Back in September I blogged about the Savage 10TR LEO. Immediately I began to get emails questioning the rifles capability and it's accuracy. There were many speculations for example the barrel needing to be broken in, the after market muzzle brake affecting the barrel harmonics. I offered up needing to find the right load and a high probability of the shooter being the issue. Well today I was able to make it out to the range to try the rifle without the JP enterprises muzzle brake. Before I continue on about the rifle let me first say this muzzle brake works and works well. Without the muzzle brake the rifle noticeably recoiled more, I rate this muzzle brake a 5 out of 5 stars and as soon as another crusher washer arrives from Brownells I will be reinstalling it. This also means I didn't notice any increase in accuracy after removing the muzzle brake, but I did notice an increase in accuracy with a different load.
I received many emails from many readers, some indicating I was giving Savage a bad name with my poor shooting, others saying I was taken by Savage and should demand a refund as it would never compete with a Remington 700. Amongst all of the emails I did find a hidden gem. One of the readers mentioned I should try 43grains of IMR4064 under the Sierra 168gr MatchKing BTHP. He indicated he has won many matches with the recipe and also pointed me to 6mmbr.com. After checking my Sierra reloading manual and Lyman 48&49 manuals and determining this to be a safe load I decided to load a few rounds to try. It is always best practice to start at the minimal load and work your way up to your intended load, I typically increase my loads in increments of .5grains.
As it turns out the Savage 10TR seemed to like the new load.
Groups were shot at 100 Yards from bench rest. And all rounds measured, I did not exclude any flyers some of which I knew was because of me.
Reload — Sierra 168gr Matchking IMR 4064 Group Size .745
After seeing the results of the new IMR 4064 load in the Savage 10TR, Darrell and I thought we should see how it performs in the DPMS SASS AR10 with Yankee Hill Suppressor, we both were excited by the results.
The two groups on the left were shot with the new IMR load. The middle group was shot with Winchester Match which did not perform in either rifle and was disappointing considering the price for one box being $12 more expensive than Federal Gold Medal Match.
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