality factory rifles continue to rise, the cost associated with custom projects appear more justifiable in my opinion.
 
I've played around with both, looking for bench type accuracy after modification, and my vote still goes to the Remington, but you'll see me at the bench with both!!
 
Hmmm... I wonder why the poor M70 was left out of this debate. Does no one build a precision rifle on an M70 action? The M700 action has never appealed to me, what with their cheesy extractor and spring plunger ejector. The M70(post 64) has a better extractor but shares the damned spring plunger ejector. As far as Savages go... well a few friends have them and I've even gone as far as re- barreling one for a friend, but I just don't like them. I guess it's just one of those things in life that I can't explain.
 
sako6br said:
Hmmm... I wonder why the poor M70 was left out of this debate. Does no one build a precision rifle on an M70 action? The M700 action has never appealed to me, what with their cheesy extractor and spring plunger ejector. The M70(post 64) has a better extractor but shares the damned spring plunger ejector. As far as Savages go... well a few friends have them and I've even gone as far as re- barreling one for a friend, but I just don't like them. I guess it's just one of those things in life that I can't explain.
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i think the problem with the m70 action is that you can only single shot it by putting the round in the mag. not just dropping it in. that's he problem with control feed actions as opposed to push feed.
 
sako6br said:
Hmmm... I wonder why the poor M70 was left out of this debate. Does no one build a precision rifle on an M70 action? The M700 action has never appealed to me, what with their cheesy extractor and spring plunger ejector. The M70(post 64) has a better extractor but shares the damned spring plunger ejector. As far as Savages go... well a few friends have them and I've even gone as far as re- barreling one for a friend, but I just don't like them. I guess it's just one of those things in life that I can't explain.
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honestly, I haven't read much about the m70 and the aftermarket doesn't seem to me, to have embraced it as much as the 700 or even the savage. That kinda turned me away from it...
 
My first target rifle ('93) was built on a Winchester Model 70. It's no longer my main target rifle, but I have it set up as a .308 F-Class rifle. Had it out to the range this past week shooting at some angled steel plates (designing a bullet protector for a microphone sensor array).

M70s are similar to Rem 700s, in some ways they are "better" and in some ways they are "worse". The Rem 700 has by *far* the advantage in aftermarket parts, that is definitely an advantage for the 700. Generally the M70 aftermarket is adequate though (I had the choice of two or three one-piece scope rails for an M70, whereas there are probably a dozen choices for a Rem700).

The M70 has a square flat bottom and its recoil lug is part of the receiver, whereas the 700 (and Savage 110) use a separate recoil lug that is sandwiched between the barrel and the action. All sorts of religious opinions abound on which is better and which is demonous, of course, but the truth is that really good rifles can be built with each system.

Post-64 Win M70s are "push feed", with a sliding-plate extractor (arguably on of their advantages over the 700's extractor), and a spring plunger ejector. In '97 or so, WInchester re-introduced the pre-64 Mauser-style controlled round feed, but kept the push feed design on a few of their models (their target-oriented ones, IIRC). I don't know if you *must* load a controlled round feed M70 from the magazine or not (some Mauser designs will not let the extractor snap over the case head, but many are chamfered so that this is possible).

The spring plunger can be removed if you wish, so you just pick the empty out of your action when you've fired. I had intended to do that but was initially foiled by the roll-pin, and before I got around to removing it I learned how to hold my hand so that the empty case popped out into my hand as I opened the bolt.

If you want a target-grade action, you need to assume that both the M70 and the Rem700 are "crap" from the factory, until proven otherwise or fixed. Some accurizing operations are easier on the 700, since it has a tubular receiver. To be honest, this "crap" verdict really only matters if what you want is a real F-Class rifle, in which case buying a custom action might even be cheaper than fully accurizing a Remchester (don't get me wrong, a Rem 700 *can* be made *fully* as accurate as the very, very best custom actions - but it can take a lot of time and/or money to do so, whereas the good custom actions are expected to be *right* the moment you take them out of the box).
 
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