Accurizing Savage MKII

cbh560

CGN Regular
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Location
Martensville, SK
As stated in the title I am looking to accurize my Savage MKII BSEV. It shoots fairly well, but I'd love it to shoot tighter. The muzzle is in great shape and has a recessed target crown. Does bedding a .22 make much of a difference? The barrel is free floated in factory stock (Boyd's Evolution stock). I have torqued everything to spec. Is there any procedures/alterations that a smith might be able to do to the bolt/action/barrel, etc. that would help out?
 
How is it shooting now and what ammo are you using?

Have you played around with various types of ammo?

Have a look at the barrel pins to make sure they are not stuck out and contacting the stock inside, if they are you can take a dremmel and remove a little of the stock where the contact is.

I don't know much about bedding but a few guys have done it and it seems to help provided you are capable of shooting that well.
 
It shoots fairly well now. I have tried all the various ammos available locally. Some cheap stuff and some slighty more pricy stuff. I have yet to try anything like the lapua or SK. If I do my part I can make 5 shot groups within approximately an inch (don't have any of my data on hand at work) at 50 yards. It has put cheap Win. Wildcats into a ragged hole at 25 yds. Seems like it is perpetually breezy to windy here so I never get a calm day either. However, it will put full 10 shot clips into a soda can at 100 yds regardless of cheap ammo and wind anytime. I will have a look at the barrel pins this evening. But if I recall last time I had it apart they looked fine.

I've been thinking of bedding. also trying some better ammo when I can

Anybody ever heard of blueprinting a rimfire action?
 
Try some SK standard plus and some SK Rifle Match and you may be surprised at the difference it will make to your groups.

It's your choice, but I wouldn't fool with anything until you see what some good ammo does. I'm not sure what you're after accuracy wise, but for me if I can get 22lr at 1MOA or better, I'm happy.

Do a search for Mystic Player in the rimfire section, I believe he did some testing/bedding with a Mark II and had some great results.
 
Try some SK standard plus and some SK Rifle Match and you may be surprised at the difference it will make to your groups.

It's your choice, but I wouldn't fool with anything until you see what some good ammo does. I'm not sure what you're after accuracy wise, but for me if I can get 22lr at 1MOA or better, I'm happy.

Do a search for Mystic Player in the rimfire section, I believe he did some testing/bedding with a Mark II and had some great results.

I am definitely going to try some of the ammos you have mentioned. I, however, shoot .22 a fair amount, and the price on SK does add up when I shoot several hundred rounds per session. Obviously not as expensive as centerfire, but that is why I shoot rimfire regularly. Unless you have a secret source of cheap SK....? I am mostly looking for ideas to look into, not going to jump on them right away and do it. Just hoping that there might be some easy (relatively speaking) fixes to tighten up groups with cheap ammo.
 
For the most part, the most common factor in 22lr accuracy is ammo. Do what you like with the rifle, but cheap ammo will usually always be the limiting factor. You may get lucky and find a particular cheap bulk ammo your rifle likes, but there is no sub for good quality ammo.

By the way, SK ammo is not all that expensive.
 
Try Federal 710, 712, or 510. All (3) of those shoot (10) shot groups at under 1" @ 50 yds. Price ranges from $3.49-$3.99 for a box of (50) rds. My favorite is the 710.

I've never tried the SK ammo, however, the Lapua Standard Club that I currently have is slightly more accurate than the Federal listed above.

All depends on what you want it to do. If I was going to shoot just for plinking/general target practice, then I'd buy the Federal. If I was using it in a match or situation that I required the utmost accuracy, then I'd use the Lapua.
 
After trying many types of ammo, in general I found that my Savage likes the 40gr better.

Winchester Dynapoint in my BTVLSS will give me reliable 2 inch groups at 100 meters, I managed a 1 inch 5 shot group once last week in my whole afternoon session. I was super happy.

Next step for me is to get some SK Rifle match and work on my techniques to shrink those down.
 
I've been reading about the accurizing package at Savage Gunsmithing on rimfirecentral.
http://www.savagegunsmithing.com/Accurizing_Savage_Rifles.html
And wondering about the hassle of shipping a rifle to him.
Savage also builds high quality Rimfire Rifles. We offer these as well as Center-fire Rifles with our Special Offer .

Our NEW Accurizing Package of a Savage Rimfire Rifle now includes Re-crowning of the Barrel, a Trigger Job, Lapping the Barrel and Polishing the Chamber, glas-bedding and a 15 - 20 shots firing w/target.

** Please note that we have changed the package to include Barrel Lapping and a 15 - 20 Shot Firing w/target.

The cost for the NEW Rimfire Accurizing Package with New heavy gauge Bottom Iron ..................... $225.00
 
I've been thinking of bedding. also trying some better ammo when I can

Anybody ever heard of blueprinting a rimfire action?

Properly done bedding will never make accuracy worse. Depending on the OEM inletting, it may not improve things but it won't hurt.

Some people do blueprint rimfire actions. The headspace on every rimfire I have seen is set with the recess in the bolt face. Some people will remove material from the face to get the recess a precise desired dimension.

Better ammo is probably the most cost effective thing to try, with rimfires being so picky about your ammo choice.


Do a search for Mystic Player in the rimfire section, I believe he did some testing/bedding with a Mark II and had some great results.

Jerry changed his userid to Mystic Precision a while back, search on that instead.

Edit - This is the thread referred to: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=531405


Mark
 
Try Federal 710, 712, or 510. All (3) of those shoot (10) shot groups at under 1" @ 50 yds. Price ranges from $3.49-$3.99 for a box of (50) rds. My favorite is the 710.

I've never tried the SK ammo, however, the Lapua Standard Club that I currently have is slightly more accurate than the Federal listed above.

All depends on what you want it to do. If I was going to shoot just for plinking/general target practice, then I'd buy the Federal. If I was using it in a match or situation that I required the utmost accuracy, then I'd use the Lapua.

Is there any particular place that you buy this online? or locally? All the shops around here seem to be somewhat "challenged" when it comes to stocking any kind of quality .22 ammo.
 
Is there any particular place that you buy this online? or locally? All the shops around here seem to be somewhat "challenged" when it comes to stocking any kind of quality .22 ammo.

All of the Federal ammo I mentioned is available at Cambodian Tire - at least in Nova Scotia it is.

The Lapua (now SK) ammo is really going to depend on what your local gun shop (if any) carry it. Luckily, Peter Dobson from Hirsch Precision lives about an hour away from me so I can pick it up whenever I need it.

What version of a MkII do you have? Mine's a pre-Accutrigger BV model.
 
Depending upon how much accuracy you want, and how much you want to spend, there are several options.

Trigger control and adjustments is very important. An aftermarket trigger, like a Rifle-Basix or such should help.

You could have the barrel shortened slightly at the rear, and a match chamber reamed into it.

Also, you can segregate your ammo. The rim thickness varies. You could buy a rim thickness guage, and find out what thickness your rifle prefers.
.
 
What version of a MkII do you have? Mine's a pre-Accutrigger BV model.

Mine is a BSEV with Accu-trigger. Bought it for the SS components and fluted barrel. Planning on replacing the evolution stock with a Tacticool. I have a Mueller 4.5-14X APT on top right now in Leupold PRW rings on EGW pic rail.

I would like to put a Millet 4-16x tactical on top,and a new bolt knob when I have the spare cash, but I am saving every penny for a 2 month trip at the moment.
 
At first, which groups do you have right now? Which ammo you use, which target and sight and how do you shoot - off hand or from the bench-rest? Also, what are conditions - is there any wind, etc?

I really don't think that you need to change or upgrade anything, may be except of the ammo (if you are using really cheap bulk stuff). Try subsonic (target) ammo.
However I haven't seen much difference between Federal Champion (supersonic, $4-5 per box) and Eley Tenex (best of the best - $20 per box of 50)

Yes, 1 kg trigger is not really nice, but it should not be *that* bad in any case...
 
At first, which groups do you have right now? Which ammo you use, which target and sight and how do you shoot - off hand or from the bench-rest? Also, what are conditions - is there any wind, etc?

I really don't think that you need to change or upgrade anything, may be except of the ammo (if you are using really cheap bulk stuff). Try subsonic (target) ammo.
However I haven't seen much difference between Federal Champion (supersonic, $4-5 per box) and Eley Tenex (best of the best - $20 per box of 50)

Yes, 1 kg trigger is not really nice, but it should not be *that* bad in any case...

Right now it groups average from 3/4" to 1.5" at 50yds. Ammo type definitely played a part in this. I have tried several types that were available locally:
-Rem 22 Target
-CCI Stinger (opened up to 3-4")
-American Eagle
-Rem. 22 Subsonic
-Win. Super X
-Win. Wildcats.

Yet to try:
-Win Super X Super Speed HP
-Blazer
-RWS Rifle Match

The Rem. 22 Subsonic gave me some of my best groups averaging about 3/4" 5 shot groups at 50 yards. Surprisingly the AE wasn't too far behind. This was done on a sunny day with gusts of wind from 10 o'clock position 10-20km/h and shooting off a bipod on a bench.

I still need to play with adjusting the accu-trigger, as I bought the rifle used (practically new, about 200 rounds down the tube) and it didn't come with the handy little tool.
 
Give the Blazers a try. They are the best grouping "cheap" 22lr ammo my rifle will shoot. (Mark II TR)

I would imagine if you give some SK ammo (or other quality ammo) a try, you will be shocked at how much a difference it will make. Don't be surprised if the 5 shot groups are all touching or overlapping. The problem is, once you do this you will never want to go back to bulk ammo again.
 
I find CCI Blazer to be the best of the bulk ammo. I've tried basically everything CT has in stock, and the Blazer can do 1inch @ 100y in my Mark IIf.

I'm talking out of my ass here, but I do believe Blazers require you to clean the gun more often than other brands. I noticed the accuracy do a nosedive from 1-2inches to 2-3inches after 1000 rounds. Looking down the barrel it was just absolutely coated in wax. I talked to the caretaker of my range, who actively participates in the precision silhoutte competitions and he said the guys usually find accuracy downgrades after 1500-2000 rounds, and no one shoots competition on a clean barrel, they usually put 50-250 rounds down the pipe to season it a bit before starting.

^^ You may want to confirm that info though.
 
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