Bought a Savage... Did I make a mistake?

T

Theron

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Prince George, BC
So I've always been a fan of Tikka. I love the actions, the accuracy, the fact they are made in Finland. Everything about them just works really well. I have a 308 Varmint stainless in an MDT chassis and the thing is that a laser beam.

I wanted to try out something with a bit more effective range.. I found a Savage in 300 win mag to fit the bill. I've never owned a Savage.. I didn't like the action a huge amount. Nothing really excited me about them. This one is used, from a guy who had it built with a Timney trigger, Shilen Varmint barrel, and put in an MDT HS3 chassis.

What's everyone's take on Savage in the precision game? My end goal is to make use of the 1500 meter range I've got out here.. I'm hoping I'll still be able to hit the paper for some decent groups at that range.

Thoughts?

Josh
 
I only have a couple of inexpensive savages. An axis in .223 that I paid about $279 for and an axis II in .243 that I won in a raffle. The .223 wears a viper 4-16x44 and the .243 has its stock Weaver Kaspa. Both shoot great and my wife has claimed the .243 as her hunting rifle.
The stocks have mould marks and the magazines are not as nice to use as many others, and its hard to single load the .223 especially, but they are very accurate rifles.

A close friend has a Savage based f-class rifle and it’s boringly accurate. He has a targets in his office of 10 .5 moa groups on the same piece of paper and one beautiful 2 shot group on target with a flier 4 inches away. If you look closely, you can see the guts of the fly he killed with that .308 on shot 3.
 
I bought savage's because I could work on them myself. I do barrel changes, bolt head changes, other parts like bolt handle and body. It wasn't until I started shooting PRS that I realized how much work you need to put into them if you want a reliable gun for on the clock shooting. If you are just target shooting, not rushed, it will be fine. They are usually accurate rifles, but may not eject a cartridge every time.
 
No, but as DonnieM stated, extraction/ejection can be a bit spotty, and if your fingers are a bit uncooperative the Accutrigger might give you some grief. My rifle was terrible for extraction/ejection, but Savage (Westfield not Lakefield) sent me a new extractor/ejector/springs/ball, it's much better, but still not confidence inspiring. I had a 110 action in 300 WM years ago, the only thing I recall was that I wasn't too fond of shooting it more than 40-50 times in a sitting (30" barrel, weighed 16 lbs). I like them for reasons already mentioned, you can be your own gunsmith with a good vice and a handful of tools.
 
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Buying a savage... no
buying 300wm for long range paper... possibly lol.

Savages are the simple mans long rifle, easy to use, hard to break and accuracy is just built in there. It’s not a tikka but you didn’t (or I hope not) pay s tikka price either...

300wm I’m not sure there is anything I personally would want to shoot less, especially at paper and at distance. Outside of moose in brush at 400+ I’m not sure I’d be like damn I wish I had a 300wm with me. At 1500y on paper especially when I need to practice to get there, why take the abuse when there are better options for lighter hitting or heavier hitting at the distance with less abuse coming your way.

Again your purchase is a fine one, specially for the assumed price for what you got. In the future if your looking for 1500y paper puncher I’d look at the following.

6.5 creed (super light kick and will get there) ammo and barrel come into play here
338 Lapua (expensive but it’s almost like cheating) my savage 110 was cheap on EE
50 cal (if your gonna make a hole make a big one) nothing more to say ; )


End of the day, get out and shoot it, savages are ment to be run hard so run that bolt hard and you will be fine.
 
Thanks for the feedback.. Makes me a bit more confident in the purchase.

I have to find some powder and bullets now to reload.. What's everyone's favorites? I know Sierra Matchkings are pretty common for 308 Win... But I'm guessing h4895 is a no go for 300 win mag.
 
You already bought it, so I'm not sure what the purpose of seeking confirmation on the internet serves.

Now that it's in your hands, only you can determine if it suits your purposes. If it shoots well, functions fine and does what you want, then who cares what people on the internet say. If it doesn't, well then sell it and move on.
 
I love the savage platform, got two completed builds here in 308.
As mentioned tune for extraction, and even then don’t expect brass to fly very far.
One is in an MDT chassis and the other in an HS precision M24 stock, don’t let anyone say Savage are innaccurate because they are not.
Even with a factory barrel they fare well.
The MDT build one with it’s custom barrel, i am working a 1/3 moa load for 10 shot group at 300M.
Didn’t get to it yet but can sub 1/2 moa 10 shots at 300M (prone with harris bipod), so I’m getting there!

Just ordered a Bighorn Origin action.
At least it’s got savage barrel threads and got floating bolt head.

I “expect” a nice action with savage big selling features to me, bolt head and barrel thread.
 
I have had and still have lost of Savages stock and custom if you read up on the bolt head you will see why they are damn accurate out of the box. You dont have much left to your Savage besides the action which will do you fine, the caliber on the other hand is not the choice for me anyway. Try some lighter bullets to reduce recoil and have fun with it.
 
I built a 6.5 x 284 Norma off a savage action, its been crazy reliable and shoots incredibly well with hand loads I will say that I don't LOVE the savage action, its ok, it does its job but with that floating bolt head it just feels different. I have a tikka in 223 and that action is waaaay better. Just as accurate too, however I paid $300 for the whole rifle for that savage and I paid $900 for the tikka so... I can't complain. once I shoot out this barrel I think I'm going to put a different action in it anyways.
 
Either you love them or hate them it seems. They usually aren't pretty but they usually shoot better than what you paid for them. Hope it works well for you.
 
I sold my Tikka T3x to try a Savage Axis in 6.5 creedmoor. I could "off" myself. I never fired it and it is off for a bolt binding issue to Savage Ontario Center to get looked at. I never realized that the bolt was an issue with them. I tried to save a buck on a budget rifle but in hind sight got screwed.
 
They arent pretty but its hard to overlook their accuracy vs price. I have 2 and don't plan on getting rid of them anytime soon. Looking for a cheap savage action to build off currently.
 
Buying a Savage rifle is just fine, many people like them and don't have any problems with them. As for .300 WM for long range shooting, that's fine too, just don't expect your barrel to last that long.

I did something similar to this a while back and bought a Remington 700 Sendero SFII in .300 WM. The idea was to have a dual purpose heavy hitting hunting rifle that could also be used for long range shooting. Things were great at first. I loaded VLD bullets .040" from the lands and had great results. 400 rounds in accuracy dropped down a bit. I then realized the lands had significantly eroded and I could not longer load close to the lands at mag length.

Many precision shooters have reported a .300 Win Mag barrel is good for accuracy for about 1000 rounds. The .300 Win Mag is fine for long distance precision shooting, just be ready to rebarrel more often that with other calibres.
 
I currently own Tikka T3 in 204 and T3x with a Krieger barrel - they shoot very well - recently picked up a Savage 93r17 for range fun and with Hornady 17g bullets it shoots very accurate for a rim fire. Nothing wrong with a Savage the dollars you save you can buy good glass
 
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