First and foremost, for the money the Savage LRP is hard to beat for an out of the box semi-custom LR rig. I swapped out the Accu-trigger for a Rifle Basix and procured two 10 round magazines from Dan at Dark eagle Customs along with and extended mag release. Those mags have run flawlessly in three tactical precision matches with ZERO feed issues. I must have gotten lucky because it came with an EGW 20MOA rail installed.
However, accuracy wise I have been struggling with my model 12 LRP in .260Rem. I purchased it new in October 2012. It has never been a great shooter, hovering around 1.25MOA with some odd flyers on longer strings once past rounds six or seven. I did some pretty extensive load development and although the 41.8gr H4350 in Lapua brass under a 140gr HPBT may seem a bit "light" to some, it's as high as I could get without worrying about sticky bolt (42.3gr) or stuck bolt (42.7gr).
Overall I REALLY like my Savage LRP, but something has always been nagging me that something isn’t quite correct with it. Fast forward 250 rounds ldownrange and while cleaning it a few weeks ago I noticed that at the muzzle end one of the grooves was extremely fouled by copper (looked like it had been copper plated) while the rest exhibited virtually no copper fouling. I contacted my gunsmith and he asked me to stop by so he could investigate with a borescope.
Aside from a lot of tool marks and chattering throughout the barrel the biggest issue was that the chamber had been reamed off axis relative to the bore. Although I didn’t exactly understand all the technical terms, looking through the bore scope and performing a 360 rotation at the end of the throat it was self evident that something wasn’t correct. In my barrel not all of the lands and grooves ended/started at the same point in the barrel. Some stopped short of the throat while others extended to it or slightly beyond (free bore area?). Anyway in anticipation of returning the barrel to Savage we removed the barrel from the action. Unfortunately according to the Savage customer service representative I spoke with, that action completely voided my warranty. Oops!
Alas all has not been lost as I was able to procure a Shilen select match grade replacement barrel from Jim at Northland Shooter Supply (super nice guy to deal with). During our conversation Jim inquired why I was changing barrels. After informing him of the situation, he stated that this sadly was not the first time he has heard of this issue.
Late last week I received my rifle back from my smith after he installed the shilen barrel and threaded it for my suppressor. I utilized my existing load of 41.8gr H4350 under a 140gr Hornady HPBT. After 2 shots at 50yds to see if the scope needed adjusted (it didn't) I moved out to 100yds:
Shots 3-5 @100yds
Shots 6-8 @ 100yds
On Sunday I was able to get out to the farm and stretch things out to 300yds. I just went prone on the ground off the bipod and Accu-shot monopod. Wind was from 3 o'clock at ~12-15mph:
Shots 11-13 @ 300yds (12 & 13 are the two touching)
Also I did a quick 5 round string with the magnetospeed chrono and had an average of 2776fps which is identical to the previous barrel with this load. Overall, I'm very pleased with the Shilen barrel and the Savage LRP.
As for the factory tube my gunsmith is going to chop it ~2”, rechamber for a 6.5 Creedmore, and rethread for a small shank to use for F-class, or mid range applications. I've procured a Savage varmint action (small shank) that utilizes the LRP bottom metal so I can just swap barreled actions out of the LRP stock until my Manners arrives. A rebarreling and a “someday” future project about 18months ahead of schedule due to a bad factory barrel.
