-12 Christmas day...Another Savage that shoots!

shelby78

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So I have now had my Savage LRP in 6.5 Creedmoor for too long without being able to play. If you read the optics forum you will see that I ordered a Bushnell elite 6500 4.5-30-50 for my Creedmoor. The problem was when I got the scope last week I wasen't happy with the clarity so I sent it back. Before I had the 6500 the only extra scope I have is a old Bushnell wide angle 3-9-40. I had it on the Creedmoor just to try it when I got it and burned thru a box and a half of factory Hornady.

My Redding comp dies and some Berger 140's staring at me for far too long. It has been eating away at me to see what this gun can really do. With a whole ton of new to me stuff I have accumulated thru the year it was time to test it all out. I got a better rcbs single stage press and a powder drop. I'm used to a worn out lee press and using scoops and a scale for powder.

Finally couldn't take it and made up some loads today with all the new toys. Hodgdons website doesn't list loads for Berger 140's so I used a rough guide with another 140 weight load. I have tons of Varget as it has been my fav for most guns. Its probly not the best powder for the 140's but it seems to work so far.

I think my fav part was using a powder drop/measure. Holy timesaver! Normally I scoop a load then add more to the scale pan to get the weight I wanted. It was very slow to load this way but very accurate.

Today I made up a dummy round to figure where I wanted to seat my bullets. Went with a bit of jam, and even with the long 140's they still mag feed.

So its Christmas day 3pm and I decide to head out to the range in -12 weather with my new load. Keep in mind my Savage is wearing a vintage 3-9 "TV" wide angle scope. Knowing that I won't be able to be very precise I brought some large targets.

I checked my zero at 50 yards with a few rounds to verify. Then I fired one head shot and one body shot at 110 yards on my man target. I don't use a spotting scope and I couldn't see the holes so it was a walk down to check.

Both shots were roughly where they should be so I walked back and tried a group. When I fired my group I tried to center the head in my scope for every shot but its not easy for me with low power optics. Still having no idea what the 3 rounds did it was a walk downrange again.

Looking at the pic you can see that the gun should shoot once I do some load work and get my Sightron.

Keep in mind when I got the gun a few weeks ago I only ran a few dry patches thru it. It has now seen 30 factory rounds and 14 reloads with no cleaning. I also don't plan to clean it until it won't shoot.

I was in a rush so the pics suck as I used my phone and its in a lifeproof case that's filthy. I know i'll get the "now do it 5 more times" and I plan to when I get some decent glass in a week. This was only a fun run to see what it could do. No load work, no seating depth changes.

Threw a pic in of a factory hornady round compared to my 140 berger load. In the next few days I also plan to bed the gun as I have some devcon left from my last bed job.








 
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Post an update when everything gets in order. Rifle looks good for sure.

Your Sightron will definitely be an improvement over the Trashco. What were you aiming at? The head in general or did you have a specific aiming point on the target?
 
Post an update when everything gets in order. Rifle looks good for sure.

Your Sightron will definitely be an improvement over the Trashco. What were you aiming at? The head in general or did you have a specific aiming point on the target?

Cmon now.. This bushnell is such top shelf stuff that when its -12 out the magnification adjustment doesn't work lol. I was trying to aim at the center of the head as best I could. I used the crosshairs but not the center of them if that makes sense.
 
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