so..., I bought this rifle...

legi0n

legi0n

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
46   0   0
Location
Burnaby, BC
I have bought this 223 Savage 10 or 110 rifle from a guy who said it didn't shoot well
I liked the wood stock and the way the stock fit without any visible need of shaving.
1721597966966.png
went to the range yesterday with some 75gr match bullet loads (sighters on the left, dot size 1")
1721598106829.png
I was going to pillar bed the action or maybe do a full bedding job but I decided to have beers and barbecue instead :giggle:
 
Think you got a winner there šŸ˜„
I got a used Ruger American via similar issue, and get similar groups with 'match ammo'. Bulk like PMC gives groups like your 'sighters'. You pays your money, . . .
Too bad the 'good stuff' runs ca $50/box.
 
B950 No dis, but your comment suggests you should get into hand loading for your rifle.

From experience, with customer's rifles, even the Premium "good stuff" doesn't always shoot well from lot to lot

Usually off the shelf rifles, even high end models do much better with custom loads.

OP, nice shooting on your part as well.

I'm not a fan of Savage bolt action rifles, but that doesn't mean they don't shoot well, especially over the last decade.

If that rifle shoots everything well, don't sell it. Jewels like that come along very rarely.

I have a couple of jewels, but only two are off the shelf rifles. I will be passing them onto my heirs.

The others I have, I built, with reamers ground to minimum specs and extremely careful set ups.

Good on you for getting a good one.
 
Try the winchesters 40 grainers the one with the coyote on the package - my Axis gets awesome groups with them (200 yards).

Sometimes it's not the gun but the shooter that is the issue
 

Attachments

  • AxisGroup.jpg
    AxisGroup.jpg
    89.8 KB · Views: 9
FatCatsDad said:
Savages are underrated, always have been.
I had a 111 lightweight I constantly regret selling.
Click to expand...
Agreed. My local gunsmith had a nice camo stock 111 and once I realized it should be mine, found out he had already sold it. Damnā€¦

A Savage Axis might be a clunky rifle but Savage rifles all have decent barrels and shoot well
 
I bought a Remington 700P model that the seller said wouldn't shoot for sh*t. Sure enough I tried various match grade ammo and it grouped like a Black Creek AR, just all over the place. Until I tried a box of these on a whim and it grouped .5 MOA with them. Was very surprised.

images.jpg
 
Buck1950 said:
Think you got a winner there šŸ˜„
I got a used Ruger American via similar issue, and get similar groups with 'match ammo'. Bulk like PMC gives groups like your 'sighters'. You pays your money, . . .
Too bad the 'good stuff' runs ca $50/box.
Click to expand...
American Eagle is about the same. Bad
 
legi0n said:
I have bought this 223 Savage 10 or 110 rifle from a guy who said it didn't shoot well
I liked the wood stock and the way the stock fit without any visible need of shaving.
View attachment 792640
went to the range yesterday with some 75gr match bullet loads (sighters on the left, dot size 1")
View attachment 792646
I was going to pillar bed the action or maybe do a full bedding job but I decided to have beers and barbecue instead :giggle:
Click to expand...

Years ago I bought a barely used Savage Precision Carbine in 308W. Funny story, the guy who bought it new, got a live round stuck in the chamber after only a couple of boxes down the pipe. The thing was stuck so badly the TSE gunsmith had to completely disassemble the rifle to get it out. The rifle was a pile of parts in a box when I noticed it. I offered to purchase it because the owner was apparently afraid to use it after the incident. I got it for about 60% of the new cost.

The TSE gunsmith and I reassembled the rifle to minimum headspace. I had some semi-random components lying around so I put a couple of loads together and the second or third one put 5-rounds into 5/8". The rifle has been a fantastic performer ever since and has repeatedly and boringly produced 5/8" groups with the bullet and powder I tried originally.

I also considered bedding the stock but the Precision Carbine has this weird clamp-block kind of arrangement in the stock and as the rifle has been reliably accurate I figured, why screw with success.

FatCatsDad said:
Savages are underrated, always have been.
I had a 111 lightweight I constantly regret selling.
Click to expand...
Yes they have been. The older Savage rifles were kinda ugly but man they perform well. I keep hearing people complain about the Accutrigger but the one on my Precsion Carbine is really, really good. I have no complaints at all and I'm comparing it to extremely lightweight target triggers.
 
Savages just fkin' shoot. Makes me real tempted to get another Axis - Reliable has the Axis 2's on sale plus theres that $75usd rebate until the end of the month..
 
I like my Salvages. Although most of mine have been tweaked, at least a little. Iā€™ve never had one that didnā€™t shoot.

Ammo is always the determining factor - although you never can guarantee which ammo a rifle will like. I had one of the Remington 700 SPS Tactical in .308 with the 20ā€ barrel. That thing didnā€™t want to shoot for me. Just started trying different ammo to see if I could find something, anything that it might like. Tried some of the cheapest Winchester 180 gr power point in the grey box from WallyWorld and bingo! 3/4 MOA! Why bother trying to develop a load when you could get that stuff back in the day almost cheaper than you could reload.
 
FatCatsDad said:
Savages are underrated, always have been.
I had a 111 lightweight I constantly regret selling.
Click to expand...
They got their poor ratings deservedly. There was a decade of very low-end products made by Savage. 1 in 10 would could be made to shoot well.

Then they completely retooled with CNC equipment and the lights came back on.

Once a corporation allows their products to be manufactured to low standards for an extended period, it takes a long time for people to be willing to purchase them again, if ever. They have to rely on "newbies" for that.

Ask Ruger how it worked out for them, when they decided to farm out barrel manufacture to the lowest bidder.

That could have been their death knell.

I know a lot of people who will never purchase a Savage/Ruger/Browning bold action rifle again. Once that trust is lost, it's very difficult to get it back and a new customer base must be created.

Today's Savage bolt action rifles are reliable, accurate and FUGLY. So if you don't mind a FUGLY rifle, have no qualms about buying a Savage
 
bearhunter said:
Today's Savage bolt action rifles are reliable, accurate and FUGLY. So if you don't mind a FUGLY rifle, have no qualms about buying a Savage
Click to expand...

Very true, super ugly. My Lightweight Storm feeds poorly as well, but I haven't had time to inspect it. I suspect it's the magazine more than anything, those are still pretty inconsistent in terms of feed lips and mag spring tension.

But I took it to the range a month or so ago. I fired 8 rounds of 130gr Berger Hybrids (Federal factory ammo) and another 6 rounds of 140gr. Nosler RDF (Nosler factory ammo) and it printed a bloody 1.75" group with all of them. That's ridiculous, the barrel was hot enough to fry eggs at that point and the ammo isn't even close to similar. It'll be a great tree stand gun once I get the mag sorted so the rounds don't pop out so aggressively, and I got it for like $200 off list from Solely. The bases are Burris which I found in the Cabela's clearance section, I used leftover TPS aluminum rings from my Sig Cross, and the Athlon Argos 2-12 was yanked off an outgoing rifle.

It was cheap (even if not an entry-level model), it shoots great, it doesn't weigh anything, the stock is crap but the recoil pad is alright (and the pencil-thin contour ensures it floats), the trigger isn't awesome but decent enough. The new 110 Trail Hunters are getting good reviews if you don't mind an 8-pound rifle.
 
Last year I bought a Savage Model 11 in 223 and topped it with a 3-9 Leupold. I've just been shooting odd and ends bullets I have hanging around.

Shot this group this week with some Speer 52gr HPs and some salvaged powder I think was IMR 3031. The more I shoot this rifle, the more I like it.

4b3206a2-6f7c-4f36-8cce-6fc44efb379c.jpg
 
Last edited:
All of my savage rifles have been accurate. The only issue I've had was one 300wm couldn't break 2900fps with 180gr bullets
I agree savage rifles are ugly. I have a winchester Featherlight that's gorgeous but I can't get it to shoot better than 1.25" groups and I've tried likely 50 plus loads in it.
 
I bought one of those CVA scouts in .243 a while back on sale. I bought a few boxes of 80grain Federal and it shot like ####. I am talking can barely hit a 8.5x11 sheet at 100yards. I found some Remington 100grain very cheap and bought two boxes. Took it to the range and shot 5 shots at the first target, looking through the scope I thought I hit the paper once and missed with the rest. Take a walk down and I have a ragged hole at 100yards, shot some more and all my groups were well under MOA. So I decided to keep the gun, guess it doesn't like the light bullets or maybe Federal shells.
 
alpining said:
Frickin Savage barrels. They have no right to be so accurate, given how inexpensive they are.
Click to expand...
And if you bore scoped one you may puke lol.
Roughest bores I've ever seen on new guns, but they shoot well still, just takes a few hundred rounds to smooth them out.
I always liked the 10's and 12's, heavy barrel versions, never been disappointed, and they were cheap as dirt at Cabellas pre-rona, like $500, stocks were ####, triggers always tuned up decent, I'd bed the stocks, stiffen the forends, weight the butts, and if they shot to my expectations I'd get them a nicer stock ($200 XRS black Friday sales). They always shot so I could have saved some time just grabbing the better stock lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom