Savage is a disappointment

[missy]

well guys, Ive been through two Savage Model 11 7MM-08s in the last 6 weeks. It has been a terrible experience in trying to sight in a gun that shoots all over the place and every third shot, the scope loosens up...changed the scope and still couldn't shoot... Spending 20 hours troubleshooting and shooting these two guns... $300 in ammo, $60 on new base and rings, dealing with a girl on the phone that is reading from a piece of paper to attempt to assist me in what the problem could be with this rifle. This all started September 3, it is not Oct 30th!!!!!!!

when we asked for a gunsmith, or someone that knows more about guns in general and knows about these particular rifles, she said "I cant transfer you to anyone". Really??? I am out $800 on a gun that has been shipped back to Savage and another gun that the dealer had to order to replace the first one and both are a POS. I apologize if I seem to be breaking the rules, but if I could have read information on these guns from a forum such as this, it would have saved me 6 weeks of hell 5 trips to the gun dealer, 3 worthless conversations with customer service at Savage, worthless email customer service request system-which they could not even pull up by the cust. serv. person.

I am happy NOW. Today I went and bought a Browning X Bolt Micro 7mm-08 Hunter rifle and it sighted in just beautifully within 30 minutes. I will never ever ever purchase another Savage gun again. And if you are about to purchase one? Good Luck is all I have to say.
I know some people that have purchased Savage and absolutely love their product, but there are some faulty ones out there. -only two things I liked about the Savage... the three position safety and the accu-trigger.
good day.

[Ackevor]

Wow! that sounds like no fun at all. I have never had to deal with Savage Customer Support but it sounds terrible.

About the rifle itself though, I am almost positive it was something that could have been fixed by proper torque and thread lock somewhere on the rifle, provided the scope rings were decent. With that said, if you ever run into this issue again on another rifle start from the bottom up.

Take action out of the stock and clean around where it beds.

Clean the threads and clear any obstructions in the action.

Place action back in the stock, apply blue thread lock to and loosly install both action screws, ensuring the recoil lug is against the stock. Tighten the front screw, then the rear screw. Torque them down in same order (each stock might be different but my XLR chassis suggested 60-65 in/lbs)

Moving up to the scope base, remove and clean threads and obstructions. Apply a dab of blue thread lock and install the scope base. Typically can be torqued anywhere from 15-25 in/lbs.

Then install your scope ring bottoms ensuring that when you place your scope on you can move it back and forth to get good eye relief. Once satisfied use a dab of thread lock on the fasteners and torque them to specs or about 30-40 in/lbs is what mine were.

Place scope on the bottom rings and situate about where you want it. Place top rings on and thread lock the fasteners yet again (noticing a pattern?) screw them down by hand lightly until they are all even and back each one out half a turn or so to allow scope movement.

Level your scope, tighten the scope rings and torque to specs or roughly 15 in/lbs.

Its my guess that the issue was ring related, I had a brand new scope and rings sent to me, installed and zeroed fine. a few shots later POI was off. and it continued to be erratic. I had the rings as tight as they could go. Turns out in the manufacuring process, they milled out .005 too much on each half, and would appear to be a snug fit but the recoil is enough to move them.

Sorry it didnt work out for you

[LoneWolf]

Good advice Ackevor just ensure that any readers understand you are speaking in "inch lbs" of torque!

Missy you are not the first to have some frustrations, but all I've seen come to this forum with an issue have been aided in determining the problem. Sometimes these Savage Rifles just need a little tweaking to get them right!

[Ackevor]

Thanks, I was thinking in my head as I wrote all that, "Why is it i can remember all the numbers, but not inch or foot pounds?" For whatever reason I couldnt remember which so I left it for questioning.

[LoneWolf]

you would strip everything out if you tried ft/lbs!

[big honkin jeep]

Don't think I'd ever put loctite on action bolts, blue or any other. Out of all the rifles I've ever owned Savage and others that step has not been necessary. Sounds like that step may be more problematic than helpful.

[stangfish]

I don't use Loctite on anything rifle wise. I am betting the op purchased a pkg Savage and the Browning had a smith mount a quality scope.

[missed]

I use a torque wrench on everything and get it to the ideal torque and my stuff stays tight and shoots bug holes.

[wbm]

trying to sight in a gun that shoots all over the place and every third shot, the scope loosens up

That could be why it shoots all over the place. How does a loose scope make it a Savage Arms problem.

[big honkin jeep]

That could be why it shoots all over the place. How does a loose scope make it a Savage Arms problem.

Sounds like a ring and base problem to me as well. Changing scopes wont do squat if the bases and rings aren't properly installed and tight. A Schmidt and Bender on a world champion benchrest rig aint gonna shoot with loose or improperly installed bases or rings. If I had to guess it sounds a lot like it may have been the old long screw bottomed out before securing the base but felt tight trick. Usually also associated with the wrong screw in the wrong hole trick AKA the long screw in the front hole trick.

[wbm]

Changing scopes wont do squat if the bases and rings aren't properly installed and tight.

Just on Savage rifles. Brownings are immune to that sort of thing.

[yobuck]

well if it helps with how you feel allow me to offer an experience i had.
by the way i lied about my age to be accepted here. im actually much older than it says i am.
anyway for my 75 birthday i decided to treat myself to a new 223 rifle. i wanted a carrying type
not a heavier varmit type. im a lefty and i decided on a cz i think model 527 which should be etched in my mind.
bought the gun at bobs in clearfield pa. for around $800. brought it home and took it out of the pretty wood stock to clean it.
it wouldnt go back in the stock without it rubbing the barrel on one side. back to bobs which is almost 50 miles each way.
they couldnt get it right either so we filled out new paperwork and i got another gun. brought that home and guess what,
same problem all over again. so i saw what the problem was finally and paid to have the action glass bedded. then proceeded
to load ammo and nothing i tried was less than a tennis ball size group at a hundred yards. back to bobs again and they called
kansas city and we were told i should ship the gun there. they sent me a card with a w o # and instructions not to call.
they would call me when they had an answer for me. 2 weeks later no call so i called them. fortunitly the girl i spoke with connected
me with a tech person who said they hadnt tested the gun yet. i questioned what they would do expecting him to say change barrels
but he didnt say that. he said they would replace the gun. a week later i called again and had a direct line # to the tech. he said he had shot the gun and it didnt perform well. i said well i knew that when i sent it to you. i reminded him i wanted the glass bedded stock
with the new gun and he agreed. about another week i got the new gun which was now #3. guess what, that one didnt shoot either
so back to k c that one went. i had called first and demanded a refund on the gun which they refused to do. i also requested that in the
interest of time they shoot the next one before sending it. another week and i called and spoke again with the tech. amazingly he admitted
the next one didnt shoot well either. since it was the last lefty they had on hand they agreed they would refund my money if i faxed them
my sales receipt. i did so the next day and a few days later i had my check. but guess what it was minus the 6% sales tax i paid which
showed on the receipt. they refused to budge on that when i called and raised hell over it. so i went back to bobs bought another
lefty savage varmit model and couldnt be happier.

good luck with the browning.

[LoneWolf]

Regardless I've never seen anyone bring an issue to this forum and not get it resolved!

We could have helped you with the rifle for sure.

Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Tapatalk 2

[missed]

Regardless I've never seen anyone bring an issue to this forum and not get it resolved!

We could have helped you with the rifle for sure.

Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Tapatalk 2

+1

I thought remmys were the only perfect rifle lol!!

[stangfish]

Yobuck, I always enjoy reading your post. Mostly for what is obviously a lifetime of firearms experience. But now that I know that you lied, how can I ever believe that anything you type is anything more than fiction. Life is tainted.

[wbm]

i lied about my age to be accepted here. im actually much older than it says i am.
anyway for my 75 birthday

Hey at our age, 70 here, acceptance is not a big issue. By-n-large there are a lot of pretty cool dudes here where age is not a reason for exclusion. As far as lying goes, it's the reason for the lie that is the real issue isn't it? Mark Twain once said that "lying was an art form....and a person who tells one ought to at least make it interesting."

[pdog06]

if the scope is coming loose it was installed incorrectly. It is not the guns fault that the scope is coming loose! Gee, I wonder why it shot all over the place....Hmmmmm?

With a little time and effort to go over the gun, inspect it, and make sure everything is tightened properly I am sure this gun woulda been a shooter.

[wbm]

only two things I liked about the Savage... the three position safety and the accu-trigger.
good day.

Indeed!

[Swanny297]

Hopefully your scope doesn't come loose in your browning or you will have to buy another brand new gun.....

[wbm]

With a little time and effort to go over the gun, inspect it, and make sure everything is tightened properly I am sure this gun woulda been a shooter.

Yeah I think so too. I can understand his frustration if the "facts" were properly presented. The loose scope thing was a red flag and two rifles in six weeks and both "POS". UhHUh! Seems like someone was trying to mitigate his problem but to no avail. His post is totally calumnious to me.

[yobuck]

well thank you fish and i enjoy reading yours also. all i can say is i rarly lie when im alone and im alone most of the time.

[wbm]

Well I never tell the truth I always lie.

[efm77]

I agree with the ones who said it sounded like improper scope mounting. Big red flag if the scope is shooting loose. That has nothing to do with which brand of rifle it is. I like Brownings too but have never seen any other rifle, on average, that outshoots a Savage. Some may be about the same. Whoever mentioned they never use threadlocker on anything on their rifle has had better luck than me. I always put blue thread locker on the base screws and ring screws as I've had a scope shoot loose before. I didn't blame the rifle though when the bullets started hitting all over the place. You can get a lemon in any brand. Sounds like a little more effort at inspecting all the parts would have helped a lot and he wouldn't have been out so much on ammo and time. In the end though, I doubt I believe much of the OP. Sounds like it was just a tirade posted on here by someone trying to ruffle our feathers. Probably a Remington 700 shooter who got outshot by someone with a Savage and couldn't take it.

[Bowers]

a buddy of mine spent alot on a 300wsm of another manufacturer. he had same issue. he couldnt hold groups at 50 yards. they wher everywhere. we checked everything, and all was tight no play or etc. finally we found the issue, it was the rings they didnt put egual force around the tube of the scope and made major pressure points. and damaged the scope internally somehow. and his poi always changed. he changed rings, base, and scope. and solved the issue. I beleive midway sells a product that trues your rings now that would have helped my buddy.

[efm77]

Good point Bowers. Ring lapping is very helpful. I use the Burris Signature Zee rings a lot with the inserts and it basically has the same effect of lapping regular rings. Doesn't put crooked stress on the scope.