I figured that you all might like to see the results of changing a Savage plastic stock to an Oryx chassis.
After finally getting rings that would get the Sightron scope high enough to be able to get a cheek weld on the straight (no drop) rear stock on the Oryx, I took it to the range this morning to see whether the cost of the stock change and the rings would pay off in accuracy.
I had two objectives in changing the stock on a Savage 12 FV .223 that cost $ 320 at Cabela’s. It shot pretty well out of the box as you can tell in my thread that documented its performance since mid-March of this year at http://www.savageshooters.com/showth...-new-12-FV-223. The rifle has a Sightron 36X target scope with a 1/8 MOA target dot reticle mounted on it


  1. The hidden magazine with the magazine shortened to keep the .223 rounds forward in the mag so they would feed was difficult for me to load easily. I wanted a detachable magazine so I didn’t have to struggle with loading, especially with arthritic fingers.
  2. The factory plastic stock has no aluminum bedding posts and no aluminum rail to stiffen it so it tends to flex. While the .223 has minimal recoil, I could still feel the stock flexing.

I purchased an Oryx stock, with a .223 AICS polymer magazine and extra spacers for the rear pad because I have long arms and adjustable stocks have proven valuable in getting the right fit. I also purchased a front sling swivel to mount my Sinclair F-Class bipod. Total cost, including shipping was 488.96.

The following are the results with the Savage 12 .223 with the new stock, shot in Northern Virginia on Wednesday morning, July 3nd at 100 yards. Temperatures were from 74 to 86 degrees with winds from calm to 3 mph. Altitude of the range is 250 feet above sea level.

All rounds were shot using Lapua brass and CCI BR-4 primers with an 36x42mm Sightron fixed magnification target scope with a target dot reticle. All bullets were loaded to achieve a 1.360 msec. exit time which should be the sweet spot for a 26-inch 3% carbon steel barrel with a 0.040-inch recessed crown. The action screws were torqued to 60 in.-lbs. per the Oryx directions prior to this session.
For this session, I loaded IMR4166 Enduron powder and I planned the seating depths so all the different bullets would achieve the same jump to the rifling – 0.020 – and then adjusted the seating depth by less than 0.005 thousandths to achieve the 1.360 exit time.

Over the last two sessions with the 12 FV with the factory barrel, I tested its accuracy with 77 grain Sierra SMK and TMK bullets with two different primers at different sessions. Today I not only wanted to see if the new chassis would perform, but I decided to also test the performance of primers on the same day with the same loads to see if there was a measurable difference.

The load description field shows the powder and charge, the O.A.L., the trim length, and the bullet exit time from the 26-inch barrel.

# Grps Load Description Bullet Weight Velocity Average Median St Dev 1 2 3 4
4 IMR4166 21.1 gr 2.301 1.757 wf 1.360 * 74/77 deg. F. 35 in.-lbs. CCI BR-4 Sierra SMK #9377 77 2543 0.237 0.238 0.014 0.220 0.237 0.239 0.253
3 IMR4166 21.1 gr 2.300 1.755 wf 1.360 * 82/80 deg. F. 35 in.-lbs. Rem 7.5 BR Sierra SMK #9377 77 2543 0.254 0.258 0.021 0.245 0.258 0.272
4 IMR4166 21.0 gr 2.345 1.783 wf 1.360 * 85/84 deg. F. 35 in.-lbs. CCI BR-4 Sierra TMK #7177 77 2540 0.276 0.290 0.041 0.215 0.288 0.292 0.308
4 IMR4166 21.0 gr 2.345 1.783 wf 1.360 * 85/84 deg. F. 35 in.-lbs. Rem 7.5 BR Sierra TMK #7177 77 2540 .270 .257 .052 0.223 0.247 0.267 0.343
15 0.260 0.253 0.0035


Comparison of Factory Stock with Oryx Chassis with Equivalent Bullets
Factory Oryx Chassis
Bullets Avg. Median St Dev # Grps. Avg. Median St Dev # Grps.
Sierra Match King # 9377 0.344 0.327 0.118 11 0.256 0.258 0.017 7
Sierra Tipped Match King #7177 0.280 0.274 0.043 12 0.273 0.278 0.044 8

Comment: The earliest sessions with the 77 SMK bullets were somewhat of an anomaly because the initial tests with the heavy bullets were at the Sierra recommended O.A.L. Later loads were loaded out so the jump was around 0.020 and the performance improved immensely.

Other than the initial results with the SMK bullets in the factory stock, the results for the 77 TMK bullets, which were seated out to minimize the jump from the outset, don’t show any statistically significant performance improvements with the Oryx chassis. However, shooting with the Oryx chassis did provide a feeling of set-up consistency and absolutely no stock flexing. But regardless of feeling more stable, the results didn’t show significant improvement in accuracy.