I suppose I'm not so "new to savage" as I once was, and over the past couple of years I've broken down and built about 5 Savage rifles now. Finally I understand "the system" and can figure out what parts will work with what. I've always been intrigued with the wood stocked Lightweight Hunter rifles, but never was that crazy about the milled receivers or spiral fluted bolt. I had this build in mind for a while, and it finally came together over the past few weeks.

This action started out as a Model 10 scout rifle in the rare 7.62x39 chambering. That's a rifle I've used for quite some time and I will probably always have a Savage 7.62x39 barrel and bolt face on hand from now on - they are just that much fun to shoot in a bolt action, and incredibly accurate for the price of ammo.

I pulled the 7.62x39 barrel and found a 7mm-08 Axis barrel for under $100. The stock I got off of FeeBay after nearly pulling the trigger on a brand new LWH wood stock. Saved over $100 going the FeeBay route, and as you can see, this is a gorgeous stock.

My goal was to build a short to medium range (anything from 50 to 300 yards) whitetail rifle in 7mm-08 that weighed about 7 lbs. total. I've always admired the way the 1.5-4x20 scopes look. I dig that "safari scope" look. So that's what I topped this one with.

I had to inlet the action channel a tiny amount to drop the Model 10 action into the LWH stock, but that took literally 5 minutes. I also had to inlet the barrel channel at the tip of the forend, but again, it was a very quick and easy job.

Now I have the whitetail rifle I had imagined. 20" barrel, 40" total length, beautiful walnut stock and "vintage" looking safari-type scope, in my favorite hunting caliber - 7mm-08.

The accuracy with my 139 grain SST handloads is more than acceptable (right around 1" at 100 yards and 3.5-4" at 300 yards, even with the 4x scope) for it's intended purpose. I am very pleased with this one. It's nice to finally have the knowledge and confidence to work with the fantastic, versatile Savage platform.