Picked up my new Trail Hunter...first impressions:
I just picked up my Trail Hunter in .270 Win on Friday. Always nervous when I pick up a new gun at the gun shop that I've already paid for and had it sent there to do the transfer...never really know what I'm going to get. Here are my impressions:
At the gun store, the first thing I looked at was the stock fitment around the barrel. Surprisingly...it was perfectly centered with plenty of clearance all the way around the barrel. I've seen a few YouTube videos where the stock was touching the barrel, or not centered very well so I was a little bit worried about that. The Cerakote was perfect and uniform, no flaws or blemishes. Everything looked great. At home, I disassembled (just took the stock off to clean/inspect/retorque) and was equally impressed with the fitment of the stock to the action and the finishwork on the stock. My trigger was stiff, so adjusted it all the way down, still a little over 3 lbs. Hopefully that wears in. Bore was filthy. Took lots of swabs to get a clean patch out of it. I purchased it mainly for the threaded barrel, but I actually really like the Hogue stock also.
I had a Howa .270 with the Hogue stock and was going to just have it threaded, but then saw the Savage with the same green Hogue stock with the barrel threaded already (plus I really like Savages) so I sold the Howa, purchased the Savage and it only cost me about $35 difference to make the swap all in. I liked the Howa, but I had to be very careful to clean and oil it after every outing as they kind of have a tendency to start surface rusting if not protected. That was my only complaint about it. And I wanted to use a suppressor when hunting with that caliber and out of all the .270's I own, none of them had a threaded barrel. Both the Howa and the Savage had/have 22 inch barrels, and both were about the same barrel contour, and to me they both weighed about the same...so, for me, with the cerakoting and the threaded barrel, with really no other differences that I care about, it was a good upgrade for my purposes.
I love the cerakoting on this Savage, it's a little different color than the cerakoting on my 110 VSX that I recently got (300 win mag) and my bolt and action are very smooth with no binding at all. Mag fits nice, and the rifle/mag combination feeds flawlessly. 4 rounds fit with ease in the mag.
I like that the bolt release is on the TOP again (like my Hog Hunter but UNLIKE my 110 VSX, which is a bottom release). I was surprised to see that although both long actions, they are slightly different. My 300 win mag is "open" above the magazine whereas this new Trail Hunter is "closed" or hooded. I know that a hinged floorplate (top load) is better with the "open" style, but both of these are detatchable magazines, so I actually prefer the "closed" style.
Scope mounting: Since the .270 is a long action, to use the factory supplied bases (two bases, separate, instead of a rail), you have to have a long scope. I had a Burris Xtreme 30mm 4-16 that would have fit, but wanted to mount a Vortex Viper (4-16x50) and it necessitated a rail to fit the scope and rings. Ended up using a Leupold rail (QRW/PRW #180939), which is the one for both the Axis and the 110 (4 holes drilled on one end, 2 on the other) and it CAME with the correct #8 torx screws. Not an elevated rail, which is perfect since the top is closed/hooded on the trail hunter, so the rail sits flat, flush and clean. Medium Rings mounted the scope perfectly with about 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch clearance between the objective and the barrel/barrel nut. Scope cover just barely fits. Plenty of eye relief (...cause it's a Vortex), and it looks GREAT on the rifle.
It's sitting here right next to me as I type this and I am hoping to take it out and shoot it this week to see how it shoots. It's a great looking, great feeling rifle and I'm hoping it becomes my go to .270. Hope this first-impression review helps anyone that is looking at the Trail Hunter.
Edit: Pics added.
https://i.imgur.com/7hyThMS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qf5cuJH.jpg
