First Impressions on my new 220F - disappointed

Hello, I just joined up and signed up after an internet search. I made my first Savage purchase, a 220F 20 GA bolt upon rave reviews about it. Well after messing with it for a week I am rather disappointed at this point.

The good:
- rifle is trim and light
- trigger is good for a shotgun

The bad:
- Balance point is right at the magazine. I’d rather have a flush mounted mag and 2 shot capacity
- Scope mounting is tricky
- The plastic stock is horrible
- Accuracy has been a disappointment so far
- Unreliable ignition

I really like the idea of pretending to carry a rifle during Ohio shotgun season. Savage is reputed to offer excellent accuracy out of the box. I mounted a Leupold 4X12 in Weaver mounts/bases - used 2 extended bases for max flexibility in mounting ( the 4X12 is just what I had laying around and will be replaced by a straight 4X or 2X7). The front base screw had to be ground down because the wasn’t enough depth on the front action ring to where the barrel threads were. The 220F shot the Federal tipped Expanders into over 3.5 inches at 100 yds. The Hornady loads wouldn’t even stay on a piece of 11X8 paper; 1 wouldn’t fire after repeated attempts. This primer did measure about .008 deeper than others in the box, but that is a slim margin for error when a hunt is on the line.

I polished up the action and the rifle does feed/eject fine. I filled the stock with Great Stuff and painted it which helped gave it a better feel and eliminate the hollow sound it had. I am most concerned about the lack of accuracy. 3.5 inches at 100 yds is not acceptably with the recommended $3 a pop ammo. I will try bedding the front lug and plan to inlet an arrow with fiberglass to stiffen the fore end. I am not expecting a target rifle here but I think 2 MOA is reasonable considering this is based on the vaunted 110 action.

I want to like this gun but am not getting the warm fuzzies at all. Too many issues here. I am open to any advice or suggestions. Maybe I just got a lemon.

Like yours, mine wouldn't shoot the Federal or Hornady ammo. I did bed the front pillar and recoil lug on mine using devcon. The front base screw bottoming out is not something that is specific to the 220F. It relates to the barrel/action being large shank. You did exactly what was needed.

For ammo, try the Remington Accutips....mine loves the 2 3/4" variety. Before our first gun season opened, I took mine out to re-check the zero. Off the bench, I put three slugs in just over an inch at 100 yards.

On the ignition side of things, check your firing pin protrusion. Also, make sure the tip is rounded. Mine original was flat (i.e. broken) and would only fire Remington copper solid ammo. A new firing pin fixed my problem but yours actually sounds more like an ammo issue.

Here's a thread with firing pin info and other stuff: http://savageshooters.com/SavageForu...c,31158.0.html

And here's the group I spoke of earlier. First shot was just right....the next two went almost dead center. Second afternoon of gun season, I nailed a large doe at about 80 yards. Unfortunately, I'm not used to a 3-9x scope on a slug gun yet and I didn't notice she was quartered to me pretty hard (scope was on 9x). Bullet entered right behind the shoulder but exited out through the guts. One lung was destroyed and the liver was basically blown in half. She only went about 30 yards and fell over.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1115001218.jpg

Thanks for the reply.

I can look past a lot of little issues but a rifle has to shoot well and be reliable. Neither of these are the case at this point. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate any of the Remington Accutip loads in my area. The flexing of the stock cannot be good for consistency (accuracy) so I will address this first. An accurate rifle will show favoritism to certain loads/bullets but will consistently shoot everything well. I literally had trouble zeroing my scope with the Hornady loads which really concerned me. Unfortunately gun season starts Monday, so I will probably just take my muzzleloader out.

I think Savage could be on to something good here with a little more refinement. I don’t think it reasonable to have to drop a new $500 gun into a $400 aftermarket stock. For that type of money I would have bought a Tar Hunt slug gun.

I would love to hear some feedback from other users

Here we go again. What one gun shoots great the next gun sprays all over the target. I have a 210F and last year I went out and bought 5 different brands of 3" shells, 3" is my preference. I went to the range and set up a 50yd. target and shot up all 5 boxes. And it so happens the Winchester Supreme 3" (SSP123) did a 5 shot 1 1/4" group at 50yds. All it took was to spend the money and buy a box of every load I thought I would like to shoot and see how it grouped. Then I ordered a case of Winchesters so I had all the same lot number. I will be going out in half an hour and zeroing it again for our Iowa trip this year. We drew an Iowa deer lic. again this year. that is 3 years in a row. I figured until I shot every shell I wanted to try (group) I was wasting my time and money. Now I have found the round that my 210F loves and it now more fun to shoot except for the recoil. Dale

I appreciate your response as well. As I stated before.... " An accurate rifle will show favoritism to certain loads/bullets but will consistently shoot everything well." Maybe this isn't such hard a rule with slug guns.

I will try a few more loads and bedding. If that doesn't work I'll see what Savage has to say.

Quote:

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" An accurate rifle will show favoritism to certain loads/bullets but will consistently shoot everything well." Maybe this isn't such hard a rule with slug guns.

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I think you're on the right track there....after all, it still is a shotgun! I've been shooting slug guns for about 20 years now and I've never had one that shot everything well.

If you have to, order some Accutips via the internet. I got lucky, a store about 15 miles from home had a good supply of 'em although his price was a tad high.

Good luck!

Well, for those of you still interested in my tale I have an update.

I took the gun out this week for Ohio’s deer gun season. Although not tickled with the accuracy, 3.5 inches would be good enough out to 100 yds. I bumped a few deer in the dark walking in on Yesterday am. I decided just to sit down rather than push further into the woods. After about 30 minutes I caught movement. A line of does was slowly working along a fence line about 100 yds away. I pulled out my binos looking for antlers. Sure enough, a mature buck was bringing up the rear. Problem was the does were making a right turn right towards me and would on top of me before the buck would clear the the brush he was walking through. I decided to move forward and try to get an angle on him. At this point a does head was popping up about 50 yds from me. She was getting nervous and getting ready to bolt. This put the buck on alert, and he started to run back from where he came. I mouth grunted and he stopped with enough opening to give me a shot at about 110 yds. I slipped off the safety, put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and squeezed – Click! Yup, ‘click’ no boom.

I can’t believe it. I have bow hunted hard all year and not had a good buck in range. This was my chance to tag one and misfire! I raked the bolt and somehow the buck gave me enough time to aim and squeeze as the does were coming unglued and running. Boom, this time and the buck ran about 50 yds before stopping, staggering, and then falling over. I thanked the Lord and couldn’t believe my luck.

The deer was a nice 11 point but my confidence is sincerely shaken in the rifle. (I cannot post pictures currently but am happy to email them to someone if you all care for verification/posting). The firing pin protrusion is .051, yet I had failures to fire with both Federal and Hornady ammo. I called Savage today and spoke with Eric. He seemed like a nice and sincere guy and is arranging for UPS to pick up the gun to be worked on. He confirmed that .051 is perfect for pin protrusion. I can only assume the gun may be at or beyond maximum headspace. I hope I can report a happy resolution in the near future.

That's a shame, at least it has a happy ending. Your story is not typical of my experience. My 220F has worked perfectly and is accurate with the Remington slugs. I had trouble with other brands as did Trappst. Perhaps the bolt is "gunked up" inside? Maybe the shells were at fault?

Be sure to let us know what they find.

Sighted my new 220 f camo yesterday with 3" federal barnes tipped slugs. No problems, was in in the bull at 100 yards within a couple of shots. at 3 dollars per, didn't shoot for groups, but I bet 1" to 1 1/2 was possible.