Gunsmithing Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

[jacq220]

Long story short, i have a factory savage barreled action 24 inch fluted 1x10 twist barrel. in its old stock (accustock) i had a hard time working up a load w/ 155 scenars getting right at or just under 1 moa. some being split groups.

I have a manners t5 on its way w/ pillars installed and cdi bottom metal. I am really hoping to get 3/4 moa or better consistantly w/ this rifle prior to going to my long range class mid april. I can bed the action, but i am wondering if just changing the stock to a manners and pillar bedding it will be good enough for my purposes. savage gunsmithing told me for 250 they would blueprint the action, bolt, and do the bedding for 250 and would have a super fast turn around time.

is it worth sending this off to get blueprinted since i can bed the action myself? if they do it they will put in a ground recoil lug, which i dont have headspace guages so unless i buy a set its not really cost effective to pull the barrel just to put in the recoil lug before i bed it.

i guess long story short, is it worth the extra wait and less time to do load development to send this thing off and have it blueprinted and bedded by a pro (i have done 5 or 6 w/ good results) or am i better off to just bed it into the stock as it comes and hope to achieve the desired results...

sorry about the rambling, but no rifle to shoot and a boring day to sit and ponder if there is anything else i can do before my class.

 

[cooper623]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

If i were you, i would just bed it myself and be done. Scientifically blue printing really doesnt make since. I think we all would agree that the key to accuracy is consistency. Eventhough, the action may not be absolutely perfect it is the same for every shot. On the other hand, bedding it does make since because if the action shifts even slightly due to the recoil of the rifle, then the next shot will not be the same as the last. Also, i had a situation similar to yours where i had a remington 700 sps varmint that was shooting right at 1 MOA out of the box with good factory ammo. The first thing i did was put it in a mcmillan stock and the groups instantely dropped down to .5-.6 MOA with good factory ammo. Assuming you experience similar results, this would get you well into your 3/4 MOA goal and give you more time to develop a load which would likely make your groups even smaller.

 

[gunnergirl81]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

I hear people on both sides of this issue. One group says blueprinting/truing any action helps. The others say that with a floating bolt head there is little point.

We lean towards leaving it alone. Bed it solid in a quality stock and it should get you where you want it to be.

 

[jacq220]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

bedded solid it will be... not sending it off will give me more trigger time before the class anyways.

 

[AXEMAN]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

i never did a before and after when i had my action trued. i honestly dont know that id do it again if i built another rifle. one thing that made me wonder is that they didnt wanth the barrel nut. i would think EVERYTHING should be trued, but they didnt want the nut or lug. still the $125 wasnt that much and it was 30 days turn around. i bought headspace gauges so it wasnt a big deal to do. best thing is make a bolt lift kit and polish the bolt in a few spots. makes it smoother when you cycle

 

[JWV]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

I am also on the fence about it. I had one done, all the guy did was lap the lugs and true the face. I would love to see a before and after accuracy comparison. I don't think that it would be much of a difference. Here is some food for thought though. Read about this rifle, I know it is an extreme case, but is a completely stock Stevens action.

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek075.html

 

[shooter19802003]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JWV</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I am also on the fence about it. I had one done, all the guy did was lap the lugs and true the face. I would love to see a before and after accuracy comparison. I don't think that it would be much of a difference. Here is some food for thought though. Read about this rifle, I know it is an extreme case, but is a completely stock Stevens action.

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek075.html </div></div>

Pretty kewl read. Gonna have to go buy a 200 now...thanks.

 

[AXEMAN]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

ramps were touched on mine. receiver face and boltface and the lugs touched too. wish i had taken better before and after pictures. or any pictures, lol

 

[sobrbiker883]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

A Salvage with a good barrel will shoot lights out as is. Just a cool part of the design. The floating bolt head makes up for inconsistencies that would kill accuracy in a fixed bolt design.

I would love to see a comparison with the same barrel a before and after "truing" Savage receiver adn bolt. If you could shoot the difference I doubt you'd be asking the internet if its worth it.

Save the money and buy reloading components or ammo.

 

[geargrinder]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AXEMAN</div><div class="ubbcode-body">.....best thing is make a bolt lift kit and polish the bolt in a few spots. makes it smoother when you cycle </div></div>

This is the best advice.

Here is a link that shows the places to polish. Scroll down.

http://www.steyrscout.org/savscout.htm

 

[sobrbiker883]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

True dat!!
The ugly cylce is the Savage's primary drawback not that there are good stocks, DBM's etc available.

 

[RTO]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

If you are going to bed it yourself, bedding a Savage is not the same as bedding a Remington. The Tang area needs to be free floated so do not bed past the rear action bolt. This allows the rear tang and area on each side of the trigger to free float. This will provide the best results for a Savage action. I have tried bedding Savages in several different ways, just leaving the tang unbedded and bedding around the trigger, bedding the tang and all, and leaving everything rear of the rear action bolt unbedded. IMO and my experience this has been the best results unbedded from rear action bolt back.

 

[Luke]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

FWIW I never had my Savage 10FLP blueprinted and it shoots 1/2 MOA from a bedded McMillan stock...

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

As long as it shoots well, I'd skip the tweaking.

Some years back (2002), some of us on this site did a rifle project based on the pre-accutrigger 10FP action.

We had(/have...) a member who does some pretty extensive precision machining work. He broke our actions down and mic'd them. The conclusion was that the rifles were true enough that they didn't really need any work.

Well, we had gotten the rifles direct from Savage with their knowledge of the project, and had some suspicions that they might have slipped in some ringers. So we had another rifle, same model, but purchased separately, mic'd as well. Utterly indistinguishable.

Savage makes a good rifle. Some of their features, like the floating bolt head, also tend to negate the need for some of the work.

With the factory barrel, my final day's (of a week) F Class score at 1000yd was 197/200. It was my first series of matches beyond 300yd.

In the case of the Savage, I believe the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", has a lot of legs.

Since then, the rifle has been rebarreled, and shoots at least as well. Unfortunately, my own skills appear to be waning as I age out of the middle of the pack.

Greg

 

[jonbearman]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

It is a waste of money somewhat unlees you are competing with the big guys.Besides it has a floating bolt head and lapping will require the barrel being removed which is easy and the tool to do it right is around 80.00 and I think it is snake oil.On a remington you can do it but I have a stock xp-100 turned into a bench gun and it was only lapped and shoots in the .2's all day and better.If you want a blueprinted action then buy a bat or stiller copy of the rem.They are perfect right out of the box.Go to you tube and look up team savage and see what they are doing with stock out of the box guns.

 

[JWV]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

For BR blueprint it. You need to squeeze out every last bit of accuracy you can.
For everything else, hunting, tactical rifle, steel banger, etc. Don't worry about it, if you can shoot .5 MOA you are good to go here.

On a side note though, I has my partially trued, face was cut and lugs were lapped and my loads just to get sighted in shot .46 at 100 yards and .96 at 200. This was the first time I ever shot the rifle and had zero load work completed.

 

[RTO]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

I agree with a Savage I typically dont blueprint the action. However I do lap the lugs as I have seen several with only about 10% contact. This is a fairly simple process that you can do yourself. Bedding the action and lapping the lugs, and you should see a noticeable improvement. Anything beyond that with a Savage is splitting hairs IMO.

 

[RTO]

Re: Worth it or not? Blueprinting a savage

I will add that a good trigger, barrel and recoil lug also helps as well. I am not really a fan of the accutrigger. Keep in mind that you can have the action blueprinted and everything else perfect but the stick is only as good as the barrel.