Reply With QuoteNice product review!
Hi everyone,
I posted my recent experience with this set up over at the Canadian Gun Nutz forum and thought I would reprint my post here. I hope this doesn't conflict with forum rules:
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Ordered on a Friday, rec'd in Kitchener, ON the following Wed. Not bad at all. Also ordered 4 x .308 mags, a grip, and a 2.5" picatinny rail. Order arrived well-packed, complete, and the exact colours specified. My Savage 11 FXP Trophy installed in minutes per directions, no issues on assembly other than a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up a longer 5/32" hex key to tighten up the grip into the chassis frame. Quality of each piece outstanding. Extremely solid and tight. Total weight 11.1 lbs unloaded, with scope (Vortex Crossfire II 6x18 44 mm, Warne 1-pc base, Maxima low rings), and Harris 6" - 9" bipod. Bolt easily removed/replaced with buttstock in place.
One caveat: on sighting in I found it hard to get my eyes on target. The low Warne Maxima rings are great for typical hunting rifle stocks (like the plastic Savage stock with a lower comb), but the straight line of the AR style buttstock calls for at least medium-height rings. I verified this by simply removing the V3 adjustable comb and found that I could now easily get a good sight picture through the scope since I could place my cheek lower in the comb-less depression. I have a set of high Warne rings on order which should prove to be an easy fix.
The mags fed flawlessly my .308 reloads. Although very light in weight, they felt solid. Each magazine inserted positively and could be removed effortlessly. It'd be cool to have some kind of weighted base that could be screwed or bolted on. The follower springs are very firm. It took a bit of effort to squeeze in rounds past 6 or so. I didn't really load more than 5 rounds at a time into the mags while shooting from the bench, so I'll have to pursue this further.*
*EDIT: made 10 dummy rounds which all fit into a mag OK, albeit with a bit of firm thumb pressure for rounds 8 to 10. With the mag fully loaded with 10 dummy rounds a firm slap was required to slam the magazine into battery. All 10 dummy rounds cycled smoothly through the action with nary a hiccup.
Because of my difficulty in getting a decent sight picture, I opted to delay any performance evaluation until I get the scope re-installed with the new (high) rings to get a comfortable shooting position. I was pleased that for the initial 25-meter sight in that the last three zeroing shots cut a single hole through the bullseye. Not spectacular for such a short distance, to be sure, but it spells well for future 100 to 300 yard target shooting. Looking forward to my next range session!
Last edited by Smiling Dave; 03-26-2016 at 05:31 PM.
Nice product review!
Originally Posted by keeki
Guess it doesn't really matter. If ya cant afford $15, you won't be buying much anyways
What, no PICS?
Savage 10 FCP-SR 308, 300BO PCS
OK, let's see if this works:Originally Posted by bearcatrp
EDIT: It did! :)
As I found out, the comb in its lowest position is pretty much even with the bore -- about 1" higher (est) than the comb of the stock Savage bore. One advantage to this straight inline configuration, coupled to the 3 lbs greater weight vs stock is that felt recoil was noticeably less. I'm shooting fairly moderate hand loads, although I'll be continually searching for optimum -- that's half the fun! (Hornady 168 gr AMAX, 44.0 gr Varget, WW large rifle primers, R-P fire-formed brass neck sized).
Oh, I should've mentioned: cartridge OAL = 2.800". There is no room in these mags to try anything longer; spec OAL just fits.
Last edited by Smiling Dave; 03-23-2016 at 07:45 PM.
What a beauty!
Thanks, BBM! :)
I just shoot for beers (for afterward, of course!) with the guys. I had been considering a Boyd's thumb hole stock and a CDI bottom metal, but I don't have the confidence to do the inletting myself. There are some good gunsmiths in my area, but they're stacked up with work so it'd be a long wait even after waiting for the parts. In Canada the currency exchange is bad right now, plus duty/shipping/taxes makes ordering from Stateside pretty rich these days. My buds have accused me of "making a purse from a sow's ear" but I intend to prove them wrong on the range. My Tikka T3-owning friend made a case for the Tikka T3 CTR (which the Canadian Rangers are procuring to replace their aging Lee Enfields), but I like the modular aspect of this MDT setup.
We'll see. Once I get the scope remounted on higher rings I'll report how it performs on the range to 300 yards.
Cheers!
Sweet rifle. Good job putting it together. My chassis from cadex comes in next week. Will be posting pics setting it up. How much for that chassis and butt stock?OK, let's see if this works:
EDIT: It did! :)
As I found out, the comb in its lowest position is pretty much even with the bore -- about 1" higher (est) than the comb of the stock Savage bore. One advantage to this straight inline configuration, coupled to the 3 lbs greater weight vs stock is that felt recoil was noticeably less. I'm shooting fairly moderate hand loads, although I'll be continually searching for optimum -- that's half the fun! (Hornady 168 gr AMAX, 44.0 gr Varget, WW large rifle primers, R-P fire-formed brass neck sized).
Oh, I should've mentioned: cartridge OAL = 2.800". There is no room in these mags to try anything longer; spec OAL just fits.
Savage 10 FCP-SR 308, 300BO PCS
Thanks. I've heard a lot of good things about Cadex.
The HS3 chassis was $499 CDN, the buttstock was $289.
Just rec'd the high rings, which are only 1/4" taller than the current low rings, but now I can comfortably get a sight picture/cheek weld without mashing my face excessively into the comb.
Last edited by Smiling Dave; 03-25-2016 at 07:38 PM.
How comfortable when you rest your face to those high rings? I may have to get high rings to get my scope full elevation. Sight picture good without stretching your neck?
Savage 10 FCP-SR 308, 300BO PCS
Hopefully, weather permitting, I'll get out to the range on Monday to evaluate. Certainly the high rings enable a better sight picture and cheek weld when I try it at my workbench. This is the first adjustable buttstock that I've owned, and it's a new experience to position myself comfortably behind the scope, then turn the wheels of the buttplate and the comb while still in shooting position in order to have the rifle "fit".
OK, finally made it out to the range yesterday. Smallest group I achieved at 100 yards using the MDT HS3 chassis was 7/8". Prior to this the smallest group I achieved with the factory composite stock with this load was 1 3/8", for a 36% improvement. Note this is based on an extremely small sample size statistically speaking, so please look at this accordingly. The earlier group was done on a "Canadian balmy" day on Dec 29, 2015 at 0 Celsius, yesterday was a fine Spring day at 17 Celsius.
The loads were the same: 168 gr Hornady AMAX, 45.0 gr Varget (same batch), W-W Mag rifle primers, R-P brass, OAL 2.800"
Note: brass used Dec 29th was fireformed and neck resized only. April 20th brass was new, annealed, full length resized, trimmed, neck chamfered, inner primer hole chamfered, and the neck resized when loaded up.
Here was my rifle set up yesterday. I placed a small sandbag behind the bipod to help stop recoil hop on the cement/carpet bench.
One thing I noticed when shooting the HS3 chassis is that the long (22") skinny Trophy barrel never got hot, despite several successive 5-shot strings. There's a LOT of clearance from the chassis forearm, with good air circulation to cool it down. I noticed that mirage was minimal, but that might change on a hot, sunny day.
Looking good! Nice group too. Not too shabby for a 5 shot group. With a little more time at the range, and a little more load development, you should easily get to 1/2 moa groups. I love the look of that stock by the way.
Thanks, Powell. I agree totally - I believe the rifle shoots better than I can at the moment. Need more range time, focus on the basics, and tweak the hand loads a bit, as you suggest.
Smiling Dave,
It has been a few months since you posted about the HS3. I am looking at it seriously for my 110LA. Has your opinion changed on the HS3? Give us an update, please!
Sorry, ht, haven't been out to the range since -- Life Inc. & weather getting in the way! Will try to remedy that very soon.
I did mount a small Accu-Shot monopod to the buttstock to evaluate. Not so much to eliminate a rear bag for bench shooting, but more for convenience when a rear bag would be inconvenient or a bit cumbersome in the field. I must reset my priorities *correctly* and get shooting again!
Nice !!!
I'm also a Canadian with a Savage in a HS3 chassis.
The bad and the good...
The cheek piece on the butt-stock is too far forward and a spacer between the chassis and buttstock would help. I find my cheek ends up at the very end (barely touching) of the cheek piece. But I'm used to it and it works just fine.
The guys from MDT do indeed ship very fast, and are very good over the phone orders. I recommend ordering over the phone instead of their site, because I called them asking when they'll have more FDE V3 butt-stocks, their site showed then out of stock, but over the phone they verified they actually had some,... and their site never showed FDE grips while in reality they had a bunch.
The MDT Magazines feed very smooth but 2.800" MAX COAL can be a tad short for some handloads, so I got some Accurate Mag mags which have 2.870" coal.
The design incorporates a offset washer/spacer for the front action screw which allows the chassis to work with 4.4" & 4.2" action spacing. Just turn the spacer the other way to fit the different hole spacing. Brilliant !
The threaded hole for mounting the grip was very tight on my chassis but it took me 1 minute to re-tap it and I'm sure it would of been fine, I just don't like forcing anything.
I've very happy with mine.
Savage mod 11 action
Shilen pre-fit .243w 26" bull
Bushnell XRS scope
34mm Millet low rings
0 or 20 moa Weaver rail (can't remember)
17.5 Lbs ready to shoot
Average 5 shot groups 0.4moa, not hard to shoot the odd 1/4 moa group with my handloads.
Sorry mate... Didn't wanna Hijack your thread, just add to it.
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