Savage Stevens 200 Review or "The Poor Mans Precision Rifle"

Travis Bickle said:
Once I burn this barrel out (and I will with the amount I shoot :D) I was planning on getting a heavy/bull barrel to replace
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I seriously doubt that. You'll get tired of the rifle in it's current state long before you'll wear the barrel out.

It's nice to see an accurate hunting rifle. Don't kid yourself that it's anything other then that though.

Congratulations.
 
greg11 said:
I'm more than slightly pissed to see your gun shooting better groups than mine... Even after I've dumped $$ on a sweet barrel.
I'd weep violently if I gouged a chunk out of my Shilen.
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Greg,
if you have not already tried then play around with loads. I have a Shilen stuck on a stevens 200 action. Once I found out it liked SMKs 69 and 80 grain and IMR 8208 it shot really well. It hated Amax and it was not as good with varget.

It shot the 69 grainers like this with almost any charge. If I posted amax groups you would think it was a shotgun.

Image001.jpg
 
Was thinking of buying one of these. Now I'm sold. Already have the scope, rings and bipod, just need the rifle. Just got a brand new Mk II bv. Damn thing is a tack driver! Savage/Stevens is the way to go! Never liked Remlins.
 
It's really hard to get the 69gr SMK's to shoot bad... My factory tube loves them as well as the 75gr Hornady.

I added a tube of JB weld and a few pounds of lead embedded in epoxy to my factory stock and groups shrank to MOA from 2-3", Picked up a Bell & Carlson tac medalist and Rifle basix from Jerry and to date the rifle is shooting around 1/2 MOA @ 100M with hand loads in fire formed IVI brass.... Like I said before, don't change anything!! :D
 
warrenb said:
Greg,
if you have not already tried then play around with loads. I have a Shilen stuck on a stevens 200 action. Once I found out it liked SMKs 69 and 80 grain and IMR 8208 it shot really well. It hated Amax and it was not as good with varget.

It shot the 69 grainers like this with almost any charge. If I posted amax groups you would think it was a shotgun.

Image001.jpg
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Thanks for that. I have about 450 69gr SMK's, the 50 I've loaded up haven't shot as well as yours!! I'm using H4895. I also have Varget available to me. I think My next reloading session I'll focus on the varget and see how it treats me.
 
I took my steven's the direction the OP discusses. A heavy barrel, better scope, handloaded ammo. I can consistently put 5 round one ragged hold sets at 100 yards and I don't consider myself to be a good shot. Just a lot of practise.

The stevens is a good platform at a modest price.
 
I am on my 5th Stevens 200, 3 of the in 223, a 243 and a 7mmRM. All of them shot extremely well with a little tweaking and good loads. Can't go wrong for the money.
 
tbrwlf said:
I took my steven's the direction the OP discusses. A heavy barrel, better scope, handloaded ammo. I can consistently put 5 round one ragged hold sets at 100 yards and I don't consider myself to be a good shot. Just a lot of practise.

The stevens is a good platform at a modest price.
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Great! Let's see some pics of that.
 
MagnumPeanut said:
I am on my 5th Stevens 200, 3 of the in 223, a 243 and a 7mmRM. All of them shot extremely well with a little tweaking and good loads. Can't go wrong for the money.
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Another major malcontent with the 200 Stevens for me though, is no backup iron sights.
But again for the price, I guess I'm not going to complain.
What low cost tweaks would you recommend?
 
Travis Bickle said:
Another major malcontent with the 200 Stevens for me though, is no backup iron sights.
But again for the price, I guess I'm not going to complain.
What low cost tweaks would you recommend?
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depends what you think is low cost?

rifle basix triggers are well worth the $ from jerry @ mystic.

I have a factory stock that's been bedded and has had the foreend stiffened to free float the barrel, but I dropped mine into a choate tac stock from mystic as well. Looks goofy with the factory pipe, but once that shillen comes in, or the .300 blk barrel, things will be right again.
 
Travis Bickle said:
Another major malcontent with the 200 Stevens for me though, is no backup iron sights.
But again for the price, I guess I'm not going to complain.
What low cost tweaks would you recommend?
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Bedding and stiffening the forend. A rifle basix trigger is a low cost tweak too, but more of the triggers tune up to the 3lb mark maybe better, which is exeptable to me. If you are going to drop $100 on a trigger, save it and buy a barrel first. I also like to buy a Boyds stock too, but there is nothing wrong with the tupperware stock once you bed it and stiffen the forend.
 
One step closer to a stevens 200 for me. I don't hunt, but at that price and the chance of me doing so one day, it seems worthwhile.
 
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