First Savage Rifle-Not Impressed thus far.

**Retired Army Guy** · 06-06-2020, 11:35 AM

I've always heard Savage Rifles were accurate well beyond their price range. I always said if they made one that wasn't butt ugly I would give them a try. Well they did- the High Country and I bought one. My enthusiasm ended there. I'm new to Savage Center Fires and not sure "How" they build them but a lifetime of Rifle use in my life (approaching 60 faster than I care to admit) tells me this one was built all wrong. Over 20 clicks of horizontal adjustment(from a true centered scope) just to get the cross hairs over the barrel for a bore sight. UNACCEPTABLE. I tried different rings, bases, scopes and laser and manual bore sighting techniques all to the same result. Depending what type of scope you mount you would have to use 1/2 or more of your horizontal adjustments just to get a bore sight. The scope mounting holes appear to be straight so it has to be something with the barrel and receiver not lined up correctly. If this is one of the "high end" Rifles whats a cheaper model built like? My friend owns a sporting good store says he's had 5 or 6 Savages like this the past year! What is going on? I did not even shoot it, not worth the frustration. A higher priced rifle like this i expect a little better craftsmanship and attention to detail. Once I verified it was truly the rifle and not me or my equipment it went back in the box and back to Savage.

With all this being said I have owned many brands of Rifles and they ALL have their problems regardless of brand and price. Mass produced rifles are a roll of the dice and I'm aware of that. At this point what makes a Rifle Company Stand Out is their Customer Service and ability to properly fix the Rifle in a somewhat timely manner. With Covid-19 still going on I don't expect fast service but I do expect a near perfect rifle when it is returned. The Rifle has been with Savage almost a month, they said the Rifle was tore down and minor adjustments made. Not sure what "minor adjustments are?" and it was in line to be test fired. I really hope this turns out it has the DNA to be a great shooting rifle but so far I'm left disappointed and waiting............

**wbm** · 06-06-2020, 12:24 PM

Frustrating for sure. Think you should probably sell it and go with another brand.

**Robinhood** · 06-06-2020, 12:45 PM

I am betting there was an issue with barrel straightness or the process they go to when mating the barrel to the action. It sounds like the action and the barrel where pointing different directions. I think you will be happier when it comes back.

**want2ride** · 06-06-2020, 01:37 PM

I hope you are happy with it when it comes back.

Just some thought on the subject.
20 clicks is 5 moa, most scopes i have are 60 to 90 moa of wind, but i think i have one that is 40, so half each wayis 20, and minus 5 is 15 moa left. I personally don't dial wind, only elevation. 5 moa doesn't seem like a lot to me.

**want2ride** · 06-06-2020, 01:53 PM

i really hate to be that guy, but without a round down range and a real zero and testing to see how centered the scope really was, it just seems silly to send the gun back.
Did you use the mirror method to test the optical center of your scope? If you just ran the scope both ways and divided by 2 and put it in the mechanical center, your optical center may be off by 5 moa easily. I have 2 $900 scopes of the same brand that are 22 moa off optically from the mechanical center.

**Retired Army Guy** · 06-06-2020, 02:26 PM

Yes true optical center by click counting and mirror method. 5+ moa before you even start is extreme to me IMHO as well as the local gunsmith who works on rifles for a living. The last three rifles I mounted scopes on one or two CLICKS of horizontal for a bore sight. Yes 5 moa is not a show stopper but for a rifle that is over $1,100 msrp??? Come on... should be better. Don't get me wrong I hope it comes back shooting like a champion I bought it cause I like it!

**charlie b** · 06-06-2020, 02:31 PM

It probably is the rifle. Used to surprise me until I ran into a few guys with custom rifles with the same kinds of dumb problems.

One was a $5000 custom built with one of the higher end actions and barrels. The guy could not bore sight. He asked me what I thought. When I looked at the barrel from the back it was obvious it was installed crooked. Ended up being that high end action was the problem. And, yes, they fixed it.

**Dave Hoback** · 06-06-2020, 03:51 PM

This is one of the many reasons I don’t buy ANY manufacturers rifles or pistols any longer. Not even Savage. I build my own...myself.

You said if they ever made one that wasn’t “butt ugly” you would try it? And the High Country was your bride of choice? Ok.(beauty TRULY is in they eye of the beholder!) In any case...do you know why YOU are complaining about it? Because YOU are unfortunately one of the unlucky few who received one of the fractions of 1% of rifles that either missed QC or was damaged somewhere along the way dyring delivery. Yes, yes...I know some random “Gun Store” guy (you say a friend.. random to us), told you he’s seen several.. Uh-huh. I wonder if he’s related to one of the COUNTLESS Gun store guys who have seen all these many, many Savages that are just BAD! These guys are fairly easy to find. But we never see any evidence. Save of course for that FRACTION of a percent of the MILLIONS of rifles Savage sells. Strange thing, ALL manufactures seem to suffer this same problem..go figure!

I don’t mean to disregard your situation OP. We can all, I’m sure, understand your frustration. But your first sentence is the resounding number of cases of Savage rifles. Many offer quite good performance for their price tags. Still though, this does happen. And what makes it worse is you chose one of Savage’s much higher priced offerings. Thus you went into the purchase with the misconception of a $500 Savage is supposed to offer GOOD accuracy, this rifle should offer DOUBLE the performance! Many firearms buyers have this thinking. As has been said, I’m sure Savage will address the issue to fair standards.