11VT on sale

[OneShot]

Hi guys,

After about a month of going from 11VT (Dick's) to 10T (Cabelas) I decided to go with the 11VT.

Pricewise, I was kinda restricted... so my first choice was the 11VT. However, last week Dick's changed the price to $580... so I thought the hell with these guys I'll go to Cabelas and get the 10T. Yesterday, I was with a friend at Dick's and I checked the gun section. The manager informed me about the Remington 700 trigger recall (around 800,000 rifles...) and that was the reason for having the 11VT on sale for $449 up to this Saturday!!! $428 out the door including the 10% off with the cc.

So I am the owner of an 11VT solely based on price... Can't complain.

The research that I did, before purchasing, led me to two choices as far as the stock is concerned: Choate (too heavy) and HS Precision (expensive but worth it). I have an email reply from Stocky's and it appears that with a little dremel job around the trigger guard it fits nicely. We'll see in a couple of months!

The scope will be a Weaver Grand Slam Tactical 3-10x40 (MidwayUSA) with EGW base and Burris XTR low rings. That's next month's purchase!

I was wondering how much can I get from the Bushnell together with rings and the bases. Any clues?

Have a good night.

[OneShot]

Hi guys,

Work and family obligations kept me away from the range and I still have not shoot my new rifle... There is a remedy for this next week...

So tonight I was "playing" with it... I got a pdf file from Savage with all technical specifications of the 11VT (please guide me how to upload it) and the stated weight (including scope) is 11.2lbs. I checked with my scales and found to be 9.8lbs... Mine is a 308. So my guess is that the rifle without scope rings and base will be around 8lbs.

I took it apart and I felt that the action screws were well below the 30-35 lbs/in that Savage recommends... I torque both at 32lbs/in (the third/rear trigger guard screw does not need torque; just finger tight). The stock stock weighs 2 lbs aprox. The font part has an inner recess that can be filled with epoxy I suppose to make it stiffer. So the difference with an aftermarket stock (Manners T4... yeah.. ) will be 0.5 to 1 lb.

I plan to cut the barrel from 24'' to 20'' when the stock comes so I guess the 1 lbs difference from the stock will be even with the barrel cut. I want to cut the barrel for two reasons, weight and maneuverability (rifle will double act as hunting and target rifle). Any thoughts/suggestions are welcome.

I called 5 different local smiths for the barrel cut job and 4 of them are charging $125 and the last guy $60... I thought that cutting and recrowing a barrel will not be more than $50... Any thoughts on that?

Photos on my next post...

Shoot true.

Bill

[foxx]

try these guys

http://www.adcofirearms.com/shopservices/shop_qnew.cfm?code=Crown%20any%20Barrel

[OneShot]

Thanks foxx!

[Oscarflytyer]

I have the same rifle. Was $449, $389 w/ a bunch of coupons I had. Added a bipod. All I have done so far. Like yours, mine weighed 9 lbs, 13 oz out of the box. Break-in going well so far - only 53 rnds thru the tube to date.

My future plans are to change the scope - Looking at a Viper Diamond 4-12x40 AO w/ BDC reticle. Not sure what I will do for rings/base. Maybe later a larger bolt handle. Potentially cut bbl to 20-22" and recrown. Local guy will do it for ~$75. May also do the Melonite treatment. Also local/~$75.

I have looked at stocks. May just stick with the factory stock. Add a kydex wrap-over adjustable cheek pad. And think I am going to try to do some work/alteration on the pistol grip shape, an add some texture to it. Combo of Acraglas and 'texture,' and/or textured paint. Same treatment to forearm. Haven't split action/stock, but plan to. May bed the action in Acraglas...

[RatMag]

Mine is the .243Win V/T, and I absolutely LOVE that rifle. Working on some loads at the moment, and the Hornady 105s over IMR4350 has been very impressive!!

DK

[OneShot]

Well, I guess today I found the remedy... After 56 rounds and a sore shoulder here is the range (100yds) story:

I was planning to follow Savage's break in process (clean after each round for the first ten, clean after 3 round groups five times and finally clean after 5 rounds group 5 times) but I was having too much fun shooting rather than cleaning. Maybe I'll regret it but we will never know... right?

So I fired 3 rounds, I cleaned and then I fired 18 rounds before cleaning again, then 14 rounds before cleaning again and then 21 and I cleaned the gun at home. At the range I used Hoppe's #9 solvent (wet, wet, dry, dry, wet brush, wet, dry, dry, dry) but at home I repeat the same ritual but after that I used two wet patches of Sweet's and then several dry ones to clean it. Finally two-three drops of RemOil for storage. Please, feel free to comment and suggest a better technique.

The first 20 rounds was SSA 168 grain HPBT. I found them on sale and I thought it was a good idea to fire cheap (?) ammo for break in and sight in. The first 7 rounds were all over the place but at least was on paper (all my targets were letter sized printer paper). the rest were much better. Best group was 0.7 MOA but to be frank I just got lucky with that group cause I could not repeat the same result. The rest were between 1 to 1.5 MOA. Pretty good I think.

Next I used Remington Core-Lokt 180 grain SP. Man it really kicked... I chose this hunting round (my main use is hunting and target/range shooting) cause in theory my 1 in 10 barrel might prefer heavier bullets so I gave it a try. It certainly didn't like it at all. Best group (I fired 16 rounds) was 1.5 MOA but the rest was close to 2+ MOA.

My third selection was Remington Core-Lokt 150 grain PSP. In theory it should not like these light bullets. Man, that round was the best of the day... One group was 0.7 MOA but the rest were around 1 or <1 MOA with the largest being 1.1 MOA. It seems that my rifle really likes this round! And it was much nicer to my shoulder...

Last was the expensive guy... Federal 165 grain Trophy Bonded Tip. I thought it's Federal, expensive, the "right" bullet weight so it should be good. I was wrong! By far the worst groups... Best was 2 MOA with the rest two being between 2.5 and 3 MOA. Any guess on this? If you ask me it's maybe my shooting but I am not complaining since my rifle "doesn't like" the expensive stuff...

I sighted in my rifle with the SSA and I didn't resight for the other 3 rounds that I used. SSA and Rem 150 were dead on. Rem 180 slightly right up and Federal were 3 MOA down!!! I was extremely disappointed with Federal... I know it sounds crazy. I am not an extremely experienced shooter. Maybe that round was the "wrong" Federal but it didn't work for me.

The scope that the rifle came with is at least OK for 100 yards range shooting. Very clear at 12x but very "sensitive" on your cheek weld (not very good eye relief). The turrets are OK for a hunting rifle. I'll change it down the road (maybe next month).

The stock is barely OK for now. I was shooting off bags so there was not any issue with the barrel touching the stock. The LOP is about 1/2'' longer for my body I guess. A new stock is somewhere in the future...

Sorry for the lengthy post. I'll try to post some photos.

Any comments are more than welcome.

Bill

P.S. Is 56 rounds enough to "call" what ammo a rifle likes or is premature to judge? Will change after 50 more rounds?

[Oscarflytyer]

My 308 did about the same as yours. I had a bunch of '65 and '66 WRA headstamp 7.62, and used that for initial break in shooting. It started out like a shotgun pattern, but fairly quickly tightened up. I only shot one match round - PMC - and it did well from the get go. So far, 53 rnds thru mine. I need to clean the barrel thoroughly. Then the plan is to shoot some more of the 7.62 to foul/dirty the bbl. Then shoot the PMC again. Then I will move on to try 5-6 diff match loads I bought to see what bullet/weight/velocity it likes best. Once that is complete, I will work on a handload with the specific bullet/weight and velocity range to get best accuracy from the handload. I am using bullets ranging from 150-178 grns.

[tufrthnails]

Give Federal Fusion a try my .270 loves it.

[ywhic]

My buddys Model 10 (20" and 1/0 twist) in 308 loves thus far the Federal OTM 168gr.. shot 2 shots into a bottle cap at 100 yards yesterday..

[RatMag]

My first 20 rounds through my V/T .243Win were using Federal and PPU 100gr soft point hunting rounds. The PPU didn't fair very well in my opinion, but it was averaging around 1.25". The next 20 rounds were using the Federal Power Shocks. I got under 1" for several 3 shot groups, but they opened up a bit on the 4 and 5 shot groups. Overall average was .92", which I could deal with easily enough for hunting, but this is my target rifle as well.

So after the 40 rounds of the factory stuff, and did my fire forming of the brass for my chamber, I began my load workings to see exactly what she liked. I loaded up some 58gr, 67gr, 87gr V-Max's, and some 75gr and 105gr Hornady BTHP Match. Of all the rounds tested, the best results came from the 105's by far!! All of the rounds were loaded with IMR4350. The barrel showed 2 distinct nodes of 39.3grs and also at 40.2grs. Final group testing of the 2 nodes printed results of .682" for the 39.3grs, and .496" for the 40.2grs.

So I am obviously sticking with the 105's over 40.2grs of IMR4350. I then began changing seating depths, and my original depth of .010" off the lands proved to be the best. It makes my COAL of 2.7635", with plenty of room in my magazine to function perfectly. I have absolutely NO complaints about this rifle at all. She is as good a looker, as she is a shooter!!

DK