"A Tale of Two Savages"
Not all Savage rimfires are created equal as I recently discovered.
I recently acquired a Savage Mk 2 BV from Wholesale Sports back in January. I have been looking for one of these rifles for close to a year now and finally located one when I had the funds to buy one.
I was quite looking forward to taking it out for the first time to try out a variety of different ammo that had proved accurate in my Mk2 BV that I purchased a couple of years ago. So, I finally made it to the range last week with it. What a great disappointment it was. The best accuracy I got was 3" 10-shot groups @ 50 yds. with CCI Stingers, CCI Mini-Mags, and Winchester X-Pert ammunition.Some ammo literally patterned like a shotgun! 10-shot groups literally measured in feet - not inches.
So, a bit deflated I went home and tried to see if anything obvious was wrong. I thoroughly cleaned the barrel and noticed flakes of lead build-up comming out of the barrel as I swabbed the bore with solvent. This obviously wasn't a good sign but I didn't want to make any assumptions that the barrel was at fault.
I took the barrelled action out of the stock and re-tightened the action screws. I thoroughly cleaned the barrel and noticed flakes of lead build-up comming out of the barrel as I swabbed the bore with solvent. I checked the scope rings and bases for tightness and everything was fine there. I know the scope is fine because it resided on my Mk2 BV for a few years and there have been no issues with it.
I re-visited the range today with the FV-SR, hoping that by tightening everything up and re-installing the scope & bases, I had eliminated the acuracy issues I was having. I took my Mk2 BV along for the ride to get a head-to-head acuracy comparisson against the FV-SR.
It was a cool day, approximately 9 deg. C and the wind was steady and at times brisk with gusts at times that had to be near 25km/hr.
Well, I had no luck on improving the accuracy of the riflle by cleaning and re-installing/tightening everything. I fired 50-shots of Winchester Dynapoints ot of the FV-SR (below) and achieved a level of accuracy I never knew possible with a rimfire. Absolutely abismal performance.
Now, I was anxious to try my tried and true Mk2 BV to get a comparisson. I fired (50) consecutive shots of (3) different ammo that has been accurate for me in the past. I didn't use Dynapoints in the Mk2 BV for one simple reason. The BV is notoriously finicky extracting spent cases of a variety of ammo including Dynapoints. I can't go (5) rounds before I have to push the cases out with a cleaning rod and that my friends is a complete drag.
First was Federal 710, a 40gr. copper plated RN bullet. I'ts the most accurate ammo I've fired to date from the rifle and it shows. The horizontal dispersion was 2.115" and the vertical 1.017". It had the best vertical numbers of the bunch.
Second, came Federal 510 which is the lead version of 710. It's accuracy closely mirrored the 710, though I had a number of flyers that I hadn't experienced in the past with 710. It's horizontal measured 2.593" and its vertical 1.872". If it weren't for the flyers I suspect the accuracy numbers would have been much better.
Lastly, was CCI Standard Velocity. It's a 40gr. lead RN bullet similar to the Federal 510. It had the best horizontal dispersion of 2.048". It's vertical was 1.602" If it weren't for a few flyers, I think it would have the best of the bunch.
Overall, the Federal 710 was most consistent ammo of the (3). Unfortunately, I don't know if Federal is producing it anymore as Canadian Tire is no longer carrying it. When they were selling the last of it on store shelves, I went to at least (4) different CT locations to buy all they had. I have less than a thousand at this point and it won't last long.
As you can suspect, the FV-SR is going to find its way back to Savage for warranty repair. I'm all but certain there's issues with either the chamber or the rifling itself. Either way, it's been a disappointment so far. If by any chance Savage won't honour their warranty, I may re-barrel or just shoot it as it is. If that happens, I'll no doubt hate pulling the trigger on every round knowing it should have been right to begin with.
Not all Savage rimfires are created equal as I recently discovered.
I recently acquired a Savage Mk 2 BV from Wholesale Sports back in January. I have been looking for one of these rifles for close to a year now and finally located one when I had the funds to buy one.
I was quite looking forward to taking it out for the first time to try out a variety of different ammo that had proved accurate in my Mk2 BV that I purchased a couple of years ago. So, I finally made it to the range last week with it. What a great disappointment it was. The best accuracy I got was 3" 10-shot groups @ 50 yds. with CCI Stingers, CCI Mini-Mags, and Winchester X-Pert ammunition.Some ammo literally patterned like a shotgun! 10-shot groups literally measured in feet - not inches.
So, a bit deflated I went home and tried to see if anything obvious was wrong. I thoroughly cleaned the barrel and noticed flakes of lead build-up comming out of the barrel as I swabbed the bore with solvent. This obviously wasn't a good sign but I didn't want to make any assumptions that the barrel was at fault.
I took the barrelled action out of the stock and re-tightened the action screws. I thoroughly cleaned the barrel and noticed flakes of lead build-up comming out of the barrel as I swabbed the bore with solvent. I checked the scope rings and bases for tightness and everything was fine there. I know the scope is fine because it resided on my Mk2 BV for a few years and there have been no issues with it.
I re-visited the range today with the FV-SR, hoping that by tightening everything up and re-installing the scope & bases, I had eliminated the acuracy issues I was having. I took my Mk2 BV along for the ride to get a head-to-head acuracy comparisson against the FV-SR.
It was a cool day, approximately 9 deg. C and the wind was steady and at times brisk with gusts at times that had to be near 25km/hr.
Well, I had no luck on improving the accuracy of the riflle by cleaning and re-installing/tightening everything. I fired 50-shots of Winchester Dynapoints ot of the FV-SR (below) and achieved a level of accuracy I never knew possible with a rimfire. Absolutely abismal performance.
Now, I was anxious to try my tried and true Mk2 BV to get a comparisson. I fired (50) consecutive shots of (3) different ammo that has been accurate for me in the past. I didn't use Dynapoints in the Mk2 BV for one simple reason. The BV is notoriously finicky extracting spent cases of a variety of ammo including Dynapoints. I can't go (5) rounds before I have to push the cases out with a cleaning rod and that my friends is a complete drag.
First was Federal 710, a 40gr. copper plated RN bullet. I'ts the most accurate ammo I've fired to date from the rifle and it shows. The horizontal dispersion was 2.115" and the vertical 1.017". It had the best vertical numbers of the bunch.
Second, came Federal 510 which is the lead version of 710. It's accuracy closely mirrored the 710, though I had a number of flyers that I hadn't experienced in the past with 710. It's horizontal measured 2.593" and its vertical 1.872". If it weren't for the flyers I suspect the accuracy numbers would have been much better.
Lastly, was CCI Standard Velocity. It's a 40gr. lead RN bullet similar to the Federal 510. It had the best horizontal dispersion of 2.048". It's vertical was 1.602" If it weren't for a few flyers, I think it would have the best of the bunch.
Overall, the Federal 710 was most consistent ammo of the (3). Unfortunately, I don't know if Federal is producing it anymore as Canadian Tire is no longer carrying it. When they were selling the last of it on store shelves, I went to at least (4) different CT locations to buy all they had. I have less than a thousand at this point and it won't last long.
As you can suspect, the FV-SR is going to find its way back to Savage for warranty repair. I'm all but certain there's issues with either the chamber or the rifling itself. Either way, it's been a disappointment so far. If by any chance Savage won't honour their warranty, I may re-barrel or just shoot it as it is. If that happens, I'll no doubt hate pulling the trigger on every round knowing it should have been right to begin with.
What ammo are you using to accomplish such a feat? I wanna buy lots of it to try.
