Great Day at the Range

[Salvo]

Everything seemed to go especially well today. - It had been windy all day, but about an hour before dusk, the wind just quit. Quickly, I loaded up my shooting stuff and my favorite rifle into the van.

The rifle was ordered from the Savage Custom Shop. - I asked for a stainless barreled action in a laminated thumb-hole stock, in .243 Winchester with a 24" barrel. Once I got it home, I glass-bedded it, broke in the barrel carefully and refinished the stock so that it had a bit of gloss. I also polished and refinished the bolt handle, baffle and trigger guard to match the action's finish.

I had loaded up some rounds just before my recent move, and now I'd finally get a chance to see how they would do, at the new club.

When I got there, I had the place to myself.



.243 Winchester Custom Savage 24” barrel

All loads use Federal Brass, Winchester WLR primers

95 grn Nosler Ballistic Tip
40 grn H4350
@ 2850 fps


70 grn Nosler Ballistic Tip
47 grn H4350
@ 3450 fps


58 grn Hornady V-Max
43 grn VARGET
@ 3700 fps


Here's the Savage. It has what Savage calls a "magnum weight" barrel, not really a bull barrel but still fairly thick. The gun weighs ten pounds with the Nikon Monarch 4-16x42 scope.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2804_zps32e8c404.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2805_zps8c9e3cae.jpg

After a few fouling shots, and an adjustment to the scope, it shot all three bullet weights to more or less the same spot.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2808_zps594a5c53.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2809_zps324db0ae.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2807_zps72376d05.jpg

I put up a reactive target, and tried to hold my mouth just right while I shot a final group with the 70 grn loads before packing up for the day.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2806_zpsc5e3926a.jpg

What a day at the range. I guess I've found the loads I need for that rifle, the load development process is done as far as I'm concerned.

Now all I have to do is try to get in some more practice, shooting the thing. I'm thinking that with the 70 grain loads, it ought to shine as a long-range varminter/pig gun. A lot of the shots in west Texas are long ones, so I've got to be ready for that.

[snowshoes]

Good shootin

[65impala]

Congrats on a good day of shooting and a fine shootin stick :)

[ShowMeShooter]

Nice rig, good shootin'

[Salvo]

I really appreciate the kind words. The gun shoots a lot better than I do. - Here's a couple of bore-scope images from down the tube, before I cleaned the rifle this morning.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/2013_2_22_3_40_27_zps656d5ac6.png

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/2013_2_22_3_39_17_zps1fec17dd.png

I looked for - but didn't find any copper fouling, to speak of. I will note though, that I started off with a clean barrel and it didn't settle down and start shooting until after a few fouling shots.

Many would be aghast at the tooling chatter evident in this barrel - BUT on the other hand, this is one of the most accurate rifles that I own. Some of the other guns that I own have no such chatter, but don't shoot nearly as well, so I can't find it in myself to feel bad about it.

I remember a story about Rolls-Royce, which contracted with GM way back when to use an automatic transmission design used in Chevies. The engineers at Rolls-Royce found a component that had an unacceptably rough finish in the GM tranny and on their version, they smoothed it out considerably. But when they put it together and tried it out, the thing didn't work well at all! - They took the component out and roughed it up again as GM had specified, and then the transmission worked just fine.

I have heard folks comment about the chatter in most Savage barrels - and I have also heard folks comment about how accurate they are. They are right on both counts.

Here are detail shots of the bolt handle, baffle and trigger guard, where I refinished them to match the action. - It's an inexpensive way to give it a bit of bling.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2815_zps394c2361.jpg

Note that I did not refinish the floor-plate. - It would have turned it into a scratch magnet.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/Firearms/Custom%20Savage/IMG_2814_zpsc53efb3b.jpg

Just a little bit of elbow-grease. I polished them out with 220 grit crocus cloth, then 320, then 400 grit wetordry paper for a mirror finish, then I used a new "scotchbrite" abrasive pad to put some scratches on it for a brushed finish to match the action and barrel. The scratches have got to be all in the same direction and straight, not curved.

The checkering on the bolt knob was a bit too aggressive for me, taking some skin off of my palm, so I toned it down a little while I was at it. Now, it's a lot more comfortable to use and still looks OK I guess.

On the stock, all I did was to give it a few coats of "Tru-Oil", letting it dry for a day or two and buffing it with 0000 steel wool between coats. A month or so later, I used "Stock Sheen" to de-gloss it just a little. I was supposed to put some stock wax on it after that, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. I did wipe the whole thing down though, wood and metal both, with Scott's "Liquid Gold" and that really made a difference.

The gun is too heavy for a sporter, and on the light side for a varmint/target rig... Like the 243 cartridge, it is neither fish nor fowl - but something in-between. That's the effect that I was trying for, I built the gun around my notions about the cartridge.

Thanks again for the kind remarks about my pet rifle.

Boy am I glad to be done with the load development. My first tries after breaking the barrel in were not nearly as encouraging. At first, the only thing that I could get to shoot under one inch were the 70 grain bullets. The 95's and 58's were all over the place.

I could probably do better with the loads, but it's already shooting better than I do with the bullet weights that I intend to use, and that's good enough for me.