Howdy Savages, I'm New Here and Want Tell You About My 110 Predator in .223

Howdy Savages
I’m a new 110 Predator owner and my first Savage rifle. I’ve been shooting, reloading, and competing with rifles, pistols, revolvers, and shotguns for over forty years and love it. My last rifle prior to the Savage is an Accuracy International AT and it’s truly incredible piece of work. It had everything I wanted with incredible accuracy, adjustability, quick change barrels. I’ve been shooting it for a little over two years.


Now comes the Predator. I watched a YouTube video by a young lady on Guns.com. and it was impressive but then a lot of compensated YouTubers tend to over sell or exaggerate the qualities of items. So last Saturday I walked into my local gun store and what do you know there was one of those low cost extremely accurate out of the box lasers right there on the wall. I’m going to do my own review.
I talked them down a bit on price and bought one on the spot. I get home and did the cursory inspection and cleaning, mounted a scope and looked it over. The barrel looked good and I like the 22” length with the threaded muzzle perfect for my suppressor. I thought the rifle was a little on the light side, a little too small at the grip, and the bolt felt kind of sloppy and loose. The adjustable stock works and stays snug not moving around, I like that because it works, and the trigger was okay.


I took it out to my range. I had some Winchester 55gr varmint X, Cheap federal 55gr bulk, and a reload of IMR 4064 with a 53gr bullet that shoots exceptionally well from my old Bushmaster Varminter. After bore sighting the scope I start with the cheap Federal on a full sized AR-500 target and scored a hit way down at the bottom. After a few adjustments I’m ready and move over to paper producing a dismal four inch plus group, well crap it’s new and may need to be lapped in a little. I shot again and still hitting all over and about three inches was the best I could do. And it doesn't eject very well dropping the spent case in the action. I couldn’t believe this was shooting so badly something just didn’t feel right and I began checking bolts and looking suspiciously at the Athlon scope. I took it back in to the bench and while carrying it in it felt like something moved or I felt a silent clunk.
I couldn’t really find anything obvious so I tore it all the way down and started over lightning the trigger a tad while I was in there. I had to go online to find a 40 inch pound spec for the action screws and set them. I remounted the scope and torqued it all down. I took the butt pad off and looking inside I found this little piece of styrofoam and pulled it out. I think it’s in there to fill the void and maybe dampen noise, stiffen the stock? I took a small sandwich baggy and stuffed it in the stock then spooned in several pounds of seven and a half lead shot sealing the bag and installing the butt pad. With the scope and the shot the rifle now weighs fifteen pounds three ounces and balances just at the front of the magazine. Now it feels like a target rifle.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Hobbies/S...MG_4562-XL.jpg


Back outside and as fate would have it, it was just starting to sprinkle a little rain and one thing I’ve learned over the years is never rush it, if you’re short on time don’t bother reschedule. But I’ve shot many a match and won some in the rain so it doesn’t bother me. I loaded a Winchester 55gr and picked out a little half inch red bulls eye, lined it up, took a breath and let it out squeezing the shot off at the bottom of the breath. Bullseye! That had to be luck, right? I slowly loaded another one by hand which is no easy feat with this gun, and repeated the process and cut the first hole with the second shot! Wow it’s for real but unfortunately the sky opened and it poured so hard I could no longer see the targets at a hundred yards so I had to quit for the day. I love this rifle and the next day worked up a load using 25grs of Varget with a 55gr Hornady Sx Blitz bullet that does one hole.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Hobbies/S...3880-001-S.jpg


My wife just reminded me that I could have bought five Predators for the price of the AI. God Bless Her



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Welcome to the forum. Nice pick and good shooting!

Awesome gun, you should read some of @charlie b published data on savages .223 1/9 twist guns.
Very smart man.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LOL, not that smart. CFJunkie has the best stuff.

Or these guys
https://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html

Thanks, for the welcome and the information and Charlie I'll be looking for your data. I'm have very frustration ejection problem as the brass just falls back into the action 99% of the time. I wonder if you could point me to anything information on something I might do to fix it.

Thanks again,
Jim

Keep an eye on this site for when they are Back in stock. My Axis 22-250 had the same problem a couple different times. These kits will help the issue.

https://www.tacticalworks.com/Savage...actor-Kit.html

I usually order 2 at a time so I have at least one back up. I found my problem to be the detent ball (stock one is too small) and the extractor (lip gets "knocked off" some times).

^^this.

My .223 is an Axis. I am kinda surprised it does not have feeding or extraction problems with the funky way they block the magazine to fit a short cartridge into a long action.

Thanks for the info I'll try to locate one of the kits. Do Savages come with weak ejector springs?

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Originally Posted by Badfinger

Thanks for the info I'll try to locate one of the kits. Do Savages come with weak ejector springs?

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It's been known to happen from time to time. My experience is hit and miss. My 111s haven't had the problem, but my Axis sure has.

My Axis and 12 are both fine.

I have virtually the same rifle in .308 and it's basically my go to rifle with several thousand rounds through it. It doesn't print as well as yours but it shoots 1 moa consistent with 5 shot groups. I had it cerekote. It's not the most refined rifle in the world but it's the rifle I need the rifle you can leave out day and night for a week in the rain and not worry much and then hit what you aim at when you need to.

Enjoy.

Thanks Shaffe, I think this rifle is going to shoot well it seems like after about 50 rounds the it began to group well. I had a Remington .308 SPS that didn't break-in until after about 200 rounds. Funny story (now not but at the time) I was shooting the Savage yesterday and it wouldn't group it was shooting 3-4 inch spreads. I tried several different loads including new factory ammo and the same with all of it. Man I was frustrated to say the least when I picked up the rifle yo go back in the house I felt something move and a sort of silent clunk but I felt it. I had a similar problem when I first shot this rifle but it was loose in the stock and easily fixed. Long story short my suppressor had had come loose just enough to make a little wiggle and that was all it took. I wasn't hit and there were no witness marks but it moved off center enough to affect the bullet. :rolleyes:

Badfinger if by chance you are using the scope bases that came with the rifle and didn't tighten and/or locktite them yourself you might do so. These are pretty famous for not actually being attached to the rifle correctly.


For me, another good use for the locktite was the thread protector. I did experiment with a muzzle brake. But with a 10 plus lb. 308, it's just not worth the extra length or muzzle blast for me. The barrel is already 24 inches and with my arcomp which is pretty fast burning it's a relatively low muzzle blast rifle.

I thought being a savage and with the bull barrel it would shoot anything accurately. But in reality I probably searched at least five different factory ammo and only two shot accurately. One of those is my current hunting bullet with handloads 180 grain trophy bonded tip. I also shoot 180 grain interlocks with somewhat less accuracy. I'm thinking about making another load with 150 grain SST since those were the other bullet that shot well from factories.

I wish I had a dime for every base screw someone asked me to get out for them that had been loctited in.

Well whatever you yourself do to keep your bases on do it because the way they come from the factory is frequently subpar.

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Originally Posted by shaffe48

Well whatever you yourself do to keep your bases on do it because the way they come from the factory is frequently subpar.

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I agree. I rarely use factory setups though.

Welcome to our Clan Badfinger. Glad you are happy with your rig now. Very nice looking.

Thanks Dave, I'm really enjoying it and this site.