Savage LRPV .223 - First impression

[Nefarioud]

I had been lusting after this thing since I got to fondle one the was traded at my buddies shop. Unfortunately at the time I was caught up in the "Obama's gonna take all the AR's!" frenzy that swept the nation and was up to my elbows in "brass flingers"

Well, After spending a year getting cozy with a 10FP in .308 I was ready for a change. I sold an AR HBAR match and bought a Low Profile 1:7 .223. I liked the fact that you can reload .223for about half of .308 and I like the fact that .223 is nice for solo shooting because you can call your own shots. When I bought the LP a good friend of mine called dibs; telling me that if he ever got the money he could buy from me for what I paid for it. Well, some lady hit the back of his truck and he got an insurance check and convinced himself that the bent bumper and small dent in the truck "adds character" so he took the LP off my hands. I was a little bummed. A quick look at Gun Broker revealed a NIB LRPV .223 1:7 for $830 Buy it Now. YAY!

With a slight amount of trepidation, this being my first GB purchase, I sent out the Postal money order to the man in Alabama, who immediately sent me the tracking number. Again YAY! After four days of checking the UPS site monitoring the my new purchase's progress every 30-40 seconds (it takes a Long Damn time to get from Dallas to Phoenix) the gun arrived at my FFL.

I took it out of the box and thought "This is one stout MoFo" The FFL said he had to charge me extra because he had to hire a few guys to get it off the UPS truck. It took me all of 12 seconds to know that this is exactly what I wanted.

I picked up the gun on Friday and we had a shooting day planned on Sunday so I rushed home where the new 20 MOA NF rail had arrived and promptly bedded the rail and installed the 5.5-22 NP-R2 that had vacated the Low Profile.

I spent all day Saturday making the loads I wanted to try in the LRPV and some .308 with 110 V-Max's for my FNAR (which I replaced with a 12 BR DP in .308 this week, Hurry FRIDAY!)

On Sunday we started the day by running 50 rounds from the Tubb 2000 fire lapping system through the LRPV. Shoot ten, Clean. Shoot ten, Clean...tedious but whatever. Then I started on my hand-loads which break down as follows: Winchester New brass, 23 grains of H4895, Federal 205's, with the following Bullets, 77SMK's, 80 Berger VLD's, 75 A-Max's, and 80 Nosler CC's. All set .010 off the lands. (note: the stupid ammo boxes I had wouldn't close with the bullets loaded this way, and my buddy said the $4 hinged-lid Planos are the way to go)

Our set-up is a hillside the includes AR500 Metal plates in either 1 or 2 MOA sizes from 300 to 1000 Yards.

It took three rounds to get the LRPV dinging the 625 yard gong. After that it was just a matter of figuring the drop for the further distances. This would have been easier had I remembered to bring the freaking tripod for the chronograph so we could get an idea of the bullet speeds.

The gun was amazing with all four bullets! I had picked the load randomly from the manual because it seemed safe with all four bullets.

I love this thing!!!!! I would have saved myself a bunch of money and headache if I woulda gotten rid of the AR's and got this a year ago and I'd have a lot more brass, because I ALWAYS come home with 50 round ammo boxes containing 48 or 49 cases.

After the gong ringing session and what seemed like 1400 patches down the barrel I settled in to shoot some groups. The way our set-up is arranged the following are shot hilltop to hilltop about 125 yards. Below are the results (All are 5 shot groups):

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TEh-GpQWzeI/AAAAAAAAACY/lciLIzBXaFE/s720/IMG_4275.JPG
Looked great until I got excited and pulled the last one.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TEh-Ha3zQSI/AAAAAAAAACc/2KxiAPkostI/s720/IMG_4276.JPG
Not too shabby

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TEh-IrS_BLI/AAAAAAAAACg/1lz2rPf9uYc/s720/IMG_4277.JPG
Hmmmm?

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TEh-F_3iOeI/AAAAAAAAACU/3uVOkKzhPa4/s720/IMG_4274.JPG
The top hole is the result of getting excited about the first four going through the bottom hole!

I have to say with ZERO load development, I am extremely impressed with this thing and cannot wait to get out and get it really shooting. The phrase I guess is "Only accurate rifles are interesting" Well, color me interested.

For my money I liked the Noslers they're priced right and seemed to perform best overall. I'm gonna mess with the others a little on seating depth and see what happens, but I really like the Noslers

I only hope the 12 BR is this nice.

[King Ghidora]

I have a 12 LRPV in .223 also. Mine is the left port, single shot model. I'm an old hand at shooting but I'm new to long distance shooting. About 300 yards has been my limit up until recently when I joined a local gun club. They have a 600 yard range which I didn't find out was limited to black powder rifles until I had signed up to join. But they do have a 400 yard range which is pretty nice. They have quite a few other things that make the club worthwhile I guess but I still want a chance to shoot on that 600 yard range.

I had no trouble finding the distance with my LRPV at 400 yards. My first trip involved learning the drop and zeroing my scope so it would work well at that distance. I managed to knock a gallon jug around a good bit which seemed pretty good for a first time out. I've only managed to get to the range about 5 times since I bought this gun. The last time out I was nailing a 5" target painted on a rock with no trouble at all. I even managed to hit it dead center a few times. I never dreamed I could progress this fast to be honest. I have to give credit where credit is due though. This rifle is fantastic IMO. It just lays right on the target and no nervous twitch is going to shake this 12 pound plus (with scope) rifle. I don't even have a real good quality scope on it yet. I'm working on that right now.

I thought it would take me a few months to get to this point to be honest. I'm not talking about my great shooting. I'm no great shooter. I'm talking about how easy it is to put the bullets where you want them at 400 yards. And I'm using off the rack ammo BTW. And what's even more weird is that cheaper ammo seems to work better than the match grade ammo I've bought. I don't know how well that will stand up on longer distances (which is my goal) but for now I'm shooting cheap, off the shelf ammo and I'm doing fairly well with it. I do intend to get involved in reloading soon. I should have done it a long time ago but for the past 2 years I've shot rimfire almost exclusively. I stopped shooting my centerfires because ammo was hard to come by and it was getting expensive. So I pretty much sat on what I had and started shooting a rimfire again.

I'm still nowhere near what I need to be in dealing with the wind. I live in a place where there are a lot of days with almost no wind at all. That's also why I rarely get to shoot long distance. I live in hill country. Still I'm eating this stuff up and I want to get out to the range every day. But it's really too far away. I need a closer spot to shoot. Maybe I'll find one sometime soon. If I do I hope it has 1000 yards of open space because that's my ultimate goal - to shoot fairly accurate at 1000 yards. I believe this rifle can get me there too.

[janizary]

When I bought the LP a good friend of mine called dibs; telling me that if he ever got the money he could buy from me for what I paid for it.

Dibs? Really? You are a very indulgent friend ;)

Glad none of my friends called dibs on my wife! :)

[Nefarioud]

Glad none of my friends called dibs on my wife! :)


:) if he was a REAL Friend he woulda took her instead

[hailstone]

My understanding of calling dibs on something is when "you" decided too sell something then that individual gets first chance to buy. It doesn't mean he can waltz in at any time and buy something of yours if you had no intention of selling. Either you didn't state that correctly in your post or I've never unstood the concept of calling dibs.

[82boy]

IMO, that is the best gun in the Savage line up!

[King Ghidora]

Wow 82boy. That's really saying a lot coming from someone with as much knowledge of their products as you. I guess I got lucky when I ran into a good deal on my LRPV when I was thinking hard about buying a 12 F/TR.

[Nefarioud]

My understanding of calling dibs on something is when "you" decided too sell something then that individual gets first chance to buy. It doesn't mean he can waltz in at any time and buy something of yours if you had no intention of selling. Either you didn't state that correctly in your post or I've never unstood the concept of calling dibs.


Actually, He called dibs at the store; but, I had the money in my pocket and purchased it with the express understanding that when he got the money he could buy it from me.

I liked the low profile, but it was a DBM and not as easy to single load as the LRPV.

After using this I sold my 10FP to one of the guys that works for me and bought a 12 BR dual port because I like the target action so much.

[pa hog]

IMO, that is the best gun in the Savage line up!



+1 They should offer the LRPV in .243, 260 and .308 and maybe some magnums. I'm sure the Custom shop will do them but it would be nice to just go buy one.

[Nefarioud]

+1 They should offer the LRPV in .243, 260 and .308 and maybe some magnums. I'm sure the Custom shop will do them but it would be nice to just go buy one.


+1 I would really have like to have been able to purchase another LRPV in .308. I love the feel of the stock and just the gun overall. I bought the Benchrest because it was a good deal and I could just buy it. I've already scored a second LRPV to do a caliber change. But Barrels seem to be a while out. So my thought was to use the BR until then.