Savage 110 Rail issues, need help

I was looking for some help. About 3 months ago I purchased my first Savage. I picked up the 110BA in 338 cal. Because of weather issues the first month I wasn't able to get out and shoot. I mounted a Nightforce NXS 8-32x56mm scope with the Nightforce Ultralight Rings. When I first tried to zero it in I was 3 ft off at 100 yards. We completely can out of windage and didn't even get us on the paper. I ordered another set of rings just to make sure the rings were not the problem, same result. 3 weekends of snow storms later and the long range/precision class I signed up for is on me. We get in the car for a long weekend of shooting figuring the instructors can help me out and maybe I'm overlooking something. No luck, we even mounted one of the instructors scopes and at 50 yards couldn't get it on the paper. The 3 instructors all said the same thing, bring it back to Savage and have them check the rail alignment.
Has anyone had or heard of issies like this? I'm 14 hours away at a class with 400 rounds that I can't shoot and not happy. The good thing is my son goes to school in Westfield MA (same exit as Savage) and I have to get him next week so was going to drop it off.
Any input would be appreciated.

Wow, That is upsetting. Sorry to hear about your woes, I would be disappointed to say the least. Everything I can think of is hindsight for you and wont help. Good Luck.

Seems Savage has more trouble then most getting the base mounting holes drilled in a straight line. One of the reasons I use Burris Signature rings with the offset inserts. Did you check the base to see if those holes are straight and in the middle? Use a machinist straight edge, put the front and back screw in the action and lay the straight edge aganist them. The problem should be evident. If not try the same thing on the base. You are using high quality glass, but you never know. Did you try shooting a group even though it is way off the target?

The only thing I could think of to solve your problem locally is go find a set of leupold bases and rings for the time being, you never said that the holes from rail to action were misaligned so I'd put a leupold base with adjustable windage in the rear and a turn in front mount and zero it that way for now. Worry about the rail later. Good luck and I'm sorry about your troubles let us know

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Originally Posted by bsekf

Seems Savage has more trouble then most getting the base mounting holes drilled in a straight line. One of the reasons I use Burris Signature rings with the offset inserts. Did you check the base to see if those holes are straight and in the middle? Use a machinist straight edge, put the front and back screw in the action and lay the straight edge aganist them. The problem should be evident. If not try the same thing on the base. You are using high quality glass, but you never know. Did you try shooting a group even though it is way off the target?

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It isn't about the drilling. They are all drilled in a jig. It's what happens after drilling. The actions are heat treated after all machining is done. What a certain piece of steel will do during heat treat cannot be predicted.

It is not a rare occurrence to have this happen. It isn't common either. It just happens. Contact Savage and they will help out.

What you're describing certainly does happen from time to time, not only with Savage, but with all factory rifles. It's most commonly an issue with screw holes or the rail itself. The other possibility is the barrel threads in the action or on the barrel itself are incorrectly aligned. The best bet is to have Savage look at it, but if you can figure out which issue it is before the rifle goes back it would be a good idea, that way you know precisely what to tell them is wrong.

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Originally Posted by geargrinder

It isn't about the drilling. They are all drilled in a jig. It's what happens after drilling. The actions are heat treated after all machining is done. What a certain piece of steel will do during heat treat cannot be predicted.

It is not a rare occurrence to have this happen. It isn't common either. It just happens. Contact Savage and they will help out.

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What type of heat treating are they doing?

I had the same problem with a mod10 ba I ordered a new rail from a different custom manufacture and that solved the problem.

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Originally Posted by stangfish

What type of heat treating are they doing?

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From what I gather, it's an induction treatment of the front bridge only.

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Originally Posted by geargrinder

From what I gather, it's an induction treatment of the front bridge only.

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If the screw holes are in the correct place prior to heat treating it would need to move more than .050 to get it out as far as he says. At least that is what my math says.

I ran into similar issues with both my 110BA and my 111 LHR. Once the rails were mounted I later determined that the rails were canted to the left (when in a shooting position) and so the scopes were as well. Once I got that figured out, I was able to square up the scopes and have had no issues getting the 110 out to 1100 yards.

You could also put a set of Millet windage adjustable rings on it. I've used them a lot. The neat thing is that BOTH rings will be adjustable, unlike the Leupold. I make 1/2 the needed correction via the front ring, the other 1/2 via the rear. Never had a problem.