Quote Originally Posted by RG31 View Post
I purchased this rifle over a month ago and am disappointed in the accuracy department. This is the model that is sold with the HS Precision stock. I have tried Federal Gold Medal factory ammo to various hand-loads with six different propellants and with Sierra 175 SMK’s and Hornady ELD match bullets in 168gr, 178gr, and 195gr respectively. This barrel simply hates all the ELD match bullets. The best group shot was 1.5”. The rest was between 2”-4” groups. The only sub MOA group fired was with the Sierra 175 SMK’s.

I have a DPMS LR308 with a 24” factory SS bull barrel that shoots all of these hand-loads sub .5 MOA all day, any day, regardless of weather conditions.

The Savage has a Ken Farrell FG Mount, a LaRue tactical QD Mount with a Leupold Mk 4 scope that I have been using between both rifles. I have went over the Savage to try and find out if anything was loose. All scope mount screws are loc-tilted to 20” pounds, I have varied the torque settings of the action screws. Nothing has made a difference. The crown looks good with no knicks or gouges present. It just seems that I have drawn the short straw and got a bad barrel. I do have a barrel vise and nut wrench so changing the barrel is well within my abilities.
On the other hand however, one of the best groups i have ever shot, came as a result of shooting same rifle bought for my then 14 year old grandson.
Brought it home from the store i bought it, cleaned the barrel, and loaded a few 150 gr smks with 43 gr of 4320.
One ragged hole for 4 shots minus the first one which was maybe a half inch away.
To date we havent even adjusted the trigger. Took me about a year to find out how to remove it from the stock, but it didnt matter anyway.