Been a long time since I posted here, so I thought it would be worth making a post about the newer 110 long range hunter with accufit, accustock and accutrigger; the most amazing off-the-shelf reasonably priced rifle I've ever bought. It not only tames the powerful (and awesome performing) 338 LM--but does so in a fairly lightweight package. If you ever have a chance to shoot one--be sure not to miss it, and forget about the "punishing recoil" stuff you might think is coming your way.
[B][COLOR="#FF8C00"]Shooting--it's like high-speed golf[/COLOR][/B]
Well there's a name I haven't seen post here in awhile. Welcome back!Originally Posted by thermaler
Been a long time since I posted here, so I thought it would be worth making a post about the newer 110 long range hunter with accufit, accustock and accutrigger; the most amazing off-the-shelf reasonably priced rifle I've ever bought. It not only tames the powerful (and awesome performing) 338 LM--but does so in a fairly lightweight package. If you ever have a chance to shoot one--be sure not to miss it, and forget about the "punishing recoil" stuff you might think is coming your way.
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” —Mark Twain
Yup--life has thrown some hardballs my way lately. ; ) Really do like the new 338 LM 110--it's a spectacular cartridge and savage hit the ball out of the park in it's execution of the rifle IMO.
[B][COLOR="#FF8C00"]Shooting--it's like high-speed golf[/COLOR][/B]
Only problem with the .338 LM on a Savage is that the action really isn't stout enough for it. From what I've been told, Savage originally planned to make a slightly larger diameter action for it (there's a reason all the custom actions rated for a .338 LM are larger diameter), but the bean counters scrubbed that idea because it would have meant a lot of dedicated parts just for that action/cartridge (bolt head, front baffle, FP assembly, bold body, stock, action itself, etc) that would have really driven the cost up.
So instead they tasked the engineers with making the existing 110 action "good enough" to handle the greater amount of bolt thrust generated by the .338 LM. They accomplished this by increasing the thickness of the lugs on the bolt head (dubbed the "heavy magnum" bolt head), but that only improved the sheer strength of the lugs and did nothing to increase the surface area of the lugs in contact with the receiver to better distribute that additional rearward bolt thrust energy over a greater area. To justify the new parts they simply started using them on all rifles chambered in magnum rounds (WSM's, Win' Mag's, etc) which is why these guns have their own specific front baffle and firing pin assembly now (since 2010 IIRC). More info and a photo showing the difference can be found in this FAQ article: https://www.savageshooters.com/conte...Configurations
Fred has had several Savage 110's chambered in .338 LM's come through his shop now that were exhibiting lug setback, some with less than 100 rounds fired through them. If you don't know what lug setback is, it's essentially the lugs compressing or pushing the metal in the receiver rearward ever so slightly.
Here are a couple pic's I found of a Mauser action exhibiting lug setback that were posted over at AR15.com in this thread: https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/M...Pix/14-222660/
Setback will be most obvious at the top lug on a Savage as there's less material there. We're talking thousandths of an inch here, but it's something to keep in mind because any amount of setback will affect the headspace.
Last edited by J.Baker; 10-22-2019 at 10:43 AM. Reason: fixed
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” —Mark Twain
Actually the set back occurs on the top lug abutment. The bottom lug abutment is has less support from the mag opening, so it flexes with the bolt thrust and transfers most of the pressure to the top lug abutment. The mag well opening is set .050" forward of a standard caliber version to account for the longer magazine, leaving less material to support the lug abutment. I've seen some ultra mags that not only had set back on the lug abutments, but also compression on the top bolt lug.
"As long as there's lead in the air....there's still hope.."
Little bit of a different animal, as Mauser receivers were case-hardened and not through-hardened.
Thickness/depth of the hardening was often inconsistent (particularly wartime K98k's) as were the alloys. Heavy round count, grit could wear through thin case hardening and from that point setback of the soft "core" would rapidly progress.
For me, even as a riflesmith, I couldn't justify 3 grand to build a .338 LM that would only rarely be shot (no place beyond 600 yards available currently) and rather than barrel-up an M700 action with basically the same "issues", I bought a Savage BA Tactical; the Savage does at least have the larger lugs. I'm confident their engineers haven't ditched the usual safety factors, as a catastrophic failure would be devastating and I've yet to hear of one blowing up. An entire rifle, for the cost of an oversize Defiance receiver. Don't misunderstand, apples and oranges- but I was curious how this rig would perform in a field where they typically cost 3x as much.
Time will tell...
Barrel's the worst one I've ever seen through a borescope, but shoots honest 3/4 minute with about 100 rounds down the tube with H1000 and 300 SMK's.
I'm going to pull the barrel at 200 rounds and inspect the lug abutments to see how they're holding up. If there's no evidence of accelerated wear, and the promised JTAC Ranch in FL ever opens, I'll probably spin up a shouldered Bartlein for it. If it shows evidence of setback, I'll face off the lugs and abutments, turn it into a .300 PRC and build another off a Defiance.
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