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I was just on another site that consists of mostly hunting and I was telling the guys of my new passion for Savages and the project I was working on. Most of the replies were "why would you waste that kind of money on a Savage". One guy told me I should quite wasting money and buy a viper action. Do you guys get any feedback like that before they see your groups?
sounds like there are a lot of "ignorant" people on that forum. ;D
Oddly (or not so much) on forums yes. At competitions and out shooting? Not so far or as much lately.
I did have a gunsmith ask Why I had a Nightforce on a savage; I told him i was able to buy a nice scope with the money I saved on the gun and asked him why he was so fat.
To which he replied "that's none of your %@$* business"
I said "there you go, just do what I asked"
This from a dude that sells "only the best stuff" like Rugers and ported Mosbergs with folding stocks. GMAFB
Then there was the dude at the local retail plus gun store that he didn't see the need to have "entry level" guns in the store and "besides, don't you know they're all owned by the freedom group anyway"
A couple guys nearby chuckled
I called BS whipped out my handy smart phone looked up the information and read it out loud and explained that if he didn't know anything about guns he should maybe go work at a shoe store or something; Although it was a neat trick to verbalize from his posterior and he might be able to make a few bucks exploiting that talent. Stuff like that really gets me going, mostly though it's the fact that a minimum wage jack-something has groupies.
Lately though I've been hearing a lot of positive comments
I am a custom rifle stock painter for a local stock maker here in Kansas City, and i'm the only Savage shooter in the whole place, and they rip on me constantly.
There will come the day that they stop laughing. Was out shooting this past weekend in the 20 degree weather to get cold temp chrono data, and check powder charges at those temps to get the target velocity back, and fire 2 groups back to back just over 1/4". I'm hangin' in with the Badger M2008 custom GAP rifle of my boss.
For the most part, if I go out and shoot groups all day, I can pretty much guarantee that the average will be 1/2" or slightly better. Last outing was 10 groups, .497" average. Oh, and not all were the same exact load. I'd say i'm a consistent 1/2moa shooter. The rifle is better than me, I just have to drive it better.
Branden
i cant say much. ive owned over 300 guns in my life and not one was a savage until about a yyear and a half ago. ive always heard model 700 this model 70 that M77 this and then one day i pulled a savage out of a box. Man was it ugly, i thought why in the world did i buy this thing, and then i shot it. since then ive bought remmies, winnies and rugers but now i buy them just to use them as trading pieces to get my next savage. I compare Savage rifles to the ugly dude with the pretty girlfriend, he must be hung like a gas pump. But dont tell them any different because if you do the price will start going up on the used Savages.lol
Unfortunately I have only been around Savages for the past 6 or so years. I bought the first about 12 years ago for my son's birthday and nearly kept it. It bugholed out of the box. I then picked up a Striker (life long handgun hunter) and waded through its first trigger job. Shot a bughole group with that and became hooked. I now have my share of Savages and not one of them will shoot over .5. Actually everyone of them except one sport a Benchmark barrel now and I had someone at Benchmark handlap a factory 338 barrel prior to Ferratic Nitride treatment. It shoots just like a Benchmark.
I have been shooting 223-204-222Remington through the 338 Edge,338X378 Watherby and the 460 Weatherby X 510 through my Savages for years now without issue.
Those that use to have negative comments do not have anything to say anymore. I have a 6BR barrel that shoots .2 without exception. The Edge shoots 2" at 500 yards. SO after seeing this tool preform for them as well as for me they quit talking because they can not equal the swaps I so easily do at the range and they can not outshoot the so-called ugly Savage.
Now we use the ace in the hole back at everyone not shooting a Savage. For years we reference barrel makers and who is winning matches. We also reference actions and other things and many shooters then copy. Now we reference Savage and share that Savage is winning.
For years I avoided the Remington XP 100 because it cost so much money to get it to do what I needed to convert it to do. Now there is an after market industry geared to making things for the Xp. SO a guy wants to build and convert and XP for $2000.-$3000 so he can shoot a few of the calibers I am shooting. It costs me nothing in tooling or anything else. Buy the barrel,swap the bolthead and or set up the firing pin and I am shooting a different caliber. I can extract a spent 300 RUM/338 Edge case from my Striker without issue. Can't do it from a factory XP short of removing the bolt or machining much needed metal from the action.
There are some threads on here with pictures of the ugly Savages. They are not ugly any more!
Neal
I caught the savage fungus when my daughter was coming up on 12 years old hunting age here in mt was looking for a youth model and found savage so got a 243 I had about a year before bought a ruger 6mm mark ll the savage was consideravly cheaper and shot way better up until then I had thought they were cheap poorly built guns but got my eyes opened now have lots of them and more barrels . I decided recently to see how good I could get my 308 10 fp to shoot so loaded up some loads with varget and 190bergers I had shot 4 3 shot groups the best was about .2 and that was the first attempt with match bullets . will load more of that load and see how consistant it and I can be . . yeah I like savages Fred
For me, I came back to shooting after a 15 year hiatus. I had shot SSGs and Remington 700 police and was really happy with them. My buddy has a custom McMillan that I could never afford so I started back in shooting with two R700s. An SPS in 243 (which I really like) and a SPS Varmint in 204 and that 204 can't hit the wide side of a barn if you chuck the whole damned rifle at it from five foot.
Then I bought a Savage 12fv for my brother on CalGuns with accutrigger for $400 and damn that rifle is nice. doesn't shoot much better than the Remington yet, needs a good stock and all, but it is like a Mercedes after driving a Ford. Everything just clicks into battery like a swiss watch.
So we just bought a 12BenchRest in 308 the two of us and that just got scoped and we take it out on Friday.
Savage 20 years ago when I was shooting regularly was like Mossberg (which is also pretty nice these days...) and they felt klunky and ugly and that just isn't so any longer. I won't buy any modern bolt action now except Savage. Maybe an old Mauser or something, but no more Remingtons for me.
That's priceless! Thanks for the laugh. ;D :DQuote:
Originally Posted by NefariousD
From what I hear from the guys at Team Savage that did what you might call fairly well at the recent F/TR Class shootout in England and Ireland there were quite a few gentlemen who left the grounds with a healthy respect for Savage rifles. There are two things I have learned in life: You can't argue with ignorance and you can't reason with terminal stupidity. Let em laugh!
If you checkout the Target Shooter mags (free PDF versions) which are based on European shooting, there are a lot of references and competition shooters using Savage rifles. They seem to be aware of what works. I think there is a gentlemen on there that normally shines in the articles and he shoots a Savage Target Action with heavy barrel in the Choate Ultimate Sniper stock with a home made bipod. I'll see if I can find a link.
I got the same attitude from my father-in-law when I got into long range shooting with my first purchase. A Savage 10FP from Walmart. He pretty much assumed I had waisted $500. Now in its current form, he boasts that nobody can out shoot Mike's Savage. He's been busy working on his Ruger 77 to get it up to the Savage's ability but he's got a ways to go. ;)
Mike
Preach it WBM! I guess I was just blessed, my first rifle was a Savage .30-30 , I think a 340??? My second rifle was a 110 in .30-06. It was all I could afford living in the Ozark Mountains but needing a good brush gun and valley gun. I have never looked back.
I have had to listen to the chuckles and ignorant a$$ comments since I was 14, but I never had a problem bringing home what I was hunting or outshooting many of my friends.
I have never been so proud as I was the other night when I read a list of the "top 10" finishers in a recent match; 5, FIVE, of the top ten were using Savage actions!! I saw this on 6mmbr.com. I LOVE that we are finally getting some vindication. The problem is that soon, and I am already seeing a trend in the Bass Pro shops and others, the prices are going to start falling in line with the quality that we have always gotten.
I hate that, but guess that gives me the excuse I need to hurry up and buy Jim at NSS out of actions and stuff!! ;D ;D Told my wife that very thing, right after I read that article. It was hilarious too, in the fact that out of the top ten, NOT ONE REMINGTON. all the others were Stiller, BAT, and Surgeon.
BTW, at Bass Pro the other day, a guy, about 55 years old, was asking a "Gun Expert", about 19 years old, (and probably just started 2 days ago, and his last job was Wendy's) about a Savage. The young GURU told the older gentleman that he need not waste his money on a "lower class" rifle, even the ones that were $750.00 were just way overpriced and couldn't shoot with a Remington. ??? That really aggravated me, so I asked the young expert how many remingtons he owned and how many Savages he owned. Turns out he doesn't own a rifle. He shoots pistols........ ???WTF??? >:(
I hate it, but like WBM said, you cannot argue with Stupid or ignorant. These people just repeat what they hear so they sound like they know what they are talking about. I could understand if he worked on commission and the Savages were $50.00 but dang, the guy was looking at a really NICE model 12 something....over $750.00!!
I told the older guy that he COULD NOT go wrong with any Savage, they will come out of the box shooting better than anything else they had in the store, regardless of price, and I told him about this site too so he could go and read a little and make up his own mind! Don't know if that part was fair ::) but what the Heck, who plays fair in this world.
Sorry, got carried away. :-[ Thank God for Savages...
L.H.
Several years ago when I was still in law enforcement my partner and I went to a precision rifle class. We worked for a small department and had to provide all of our own equipment. As such we both went equipped with Savage rifles, his in .223 and mine in .308. When we arrived we caught quite a bit of fairly good natured ribbing and laughter about our Savage rifles from those in the class as well as from the instructor. The rifles at this class ran the gamut from very high dollar customs to the standard Remington tactical rifle. At the end of the week we were the only ones still laughing as he and I were two of the top three shooters in the class.