MKII TR Problems

[Runamuk]

My brother and myself just purchased a couple of the Savage MkII TR rifles in 22lr on Saturday at D*&S sporting goods. Very nice looking little rifles and comfortable stocks and for only $400 bones how could you go wrong, with all the great things people are saying about Savage rifles lately? Well let me tell you, things can go really wrong! After getting the rifles home we did a good cleaning on them, didn't notice any glaring problems. My brother took his out of the stock and adjusted his trigger a little, I left mine at the factory spec for the time being. We then bought a decent set of Leupold rings and went to mounting a couple Weaver V24 scopes on them. Our plan was to use these as our training rifles and shoot some of the 22lr competitions that our club is just beginning to sponser where they really don't want us using our Anschutz rifles.
To get to the point of all this, neither of these rifles could be zeroed, in fact not even close! With the windage cranked all the way to the right, at 35yrds the rifles still shot over 12in left! (both rifles) These scopes have +/- 20" of windage at 100yds and the rifles were still this far off at only 35yds! I can only believe the factory bases that came with these rifles are mis-drilled, problem is we ran a lapping bar across the rings and they look perfect in terms of alignment. Starting to think maybe the barrel is set in the receiver wrong, we really have no idea at this point.
We thought these rifles were going to be fun projects and fun to shoot, turns out we were wrong. These were the first Savage rifles either of us have purchased and we buy our share of new rifles. Looks like we're about to get some experience with not only Savage rifles, but with Savage customer service as well.

[TOP PREDATOR]

man that's wierd. let us know how it turns out.

[icanoutfishu13]

I'm pretty sure your right about the bases, i bought a TR about a week ago and was having the same exact problem as you. I mounted a rimfire tech rail and everything is great now. ;D So i would say try changing the bases and see if this doesn't fix the problem, hope it works out for you because now that i have that fixed this thing sure is a shooter.

[Runamuk]

I did consider installing a new one piece base, but after thinking about it that seemed like more of a bandaid fix than actually fixing a problem with the rifle. Plus I'm not so sure if the factory bases are misaligned that I could actually get a one piece base to line up.
I sent both rifles back to savage a couple days ago, I'll give it a week or so and see if I hear anything from them. I really just want them to be fix the way they should have been to start with.

[Golfbuddy45]

I know you do not have the rifles now and you may have tried something like this but here is what I do to initially set up my scopes: I live in the city so have limited distance to used a thin black marker to make a 12" by 12" PLUS sign on a sheet of white graph paper. I set the on the back fence and use a bubble level to ensure vertical/horizontal are perfect. I set up my rifle on the island in my kitchen so nobody sees me pointing a rifle out back and use a 90 degree square to ensure the rifle is perfectly vertical. I sight through the barrel to center the + inside the barrel hole. Then I set up my scope vertical line directly on the + sign vertical and tighten down the ring clamp screws. This ensures the vertical plane alignment of the scope to the rifle. I recheck the barrel sighting on the target and then adjust the horizontal and vertical "hairs" to the + sign. On my pistols where I can't see through the barrel I use a laser bore sighter. After setting up my .30-30 I used a range finder to find a window on a vacant house on the back street that dropped in right on 100 yards. I set the barrel sight square on the window frame and looked through the scope and the lines were perfect - assuming the builder made everything square!!! Using this method my first shots are always right close to the vertical line of the target regardless of the range distance. The elevation is the only question depending on the range I am shooting. I paid $30 dollars for the Bushnell Laser Bore Sighter and it came with barrel adapters from .17 to .50 caliber. It was well worth the money.

[Runamuk]

Golfbuddy - Tks for sharing your procedure!

This is pretty much what we do here in the country minus the fence ;) This is the same process I used with this rifle and my brothers. Problem was after I leveled my target on the stand with the level, went back and placed my crosshairs on the + after leveling the rifle, the bore was pointing about 2 1/2 feet right! That was my first indication of the problem and it didn't get any better from there. >:(

Both rifles are back at Savage right now, per the shipping request they should have arrived last Friday. I'm hoping to hear something soon.

Thanks for everyone's help, I'll be sure to let everyone know how this works out.

Don/$

[DANFAM]

I'm curious to see what the cause and solution of the problem is. I have really been considering picking up one of TR .22's.

[Runamuk]

Danfam - When I find out I'll let everyone know.

It's been at Savage Arms for 8 days, I called this morning and the customer service guy had no information at all. It didn't sound like he was interested at being at work, I think I got dumber talking to him. I ask him what would be a good day to call back, he said he had no idea. I ask how long it normally takes to diagnose a problem after a rifle arrives at Savage, again....No idea. My last question was if my ejection port is 1 5/8" (which it is) or 1 3/8" since I want to purchase a 20MOA base....he said he didn't know and there wasn't a gunsmith around to ask. That was about 10min's of my life I won't get back.

[Runamuk]

Wanted to update everyone about my two MkII TR's that I was having problems with, I feel it's only fair that if I'm going to write something that could be considered bad against Savage that I update with the response from them.

I received one of the two that I sent in, it took 18 days to received this back after I called to ensure they received it, so not counting shipping they had the rifle for 14 days, 20 days total turn around time.

Reading the paper work and speaking to a customer service person it was decided that a full replacement of the receiver was in order for both rifles. The rifle came nicely packed and with paper work showing everything that the repair person did to diagnose the problem along with a test target they shot from 100yds measuring .7 using federal Gold Ultra Match ammo. (I did my own measurement and got .673) I mounted a 20MOA EGW 1 piece base, my XTR rings and the Weaver V24 scope. I could tell right away things were looking much better when viewed from the business end of the rifle, leveled the scope, tightened everything down and went shooting. I have a pretty good assortment of 22 ammo on hand, nothing super expensive, but some decent stuff. I started sighting in with Winshester bulk ammo at 50yds after bore sighting, this ammo shot so bad at 50yds that I couldn't even zero the scope with it, the best group I could shoot with that ammo was about 3" at 50yds, and it couldn't really be called a group. Then I went and grabbed some Wolf match Extra and match Target, things got MUCH better from there. This rifle shoots .5 or better at 50yds when I can do my part, at 100yds out of 10 five shot groups I bettered the test target sent from Savage with 4 of them and the largest was just over 1" (1.132). Needless to say I'm very happy with the results from Savage's repair shop. I would also add that I called about 4 times during the time that savage had the rifle and the customer service was very helpful and nice to speak with, (except for one guy who was useless, see above post). Now I'm just waiting on the other rifle to arrive, or I should say my brother is waiting for his rifle to arrive, I'm hoping that one turns out and nice as this one, will let you know.

[JCalhoun]

Thanks for the update.

As for bashing Savage, we are an independent operation and receive no compensation from Savage. You can post anything about them you want as long as it is factual, respectful and to the point. If they are doing something good then that is fine. If they are screwing up, we want to see that as well. :)

[Golfbuddy45]

Wondering how the second rifle has turned out after return from Savage? I presume that has occurred by now.

[Runamuk]

Sorry for the lag in updating.

I received the 2nd rifle on Nov 4th, the fix was a total replacement of the rifle. It was sent back to me packaged nicely with a test target measuring .8 for 5 shots. In the end Savage did make things right, but buying 2 new rifles and sending them both back for replacement tells me something. I understand most everyone else doesn't have this kind of luck buying a new Savage and I'm very glad about that, but with me their track record isn't good.
My brother and myself really enjoy both rifles now, they shoot good, feed/eject reliably and are all around a lot of fun for the money.

[Rifleman51]

Sounds like you got really good service from savage.

I see a lot of Savage rimfires go through my friends shop for accurizing jobs and he has not run into holes drill off yet, so I'm betting someone had a bad day when yours were drilled.

As to ammo, try the Wolf Match. It seems to shoot the best in just about every Savage .22 that I have seen, with a few exceptions. Mine looks like a shotgun with the bulk ammo's, the Aquilla ammo shoots far better than bulk, but no where near as good as the Wolf Match.

My BRJ shot better with about 25 inch pounds of torque on the botttom metal. If you are going to put that much torque, you will either have to put in pillars or get the new 1/8" thick bottom metal from Savagegunsmithing.
I just added the thicker metal to mine and it will do away with the need for pillars, but it can't hurt to use them anyway.

If you make your own pillars, they should be exactly .200" thick. If you don't do one or the other, you might break the wood in the stock. For whatever reason, Savage was pretty skimpy with the wood in the bottom metal area.

I should add that mine has shot a best 5 shot group of .117" at 50 yards. I'd call that darn good accuracy. It shoots better than I can hold it on a portable shooting table in a cow pasture.

Best Regards, John K

[viper9696]

I've found you should stick with one kind of ammo and REALLY give it a chance.,mine is wolf match, I switched to wolf match extra and the groups really opened up and then after 20rds or so started getting smaller,but not as good as the wolf match.When I switched back it took about 30 rds for it to shot as good as it did before the switch.guess it takes a lot to season a barrel to different lubes or powder.

[Rifleman51]

I also have found the regular Wolf Match shoots best in my rifle.

It does take quite a few rounds to season the barrel, but once it is, it shoots like no other.

John K

[toyfreak]

Must have been a bad batch! I have a thread on snipershide involving my tr that i bought friday 11/28/10
I didnt read all of the OP but this is the problem whit mine.

I couldnt hit the paper at 50yrds or 25. After a ton of try this's and check that's i found that the barrel what severely FUBAR.
http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy350/t0yfreak/savage%20with%20crap%20ammo/df7eac61.jpg
http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy350/t0yfreak/savage%20with%20crap%20ammo/ee33daf5.jpg
http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy350/t0yfreak/savage%20with%20crap%20ammo/2439814a.jpg
its Sunday so i wont have any answers until Monday

[Blue Avenger]

one of the legendary duel chambers. swap ends for shooting on the other side of the equator. LOL

You see any rifling in it when you look through it?

[toyfreak]

one of the legendary duel chambers. swap ends for shooting on the other side of the equator. LOL

You see any rifling in it when you look through it?


Nope no rifling. The first thing i noticed was that only about 5 inches of bore from the breach had any twist when i ran a dry patch through it. Then i looked with a flashlight from muzzle and no rifling.

[Rifleman51]

Savage has pretty good QC, but I'm thinking the demand is causing some problems.

The only other barreling problem I have seen was one that had the rifling in the muzzle messed up.

Looked like a bad spud on the muzzle cutter tore up the rifling.

It's always a really good idea to take a bore light with you when buying a new or used rifle and inspect the bore as well as everything else you can see touch or manipulate.

John K

[toyfreak]

Good News :D
Dealer stepped up and gave me a new gun.
Cant wait to get back on the range!!