Hello Snipers Hide, 1st time poster long time viewer of this site. Thought I would post some pictures of the new rifle and let you know the good, bad, and the ugly.
I’ve always been fascinated with ballistics and long range shooting, just never had the balls to cough up the money required to buy something capable of shooting past 1,000 yards consistently. When Berger came out with the 300gr Gen2 Hybrids I almost bit on a 3k rifle just because of projectile envy but managed to hold off. When Savage spit out a rifle with a 9 twist stick that I could buy for 1,200 bucks, well that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I will start off by saying if you buy this gun and shoot factory Hornady 285gr ammo you will be extremely disappointed, the brass is soft and the bolt will stick on you 90% of the time. My buddies Sako TRG42 can cycle this same ammo no problem. Lapua brass works just fine in my rifle and to my surprise our hand loaded Hornady brass works well with 87gr of RL-25 pushing the 300gr Berger Gen2’s @ 2625fps. I plan to quit using Hornday brass once my cases wear out, they grow too much and I’m not trying to full length resize after every shot.
Savage has really out done themselves with the muzzle brake design, she kicks less than my Thompson single shot .270 26’’ heavy barrel and other .308 bolt guns without a brake. The muzzle blast or concussion is a good bit more pronounced compared to a Sako TRG42 with a Sure Fire brake.
The 1st 12 shots out of this gun were pretty depressing 3’’ groups @ 100 yards. After a whole box of HSM 300gr SMK’s and a little cleaning in between shots my groups started to tighten up. Before I left the range I managed groups where 2- 3 shots per 5 shot group were touching. I also shot this gun @ 1,070 yards according to my GPS (126 clicks from 100 yard zero), managed to connect 3 out of 5 times on a 24’’ steel plate. All of my shooting so far was practically done off my jaw, the scope was too high with the 30 MOA base and 56mm objective. I just installed the Karsten adjustable cheek piece today; I should be able to do much better with a cheek weld. I’ll post some 1,000 plus yards videos or some paper punching pics soon.
The rest of my setup consist of a Sightron SIII SS 8-32x56mm, Murphy Precision 30MOA Base, and Leupold 30mm PRW Medium Rings. I don't understand why Sightron isn’t more commonly used, unbelievable value. Glass is top notch and the clicks are solid and true.
I plan to take my $2,100 dollar setup out to 2,100 yards soon; I’ll call it the “dollar per yard” setup. I’ve seen folks hit 2,400 yards out with the Berger Gen2’s so I know it’s possible.
Cheers...
I’ve always been fascinated with ballistics and long range shooting, just never had the balls to cough up the money required to buy something capable of shooting past 1,000 yards consistently. When Berger came out with the 300gr Gen2 Hybrids I almost bit on a 3k rifle just because of projectile envy but managed to hold off. When Savage spit out a rifle with a 9 twist stick that I could buy for 1,200 bucks, well that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I will start off by saying if you buy this gun and shoot factory Hornady 285gr ammo you will be extremely disappointed, the brass is soft and the bolt will stick on you 90% of the time. My buddies Sako TRG42 can cycle this same ammo no problem. Lapua brass works just fine in my rifle and to my surprise our hand loaded Hornady brass works well with 87gr of RL-25 pushing the 300gr Berger Gen2’s @ 2625fps. I plan to quit using Hornday brass once my cases wear out, they grow too much and I’m not trying to full length resize after every shot.
Savage has really out done themselves with the muzzle brake design, she kicks less than my Thompson single shot .270 26’’ heavy barrel and other .308 bolt guns without a brake. The muzzle blast or concussion is a good bit more pronounced compared to a Sako TRG42 with a Sure Fire brake.
The 1st 12 shots out of this gun were pretty depressing 3’’ groups @ 100 yards. After a whole box of HSM 300gr SMK’s and a little cleaning in between shots my groups started to tighten up. Before I left the range I managed groups where 2- 3 shots per 5 shot group were touching. I also shot this gun @ 1,070 yards according to my GPS (126 clicks from 100 yard zero), managed to connect 3 out of 5 times on a 24’’ steel plate. All of my shooting so far was practically done off my jaw, the scope was too high with the 30 MOA base and 56mm objective. I just installed the Karsten adjustable cheek piece today; I should be able to do much better with a cheek weld. I’ll post some 1,000 plus yards videos or some paper punching pics soon.
The rest of my setup consist of a Sightron SIII SS 8-32x56mm, Murphy Precision 30MOA Base, and Leupold 30mm PRW Medium Rings. I don't understand why Sightron isn’t more commonly used, unbelievable value. Glass is top notch and the clicks are solid and true.
I plan to take my $2,100 dollar setup out to 2,100 yards soon; I’ll call it the “dollar per yard” setup. I’ve seen folks hit 2,400 yards out with the Berger Gen2’s so I know it’s possible.
Cheers...
