New hunting rifle!!

[bajeep93]

First of all a little about me. I live in Washington and love most all guns, hunting and reloading. I am looking on advice on building a new hunting rifle. Currently I hunt with a ruger m77 in 7mm mag. I have used this gun for years and it has been great rifle.
This last couple years I have gotten into longer range hunting with some buddies in Idaho. I feel that I did pretty good with my old hunting rifle considering all of them hunt with HS precision guns with nightforce scopes on them. I managed to take a three point mule deer at 702 yards and a four point white tail at 740 yards. The gun shot good for a old hunting rifle.
Anyways there are some mods I would like to do to it. But there is no aftermarket support for it.so it seams like a good time to build a new rifle.
I want a light gun. We have a high mountain hunt planed for new season and I will be hiking in 15-20 miles. So I think I want a savage 110 in 7mm or 300 win mag. I am looking for a used one but do not know the differences in round or flat back. I don't know what the difference between staggered feed or center feed. Or if any of this makes much difference on my build. I want to upgrade the stock but not sure what is going to be a good light weight stock. I am not the biggest accutrigger fan. My rem 700 22-250 has a timney trigger and that is most likely what I would go with. I would like to put a break on it. Not sure how this will look on a factory barrel. Will eventually go with a aftermarket barrel.
Thanks for the help and here is a few pics

[Silvercrow1]

WOW!! Those are some NICE trophy's! Don't know if you kept them "skull" mounted (I think they call it European Mount?) but if I ever shot something THAT nice I'd do skull mount...I think it looks BA..

I AM NOT a long distance hunter but my good buddy is. He has a Rem. .300 Win. Mag. and has been everywhere with it "out west". He'd have 101 reasons to suggest a 300 Win Mag; I only have one= our troops use it (amongst other calibers like the .338 Lapua) and swear by it.

I had the pleasure of spending a month in Cor-'delene (spelling?) and St. Mary's in the late 70s during "Paul Bunyan Days"- awesome and unforgettable time. GREAT folks and some of the most beautiful country I've ever been to. I'm jealous!

Keep us informed on what you decide...
Brian

[big honkin jeep]

Welcome Lots of good info an all things Savage. Flat backs are older models with a flat surface on the rear of the receiver. The newer models are round, The centerfeed is the newer magazine system which pushes the cartridges up between the lips in the center of the magazine while the staggered feed are the older style with the cartridges coming up staggered side by side from the mag. Either are capable of making an outstanding hunting rig. Look around all the info is here and a great bunch of guys to help you along, Enjoy yourself. might even want to check the Savage website and look at a factory rig like a long range hunter. Savage is pretty good at providing what consumers want by offering some nice purpose built packages from the factory. Options can be added by calling them and ordering nearly anything you want for a little more green.

[jonbearman]

What I would do is build off a savage action centerfeed as they feed quite nicely.I would call Jim Briggs at Northland shooters supply and he will guide you through your build as we will too. His number is :695- 1-763-682-4296. He has everything from new recievers to stocks to barrels etc etc etc etc .

[thermaler]

I just bought a 300 win mag in a basic 111 hunter but haven't done any long range stuff--yet. Put the SSS comp trigger in--very nice once I figured out the goofy instructions (with a lot of help from the good folks on this forum). I'm very interested in following your build and use--keep us posted. : )

[bajeep93]

Thanks guys. One of my main questions was about the stock. I see lots of nice stocks out there but they all seam to be heavy. Is there going to be better stock options with either the round or square?
The mounts will be staying the way they are. I am a big fan of the European mount. It took a lot of work to get them like that. They just need a good scrub now and then whitened and put on plaques.

[Rifleshooter308]

I'm a long range shooter but not a long range hunter - being from Michigan. I certainly have humped a heavy rifle enough to know what your looking for. My thoughts are light rifles and magnums are not good combinations. Your a big guy and can probably handle the recoil but how accurate you will be depends on you. There are plenty of long range calibers that will pack a punch out to distance that are much more conducive to light weight rigs. Examples are the .260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmore, 6.5-284 and the venerable 30-06. These will all fit in a short action helping with weight. Although there are plenty of good aftermarket stocks for the long actions there are more choices for the shorts. If your looking for ultimate weight savings than you may want to look at a wood laminate. Boyd's makes a really light thumbhole varminter that is the lightest but it's not the strongest and will have to be bedded. The best off the shelf laminate is Stocky's Stocks Bobby Hart LRP. I have one and it's superb. Comes with pillars ready to drop your action in. Other options include the Bell and Carlson Medalist which is a good aluminum bedded stock and decently light. Higher end options include Manners, McMillan and HS Precision. You'll spend $200-$250 for the B&C and LRP and over $500 for the others.

If you really want to do it right you need an after market barrel. You can buy the Savage LRP which is their best long range stock rifle but I'd prefer to just buy any used rifle and build my own. You can find used Savage LA and SA rifles for under $400 at any gun store or pawn shop. I would add a new barrel, PTG bolt head, Glades Armory bolt handle, NSS precision lug and nut and one of NSS's competition trigger springs. You'll no longer hate the accutrigger with this spring. For $14 it's well worth it and it will peform like a Timney or SSS. Jim and Northland can get you the barrel you need too. If going 300WM I would look at the Shilen, Criterion or McGowen prefits in 24" with the Magnum contour. This barrel contour is lighter than a Varmint but heavier than the Sporter. If going with a short action you can get along with a shorter barrel making it lighter and handier. I run several SA's including a 20" .308 that I shoot out to 1K with great accuracy. My .260 remington is 24" and can go well past 1000 shooting the 140g bullets. A 140g Nosler Partition or Accubond Long Range at 2900 FPS will do the job handily in .260!

Good luck with your build!

[bajeep93]

Yes a aftermarket barrel is in the plans. But with buying the gun, stock,trigger,rail,rings and optics the new barrel will probably half to wait till next year. Thanks for the advice on stocks I will look into them.

[Shooter970]

Bajeep93 if you can find a 116 in 7stw you will be good to go. I have two I might part with one. Both are stainless 26" barrels with muzzle breaks. They are stock factory guns and I think the best all around long range hunting rifle. Not to light or to heavy kinda long but man do the deer go down. Even at 600 and 700 yards it's bang flop no running.

[sortafast]

If you don't dig the accutrigger, go with an older, flat back rifle. Sometimes you can score an old Stevens 110 model E Series K gun on the cheap. I grabbed one in 30-06 a couple years back for $200, or something like that, at a gun shop. It even had an old Bushnell scope on it. For the optic mount get an EGW 20moa rail and bed it to the action (super easy to do). The 20MOA is great for dialing in elevation if you need to so that you don't run out of adj at longer ranges. Makes longer shots a more accurate that just doing a hold over. I am out of the loop on stocks. But I think that manners or mcmillan has a light weight synthetic sporter stock. Get one of those, get it pillar bedded and I think you'd be in business. As for caliber, I would stick with the 7mm Rem Mag if I were you. Theres lots of off the shelf ammo available, it shoots much flatter than its 30cal counter part, and you can run some Berger Match grade Hunting bullets if you roll your own that should get you well over 1000yds when shooting targets.

Swapping barrels on a Savage is mind numbingly easy. You just need a barrel nut wrench, action wrench and headspace gauges. It is also nice to have a barrel vise to hold the whole mess. If you are handy with steel you can make your own barrel vise. If you have a mill you can make your own action wrench (thats what I did as I am too cheap to spend the $$ on a ready made version).

Really, with out the optic I would bet that you could do all of this for at or around $1k if you took your time and shopped for used bits. Possibly less if you are crafty and can sneak the deals. If you hunting trip isn't until next year, wait until after hunting season wraps up and go searching through all the local pawn shops and gun stores. Eventually you will come across a cheaper savage long action on the cheap. One word of caution though. On the very first generation of 110's they trigger assembly was very much different than the newer ones (past 1962 or something like that). Quickest way to check is to look at the bolt. If it looks like this you are good to go. If it has a projection out the front of the bolt all the way around the case opening and has no lug for the extractor and no ejector, its the older style (like the one I bought) and should probably be avoided as it will probably just cause you a headache, like it did me. Yet one more option would be to do a Remage. Where you find a LA rem 700 on the cheap, pull the barrel (barrel vise and action wrench) then buy a Remage prefit barrel, barrel nut and Recoil lug from Jim at Northand Shooter Supply. The only tricky bit is that you can't swap bolt heads like on the Savages, so you'd have to find one with the bolt face for the caliber you want to shoot. But there are something like 2.3million Remington 700's in 7mm Rem Mag so finding one shouldn't be much of a challenge.

[keeki]

I started to buy a long range hunter in 7mag today. Local shop had it for $650 used but in excellent shape.

[bajeep93]

Bajeep93 if you can find a 116 in 7stw you will be good to go. I have two I might part with one. Both are stainless 26" barrels with muzzle breaks. They are stock factory guns and I think the best all around long range hunting rifle. Not to light or to heavy kinda long but man do the deer go down. Even at 600 and 700 yards it's bang flop no running.

If you can post some pics I would love to see

[bajeep93]

Sortafast
That is some great info. This is why I came here

[Three44s]

Welcome bajeep93!

I am from WA as well and the eastside as you look to be.

I guess I'll play devils advocate: Since your Ruger can produce 700+ yard kills on deer why are you wanting to stretch even those distances?

Not trying to bust your chops ........ after all I love to play with Savages ........ had two Rugers, one shot and the other certainly killed everything I put it on but never grouped worth beans and so I traded it off on a Browning with Boss in .25-06 and it shoots great!

BTW, my Savages have all been great as well. I also agree that if you follow through, the 7mm STW would make a lot of sense. I bought a factory tube in STW a while back and have not mounted it yet ....... too many irons in the fire ....... Ha Ha!!

Trigger wise, I like to stick with the variants of accutriggers or the older three screw (would be good for you since you don't like accu's) or step up to Fred Moreno's trigger ...... rather than the Timney.

Stockwise, you are likely looking at the Carlson Duramax for starters. The factory tuppewares need a lot of love to get them stiff ....... if even then. There is an article here on this forum about stiffening up an Axis stock and what goes there applies to about all the cheaper Savage synthetics.

Hope you stay is great ........... again .......... welcome aboard!!

Three 44s

[bajeep93]

I am not looking at really hunting any farther. There is just things I would like to modify. Like trigger, stock, scope bases. Things like this. There is basically no aftermarket support for the ruger. I would like to put a break on it. The ruger is a lightweight module and kicks the **** out of me if I take it out and try to do more than a few rounds. And I like building guns and tinkering with them. I just finished up a 300 blk ar15 and my tax stamp for my can will not be here for a few more months.

[Stockrex]

Hs precision is heavier than plastic stock, plus the bipod, you are going to carry a bit of weight. 20 mile hike , wow u must be great cardio shape.
7 mag as u have it now, reuse ur ammo.
Question is are you getting it done with one shot? If not u gots to worry about cold barrel shot vs follow up shot on a pencil barrel.

What barrel thickness are ur buds shooting?

[bajeep93]

All of them are shooting heavy fluted barrel HS guns. Only one of them hikes with that gun. I want light. My ruger now weights in at 8.4 without ammo in it. Most kills one shot. That white tail I hit a second time because he did not drop when I hit him the first time. He was not moving fast so I was able to get a second shot. But he would not have gone far after the first shot.

[CharlieNC]

I assume you will be shooting prone/bipod. For this you will need an optimum purpose built stock for best accuracy associated with recoil management. I love my Choate Tactical for this but it is a little heavy; I would checkout Boyd Tacticool for weight saving, but to me the thumb hole varmint does not shoot prone very well.

[bajeep93]

Prone no bipod I prefer to use packs and jackets for front and rear rest

[sortafast]

For stocks if you want really light and still run a sporter barrel, there is the Manner's MCS-SL. Its supposedly about 29oz or something like that. But you can't cram a varmint barrel or something like that into it, I don't think anyway. Some of the other stocks from them look to be in the low 2lb range. There is also Stockade Stocks, but I am not sure on their weight. You could also go with a Chassis system. There are some lighter weight options out there, I think, but I doubt that many are in the 2lb range. That would require some investigation though. You might also go poke around on Sniper's Hide and Long Range Hunting for more help with the LR stuff and ideas for what you are wanting to do. But really you are probably going to have to set your weight limit and find a way to achieve that. There will be some sacrifices and stuff that you will have to make to get what you want.

[handirifle]

Given the criteria you mentioned, personally I would stick with the 7mm. Reason being you know the round very well already and that means a LOT for long range anything. As for barrel, I'd look for a magnum contour or light varmint, and have it fluted to give it a sporter weight or similar. Since you want it light, I think 24" would be my limit on length. All that said, this will probably end up being an 8lb rifle anyway. A blind mag rifle will be slightly lighter than detachable mag.

As for CF or SF I would just look for the stock you like and see what they make them for. Some companies are just gearing up to the CF stocks.

Scope and rings can make a big difference in weight as well. Good optics do not have to be heavy.

[bajeep93]

I like the nightforce

[thermaler]

I am not looking at really hunting any farther. There is just things I would like to modify. Like trigger, stock, scope bases. Things like this. There is basically no aftermarket support for the ruger. I would like to put a break on it. The ruger is a lightweight module and kicks the **** out of me if I take it out and try to do more than a few rounds. And I like building guns and tinkering with them. I just finished up a 300 blk ar15 and my tax stamp for my can will not be here for a few more months.

The sorta nice thing about working the savage synthetics is that they are so crappy to begin with you don't have to worry about messing them up. : ) You can never get them completely rigid like a bedded wood stock--but certainly good enough for shooting off of bags or a bipod; though I personally don't lug a bipod around in the woods. I'm an AR guy too, BTW--I built a 6.8 spc carbine out of stag and RR parts for pretty cheap; I'm not sold on the 300 blk viability--but to each their own.

[yobuck]

the problem you going to have is distance. right now your saying your not interested in shooting
any further that you have been. but that will change very abruptly. you will be hiking in a long
way and no doubt be hunting from vantage points you can glass from. its only a matter of time till something
shows up beyond your rifles ability. a 7stw would be the minimum id be thinking about for what your contemplating.
like it or not you will be in the 10 to 12 lb class for a suitable gun. be thinking more about the hunting part and less
about the shooting part. if glassing is the plan be very concerned about your glasses. for long periods of glassing a tripod
is a must have. if you dont believe that look at your watch then start glassing with hand held glasses. when your arms get weary
look again at your watch. you probably wont last 5 minits till your done hunting. get a good folding saw for the branches and brush
that are sure to be troublesome. keep it in your good eberlestock or equal pack which will also have a scabbard for your rifle.
also get a bipod to shoot from with leg notches.

[Three44s]

You won't find a better rifle than the Savage for lots of choices with the exception of the Rem. 700.

But when you factor in barrel changes ...... it's Savage hands down ........ as you well know.

It certainly would not hurt to try your hand at working over a tuppeware stock. The Axis article on this web site is good.

Best regards

Three 44s