New 10 FCP-HS....the good, the bad and the......

Thought I'd try again to post after some help from a great guy on here. You know who you are and thanks again for your patients with a computer neanderthal. LOL

Wanted to start a thread on my new rifle that was a co B-day gift from the wife and myself. She a keeper and all mine, so don't even ask. ;)

Picked it up on Jan. 8 and ordered the EGW rail, Burris Z-rings and Nikon M-308 scope. Have the EGW and rings on another rifle and love them. Thought I'd try out the Nikon since the rifle is a .308 and I've heard good things about the Nikon line. Got everything together and mounted up without issue. Bore sighted the scope to a known zero/distance and was ready to go dial it in. As luck would have it, family obligations and such prevented a range trip until Feb 4th. Well, all I can say is way to go Savage! Set up on the bench with a Harris bi-pod and rear bag, verified bore site at 100 yards and fired the first three rounds. So cold bore and fouler and all right off the bat with 168 gr FGMM. Two shots within a inch horizontal and one shot 1 1/2" high and right. Small adjustment and three more shots. Two shots kissing and one about an inch high & right. Slight tweak and on to the main target center. Shot two 5 shot groups. First group measured 7/8" tall by 5/8" wide all touching. Second group measured 3/4" tall by 1/2" wide all touching also. Man this thing shoots good. Tool is great, carpenter needs to practice more! LOL (When I figure out the photo posting thing, I'll post the target in an update)
As for the Nikon, all adjustments were right on the mark, tracking was excellent and the parallax adj. was true. Real clear glass and great eye relief too.

So, feeling great about the world, I headed home to clean it and get some chores done. Well, low and behold, I was brushing off the bolt head face and saw a weird line running from the firing pin hole to under the extractor. :eek: Followed it over the lug @ the extractor machining and down the back face of the lug behind the front baffle. Yep, it's cracked. :frusty: Now let be known that the rifle cycled, fed, fired and extracted without a hitch. The slightly tight bolt ops was actually less than others I've had. I did pre clean after buying, but admit that I didn't look that closely at the bolt head/face for this type of thing. My guess is a slight fracture existed prior to range trip, but who knows. I then looked real close at all my brass (which I had done at the range) just to re verify no pressure signs. None found. Heck the primers weren't even flattening much. (still had pronounced ring of pocket to primer) No signs of issue with body or necks on the brass.

Got on the phone with Savage and spoke to a gal there that is an 11 out of 10! Before I was done on the phone, my e-mail had a return UPS tag and info from her. That's customer service!!! Packed it up in the original box as instructed, run it down to UPS and off it went back "home" for repair at no cost. She said they will replace the bolt head, recheck/adjust head space as required and ship it back all at no cost. Might even find a little "extra" sorry for the inconvenience when it comes back. I did ask if they wanted the EGW rail removed and she said not to worry, they'd work around it or remount it if had to be removed. I have to say this is the second time in my life that I've used their customer service and it's been 100% great both times.

The only hard thing about it was packing up a >1 MOA rifle to send back for repair. It just didn't feel good. I have never shipped a firearm so this is a first. I did joke with her and told her how it shot and to not mess it up.....she laughed as did I. The Mrs. was worried about loss in shipping or something happening to which I told her they insured it and I trust them. Hell, after 30+ years married, 3 wonderful adult children and 3 of the cutest grand kids, this is a piece of cake. In my 20's or even my 30's I'd have just about blown a gasket....maybe. With age comes a calm and peace that would be wasted on youth! LOL

So there it is, the first steps of the new "baby". I will update as it progresses and I promise to figure out how to post pics of target, rifle and gear. Here's to good accurate shooting to you all.

Sh*@ happens. I agree, no sense getting spun up over something you have no control over.
I wonder why they didn't just want to replace the bolt? Maybe for liability reasons they wanted to give the enitre rifle a thorough exam.

I agree Lance, stuff happens. As for sending it back, they wanted to check head space with new bolt head to which I agree wholeheartedly. I'm still tooling up and don't have the wrenches or clamps, but will for future barrel work as needed. They will probably give it a once over and did say they will test fire it after repairs for good measure. It's all good.

A little update from my end. My RCBS precision mic arrived yesterday (was on back order) and I measured the fire formed brass form this rifle just for grins. Measurements ranged form 1.628 to 1.626 with an average of 1.6273. (ANSI min/max is 1.6300/1.6400) So this thing has a real tight chamber! About .002 to .003 under min. spec. Just for grins, I measured some new 168 gr FGMM and it was sized @ and average of 1.6264 (1.627-1.626 spread). Talk about running like a neck sized only with .0009 set back @ shoulder with factory ammo. LOL Maybe this is how they get them so accurate out of the box. I knew they had "tight" (in a good way) chambers, but wow. Of course this could change after they repair and if they tweak the head space with the new bolt head. I've never seen a chamber that measured or fire formed brass measured under ANSI min. spec. Maybe this had something to do with the cracking. I still think the crack was from a manufacturing stress or fracture and not the ammo. We may never know.
So, for those involved with Savages or reloading longer, what do think about a chamber under ANSI spec? It fed, cycled and shot well to say the least.

It sure does LanceS4803.

They wanted to check head space after bolt head replacement. I'm sure they wanted to look the action over too just to be safe. I can't fault them at all for that.

Should be in their hands today as it's "out for delivery" per tracking #. I'm sure the snow isn't helping and I hope all those affected back east are getting dug out and power restored soon!

Just a quick update, it shipped the 26th and is on it's way back. Should be here next week. Great customer service, awesome turnaround time and the gal even gave me the quick info on what they did. Replaced bolt head, extractor spring (not sure why), tested function, test fired and cleaned.
Not ever having shipped a rifle for repairs, this was all new to me. Savage has this customer service thing down pat as far as I'm concerned.
Will follow up when I get it back out to the range.

Good to hear the turn around was pretty fast. I am sending one in next week.

Yes it was quick turn around. From what I've heard from a few of the HP match guys at our club, this is par for the course with Savage. All I can say is great customer service which says a lot about a company.

Quick update.
Got it back last week, remounted the scope and took it out yesterday. Did not take the scope off the rings, so I just slid it right back on the EGW rail to the same cross slot location. Eye relief and level was spot on. Took out some 168 SMK loads set .010 off lands with 8208 XBR. Scope was still right on the $$$. First 5 shot group had 4 touching and one out .75" which was me having issues with getting rear bag position.....and mostly over thinking the shot...lol. This was at 100 yards off bipod with rear bag. Was expecting to have to tweak the scope a bit, but not one click!

That's a good story. I don't mind when a company makes mistakes. Its bound to happen. How they handle them speaks volumes. I keep a running list of companies I will always go back to due to good customer service experiences.

Well, it's been a good couple of weeks rattfink. I posted in reloading about Nevada Brass and their excellent customer service and low a behold today, SSA shipped me a brand spanking new bag (100) of .308 un primed cases to replace a batch I purchased a little over a year ago and had neck fishers/splits after 2 loadings. I sent in 4 cases with problems for them to inspect and let me know so I could break down the 50 I had still loaded up if there was a problem. Sure enough, there must have been a problem and they offered to credit or replace. I don't know what the problem was, but based on a 6mm discussion, I'm thinking they were on the high end of the brittle/hardness tolerance. Doesn't matter, they tested what I sent in, and replaced them even though I didn't ask for or expect that. Companies like these need our patronage and word of mouth advertising with the way they treat their customers and the industry as a whole.

Every once in a while, the stars line up just right, The gods of gunpowder smile upon thee & all is well in the universe....

Sounds like you have a winner there. Good luck with new toy.

By the way, does she have a sister?..... maybe a younger aunt?

LOL fgw, that would be the Edge, yes I said Edge as does the box it came in. I'm to old to go divin' into lockers over product names! LOL

Actually, the Edge, with hand loads I've got down to .58 moa. It too likes .010 off lands with 168's and good glass. Dang thing does have a deep throat though! .068 deeper than the 10 FCP. But, that's a hunting rifle for you. got to be able to run anything off the shelf thru it. LOL

Seriously though, the FCP with the HS stock is a joy to shoot. Fit me perfectly. This is the one I will take to the high power matches......now if only I could get my brain out of the way. LOL Maybe a tee behind my left ear and change in my other pocket and ....oh, never mind.

Edge or Axis...
Ya gotta love them.
I especially love when the Remington die hards come & eyeball one of my rifles & ask "what is that".
Why, its a Savage axis, of course.
And every once in a while I get to parade a target around with a one hole 5 - 7 shot hole thru it. Like the day the gunpowder gods smiled on me & I punched 6 rounds thru a pencil sized hole with a 223wssm. 1st shot cold was hi & right the next 6 thru the same hole.
Still have the target. I want it pasted to my coffin when I go....

I had to laugh at that. I think we've all had that kind of day at the range. I too had the "tacticool" Rem. guy with the aftermarket pistol grip stock, suppressor, atlas pods, etc. in .308 and he wanted to see my Mcmillian stocked rifle. Surprise, it's a $300 dollar Edge in .308 with a Redfield scope. I though he was going to cry when he realized my $600 dollar set up was running with his $2k+ space gun. then i showed him the 200 yard zeroing target for the Redfield. He said nice and walked away. I guess 3/4" @ 200 yards was just to much. Hell, it surprised me. Some days the windshield, some days the bug.....lol

I'm hip.

Some days you can do no wrong & some days you'd be better off throwing the rifle at the target.

That would be me last Sunday. I would have been better off throwing the bullets. Save the powder...

Ok, I just passed coffee thru my nose...........LMAO

Been there done that. (see tee behind left ear, change in right pocket and hat turned around....lol)