My brand new 20 year old Savage 110 - Range Report

[tt123]

Hi everyone,
I took my new Savage 110 to the range for the first time today. As you may have read on my other thread, it's an F series (pre 1995) that has been sitting at a gun shop (or perhaps the importer's) for many years, and until today was brand new and unfired.

I took a couple of other my rifles with me as I had to zero one of them (my Krico .308) and one of my buddies wanted to try out the other one (a Midland in 6.5x55). He's taking his hunting test later this month, and is hoping to get his own rifle shortly afterwards.



Anyway, I was quite impressed with the Savage, though I will need to adjust the trigger. Compared to my Krico it was very heavy indeed, but dry firing it before today I had thought it not too bad. Perhaps it was a bad idea having more than one rifle with me, as I probably wouldn't have thought so much about it if I hadn't had something to compare it to.

One minor niggle that I hadn't noticed before I got to the range was that the scope was canted! I should have checked, but I had assumed that they'd have mounted the scope properly at the shop!

My first shot was with the cross hairs level, and the next two were with the rifle held properly. This gave a bit of a spread, as is only to be expected, so I loosened the rings and levelled the scope before I shot the next group.

Much better! Five shots with the cheap (ish) S&B FMJ 147 grains gave a group of 1.7". Not too bad I thought! I got the scope adjusted in and am now shooting about an inch high at 100m with both the S&B and Hornady 150gr BTSP.



I'm planning on putting a safari ching sling on it, and having another trip or two to the range to try out some other loads before the roe deer season (the most plentiful deer in Denmark) starts on October 1st.



Cheers
Jeff

[JCalhoun]

Not bad at all for cheap off the shelf ammo.

Yes, those triggers from that era are lousy. Look into a SharpShooter Supply, Rifle Basix, or Timney trigger for it.

[DanSavage]

Good shooting, you have some nice rifles, is your Savage 110 a .308?

Dan

[Mach2]

That 1st rifle you say is a Midland 6.5mm? It looks like it has a Mauser bolt and floorplate. Though it doesn't look like the Mauser the Savage uses the Mauser bolt design. But then what doesn't?
That looks like engraving on the Midland floorplate.

[tt123]

Yes the Savage is a .308.

The Midland is a bit of a hybrid. From what I gather Midland got hold of a load of surplus 1903 Springfield bolts and made up an action that they could be used in. It looks pretty fancy, but was their entry level rifle at the time (in the 1970's I believe). It's actually quite accurate, but I think I'll be getting rid of it soon as it's not always the fastest to repeat with.