I purchased a Savage Edge XP in .223 as a summer shooting rifle and to see how well I could get it to perform without putting another dime into the rifle. If there is any weak points to the Savage Edge XP, it is the trigger and the scope. the trigger and sear surfaces are crudely polished, more like done on a grinder. My .223 came with a factory trigger pull of 5 3/4 pounds. A bit too heavy for me, since I basically bench rest shoot. Some careful polishing of the trigger and sear brought them down considerably. Trimming the spring brought the trigger pull down to about 3/4 of a pound with good sear engagement. Nice, but a bit too light, especially for varmint hunting. The spring is a two stage affair with a tightly wound section that goes into the trigger housing. I took a piece of .010 steel strip and cut an octogon about 5/16" in diameter and drilled a 7/64" hole in the center. Winding it on the spring gave me an aduster that by winding it onto the smaller section of the spring gave me an range of adjustment from about 1 pound to about 3 1/4 pounds, good for bench rest shooting to varmint hunting. The rifle performs quite well. I have shot some good 1/2 MOA groups with my best group being .41". That's with a 52 grain FMBT spitzer being driven by 24.8 grains of Varget in scrounged Lake City Brass and a CCI primer. Oh, the really cheap bushnell sharpshooter?!? scope was replaced with a 6 x 24 X 44 Truglo Target/Varmint scope.
Any one have good loads for the Savage Edge XP in 223?