Nothing but a savage

I am new to the forum and would like to introduce myself.


I didn't own a high power rifle until about 9 years ago. My father and I used blackpowder for all our hunting. Pennsylvania Kentucky 45's for groundhogs, Hawken 50's for deer. 66 and 60 twists for patched balls. I guess you could say we were primitive "nuts". But these had limited range so you had to get relatively close.


A friend talked me into buying a rifle for "longer" groundhog shots. I asked him what he would buy and he said that it was hard to beat a savage for accuracy, but they didn't look like much. I didn't care about looks, I just wanted the rifle to hit when I needed it to. I asked him what would be a good caliber for both groundhogs and deer. He said 25-06.


So my first was a 25-06 110 fp. My friend laughed at me - he said that 8.5 lb rifle would be awful heavy to carry deer hunting. I laughed at him and asked him if he ever carried a 42" barrel Pennsylvania Kentucky rifle!!!!!


Well I bought reloading equipment and went to work. (We made our own patched balls, and we were very particular about our lead/tin mix, so I wanted to make my own center fire ammo as we'll).


My first loads were with re 19 and 85 gr Nos Bt's, and the best I coud do was 1.25 " @100. I wasn't impressed - I could do that with my patched balls on a good day. So I started to take the stock off to see if there was a bedding problem and found the action screws very loose. Torqued to 35 in/lbs and immediately got to 0.5 " groups. So I was happier. But I expected more out of a center fire with a 12 power scope.
Then I tried 75 g vmax's. The first load I tried was 47 g Imr 4064 and shot 3/8's. Went to 47.5 g and shot .18". Decided to shoot 2 more for a 5 shot group, and the group spread to 0.3"!!!! Needless to say, I stuck with that load. It wasn't the fastest, but 3660 was good enough for me. So I was sold on the savages. I know this gun needs a good cleaning when the groups spread to 0.5"!!!.
I really wish savage would make these again. I'd love to buy one for each for my boys. any one out there have one of these that they left in the box?. My 14 yr old son shot a groundhog at 470 yards on 4th of July. (My longest kill was 620 yds although I did have to shoot twice before I got him) He said he would love to have one of these.


Well I bought a 16FNS in 270wsm a year later in preparation for a Colorado elk hunt. It would "only" shoot 3/4's with my best handloads, so I did a little skim bed job and reduced the groups to 0.4". Using 140 nos abonds with imr 7828. Won't tell you he charge, but an honest 3260 on the crony. shot the rifle at 500 yds in prep for the hunt and shot one 1.5 " group at 500!!. My average for 4 groups was a little over 3". No wind, so that's the best "I" could do. I'd love to see what a competition shooter coud do with this rifle. Now I was more of a believer.
I harvested 2 Cow elk with this load on my 4 hunts; neither longer than 125 yds, but I was confident I could have gone to 400+ if I had needed to.
My longest shot with this rifle was a whitetail on my buddies river bottom at an honest 538 yds, and it was a bang flop.


Well, my son was ready for a deer rifle, and I got a great deal on a 14 classic stainless in 308. With 48 g blc2 and a 150 g Sierra pro hunter - 0.25 " group. I have never shot this load greater than 0.4". This And I did nothing to this rifle!!. So then I'm more of a believer.


Then my son wanted a groundhog gun a year and a half ago. We decided on the model 25 laminated thumb hole in 222. At first I was a little disappointed, the best I could get was about 0.7". But the accutrigger in this model was rather hard, rather gritty, creepy, and just plain inconsistent. And I noticed that at times the bolt was hard to open, even when I had not fired the rifle - it seemed to be binding. A little lapping on the bolt cured this, and groups shrunk to 0.5. Then a little work on the accutrigger spring, slightly larger trigger pins, and 4 shims gave me a perfect 1.5lb break. This rifle now shoots 0.3 " groups. With 50 g vmax's and 20.5 g imr 4198. great accuracy with only a little "tuning".


with my limited funds I have bought no other rifles, but I can assure you, when the piggy bank gets full again my money will not be spent on anything but a Savage. I only pray that the recent company changes will not change the Savage quality.


I look forward to reading about other's experience with these amazing rifles.


regards,


theloyalsavage

Welcome to the site

howdy

ONe of the best intro's I've read in my time on this site! Welcome!

Great read, and parallels a lot of folks' experience with these rifles. They are good.
Joe

Welcome

Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Barrel Nut

Welcome from NE Michigan.