I just finished up a week of shooting in a class at ranges up to 200 yards with my Savage, and I was really pleased overall with its performance.
I had three .308's to choose from (also an M1A NM and DPMS LR308)to use that week, and after three weeks of load development before leaving, the Savage was the clearly best of the three. I wanted to use readily available bullets and found that 180 BTSP's were easily accurate down to .75" @ 100 yards during load testing.
Five times during the last month, the trigger had an issue with the hammer not falling with a proper trigger squeeze, though Savage claims differently the trigger DOES have a problem.
I bought the 10BA new/used and after running ~200 rounds through it, the groups shrank to where I regularly touched holes at the 200 yard range by the time I finished the course. With what are basically hunting bullets, and without using extreme bench rest load techniques / disciplines in place I consider this <span style="font-weight: bold">really</span> amazing.
For potential owners of this model Savage, here are some other glitches I had with the rifle.
None of the screws on the rails were set with lok-tite. It's a pain to zero your rifle and have to do it again because the factory didn't secure screws properly. I "should have" checked this, but did not think I had to... you do.
The course I took required support hand shooting and I had to remedy a stock problem (comb adjusting nut) with the help of Dr. Schols (spelling?) pads and duct tape.
For standing shots, the only way to keep it up was to support it by the magazine. Adding a bi-pod made standing shots even more challenging. Training in advance for standing shots was is a real help for me.
Most of the shooters in the class used Remington 700's. They still had issues with the mag lifter feeding rounds properly, and one user of a new rifle had the trigger release problem (Hammer / firing pin falling after a trigger squeeze with the safety on then released).
Considering the number of rifles I have owned and shot I would easily consider the Savage one of the best rifles in the world bar none.
I had three .308's to choose from (also an M1A NM and DPMS LR308)to use that week, and after three weeks of load development before leaving, the Savage was the clearly best of the three. I wanted to use readily available bullets and found that 180 BTSP's were easily accurate down to .75" @ 100 yards during load testing.
Five times during the last month, the trigger had an issue with the hammer not falling with a proper trigger squeeze, though Savage claims differently the trigger DOES have a problem.
I bought the 10BA new/used and after running ~200 rounds through it, the groups shrank to where I regularly touched holes at the 200 yard range by the time I finished the course. With what are basically hunting bullets, and without using extreme bench rest load techniques / disciplines in place I consider this <span style="font-weight: bold">really</span> amazing.
For potential owners of this model Savage, here are some other glitches I had with the rifle.
None of the screws on the rails were set with lok-tite. It's a pain to zero your rifle and have to do it again because the factory didn't secure screws properly. I "should have" checked this, but did not think I had to... you do.
The course I took required support hand shooting and I had to remedy a stock problem (comb adjusting nut) with the help of Dr. Schols (spelling?) pads and duct tape.
For standing shots, the only way to keep it up was to support it by the magazine. Adding a bi-pod made standing shots even more challenging. Training in advance for standing shots was is a real help for me.
Most of the shooters in the class used Remington 700's. They still had issues with the mag lifter feeding rounds properly, and one user of a new rifle had the trigger release problem (Hammer / firing pin falling after a trigger squeeze with the safety on then released).
Considering the number of rifles I have owned and shot I would easily consider the Savage one of the best rifles in the world bar none.
