What weak points and dislikes with Savage centerfire rifles??

:rockOn:
The are designed to be manufactured cheaply, and there are compromises that need to be made to achieve that. They achieve nothing worthy of note in design, function, or aesthetics. They have opened the market to new shooters wanting to get into the sport on a budget however, and that is a good thing.
Yes ! For some one that wants to try a shooting sport, they are a good choice. My nice picked one up ( 300 Win mag) for 400.00$ It shoots plenty good she hits 2 inches at 300 feet no problem. She's 21 and 132 pounds and doesn't have to much of problem with the recoil. For a starter rifle they are a great bang for the buck!! Have no fear of them period!:cool:
 
Everyone says they shoot well.

I just find them visually unappealing, therefore I don't own one.

About the only gun homelier is the Rossi/H&R single shots.

Uglier than a bulldog eating crap off a hot stove. ;)
 
The are designed to be manufactured cheaply, and there are compromises that need to be made to achieve that. They achieve nothing worthy of note in design, function, or aesthetics. They have opened the market to new shooters wanting to get into the sport on a budget however, and that is a good thing.

That pretty much describes Savage perfectly.
 
Any idea if this is the same with the short actions?

As lack of eye relief is one of my biggest pet peeves of scoping rifles these days.

I find the scope tubes are too damn short. :mad:

Is there a difference in action lengths with the Axis?

Weaver makes extended base rings to allow more scope fore and aft adjustment on short tube scopes.
 
Everyone says they shoot well.

I just find them visually unappealing, therefore I don't own one.

About the only gun homelier is the Rossi/H&R single shots.

Uglier than a bulldog eating crap off a hot stove. ;)

Yea that. Might sounds superficial, but there's so many good shooting and great looking rifles. IMHO
 
Cons: Plasticy stocks that flex (and sometimes touch the barrel). High degree of bolt lift. Poorly formed bolt handle on my Axis that makes me smash my thumb into my scope when I'm not careful.

Pros: Value in general. Smooth bolt. Very accurate. Lots of aftermarket.
 
I don't care for them at all and wont buy another. I didn't even try the cheaper models. I had a model 116 in .270, model 12 in .300 mag a model 10 PC in .308. The plastic stock is the cheapest thing out there, the accutrigger sucks and I hate the handle at the far back of the bolt, it's sloppy. And don't get me going with the model 99, I would rather carry a nice 2x4 over my shoulder.......thanks...... now I feel better.
:wave:
 
warranty work in Canada sucks big time but other then that bolt cycling bolt lift is requires 3 times as much force then a Browning or a win. But one of the best out of the box for being accurate. mod 10 BA. and FCP.
 
That's a lot like asking what weak points dislikes are there with Remington centrefire rifles. Are you talking an SPS? Sendaro? 710? 7400? Did you have a specific Savage in mind or are you just looking for comments all over the map much like Savage's line up of rifles is?

Every single firearm design... EVERY ONE...has weak points. Some more than others, but don't kid yourself, they ALL have something that isn't perfect.

I prefer knowing what those weak points are, before I commit to a design.

Its a bit like dating. Sure, we mostly do it for fun...but at a certain point we are making the occasional mental note about whether this chick is going to be... a nighmare to actually live with long term... a poor mother, or a great mother... gold digger looking to clean you out... "date" the town while you pay the rent... or be faithful and trustworthy. Now, you can never truly be 100% certain, but if you are honest with yourself you can decide which of her flaws you can tolerate or overlook, and those that chill your spine and think "I gotta lose her number asap!"

Or put it in car terms: you wanna have some idea if the car you are buying is undergoing a serious recall, has a tendency to catch fire seemingly randomly (do a google search of pics of supercars on fire!), or whenther a previous owner lost his license for infractions... or if they have meticulous maintenance records (not likely the same person). You wanna have some idea of what kind of baggage you'll have to deal with. Or if its an older muscle car, you wanna know if there is a casting flaw in your engine block that keeps oil from flowing at high volume when doing the 1320. Learn about the flaw, take steps to work around the flaw, rendering the problem neutralised.

The accuracy of the Savage rifles is appealing to me. The ability to swap barrels and calibers at home or at the range, its almost Lego modularity is very attractive. But... if it falls apart, or is unreliable at times, I want to know details: lack of cleaning? Old worn part? Design flaw specific to specific conditions? Are these failures something I can prevent by taking care and attention, maybe planning ahead... or is it a "Hangar queen" requiring more effort than its worth?

To be more clear, the budget Axis line isn't what interests me, I'm thinking the higher grade units. But...the Axis is still of interest to this discussion, indeed all the short and long actions, because its basically the same action. Flaws appearing in one, may appear in them all, potentially. Sure, mag differences, different stocks, different lugs mean there is some variation, but I'm looking for people's real world observations.

If I had any interest in Remingtons or Weatherby's I'd be asking the same about those. But I'm not. We learn more from examining mistakes and flaws, than from perfection.
 
At least on a $350 savage, the spaghetti thin/shortish barrel can sort of be excused due to cost cutting; but when I see a $900 Winchester (or whatever) with the same kind of thing, I just puke up a little.

Thing is the Savages you're talking about are hunting rifles.
As such they must be light and easy to handle. Hence the 22" thin (sporter) barrels.
They do manufacture bull barrel ones too with longer barrels but in a different price range.

I own 3 savages and I'm impressed with them.
- 111 (the plastic stock on this one is really sturdy)
- 11 (flexy stock, bad mag design, why didn't they keep the 111 design?)
- MKII with bull barrel and sturdy plastic stock.

only the 111 is not accutrigger but I whish it was.
 
Have never been a fan of Savage rifles. I simply didn't like the looks of them.

Generally not a fan of acutriggers or set triggers ideas. Also the look of the bolt throws me off and the stocks unless going to a high end aftermarket one are cheap. I've been very happy with my Remington 5R rifles and even my CZ527 Kevlar. The Savage riles were always priced well but by the time you upgraded everything you were at the same price as other rifles that already came with those options. So I've always passed on the Savage stuff.

Now... I'm actually going to get a 10TR soon. The price and features it comes with are impossible to ignore. It will be my first Savage rifle. Although I doubt that "acustock" will stay on long.
 
Weaver makes extended base rings to allow more scope fore and aft adjustment on short tube scopes.

I have those rings...still have problems (on some rifles) regarding working around various scope features/bell, middle bit whatever it's called and does the bolt handle hit the eyepiece or not... It's always something, always a friggen struggle.

In some cases even just a half inch more scope tube would solve the damn issue. I guess I could consider trimming it off the buttstock to get my eye closer.

I may be bringing my scope and rings into the store with me next time I buy a rifle, lol.
 
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I have those rings...still have problems (on some rifles) regarding working around various scope features/bell, middle bit whatever it's called and does the bolt handle hit the eyepiece or not... It's always something, always a friggen struggle.

In some cases even just a half inch more scope tube would solve the damn issue. I guess I could consider trimming it off the buttstock to get my eye closer.

I may be bringing my scope and rings into the store with me next time I buy a rifle, lol.

There are single piece rails for all savages.
I know because I had to buy one when the Meopta scope didn't fit the Savage Long Action :)
 
If they don't have an Accutrigger then their trigger sucks...buy a Rifle Basix trigger and install. I find their bolt cycling is rough, but that can probably
be remedied with some light sanding and polishing. Their accuracy is generally very good.
 
Well, I have pulled the bag over my head so no one can see me, and now I will admit to owning 2 Savage rifles.

One is a Model 14 in 243 Winchester, totally unmolested except for the removal of that abortion of an Accutrigger "shoe"
It is a decent shooter, and seems not to be very fussy. It has nice wood, and handles OK.

The other is a Model 11, which I acquired as a 22-250 with the throat shot out of it. Plastic stock [not very rigid, IMHO.]
I had a take-off 40X [.224] barrel laying around, which was in excellent shape, so I shipped the works to Dennis Sorensen to build a rifle for me.
I had it chambered up in 225 Winchester, because I had a ton of components and loaded ammo at home.

It was an Accutrigger model, but I removed the shoe from the trigger like the M14.

This is now a very accurate rifle, and works just great. I would like to find some decent wood for it, but it works well as is.

I will the first to admit that the Savages are not my first choice [nor the second either, lol], but like the ugly sister, they do what is needed.

Regards, Dave.
 
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