New Build: Not fancy, but I think it's cool

[Nefarioud]

Few Months back I picked up an unfired 110FP 300WM at a gun show for what seemed like a good price (around $450 with box and papers).

The Barrel was 24" and I planned to shoot fairly far so I thought a couple inches on the end would do some good and a brake was probably a necessity since I planned to shoot around 100 rounds per setting. I called around and there were no drop in barrels to be had at that moment. I called Savage to inquire about getting a 110BA brake; they told me the price and asked why I didn't just send it back to them and have a longer barrel installed. I had no response and decided to let them give it a whirl it was cheap enough and I've been happy with the stock barrels they provided on my other rifles. 5 weeks later it came back with a 26"barrel and the brake installed. In the meantime I stumbled into the 110BA on sale and kinda forgot about the FP and left it languishing in the closet.

After a few hundred dollars worth of 338 components sorting the BA, I stumbled across 400 208 A-maxes at a local shop and again became again interested in the 110FP (30 caliber stuff is less costly) so I pulled it out and ordered a new stock and bolted everything together. The result is a stout (and kinda heavy, good for my purposes) rifle that I think looks every bit as cool as the BA but cost about $500 less:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TMu6GrqDskI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/S8E1EWmqiqA/s1024/IMG_4340.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TMu6MFPglMI/AAAAAAAAAMg/dSzOGciReLQ/s1024/IMG_4343.JPG

Specifics:

110FP
Savage 26" 1:10 twist barrel
Savage brake
Choate Custom Tactical Stock (I picked this because people were complaining about it being heavy, they were right, suits me fine)
Nightforce 8-32X56 NXS NP-R2
Weight 16lbs 12 ounces with scope (BTW, my 110BA weighs 16lbs 10 ounces wearing it's Nightforce)


After Final Finish down the bore and four ladders, I&#39;ve got a load (208 A-Max, avg 3016fps using HBN and RL-25, Win Brass, WLRM Primers, <1/2" vertical spread at 695 yards) and this weekend I&#39;ll finally get to shoot some groups and go after the far gongs 1600-1900 yards.

My friends are already annoyed that my "budget" Savages shoot with their high dollar "man" guns, I hope this one doesn&#39;t let me down :)

[bobcat30]

Nice lookin rig. So without scope you got around 1000 stuck in it?

[Nefarioud]

Nice lookin rig. So without scope you got around 1000 stuck in it?


A bit more than that: Gun $450, Barrel $220, Brake $73-ish, Stock $455, NF rail $104-ish (I kinda count this as part of the optics package, I have one on all my rifles though) and a few bucks for labor(savage installed the brake and barrel) ,shipping etc. I Guess I coulda saved a few bucks by waiting and shopping around but I wanted it done, so paying a little more was fine.

So around $1300.00-$1400. I&#39;ve yet to sell the factory stock; but, I did get $150 for the factory unfired barrel, so around $1150 at this point. The 110BA&#39;s in 300WM are still fetching good money. It appears that the 300WM BA is the more desirable one. I guess because 338 is so pricey to shoot?

My initial plan was to buy a duramaxx and have it be $350 less money. After shooting the 110 in .338 and feeling the recoil reduction of the brake coupled with a 16 pound gun, I changed my mind and went with the Choate. This thing&#39;s a real *****cat recoil-wise , where the 338 feels like an un-braked .308 with both shooting heavies, the 300WM feels just a little stouter that a sporter weight .223. Though the impulse is still pretty sharp (as in quick) it&#39;s not uncomfortable. As far as the weight goes; I probably wouldn&#39;t want to use this for hunting but I&#39;m a fit (for 43) 6&#39;2" 240 so lugging it around to different spots to lay in the weeds and shoot isn&#39;t a bother.

[bobcat30]

Wow not bad at all. Impressive actually plus once ya sel stock youll be sittin good. The 338 edge rocks ya pretty good local shop has one happened to be around one day and got a chance to rap a couple rounds off. Bit much for this cat. 300 win still a shooter

[LG]

Nice looking rig!

[TnTom]

Too cool. Nice

[dcloco]

RETUMBO

My 300 WM and 208 Amax&#39;s REALLY likes Retumbo powder.

[Nefarioud]

Thanks Guys!



RETUMBO

My 300 WM and 208 Amax&#39;s REALLY likes Retumbo powder.


Eventually I plan to get there. No One has any around here at the moment.

Tomorrow I&#39;m going to try some 600 yard groups with the RL 25 and I want to shoot some ladders with Power-Pro 4000 the new Alliant "super" powder. They told me on the phone it&#39;s faster than RL 22, so I don&#39;t know if will be of much use for the 208&#39;s, but I got some and I&#39;m curious. I also got a really nice accuracy node with RL 22 at right around 2900, so I might try a comparison between the 22 accuracy load and the 25 accuracy load. It&#39;ll be interesting to see if the RL 22 can meet the goals, that would be great 6 grains less powder vs RL 25 and a little better barrel life. I&#39;ll try to get some pictures tomorrow

[dcloco]

I forgot to mention, Nosler 180 gr BT&#39;s fly rather well in my Savage BTSS in 300 WM.

[Nefarioud]

I forgot to mention, Nosler 180 gr BT&#39;s fly rather well in my Savage BTSS in 300 WM.




I have some 175&#39;s I was going to try. What kind of speeds are the 180&#39;s getting?

Have you used anything like the 155 Scenars? I want to do a lot of experimenting with different weight and try to find a good combo for practical competitions around here.

[L.H. Clark]

Very Sweet looking rig! Have you put a trigger in it yet? I&#39;ve got a 111 in 300 win mag and I like what you&#39;ve done. The recoil kills me and I paid 150 to have a break put on mine. Really wish I would have had the foresight to send it to Savage and have one like that put on. May just do that. Thanks for sharing! Here are some pics of my brake, think I got scrooged compared to your $74.00 job.....

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l495/LHClark/101_0070.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l495/LHClark/101_0069.jpg
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l495/LHClark/101_0047.jpg

I like yours soooo much better.... ;D

L.H. Clark

[Nefarioud]

Sometimes it&#39;s easy to out-think yourself. The following is a synopsis of two really good ways to do it:

1) I took the 300WM out yesterday in less than Ideal conditions. The weather was perfect;but I was hurried. I forgot I had promised my wife I&#39;d make some sort of finger food for a friends Halloween party and she called to remind me while I was driving to the shooting spot. Giving me about an hour and a half to shoot and get back home and start cooking. Under Normal circumstances I might have just turned around and went home; but, it&#39;s been about three weeks since I&#39;ve shot and I normally go out 2 or three times per week. So my plan had to be reworked on the fly.

This weapon was built to try a couple competitions on is AZPRC which is run by a fellow named Brad Peck. Details can be found at www.Azprc.net (http://www.Azprc.net). I haven&#39;t done it yet but I&#39;ve talked to brad on the phone. He seems like a nice guy and their game sounds fun.

The other one is something my friends and I have just sorta come up with and it&#39;s really two different things but we usually do them on the same day: For the past couple years we&#39;ve been littering a mountainside at our shooting spot with gongs made from AR500 steel plate. I stumbled on a large quantity a couple years back for a really good price and every once in a while I&#39;ll cut out a 1 MOA gong, build a frame to hang it from, and drag it out on the mountain and place it. The first part of our informal game is to pick a shooting location and shoot each target twice up and down doing the whole series for time. The second part involves engaging specific targets from different locations, again for time. This involves running with your rifle and whatever else you may need to the different locations. Admittedly we keep this distances limited because the terrain is very rough and though fit, we&#39;re all old.

The object of all the games is you either hit or you don&#39;t so I&#39;m tuning for hits instead of groups, though good groups should mean hits?

2) Don&#39;t be swayed by velocity. I know this well; but, I ignored it and went for something that looked interesting but I kinda knew wasn&#39;t right. When I shot the 600+ yard ladders, they showed a really good node. Just above this node I noticed there was an area where five shots of the same charge made almost a straight line. I interpreted this as good even though it was outside the area where three different loads put five rounds each (for a total of fifteen rounds) into a total vertical span of two inches at 695 yards. I shoulda went with what the data said instead of getting greedy and going after the extra hundred feet per second.

Here are a couple groups shot yesterday. They aren&#39;t spectacular but they were shot under various types of stress. Either trouble with the wife (very scary) or actual physical stress.

Here is a ten shot rapid fire at 200 yards after running two hundred yards through the woods.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TM8Oeo0s_6I/AAAAAAAAANI/TVOXSYWU7vE/s640/IMG_4363.JPG

Even though the weapon isn&#39;t being set up for this kind of thing, here is a 5 shot at a tick over 100 with my impending doom because just before I shot it I looked at the clock and realized I was about 35 minutes behind my wife&#39;s schedule.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5kErdS37uEg/TM8O3-x650I/AAAAAAAAANM/AcSpiSHLlwg/IMG_4365.JPG


I think the bottom line here is that I didn&#39;t really glean much from yesterday&#39;s endeavor................But I did get to shoot so it was a great day! :)