Savage Hate

[greyghost]

Wow !! I was on another site as I go to several and read all I can about weapons Im interested it, The same with motorcycles and 4 wheelers, I had no idea there was such a hate in some crowds for Savage fire arms, What the heck is the deal, I know everybody has a preference and you have your fan boys,
But what's the deal of Savage breaking and not being able to stand up to several rounds of shooting and nobody using a Savage in serious competition, I never heard of this before. I admit Ive usually been around Remington, And like I stated earlier I have been away from Bolt guns for awhile, I thought the AR scene was rough, But I was really snubbed big time and told I had know experience at all or I wouldn't even consider a Savage rifle for dependability or true accuracy.
Ive never heard of this before, Has there been a change at Savage that I was unaware of? Ive always heard Savage had the best out of the box accuracy of many Firearms, Did I just hit the wrong site at the wrong time or what.
I guess this is why every manufacture has a designated site, But it wasn't like I was on another designated site, Like some Glock fans hang out at XD site and trash XD or vise versa. Just didn't expect the tongue lashing is all.
The problems Ive heard about with Rem, and some Rugers is the main reason I chose to go with Savage this time.

[Rooster 50]

You made a good choice. Savage makes a good rifle.

[barrel-nut]

It's like Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge. There's always gonna be the rabid fanboys that would prefer to pick a fight rather than have an intelligent discussion. In my opinion, both are good rifles, each having strong points where the other may be lacking a bit.
But don't listen to me or the trolls on the Interwebz. You've apparently made your choice, I'm assuming based on research and sound reasoning. Buy and shoot your chosen rifle, and make up your own mind about it's merits. Ignore the noise from the blowhards.

[Boudin]

This is America. I like to consider my gun cabinet a melting pot. Any rifle that can shoot itty bitty groups is welcome. People who limit themselves to one brand of anything are missing out.

[darkker]

Suppose it depends on specifically what the gripes were.
For those of us who have long been Frankenstein-ing savages, there are some real annoyances. Savages have always been great $300 rifles.
There un-ending QC problems keep them there, only now they charge much much more. That tends to sour people.

[Berger.Fan222]

Savages shoot itty bitty groups and are well represented in the F-Class and other long range precision rifle competitions in my neighborhoods. A lot of the rich boys prefer custom Rem 700s and custom actions. So what? It's their money to waste.

[LoneWolf]

My only gripe about Savages is sometimes you get one with weak/poor ejection. You can't really upgrade this to function better, but you can make a few minor changes. I also like the trigger options that are offered for the Remington 700 foot print actions better than the Savage options. But I love the ease of building/re-barreling and working on all the parts.

I recently picked up a Shilen DGR action which combines the best of Savage and Remington together. For what I do it's very functional and allows me to continue to do everything I can already do with a Savage action, but with more options from the aftermarket!

[D.ID]

I've had remington 700, savage, winchester 70 and sako/tikka.
While I understand the love for sako and obviously for savage, the last winchester just left my melting pot and I was glad to see it go. Only remington left is only still around because her dad gave it to her.
Having run all the standards........... I can not for the life of me honestly speculate how remington even survives let alone dominates the market. Of course truth be told......it does not. Heavily modified or re-machined receivers of similar footprint in combination with quality after market parts do.
Their fan club has some seriously aggressive and obviously insecure members for sure.

[kevwil]

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." - A wise old Savage owner who probably also stumbled upon that site. ;-)

[Mach2]

Suppose it depends on specifically what the gripes were.
For those of us who have long been Frankenstein-ing savages, there are some real annoyances. Savages have always been great $300 rifles.
There un-ending QC problems keep them there, only now they charge much much more. That tends to sour people.

Check the Remys now too. They aren't what they were 10 years ago. Across the board there are few rifles sold today that could equal the same quality of years past.
Savages are very accurate. They are durable and you do see them in matches. I discovered them by accident. They will outshoot a Ruger m77.
Only accurate rifles are interesting.

[Twinsen]

I've also heard a couple people say that Savage makes inaccurate rifles. Well, not everybody is intelligent.

Savage has accuracy, good triggers, and ease of rebarreling. Honestly, they don't have anything else going for them. But they don't really need anything else, that's 3 awesome things. They have started to cheap out on some things, and that concerns me. If they do something that compromises their accuracy, it's over.

I've never heard of an accurate Ruger product. I love Ruger, but accuracy isn't their deal. Reliable, simple, overbuilt, customizable, affordable, and probably something else I forgot to praise them for. Their downside is lots of unnecessary safety equipment you have to remove and weak accuracy. Oh, also they steal designs and make a lot of "me-too" type products.

Remington and the rest of Freedom Group appear to have taken a trip down the high dive and are swimming for rock bottom. Something very big is going to have to happen for them to turn it around and stop producing junk.

Winchester already did this. They hit rock bottom. FN bought them out for the IP and I think they're the best big shop in the world now. But I know that one day there will be that voice that says, "Hey, let's start cutting corners!"

Smith&Wesson bounced a bit on this, and I'm not sure which direction they're heading. They started using MIM parts and adding key locks to their guns. They went from having famously good triggers to famously bad triggers. I know they have offered some guns without key locks, but I believe in order to get a trigger group that isn't made of gravel impregnated rubber you need to order a custom shop model.

Mossberg makes good, cheap stuff. I think a lot of it is too cheap, but I like their pumps and the MVP is something people have begged for. My MVP isn't too great, but it also doesn't do anything that ticks me off. So that's good. In an industry that is looking to put out consistently bad product, a gun that doesn't hiccup is a star.

[22hemi13]

My favorite gun is the one in my hand at the time that goes BANG

[jonbearman]

The only real problem is the trigger and sear system. If it were like a Remington style of trigger with less parts in the bolt(simpler ) it would rival the best. The only other thing they could do is take more time to improve the barrels they make(not so rough) and that is it for me. I own a lot of savage rifles and wont sell them. The ones I have are all shooters. I love working on them too.

[foxx]

I also love Savage rifles and believe they make the best, most accurate $300-400 rifle out of the box. Accuracy has never been a problem for Savage. I think their actions are rough, sloppy and have too heavy a bolt lift for serious competition, even when timed and trued. That being the case, ask yourself what are you using it for and go from there.

Snobs are ignorant, idiotic, and pathetic people, no matter what the subject.

and you can't fix stupid. :)

[barrel-nut]

^ This is why I love this forum, and it's the only one I've ever joined. These are all honest, fair minded opinions discussing what we consider to be the weaknesses and the strong points of rifles we all love, and we are probably the biggest fans of Savage rifles you'll find anywhere. All without needlessly bashing competing products, or those who prefer them. Good people here.

[wbm]

nobody using a Savage in serious competition

Really?

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2009/08/savage-f-tr-team-world-beaters-on-a-budget/

http://www.chuckhawks.com/savage_M12-Fclass.htm

[LoneWolf]

There's a new custom action out there called the mausingfield. It's components are the following:
1. Mauser style action
2. Remington 700 Footprint
3. Mauser Extractor
4. Sprinfield Ejector
5. Remington Style triggers
6. Compatible with Savage Small Shank Barrels and Barrel nut
7. Built in Recoil lug

Basically the best item from every bolt action design there is minus Accuracy International. Although it runs for $1600 it seems like the last action a man would ever need. There are more specs out there, but just this short list says a lot for innovation in the bolt action world!

[justinp61]

About five years ago I decided I wanted a heavy barrel 22-250. After much reading I decided on a Savage Model 12 FVSS, the only thing I didn't like was the cheap plastic stock so I put it in a Stockade Elk Stalker ambidextrous ( I shoot lefty) thumb hole stock. I could've bought a left hand rifle but bought the right just in case I didn't like it I could sell it easier. I love this rifle, it shoots pretty much anything you feed it well and will shoot tiny groups with 1365 Sierras and Varget.

Since I liked the 250 so well I decided to buy a 22lr trainer so I bought a Savage BTVLSS. My only complaint was the accutrigger was not as good as the on the 250, an Apachee trigger kit fixed that. This rifle is the most fun I've had with firearm in many years, in fact the 250 seldom gets taken out of the safe now. In the fall I shoot walnuts off a tree behind my shop at 90 yards and hickory nuts at 60 and 80 yards. This rifle will hurt guys with more expensive rifles egos even using cheap CCI ammo.

After having shoulder surgery three years ago I can't stand heavy recoil anymore. Last fall I decided I'd rifle hunt for deer again and needed a lighter recoiling caliber. So I started searching and ended up with a Savage model 16 in 260 Remington. Now this is a cheap rifle that came with a Nikon scope all for less than $600. I knew this going in and honestly it doesn't take a super accurate rifle to shoot minute of deer. I did kill a nice deer with it, bang, flop. This rifle is a joy to shoot, light recoiling, decent trigger, light weight and the plastic stock is much more rigid than the one that came on the 250. It shot 1" groups last fall when sighting in using factory ammo. Yesterday I picked up some H4350, the last component I needed to load for it, so I'll work up some loads. Will it be accurate? I don't know yet, but for the money I'm satisfied and that's all that matters.

Are Savage rifles the best made? No, but IMO they are the best made for the money. There are snobs in every hobby who will spend whatever it takes to have what they think is the best. I get a lot of satisfaction out shooting much more expensive rifles with my Savages.

[missed]

Some people just have nothing better to do than complain. I guess waking up everyday to realize your a bitter old woman makes you take it out on everybody else.

[Tokimini]

My first center fire rifle was a Remington 700 chambered in 204 Ruger that my sons gave me for father's day about 10 years ago, about the same time my oldest son got a Savage in 300 WSM. I admit I was a Remington snob and ragged on my son's clunky looking gun, until I saw it shoot. The accuracy, especially at 1000 yards amazed me. I was so impressed I bought a Savage barreled action and turned it into a 6BR with a McGowen barrel. It absolutely smokes the 700 in every aspect you can think of, especially accuracy and the Remmy has a Shilen barrel on it. The people that have a hate on for Savage have never shot one. I will never get anything else other than a Savage. I've even grown to love it's "clunky" look.