....just another savage build thread

Hotwheels81

Hotwheels81

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.....but I will keep it slightly suspenseful ;)

The precision forum has been a little bland lately no doubt due to decent weather in most of the country and lots of folks out actually shooting instead of sitting around thinking up diabolical instruments of long range perfection.

On the other hand some of us got our rifles off to the smith a bit late for early season bragging rights for one reason or another and they are just starting to trickle out prior to the big fall rush on hunting rifles...

I dropped a Savage FCXP 111 off at Rocky Mountain Rifles AKA Coralanes about 3 weeks ago for a little work and after a phone call today I was assured it would be ready very very soon :cool: (no pressure if you guys are reading this :D )

Now a typical way these threads always start is with a picture of a completed rifle or a snazzy action photo on a white towel followed by some banter about "this should be in the hunting forum"... Nah that's been done too many times... Let's start off with a picture of something else and a question to all of you who have some hands on in this area...


Q: This rifle is being chamberd in 300WM, I will be using Winchester brass and Federal primers with RL22 or H1000 but time will tell and maybe the rifle won't care for my powder choices, that's not the question...

For my brass prep I have started with redding dies and FL sized a handfull of 1F Winchester cases, trimmed to length with my trusty Lee cutter and cleaned up the necks a bit with my Hornady neck turner... Aside from reaming/uniforming my primer pockets and checking concentricity of the loaded rounds is there anything else I should be preparing to do?...

This is not going to be an F-class rifle But it will be lobbing 208-210gr bullets out past 600M on a regular basis and I'm very new to going out that far and want to make the most out of a short barrel life and expensive components.

I know I'm at the mercy of the reamer that's used so I'm not loading anything up yet... But I'm getting the ball rolling :D


Some #### for y'all

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Hotwheels81 said:
This is not going to be an F-class rifle But it will be lobbing 208-210gr bullets out past 600M on a regular basis and I'm very new to going out that far and want to make the most out of a short barrel life and expensive components.
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600M is barely a chip shot for a .300 Winchester. I can appreciate why you'd want something with a little more velocity than a .308 Winchester. Was the .30/06 Springfield ever a consideration for you? The Springfield could have given you near-magnum performance with a significantly better barrel life expectency.

Regarding your comment about people saying that certain threads should be in the hunting forum. There's a good reason for this and has nothing to do with people starting out with a Stevens action to build a custom target rifle. It has everything to do with guys buying sporter weight hunting rifles and adding a new sling, stock pad, paint job, and scope and trying to pass it off as a precision rifle "build". Perhaps, that's not the case here or maybe it is. Since you've neglected to mention anything significant about the actual work to be done to your hunting rifle, only you know for sure.
 
Was the .30/06 Springfield ever a consideration for you? The Springfield could have given you near-magnum performance with a significantly better barrel life expectency.
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I did consider it briefly as well as a .338 edge... I have always wanted a 300WM so it's a personal choice not neccesarily a logical one :D


Perhaps, that's not the case here or maybe it is. Since you've neglected to mention anything significant about the actual work to be done to your hunting rifle, only you know for sure.
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Oh it belongs in the precision forum, even if it's a long range hunting rifle it still fits in here more so then the hunting forum... But would a guy really want to hunt with a 12-16lb rifle? Hmmmmm.... That's an entirely different can of worms.
 
From the pics of your brass I would say you could neck turn down further toward the shoulder. I turn until I'm just into the neck/shoulder junction of the case (go to far and you'll bugger the case)...helps reduce brass flow over time that can contribute towards the dreaded doughnut.
 
Ditto on the neck turning suggestion. Also, try volume sorting your brass by using some ball powder., you may be surprised and sort them by +/- 0.5 grains weighed charge for each piece of brass! Consider having your smith throat the barell to your intended bullet (mine looks for some dummy rounds I have prepped up to custom throat the barrel).

And some very good hearing protection doubled with plugs for that chubby thingy......it will whack the crap out of your hearing. Adding weight to your build could be your friend instead of that brake.

My two bits....
 
Duck_Hunter said:
From the pics of your brass I would say you could neck turn down further toward the shoulder. I turn until I'm just into the neck/shoulder junction of the case (go to far and you'll bugger the case)...helps reduce brass flow over time that can contribute towards the dreaded doughnut.
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Ya that's what I was thinking, most online info says to stop short of the shoulder a bit so I was not 100% sure... All I did was turn them to around .0130 to round them out... Most have low spots still!

When I get the rifle (soon :D ) I will have to see what the neck diameter in the chamber is and go from there anyway...

Thanks for the tip, it cleared that question rite up :D

Consider having your smith throat the barell to your intended bullet (mine looks for some dummy rounds I have prepped up to custom throat the barrel).
Click to expand...

I informed the man when I dropped it off it would be fed a diet of 210gr VLD's or the 208gr Amax... I'm not worried about it... I'm reasonably sure it will handle most bullets Far better then the guy who's steering em...


And some very good hearing protection doubled with plugs for that chubby thingy......it will whack the crap out of your hearing. Adding weight to your build could be your friend instead of that brake.
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Trouble with that is I will end up packing this rifle into a few remote shooting spots, I also have to pack food and shelter for a couple days... I diddent want a 20lb bench gun so I lightend it up in a few areas... The Chubby is supposed to be a bit kinder to the shooter then the TRG type brakes but regardless I do have and will use some quality ear defenders!


Another tease....
The Choate on the right was picked for this build :D

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Ugh... I need a bigger rifle case... This thing barely fits across the back seat of my lady's car never mind getting it in a 54" hard case!!

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A few more details...

Somewhere between my truck spewing out the contents of the oil pan on the hiway, a friends wedding and a loooong drive to Dawson creek I managed to get a trip to the range in today :)

Here's the skinny on the build

Rifle started life as a Savage 111 FCXP 300WM $350 package rifle from wholesale sports.

It now sports a 8-32x56 SIII Sightron
Weaver tactical rings
Talley tactical 0moa one piece base
Rifle basics Sav1 trigger
Savage oversize SS bolt knob

Barrel is a PAC-Nor super match 1-10 sendero contour matte finish (she's nut less as well), with the much hyped rat-worx machine / Chris Werries "Big Chubby" muzzle brake.

I put exactly 8rnds of 180gr winchester PP I had left thru it this afternoon to test function and confirm the bore sighting, a swab between all shots showed a bit more blue then I would like to see but time will tell if it's going to be an issue.

How's the recoil?.... It's a kitten... Softer then a .308 hunting rifle by a big stretch and I can keep a decent sight picture thru recoil at 18x... Zero muzzle rise... That brake does its job and the extra barrel weight compliments it well.

How's the glass? Perfect! 700M @ 32x seems like I can reach out and touch the target boards... Thank you Jerry!

I am loading up some 210vlds tonite to try for grouping tommorow... Will let y'all know more when I get home from the range.
 
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Yup... Thinking on it for the afternoon... Double checked everything and it's all tight...

These were some FC cases with Fed 215 primers I had under my bench for the last few months... Going to neck size em and try again during the week... Also going to push over 80gr and see what happens... Might try some RL22 as well... Lots of options on the table :)
 
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