Savage Mk.II Project Rifle *56K Death* - UPDATE Range Report in Post #12

[mmattockx]

I have been working on a project to build a budget tackdriver rimfire, using a Savage Mk.II F for the action. The inspiration for this came from this thread on Rimfire Central:

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241110

After reading it through and getting inspired, I found an older pre-accutrigger Mk.II F model (the skinny barrel, open sighted version) for $100. Then I ordered a Shilen 77/22 match barrel from Mystic Precision, (16" long, 0.920" no taper) for $250. A thumbhole stock from Boyds was ordered, I caught a clearance deal and paid $79 for a prefinished model in pepper laminate.

The 77/22 barrel appears to have identical tenon details to the 10/22, except it has two extractor grooves where the 10/22 has one. Since the Mk.II needs two grooves, I ordered the 77/22 model to save that headache. The Ruger tenon is also ~0.385" too short to properly work with the Savage receiver. The tenon OD is very slightly too big as well, by about 0.002". I had a machinist friend move the barrel shoulder back the required amount and I used his lathe to polish the tenon down to a slip fit into the receiver. The barrel was bonded into the receiver using Loctite 609 bearing setting compound.

I had a screw up when removing the original barrel and marred the face of the receiver while pounding on the barrel. The machinist trued the face of the receiver up and took a very light cut on the OD at the end to clean up my ham-fistedness. You can see the bare metal at the front end of the receiver in the pics. Once everything is done and sorted, I will touch that up with some cold bluing.

I tuned the trigger by shimming the housing away from the barrel and replacing the return spring with a lighter one. It is now pretty decent, around 3lbs with a very crisp release. The one remaining issue is a lot of overtravel. The final solution may be a Rifle Basix replacement unit, but I will try this one first and see what I think.

I still have work to do, the action needs to be glass bedded, a scope mounted and some tweaking of the extractors as they won't pull a live round from the chamber. The chamber is very tight and the bullets engrave a good 0.060" into the lands, making for a hard pull on a loaded round.

Now the pics:

More details to come and a range report when I get that far.


Mark

 

[pharaoh2]

Nice looking rig!

 

[mcp1]

Very nice! Will definitely be watching this for progress.

 

[Mystic Precision]

Well done and look forward to the range report.

The engraving is part of the match chamber Shilen puts on their barrels. This is normal and expected for max accuracy with rimfire ammo.

I bet you will find SK or RWS ammo to sing in this barrel.

Enjoy and let us know...

Jerry

 

[Ryan500]

Wow, I really like that! Good job!

 

[SHELL SHUCKER]

Very nice, well thought out job!
I'm just finishing up a Stevens 305F .22 magnum that I bought last month.
I've shimmed the trigger for both let-off and latteral play
and annealed the spring which I then shortened by 1/2 a coil. Now a 2 lb. pull, crisp let-off and no slop.
The scope is a Leapers compact 3-9 mil-dot.This gun prints cloverleaf groups at 50 yds. with CCI Maxi Mag 40 gr. hollow points which makes for dead gophers at beyond 100 yds. if it ain't too windy.

This rifle wears a Boyd's Target Hunter stock which was on sale for $79.oo,
and seeing that this stock is inletted for the bull barreled M93 Savage,
I have a full-float barrel without the work. Boyd's laminate stocks are very nicely made, but they do add some weight to the rifle.
I'm just waiting for the longer action screws and mag-well plate to come in from Savage. I hope to rain doom on gophers in the Water Valley area next season with 'er.

Again, A-1 build!
"Gophers....Nature's little speed bumps!"

 

[mmattockx]

Rifle is completed, action has been bedded and a scope mounted. The scope is a Bushnell 3200 5-15x50AO that I had, it will be replaced with a Bushnell 4200 6-24x40AO mildot when I get to that point. Rings are Burris Signature Zee rings in high. Test drive will be tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Mark

 

[pharaoh2]

Beutiful rifle, your taste in movies however...

 

[cbass]

Looks very familiar. I'm currently halfway through the same project on my mkII except with a dlask 16.5" barrel, Only think left is sorting out a trigger guard and bottom metal for fitting the stock. Can't wait to see how yours shoots (I'll have something to base the performance of mine on lol)

 

[j.krug]

Great looking rifle. Nice work.

 

[mmattockx]

Looks very familiar. I'm currently halfway through the same project on my mkII except with a dlask 16.5" barrel, Only think left is sorting out a trigger guard and bottom metal for fitting the stock. Can't wait to see how yours shoots (I'll have something to base the performance of mine on lol)

The entire bottom metal kit is available from Savage US. Cost was $37 shipped, I think. Have a CC ready when you call.

(413) 568-7001


Mark

 

[mmattockx]

Range Report

I got out to the range friday afternoon for the first test drive. Sighted in at 25yds, then went to 50yds for the ammo tests. All groups were shot from a front rest and rear tailbag. Conditions were pretty good, with intermittent light wind from 6 o'clock. I shot 5 groups of 5 rounds each to let the barrel foul and settle with each new brand of ammo.

First up, I warmed it up and fouled the barrel using Dynapoint GT bulk ammo:

The blue dot was added to get 5 targets to a page. I shot the first group at it on every sheet, then left-right, top-bottom for the others. The last group ended up at about 0.55". It was hard to measure these, they left very little grease ring to work with.

Then I moved on to Federal Gold Medal Match:

The final group ended up at 0.51", again with very little grease ring to work with.

Last, I tried some Eley Sport, which is their more "budget" oriented ammo (if $6/box ammo can be called budget):

This was the jackpot winner. The initial group was 0.77", followed by the tiny one hole group at 0.12" (outside the grease rings is 0.312", barely bigger than a .30 caliber bullet ), then 0.68" (with the flyer at top left being my fault), then the last two at 0.38". The 5 group average was 0.466", even starting with a non-fouled bore and me blowing the one shot.

The best part of the 0.12" group was that I saw the trace on 3 of the 5 shots. It was very cool watching them just disappear one after the other into the same hole.

With time running out, I decided to finish up with a couple of groups at 100yds using the Eley Sport.

First group measured at 1.63":

Second group I did a bit better job on the rest, with a more consistent hold and release. It ended up at 0.95", my first ever sub-MOA rimfire group at 100yds.

I have clearly run into my lack of ability at benchrest shooting, combined with the stock not being a great shape for shooting off a rest and my rest and bag not being anything like a high end benchrest setup. The 0.12" group felt the best, with the rifle sitting easily on the rest and returning to position with no fidgeting. Some of the other groups it took fiddling to get the rifle back on target and I know it wasn't sitting consistently from shot to shot. At the group sizes I am trying for, even those tiny little things will screw up the results.

I ran out of time for testing other brands of ammo, but I will get back to it and post another report if I find anything worth sharing. I think I will also be investing in a Rifle Basix trigger kit, the tuned trigger is a big improvement over the original, but it is still much too heavy for precision shooting. I may also try a Boyds Tacticool stock in an effort to get it working better off the rest.


Mark

 

[MagnumPeanut]

Eley sport is all I put through my rifle.

Fun build, grats!

 

[Mystic Precision]

Excellent shooting. I am sure more trigger time and a better rest set up will tighten groups. Rimfire are very finicky about recoil follow through.

Some of those flyers may be ammo related. If your barrel shows a liking for Eley, moving up in price range simply gets rid of variations in the ammo and that WILL reduce group size.

For me, I found Eley Sport to shoot the "worst". Still really good but not as good as the SK stuff.

BUT that could just be the quirks of my rifle. RWS also shot great in my rifle. Fed GM was a thumbs down

With the right ammo, you will be in the 1/4" to 3/8" at 50yds and around 1/2 to 3/4" at 100yds.

Nice to see that Shilen working well for you so far.

Jerry

 

[cbass]

The entire bottom metal kit is available from Savage US. Cost was $37 shipped, I think. Have a CC ready when you call.

(413) 568-7001


Mark

Awesome, thanks for the heads up, I was going to spend the time making one but at that price its not worth the hassle.

Would you mind taking some pictures of you shim work on the trigger group? I might have to give that a whirl on mine and see what happens.

 

[mmattockx]

Awesome, thanks for the heads up, I was going to spend the time making one but at that price its not worth the hassle.

Would you mind taking some pictures of you shim work on the trigger group? I might have to give that a whirl on mine and see what happens.

Have a look at this thread for a pic: http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2619242

I also replaced the return spring with one from a ball point pen. If you have any questions, PM me and I will help if I can.


Mark

 

[Gov'tGrant]

Did you sort any of the ammunition used, or just take it out of the box and shoot it?

I understand sorting rimfire ammunition by rim thickness and weight of the rounds is supposed to cut group sizes by quite a bit.

I have all the tools to sort my ammunition like that but I have never gotten that serious yet, so I'm not sure how well the process works in the real world. But in gun magazines it sure seems to make a difference.

 

[mmattockx]

Did you sort any of the ammunition used, or just take it out of the box and shoot it?

I understand sorting rimfire ammunition by rim thickness and weight of the rounds is supposed to cut group sizes by quite a bit.

I have all the tools to sort my ammunition like that but I have never gotten that serious yet, so I'm not sure how well the process works in the real world. But in gun magazines it sure seems to make a difference.

No sorting of any type was done, I just pulled rounds out of the box and shot them. I can say that the Eley Sport had thicker rims than the rest, judging by how tight the bolt closing was. When I installed the barrel it was set to be just kissing the bolt face. It ended up with enough clearance that the bolt handle could rattle very slightly. Maybe 0.0005"-0.001" at most of play. Some of the Eley rounds were very snug at that clearance, everything else was no problem.


Mark

 

[Dr.Lector]

First time I see this thread
Very interesting build. Good job.

 

[canadiantbone]

It's good to see that .22lr can be that percise .