Walt T
09-02-2011, 07:33 PM
Finally got her set up.
The rifle had a few issues out of the box-
1. The magazine was rough to install and eject. A little filing and stoning fixed this.
2. Loading was stiff and shaving brass. It had a sharp lip on the chamber, this also cleaned up easily in a few minutes.
3. Supplied scope mounts were junk. I mounted a Nikon BM 4.5-14 and had to dial it almost all the way right to bore sight it. I switched the mounts around a couple of times, but could never get satisfaction. I started to worry that the receiver was drilled out of line. I took a DIP rail from another rifle, re-centered the Nikon's turrets and mounted it up with Burris ZEE rings. Bore sight was dead on. I trashed the Savage mounts so they would never come back to haunt me.
4. The stock's barrel channel was not centered, contact the full length of barrel on the right side, big gap on the left. Instead of sanding it, I Dropped the action in a Boyds Pepper EVO stock I was saving for a custom build. I was amazed when the action popped into the stock super snug, no wiggle at all. I did an epoxy bedding, almost all of it squeezed out except for a few tiny spots. Wasn't really necessary I guess.
I did some polishing on the trigger group and bolt parts, cleaned up nicely. Crisp 2#trigger and slick action-happy with that
I put a DIP trigger guard on it and off to the range. I decided to season the barrel with the cheapest ammo I could find- Win Dynapoint 45g. I shot 300 rounds, letting the barrel cool every ten rounds, and cleaned with hoppe's soaked patches, followed by dry every 50 rounds. By the end of the session the rifle was printing nickle size groups at 50 yards with very few fliers.
I haven't had it back out for serious shooting with better ammo, but I'm encouraged by the initial results.
Here she is...
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af120/Radar-1/008-6.jpg
The rifle had a few issues out of the box-
1. The magazine was rough to install and eject. A little filing and stoning fixed this.
2. Loading was stiff and shaving brass. It had a sharp lip on the chamber, this also cleaned up easily in a few minutes.
3. Supplied scope mounts were junk. I mounted a Nikon BM 4.5-14 and had to dial it almost all the way right to bore sight it. I switched the mounts around a couple of times, but could never get satisfaction. I started to worry that the receiver was drilled out of line. I took a DIP rail from another rifle, re-centered the Nikon's turrets and mounted it up with Burris ZEE rings. Bore sight was dead on. I trashed the Savage mounts so they would never come back to haunt me.
4. The stock's barrel channel was not centered, contact the full length of barrel on the right side, big gap on the left. Instead of sanding it, I Dropped the action in a Boyds Pepper EVO stock I was saving for a custom build. I was amazed when the action popped into the stock super snug, no wiggle at all. I did an epoxy bedding, almost all of it squeezed out except for a few tiny spots. Wasn't really necessary I guess.
I did some polishing on the trigger group and bolt parts, cleaned up nicely. Crisp 2#trigger and slick action-happy with that
I put a DIP trigger guard on it and off to the range. I decided to season the barrel with the cheapest ammo I could find- Win Dynapoint 45g. I shot 300 rounds, letting the barrel cool every ten rounds, and cleaned with hoppe's soaked patches, followed by dry every 50 rounds. By the end of the session the rifle was printing nickle size groups at 50 yards with very few fliers.
I haven't had it back out for serious shooting with better ammo, but I'm encouraged by the initial results.
Here she is...
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af120/Radar-1/008-6.jpg