6.5x284 LRH question

I'm new to the forum and am having a hard time deciding what to do about my LRH. I have multiple savage 110s of various calibers and all are sub MOA with handloads, except my LRH. I've tried many different load combinations and can't get it to constantly shoot sub MOA. Is there any way to make this rifle more accurate? I've thought about selling it and building a 6.5x284 from scratch( have had good luck with other calibers doin this ) It's the most expensive savage I own and the least accurate by a long shot. Any way to salvage?

You need a new barrel. There were lots of issues with Savage model 11 6.5mm barrels and I heard similar comment from others who got the 6.5x284 that wouldn't shoot.

Jim at NSS might have a CBI barrel in stock for that caliber. No waiting.

Look at this post. Scroll a ways down and look at the pictures
http://www.longrangehunting.com/foru...76/index5.html

Great thanks ! I have been wondering about that LRH it's been driving me nuts

I guess it depends.

Are you shooting hand loads or factory?
What is your reloading process?
What is your process for accessing the accuracy of this rifle?

A few people have had issues, some are barrels, and some are not.

Free float the barrel, some LRHs have contact at the front of the stock.
Remove stock and reinstall with proper torque sequence. I use 40-45 INCH.
Double check the rail or scope base. Seems unlikely but for some reason people have had issues keeps scopes/bases tight for the first attempt. Must be oil in the threads keeping the base from staying tight. I had the same issue.
Reloading- some savages like bullets to the lands, ie LRH, and others like mine, like .075 to .100 off the lands. Mine won't shoot worth a crap with no jump.
If you want to get rid of the barrel let me know the round count. I might be interested in it.

Brent, strictly handloads, lapua brass, bergers, a maxs, matchkings, ect. ive been handloading for over 10 years with great results so i dont think its my process. I have the bases locktighted in as well. Ive only got about 95 rounds through the barrel, its the standard LRH 26" with the accubrake.

Brent how much is a barrel like that with 95 rounds through it worth? I'm going to try the advice points you gave me that i havent already done before i sell barrel, but the question is whether i sell the entire gun and pick up a cheap stevens and build a custom gun or just swap barrels on the LRH? whats your $.02

What is your cleaning regime with this barrel?.... It may be possible that it needs a certain amount of copper in it to shoot.

I have seen a couple factory barrels that won't smarten up till their fouled with 20+ rnds , I will clean the carbon etc with something mild like hopes but I won't put the sweets to it till the accuracy falls off... It helped on more than one occasion. Good luck

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Originally Posted by Patch700

What is your cleaning regime with this barrel?.... It may be possible that it needs a certain amount of copper in it to shoot.

I have seen a couple factory barrels that won't smarten up till their fouled with 20+ rnds , I will clean the carbon etc with something mild like hopes but I won't put the sweets to it till the accuracy falls off... It helped on more than one occasion. Good luck

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Interesting, i have been deep cleaning it every 20 rounds or so becasue the copper fouling was very heavy. maybe im handicapping it though and should just keep shootin?

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Originally Posted by Luke45

Interesting, i have been deep cleaning it every 20 rounds or so becasue the copper fouling was very heavy. maybe im handicapping it though and should just keep shootin?

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It's possible , I too have done the surgical clean method and to be honest I've found it doesn't always help on a factory barrel (if it looks rough using a bore scope)... I would still however do a light cleaning with something that won't aggressively remove copper and just sticks to powder and carbon etc in the intervals you're using now.. Certainly won't hurt to try.

If it doesn't clean up with no copper showinga after 60 rounds, you need to toss it and get a criterion. My Bartlein showed no copper after 4 rounds, Krieger took 15, and Rock Creek about 20.

Well, that is a fair question. Assuming the barrel is not crap I would be in the 75-100 range. I have a project rifle for a kid I am working on and need a barrel.

My 6.5-284 has a stainless similar to the one on the predator max. It really started to shine after 100 or so rounds. I cleaned and stripped it thoroughly. Now, after about 850 rounds I don't clean for a 100 to 150. It shoots .3 dirty and no POI shift cold bore.

If you feel comfortable and confident it is the rifle then try and reset the stock first and check the barrel channel. I have seen stocks with screws so loose they could back out on their own. After that, you could have an out of spec barrel OR you could have a head space issue.

Have you measured head space on the lapau rounds after firing? Mine are are 1.840 with slight tight bolt lift. I set them back to 1.838. Stock the cases are 1.832. If you have a Go/No Go or measurements try that too. I use a kit from Hornady for measuring headspace and love it. You can use .375 inside diameter pipe as well.

Luke45, the best thing you can do is clean it the way you usually do, then take it to a local smith with an endoscope to inspect the chamber, throat and the entire bore. If you have the chatter marks, just get rid of it and put a decent one on. Be aware of the "carbon ring" issue too, although that would degrade accuracy over time, not be a constant from day 1.

When considering a rifle as a donor, I always try to find all the features I am looking for in the stock/action/magazine/receiver/trigger first. Trying to fix any of those individual or cumulative issues after buying a "cheap" bargain basement rifle is usually a LOT more time consuming and expensive. Given the way it is basically impossible to find Savage factory parts in stock anywhere for the last 4 months or so, I think you will get what you wanted the fastest way by just changing out the questionable part which is the barrel. When I do a build, I usually start with a model 12 in stainless or a 112/114/116/110 (the 112-116 are uaually stainless). I also pay attention to the way the magazine is configured. Right now it is really hard to find parts anywhere to re-configure a magazine and the parts are not cheap if you can find them either.

All of the other parts on your rifle should be decent. If you can find a way to replace the "bottom plastic and magazine" on your 111 with a "real" bottom metal and steel mag, then do that too. (If I recall the 6.5x284 LRH is a model 111 ?) Unless I am mistaken yours has the accustock, which you might tweak with a bedding job, but it should be a considerable improvement from the stock on a "package" rifle, stevens or axis. I doubt very much that you will find contact between the barrel and stock on your rifle, but the bedding is probably not perfect.

I don't know about this barrel chatter issue, what is the issue with it?

We have a few rifles with chatter in the groove. All shoot sub .5 MOA or better and it doesn't take a lot to get under 1 MOA. My buddies 260 with factory ammo shot 1 MOA, hand loads is .3. My 6.5-284 has always been hand loaded and I can get .20 to .5 with different loads and bullets.

Guys even though the self moderation doesn't start for a few days and the mods. haven't jumped in yet, please adhere to the rules concerning " I want to buy or How much is it worth or I might sell. You are cutting it kinda close here. Ask in a PM or use the classifieds.
Lets show we can police ourselves.

Brent, if you are happy to pony up $1000 for a "top end" rifle that is marketed as a "Long Range Hunter" and then are OK with a MANUFACTURING DEFECT, plain and simple, then I am sure that there are plenty of arms factories that would be happy to churn them out for you.

Even a $300 rifle is not supposed to have chatter marks in the bore. How do you suppose chatter helps with the gas seal on the base of the bullet ? Do you imagine that when measuring a chattered region, should one measure to the peak or the valley of the chatter ? A barrel with chatter fails dimensional compliance just to begin with. Do you want the barrel to act like a file and shave copper off every bullet, which then potentially gets vaporized by the hot gas, only to be re-deposited all over the surface of the barrel in the cooler section ?

Chatter has many causes, but the primary one is the lack of preventative maintanence on the tooling, lack of statistical process control regarding how many bores one should make with a button before switching it out, lack of visual inspection on the part of the workers, failure by management to empower workers to stop the line if they recognize a problem and greed in trying to get every last possible barrel run with each consumable tool without considering quality.

When companies like Remington and Savage sell enough rifles that they KNOW FULL WELL have these defects in them, then they tend to develop a rather cocky attitude about it too, which has emerged with the LRH series of rifles. I have yet to hear of Savage replacing a barrel with these defects in them, despite the rifles being listed for over $1000. The feedback has generally been that it is "good enough". BS !

The first and most important part on the rifle is the barrel. Anyone wanting to market reliable long range rifles has to start there. Its not as if the rest of the rifle has any special magic to make it work better than others half the price. But exactly on this one fundamental component Savage is failing miserably. I have so far had only 1 factory gun that has shot well, and that is my 10PC. But I'm starting to think that was a fluke. My model 12 stainless 243 was so so (1moa at best), my latest model 93 in 22wmr was 4MOA when I got it and is now about 2MOA after bedding the action in the cluster for an inletting job that they did. Rem 700 Classic in 8x57 ($800 new) was a 5MOA gun. TC Icon in 308 was a 3moa gun and copper fouled like crazy (chatter issues).

So far I have 3 rifles converted to Shilen select match barrels and all are 1/2MOA or better. I have a 4th with a CBI barrel in 6.5x284 that I have not yet fired. The shilen barrels have no copper fouling issues, thats what one expects for a hand lapped barrel.

For the reasons I have stated, I no longer buy a factory rifle, except with the deliberate thought that it is a donor to put a custom barrel onto. Of course 95% of gun buyers shoot min of pipe plate at best and as we can see from the manufacturers habits, its those people that they care about. They know that if they continue fingering their nose at us, we will go away and buy used rifles as donors or buy custom actions to avoid the aggravation.

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Originally Posted by Brent

I don't know about this barrel chatter issue, what is the issue with it?

We have a few rifles with chatter in the groove. All shoot sub .5 MOA or better and it doesn't take a lot to get under 1 MOA. My buddies 260 with factory ammo shot 1 MOA, hand loads is .3. My 6.5-284 has always been hand loaded and I can get .20 to .5 with different loads and bullets.

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