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The cheapest of the cheap. What to buy?

Old model Savage offered at one time a now Cabela's offers it as a exclusive, to my eyes it the same as the older ones, don't see anything wrong with them other than the blind mag.
 
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The catch is that it's still a inexpensive entry rifle. The stock is certainly the weakest link to the unit. It's also a mass produced exclusive to Cabela's that has mass production level quality control. You might get one that needs sent back but I understand Savage is pretty good about making things right. It's best if you can visit a Cabelas and inspect it as opposed to ordering.
 
ok, what's the dirty secret with these Cabelas Savage 12FV? I mean, when does the other shoe drop, what's the bad thing that no one's talking about?

for the price this seems too good to be true. I know these have internal magazine but that can be fixed with a stock and bottom metal, right?

is that it?..
Between my buddy and I we have 6 of them as of last Thursday. 223, 308, & now 6.5 cm maybe the 7 th one we buy won't be a tack driver but hey it only cost us 302 out the door so low risk.
 
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The catch is that it's still a inexpensive entry rifle. The stock is certainly the weakest link to the unit. It's also a mass produced exclusive to Cabela's that has mass production level quality control. You might get one that needs sent back but I understand Savage is pretty good about making things right. It's best if you can visit a Cabelas and inspect it as opposed to ordering.

no can do - nothing available local and backordered online...
 
The Savage 12FV will go on sale for 269$ after 100$ MIR in 2 days, and you can get 3x Cabela's 100$ gift cards for 82$ each on eBay. 216$. 26" varmint profile barrel. Would make a great donor barreled action for a chassis.

how long is that sale?..
 
I bought this rifle during the black friday sale. At that time the rebate was good through Dec 31st. The rebate if it hasn't changed goes by the purchase (order) date. So if you order today and pick the gun up March 20th or whatever, you just have to put the original order date (today) on the rebate form and they will honor it.

I had a problem getting the rebate confirmed, and when I called Vista (promotion company) they were super helpful and got it out to me right away. Hope this helps.
 
I agree with you 100% when it comes to rings or glass. If your intended use is hunting than the first and second shot count the most. I can't think of a factory rifle the comes with a heavy enough barrel for extended strings of fire for under $500. I'm personally disappointed with my Tikka T3x 6.5 24" SS, It starts to walk sooner than I'd like to say.

I would say that I think the Savage 10 T from Cabela's is the closet thing to a $500+ rifle that is competition ready? Maybe not the magazine, so much.

ok, so I looked at the 10T - it's on sale too - $449 after rebate.

that's $180 more than the 12FV but you get a threaded 5R barrel, scope rail, detachable magazine (comes with 4rd, fits 10-rd) cool-guy bolt handle, Accu-stock with full length bedding rail though the beaver-tail foreend and second sling stud.

seems like a better deal than the 12 FV, no?

how does it shoot?..
 
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ok, so I looked at the 10T - it's on sale too - $449 after rebate.

that's $180 more than the 12FV but you get a threaded 5R barrel, scope rail, detachable magazine (comes with 4rd, fits 10-rd) cool-guy bolt handle, Accu-stock with full length bedding rail though the beaver-tail foreend and second sling stud.

seems like a better deal than the 12 FV, no?

how does it shoot?..

No comment on how the 10t shoots but I think it depends on what a persons plans are if the 12fv or 10t are the better route. Plan on suppressor 10t if not then FV isn't a negative being not threaded. Not sure the quality of the included rail so if it's junk that might not be a big gain. 12FV also comes with an over sized knob I believe. I think the real value in the 10t would be the stock/dbm. Getting that for an additional $180 is to me a very good deal. But if you plan on going after market that becomes somewhat moot. Although I am assuming you could likely recoup so by selling the take off.

My plan is to go cheap and get the FV if its a hammer like a lot of what I have seen on line. I am probably going to drop it into a chassis as I have been itching to try one. If it doesn't shoot then idk either a future hunting rifle, loaner, or possibly self re-barrel.

Side not rebate is not showing up for the 10t on cabels.

Also the 6.5cm and 308's are currently instock online if anyone is looking:)
Edit: 6.5cm went back out of stock within 5 minutes of this post, ordered a 308
 
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I havent seen it mentioned here so I'll throw this in the ring. WINCHESTER XPR

Right in your price range, you get the MOA trigger setup, a weatherproof coating and a decent stiff tupperware stock.

I have two of these and they both have turned out to be sub MOA rifles with great triggers and no real issues.
 
No comment on how the 10t shoots but I think it depends on what a persons plans are if the 12fv or 10t are the better route. Plan on suppressor 10t if not then FV isn't a negative being not threaded. Not sure the quality of the included rail so if it's junk that might not be a big gain. 12FV also comes with an over sized knob I believe. I think the real value in the 10t would be the stock/dbm. Getting that for an additional $180 is to me a very good deal. But if you plan on going after market that becomes somewhat moot. Although I am assuming you could likely recoup so by selling the take off.

My plan is to go cheap and get the FV if its a hammer like a lot of what I have seen on line. I am probably going to drop it into a chassis as I have been itching to try one. If it doesn't shoot then idk either a future hunting rifle, loaner, or possibly self re-barrel.

Side not rebate is not showing up for the 10t on cabels.

Also the 6.5cm and 308's are currently instock online if anyone is looking:)
Edit: 6.5cm went back out of stock within 5 minutes of this post, ordered a 308

huh. it shows the little banner "mail-in rebate" on the header but doesn't down below. I suppose this might be a misprint and if it is, that changes things. at $180 difference, the 10T is a solid winner. at $280, maybe not. dang, I'm going to call tomorrow...

anyway, I wouldn't want a threaded barrel just for suppressor. shooting .308 from prone would be more fun with muzzle brake...
 
huh. it shows the little banner "mail-in rebate" on the header but doesn't down below. I suppose this might be a misprint and if it is, that changes things. at $180 difference, the 10T is a solid winner. at $280, maybe not. dang, I'm going to call tomorrow...

anyway, I wouldn't want a threaded barrel just for suppressor. shooting .308 from prone would be more fun with muzzle brake...

I believe the mail in rebate on the header when you search for the 10t is the one for the t-shirt and coozy
 
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Idk if you are still looking for a budget rifle but I second the ruger American predator. For the price the rifle itself is extremely accurate. My only complaint on it is the stock. It’s a little flimsy but I guess for the price you can’t complain
 
Some solid recommendations here. That Cabela's savage sounds like a winner.

The Ruger American Predator sometimes has the stock flexing to touch the barrel, a little time with sandpaper should fix the issues someone spoke to earlier.
 
Some solid recommendations here. That Cabela's savage sounds like a winner.

The Ruger American Predator sometimes has the stock flexing to touch the barrel, a little time with sandpaper should fix the issues someone spoke to earlier.
That is correct. When I had one, I took my benchmade to the left side of the stock within the barrel channel, which is where it made contact. Quick and effective fix.
 
I believe the mail in rebate on the header when you search for the 10t is the one for the t-shirt and coozy

ok well, it appears I was mistaken but they suckered me good with that MAIL-IN REBATE banner at the top.

anyway, second question - if the 10T has the 5R threaded barrel, detachable mag, scope rail, accustock with bedded rail and dual sling studs, is it worth the $550 they are asking for it?

if I wanted 6.5CM should I look at the 24" or 26" barrel?..
 
Savages seem like a great choice. Then you end up with a few of them. Then you end up putting pre-fit barrels on them, buying recoil lugs, barrel nuts, triggers and chassis's. They shoot good, but in the end it's almost a bummer because once you realize how much money you've sunk into the handful of Savage actions you somehow aquired, you could have built a decent custom rifle that is perfect. I myself wish I wouldn't have spent so much time and money shooting Savage's and went with a custom barrelled action and dropped it into my choice of chassis with high end glass....I dunno, just sharing some advice that was given to me from the hide 6 years or so ago that I never listened to, and now I wish I had....... and the real kicker is once you've built a Savage, your pretty much going to have it for life because they don't resale for shit.

That being said, if you need to find out if you will enjoy this hobby they are a good place to start. Just be honest with yourself when you start feeling yourself getting full on hooked because that's when you should be looking to get away from the Savages.
 
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I like the 6.5 pred don’t get me wrong.. but the best use is to just leave it as as a $400 1 and done setup..
But, on the cheap
That’s exactly why I got mine. Saved me 5 pounds over my other rifles and I could allow myself to not upgrade that as it only makes it heavier with the available options. I did swap the trigger but that’s no change to it’s form.
 
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ok well, it appears I was mistaken but they suckered me good with that MAIL-IN REBATE banner at the top.

anyway, second question - if the 10T has the 5R threaded barrel, detachable mag, scope rail, accustock with bedded rail and dual sling studs, is it worth the $550 they are asking for it?

if I wanted 6.5CM should I look at the 24" or 26" barrel?..
Savages seem like a great choice. Then you end up with a few of them. Then you end up putting pre-fit barrels on them, buying recoil lugs, barrel nuts, triggers and chassis's. They shoot good, but in the end it's almost a bummer because once you realize how much money you've sunk into the handful of Savage actions you somehow aquired, you could have built a decent custom rifle that is perfect. I myself wish I wouldn't have spent so much time and money shooting Savage's and went with a custom barrelled action and dropped it into my choice of chassis with high end glass....I dunno, just sharing some advice that was given to me from the hide 6 years or so ago that I never listened to, and now I wish I had....... and the real kicker is once you've built a Savage, your pretty much going to have it for life because they don't resale for shit.

That being said, if you need to find out if you will enjoy this hobby they are a good place to start. Just be honest with yourself when you start feeling yourself getting full on hooked because that's when you should be looking to get away from the Savages.

was this in response to my question above? good answer...

anyway, does it seem like a sick case of deja vu that my first instinct when reading your reply was "yeah, I get it but I'm not going to be THAT guy".

lol, I wonder how many people have said that in the past...
 
Savages seem like a great choice. Then you end up with a few of them. Then you end up putting pre-fit barrels on them, buying recoil lugs, barrel nuts, triggers and chassis's. They shoot good, but in the end it's almost a bummer because once you realize how much money you've sunk into the handful of Savage actions you somehow aquired, you could have built a decent custom rifle that is perfect. I myself wish I wouldn't have spent so much time and money shooting Savage's and went with a custom barrelled action and dropped it into my choice of chassis with high end glass....I dunno, just sharing some advice that was given to me from the hide 6 years or so ago that I never listened to, and now I wish I had....... and the real kicker is once you've built a Savage, your pretty much going to have it for life because they don't resale for shit.

That being said, if you need to find out if you will enjoy this hobby they are a good place to start. Just be honest with yourself when you start feeling yourself getting full on hooked because that's when you should be looking to get away from the Savages.

Also the urge in all of us to tinker and not being able to leave anything alone.
 
Demolitionman hit the nail on the head. I have recently gotten the bug bad and am looking to move beyond a Savage. I have tinkered to the point it is pretty nice, but there are still some things that bug me. I feel like sinking more money into it is a waste. Also, my wife wants to start shooting comps, and I have a ton of Savage actions I could build on. I feel like it will be a waste because eventually she will outgrow it and we will have to have something better built.
 
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Savages seem like a great choice. Then you end up with a few of them. Then you end up putting pre-fit barrels on them, buying recoil lugs, barrel nuts, triggers and chassis's. They shoot good, but in the end it's almost a bummer because once you realize how much money you've sunk into the handful of Savage actions you somehow aquired, you could have built a decent custom rifle that is perfect. I myself wish I wouldn't have spent so much time and money shooting Savage's and went with a custom barrelled action and dropped it into my choice of chassis with high end glass....I dunno, just sharing some advice that was given to me from the hide 6 years or so ago that I never listened to, and now I wish I had....... and the real kicker is once you've built a Savage, your pretty much going to have it for life because they don't resale for shit.

That being said, if you need to find out if you will enjoy this hobby they are a good place to start. Just be honest with yourself when you start feeling yourself getting full on hooked because that's when you should be looking to get away from the Savages.

Good post!!!

To me these cheap actioned rifles like savage and the Ruger are just truck guns. Scratch em up, do whatever, just don't dump a bunch of $ into them, look what can happen. I had both those brands and fortunately reigned myself in before I put any money into them at all.

Stop gap - buying used, and selling as soon as you can to get into the higher quality actions isn't a bad idea. There's so many used savages and other brands around it's crazy...

That Savage 110 kid from years ago that had the $4000 tac ops savage used to crack me up. Nothing against that Co but C'mon man...

When I got into this long range tactical stuff I bought nice used customs for half what the original owner paid, then sold each one years later for as much as, or close to what I bought them for. That turned out to be a great strategy. The funny thing was that I literally sold stuff I didn't want, or thought useless at the time, to help finance those rifles. Sometimes you can trade into desirable stuff with little money out of pocket, that's a option worth trying too.

There's always the credit card, stay firm! and pay off ASAP the nicer gun you just charged even though you will pay a little interest, which beats the heck out of buying something you didn't want to begin with.

I wish I would always stick with my own advise though, lol. Sometimes a guy just wants to buy new, it'll cost me later - let's not think about that.
 
Well both Savage 12 6.5 C.M are Tack Drivers. 100 yrds. Harris Bi Pod, SWFA SS 12 X, XLR Element Chassis, Kantrol Bolt on Muzzle Brake & Hornady 6.5 140 ELD Match Factory Ammo. 2nd Shot buddy cried out that was me ( flyer ). Ranged out to 100 to 954. Not to bad for $302 bucks.
 

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Just got my 308 home today. I am trying to tell myself it would be dumb to put this cheap of a gun in an XLR chassis but if it shoots like that I guess there's no reason not to. I need to stop looking at this thread its costing me money, better yet the whole forum:)
 
Just got my 308 home today. I am trying to tell myself it would be dumb to put this cheap of a gun in an XLR chassis but if it shoots like that I guess there's no reason not to. I need to stop looking at this thread its costing me money, better yet the whole forum:)
Hey Varano, The cool thing about the XLR chassis is if you pick up anymore Savage 12 FV they will all fit in that guy. We just decide what we are shooting that weekend and take 2 mins to swap out the action and barrel and ready to roll. The only bad thing is you need to scope each one, so for every different caliber you buy, you're going to need to buy a scope for each one. So right now we have 3 guns riding the same chassis. Enjoy we got our .308's doped out back in Jan. and they were shooting very well too. P.S last year my buddy picked up his XLR around Thanksgiving and they took 100 bucks off it for the sale.
 
Hey Varano, The cool thing about the XLR chassis is if you pick up anymore Savage 12 FV they will all fit in that guy. We just decide what we are shooting that weekend and take 2 mins to swap out the action and barrel and ready to roll. The only bad thing is you need to scope each one, so for every different caliber you buy, you're going to need to buy a scope for each one. So right now we have 3 guns riding the same chassis. Enjoy we got our .308's doped out back in Jan. and they were shooting very well too. P.S last year my buddy picked up his XLR around Thanksgiving and they took 100 bucks off it for the sale.
That's actually something I hadn't thought of. I plan on eventually getting a 6.5 so this would work perfectly.
Spend money to save money. Perfect
 
That's actually something I hadn't thought of. I plan on eventually getting a 6.5 so this would work perfectly.
Spend money to save money. Perfect
Don't forget the .223. That one is the most fun to shoot, I've got over 1200 rounds of that guy and it still a tack driver with 69 gr SMK ammo.
 
Well I went for one of the cheap FV models yesterday and all were sold except 308, I ended up with a 10T-SR in 6mm creedmoor to play with.
 
I have yet to own a factory Savage I couldn't make shoot .75MOA or better with handloads. Better yet, I can upgrade them into much more accurate rifles with a vise, a wrench, and a GO gauge. I've taken several originally cheap Savage rifles and made them into very nice rifles with zero gunsmith expense.

I have a buddy who messed up the barrel on his Savage. I have him an HS Precision stock I had lying around, and spun off the barrel and installed a factory 243Win sporter I had lying around. He got an upgraded bottom metal with a mag. He's burning that free barrel out getting lots of practice. When it's done it will get a 260AI custom barrel on it...self installed.

I have nothing against the Ruger American. Every one I have shot is a good shooter. However they are MUCH harder to upgrade, to the point I wouldn't recommend again to someone doing so. The mags are the weak link and if you shoot it any amount you WILL break the retaining tab, and Ruger is awfully proud of their replacements ($$$). Buddy brought his to a prairie dog shoot with 2 new mags, 3 days later he was single-feeding into the chamber as both mags were broken. About 200-250 rounds through each mag before breaking.
 
...And then, eventually, there's always that guy that has to look the gift horse in the teeth...

Look folks, if you came to this discussion always intending to never buy a Savage and to brag about how much you think we all should spend on custom rifles, I have no argument with you.

But your comments have no place here in a topic about the cheapest of the cheap. That place is with the other spendy Savage haters.

So please, just be honest about it and stop attempting to hijack this thread. Again.

Greg
 
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ok, what's the dirty secret with these Cabelas Savage 12FV? I mean, when does the other shoe drop, what's the bad thing that no one's talking about?

for the price this seems too good to be true. I know these have internal magazine but that can be fixed with a stock and bottom metal, right?

is that it?..

1. blind mags SUCK for anything except hunting

2. Savage customer service is horrible IME. would never buy from Savage ever again

3. had a 12FV, shot decently but I wouldn't say accurate. i liked the stock as although it was flimsy and cheap it fit me well ergonomically, it's the rifle I recommend to beginners as they will often burn out the barrel pretty fast coming from semi-auto rifles, it's literally a disposable rifle IMO. not worth upgrading in any way

4. after you've played with a $300 12FV, get EXACTLY what you want, though remember that most of the 6mm and 6.5 calibers will burn through barrels much quicker than a .308
 
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I got my wife the savage 12fv from cabelas and it came to a whopping $219 (after a sale price of $319 + the $100 rebate) if your just getting into long range this rig wouldn't hold you back much, chassis are avalible if you want to see what a match is like. Don't get me wrong it's no high end rifle but if you don't want to jump into the deep end this is a good way to go.

There are maybe 4 down sides (maybe)
1. Blind mag
2. Cheap stock
3. Barrel is not threaded
4. It's a very heavy varment barrel
5. It's a savage (edit)

Its really up to you if you can work with those or if they phase you at all but at the end of the day buying a savage action costs about the same as this whole rifle.

I've got pictures of groups and the rifle but my connection out in the country kinda sucks. I'll find a way to post them if you want to see.
 
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My 12 fv in 6.5. No load work up . I picked a middle of the road load of H4350 for breaking in the barrel . Virgin brass seated 10 thousands off of the lands.

They are an inexpensive rifle, but they shoot. I also have one in 22-250 which shoots .5 moa . I'll probably restock it at some point, and learn how to do my own barrel swaps.
E. A. Brown has a Choate stock with a CDI bottom metal installed for $400. Might be a good option.

https://www.eabco.net/Savage-Detachable-Magazine-Conversion-Stock--Short-Action_p_15372.html
 

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