Gunsmithing Blueprint NIB Rifle -- or Shoot it First?

[snowdog650]

Hey all. Did a search to no real avail.

I just picked up a NIB Savage 10P with a 20" barrel. This is not my first rifle, but it is my first brand-new rifle. I anticipate setting it up for use up to 1000 yards, as I am lucky enough to be a member at Sacramento Valley Shooting Center -- which has a rather excellent 1000 yard range.

My question is ... should I just go ahead and bring it over to Marc at Spartan Precision in San Jose to have the action blueprinted before even firing the thing? Or should I just shoot it first? I've never had any of my other rifles blueprinted, mainly because they are just hunting rifles ... and because I acquired all of them used. How do you know when to blueprint a factory action? 1 MOA? .5 MOA?

I plan on ditching the crappy stock and going with a Manners or McRee chassis.

Thanks for the input, folks.

 

[flylo]

I have a new Savage & new Remington tactical with heavy 20" threaded barrels. I'm shooting mine first as they may be sub 1/2 moa. I bought A Sig 3000 1/4 moa out of the box. Here's hoping we both get lucky!

 

[Matno]

Why fix something before you know it's broken? Savages have amazing out of the box accuracy more often than not. I'd say work up some good handloads, then if you're not satisfied, start tweaking things.

 

[Red_SC]

Just shoot it, you have plenty of time later for upgrades when that barrel is worn out and you have a better idea exactly what you want.

 

[JJones75]

Shoot the shit out of it , maybe at most have it recrowned.
Ditch the stock and replace the trigger then start saving your change for a quality barrel then have then action trued when having the barrel installed.

 

[Matno]

Why replace the trigger? The accu-trigger is awesome.

 

[ORD]

+1 on all of the above...just shoot the @#$^ out of it and gauge your results accordingly.

I personally have never really seen the benefit (versus the cost at least) of truing up a receiver only to reinstall what is generally a sub-par factory barrel (again...at least compared to the quality/precision/etc. you can obtain from any number of custom barrels). Once you have determined the level of performance your rifle is capable of achieving, then you can decide how best to proceed. As noted above, you may have a solid performer right out of the box or you may have a total mess. No way to know until you've stretched her legs a little bit on the range first!

 

[Bill Larson]

Just shoot it.......

 

[snowdog650]

Excellent. Case closed. Thanks for the input, folks!