• Savage Model 10 BAT/S Rifle Review in .308 Winchester

    AR styling meets bolt action precision, the result being the new Savage Model 10 BAT/S-K in .308 Winchester. When I first opened the box I was very impressed. I had seen pictures of this fine rifle online, but to actually handle one brought it home how much effort Savage put into this new law enforcement offering.The focus of this rifle is to provide the tactical market an exciting and versatile shooting tool, and Savage delivered.

    So how tactical is the 10 BAT/S-K? If you are sitting in a position covering an area without the need to move to much its great, but if you need to relocate to another position it's a little on the heavy side at 13.4 pounds (without scope or bipod). The M10BAT/S-K isn't a pack rifle, and it's definitely not something you want to have to hike up a mountain with. But that's not the designed intent of the BAT rifles.

    The M10 BAT is marketed by Savage as a modular sniper system that affords the owner the ability to customize it with familiar AR style components. It also sports a Picatinny rail for scope mounting that drops a Ό” and extends down the barrel another 12 inches. Two additional side mounted rails the length of the fore-arm and provide space to mount additional accessories like tactical lights and lasers.

    Once out of the box I had to make a decision; shoot it or dissect it? Naturally I did what any average gun enthusiast would have done and took it apart. First and foremost, it’s still a Savage 10 action with an Accutrigger. In fact, it is the older style Savage 10 actions using the side bolt release and the traditional square slotted barrel nut, and the screw spacing is 4.275". The only major change is that the magazine well has been lengthened to accommodate the Accuracy International (AICS) ten round detachable magazine.

    The 10BAT rifles use the same AccuWedge technology to lock the recoil lug to the stock.The barrel is nicely fluted, extends 24 inches, and has been threaded (5/8 X 24 TPI) where it supports a custom muzzle break using a crush washer to time the breaks alignment.

    The stock is a modular design with the area supporting the action and the forearm CNC machined from a solid piece of billet aluminum and fitted with an integrated magazine release lever. The stock also incorporates Savages newest innovation, the AccuLock, so the barreled action can be securely locked into the stock via the recoil lug. The BAT/S-K model also includes a fully adjustable buttstock and a target style pistol grip to complete the stock.

    After taking the rifle apart for examination, it was time for a little “let us see what fits”. Remember this is a modular system designed to allow shooters to customize it with their favorite AR components to make their sniping rifles closer to their tactical AR’s in look and feel. Right away you will notice this is encouraged by Savage since the rifle comes with an AR-15 M4 stock wrench to easily remove and replace the buttstock.

    I quickly removed the supplied buttstock which is held in place with a standard castle nut and replaced it with a Magpul MOE stock with a six position MILSPEC tube and then a traditional AR-15 A2 fixed length stock. Both of these stocks where easy to attach and remove, and unlike an AR-15 the user does not have to worry about the recoil buffer and spring during the removal and installation process. Besides the buttstock, the pistol grip can also easily be removed and replaced with the shooters favorite AR style pistol grip. I tried the traditional A2 and my favorite Magpul MOE pistol grip in FDE, both of which attached quickly using a standard AR pistol grip screw and lock washer.

    The machine cut for the magazine on the bottom of the action differs from other Savage models to accept the AICS magazine.After returning the rifle to its original configuration I looked at other possibilities for accessories. Right away I noticed the adjustable stock comes with an adjustable check piece. This cheek piece is not a Savage specific component, but rather a standard Command Arms Accessories (CAA) Adjustable Cheek Piece (ACP) that attaches to the buttstock using a Picatinny rail. The one that comes with the BAT/S-K is black, but green and tan are available from CAA directly at http://www.commandarms.com.

    The front of the stock comes with three sling mounts, one on the bottom designed to support a bipod and two on each side to accommodate various sling configurations. For the purpose of the review I attached a 6-9” Harris bipod to the bottom mount. Besides the sling mounts the BAT/S-K has an attached Picatinny rail that is mounted using the standard Small action round receiver scope base. Except this rail covers the entire portion of the action and extends down the barrel another 12” a quarter of inch lower than the action rail and has two side mounted Picatinny rails that run at 90° to the top of action. This allows for the addition of lights and lasers and other fun Picatinny mounted accessories. For the review I used a Leupold VX-1 4X12 40 mm riflescope in a LaRue Tactical SPR / M4 scope mount to hold to the tactical nature and modular design of the rifle.

    The picatinny rail attaches the same as a standard 1-piece scope base, but extends an additional 12 inches forward of the recoil lug.One last accessory to discuss is the magazine. Like all magazine type rifles the shooter often wants more than just one magazine when in a tactical situation. Savage did not create a brand new designed magazine to meet this need, but instead licensed and used an existing design by adopting the Accuracy International (AICS) detachable magazine. AICS makes their magazine in both five and ten round capacities that work with the BAT/S-K and can be purchased at http://www.brownells.com.

    After getting the BAT back together and adding my scope and bipod it was time to take it to the range. If anyone has been paying attention we are going through an ammunition shortage due to a geopolitical situation I will not go into, but it has been tough getting ammunition and components for 308 Winchester due to it's popularity. After begging, borrowing and making a few promises I was able to put together two factory loads and seven different reloads for the range. There was a limiting factor in that I only had a limited supply of powder and one type of primers so there was a decision try several reloads or work up one. I chose to try several.

    Listed below is the factory ammunition used for this review:

    • Remington 150 grain CORE-LOKT
    • Hornady 165 grain BTSP InterLock

    All reloads used Winchester brass and Winchester Large Rifle primers and where setup to SAMI specifications. Below is the specific information for each reload:

    • Nosler 150 grain Spitzer Accubond with 40.5 grains of IMR-4895
    • Nosler 165 grain Spitzer Ballistic Tip with 40 grains of IMR-4895
    • Sierra MatchKing 168 grain HPBT with 39 grains of IMR-4895
    • Sierra MatchKing 175 grain HPBT with 44.1 grains of IMR-4350
    • Combined Technology 180 grain Ballistic Silvertip with 41 grains of IMR-4895
    • Nosler 200 grain Spitzer Partition with 37 grains IMR-4895
    • Sierra 200grain Spitzer Boat Tail with 37 grains of IMR-4895

    CNC machined stock offers a precise inlet for the Savage barreled action.Finally at the range I had to make a decision, I had limited amounts of ammunition with only five rounds of a few of my reloads, two boxes of Remington factory ammunition I intend to sight the rifle in with and one other box of Hornady factory ammunition. I first sighted in with Remington ammunition and quickly became clear a 100 yard shoot off will not work since the cheapest ammunition was grouping a Ό” and to be sure I tested the other box of factory ammunition and I could not tell the difference except it was 2” higher. It was clear that the BAT was going to be a good shooter. So to make it fun I sighted in with the Remington ammunition at 200 yards in the lead sled and decided to do every shot from a bipod in the prone position to evaluate the ammunition and rifle performance.

    View of the magwell and magazine release in the bottom of the stock.After sighting in I was left with four rounds of the factory Remington ammunition so it will be the only one not tested at 200 yards with 5 shot groups. I decided to clean the rifle after each five shot string and began my shooting starting with my four rounds of Remington factory ammunition. After each shooting string I cleaned the barrel and let it cool down and shot the next string. From the target pictures it’s clear at 200 yards the 168 grain Sierra MatchKing was the best round, though the 175 Sierra MatchKing would have been up there if I did not pull two of the shots. With the factory ammunition, the Hornady fodder did better holding an inch group at 200 yards while the Remington factory loads came in right at 1-1/2". All ammunition tested provided 1 to 1 ½” groups at 200 yards maintaining MOA accuracy, including the heavy-for-caliber 200 grain bullets.

    Another shot of the magwell and magazine release.Observation at the range was that the Savage 10 BATS-K was very comfortable to shoot. In the prone position with the LaRue mount it provided a comfortable cheek weld and the attached muzzle break softened each shot. For fun, the remaining Hornady factory ammunition was used to shoot steel plates at 400, 500 and 600 yards with zero misses. The only draw backs to the 10 BATS-K were the weight of the rifle and the noise of the muzzle break. The LaRue scope mount maintained zero through a hundred rounds and stayed securely fastened to the Savage supplied rail.

    To sum it up the Savage 10 BATS-K is a fun rifle to shoot that allows the shooter to customize it to their desired taste. With many aftermarket AR stocks, grips and Picatinny mounted accessories the possibilities are endless. The fact that Savage uses standard threads on the muzzle break allows even the addition of different 308 caliber based muzzle breaks designed for AR 10’s or the easy installation of one of the many sound suppressors on the market. (Note NFA rules apply) So if you are looking for a sub MOA sniper rifle that can be easily customized to look and feel like you are familiar tactical AR then Savage hit the mark with the 10 BATS-K.


    Additional Photos:

    Left side of the fully adjustable buttstock. Right side of the fully adjustable buttstock. The M10BAT/S-K uses the standard Savage Target AccuTrigger.AccuTrigger adjustment is the same as on any other Savage rifle. A close-up look at the 6-port muzzlebrake on the M10BAT/S-K. The M10BAT/S-K uses the same 10-round magazine as Accuracy International's AICS rifles.A standard AR-style castle nut attaches the buttstock, and Savage includes the wrench necessary for removal. The M10 BAT/S-K comes with a fully adjustable buttstock, complete with CAA Adjustable Cheek Piece. Included black cheek piece and a CAA cheek piece from one of my own AR's.  Definitely one and the same.Another shot comparing the supplied cheek piece and one from my AR. A MagPul M.O.E. pistol grip fits with ease, as will any other aftermarket AR grip. Larue Tactical SPR quick-release scope mount and rings were used to attach a Leupold VX-1 scope to the M10BAT/S-KThe M10BAT/S-K comes with full documentation, a lock, AccuTrigger tool and AR-style stock wrench. A M4 stock wrench from Brownells is packaged with the M10BAT/S-K. 165gr Hornady Interlock factory load.150gr Remington CoreLokt factory load 150gr Nosler AccuBond
40.5gr IMR-4895 165gr Nosler BT
40gr IMG-4895168gr SMK
39gr IMR-4895 175gr SMK
44.1gr IMR-4350 180gr SilverTip
41gr IMR-4985200gr Nosler Partition
37gr IMR-4895 200gr Sierra BT
37gr IMR-4895


    Contact Information
    Savage Arms
    100 Springdale Road
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Phone: (413) 568-7001
    www.SavageArms.com