Wouldn't Believe it Unless I Saw It!

At the range last week and my buddy shows up with a Savage Axis, 6.5 Creedmore with an SWF (I think that was the brand) scope. Never heard of that brand before - he purchased it off the internet.

He proceeds to shoot a five shot group, off the bench, that covered a nickel or there about using factory ammo, i.e. Winchester factory with 125 bullets.

I looked at my 243 Win, with a custom Hart barrel that cost me $700 installed and shake my head since mine doesn't shoot any better if that!

Never owned a Savage but rethinking that.

 

Not surprising. My brother bought me my first rifle 15 years ago, savage .223, well used. I had it. Sold it to my buddy. He has had it 10 years after buying it off me. Got to shoot it this summer. Original barrel, 3/8” groups is the norm. It’s annoying. Wish I never sold it.

*oh yea. With factory ammo

 

Hope the picture shows up, should be a 5 shot group (foulers with a cold/clean barrel), with a Savage FV12 (yes a Cabelas special), stock in every way, even the tupper ware stock in 204R. Just doing some load development for giggles, trying a new powder.

 

My buddy has a couple Thompson centers that shoot like that. It’s sickening.

 

Had a Savage 10FP that ran with my Rem 700 PSS.

Dont sleep on Savage.

 

Of all the Savage rifles I own or have owned, I've never had one that did not shoot decently right out of the box.

 

tikka t3x for me! im helping a buddy with his 308. 3.5x10x50 leupold.
no paralax adj is the only reason they're not stacked on top of each other.
300yds!

 

Tikka is where it’s at for me in a factory rifle! Had several and all shot very well. I like the Tikka trigger much better and they are wayyy smoother feeding/cycling than a Salvage

 

Got an Axis 6.5 cm& a 110 in 7 mag. Both will cover with a dime & give change! Both have SWFA 20x scopes. Not as smooth as my 700 but I'll keep them.

BW

 

I like Savage rifles, my mkII BTVLSS .22 rimfire shoots great and I have a mdl 12 FVSS in 22-250 that will put five in a hole about the size of the fingernail on my index finger at 100 yards. My longest kill was 470 yards on a ground hog and have killed a bunch over 400.

Several years ago I had surgery on my shooting shoulder and could no longer take the recoil of my mdl 70 30-06. Having had good luck with Savages I ordered a mdl 16 in 260. I messed with it for over two years trying to get it to shoot, 2 1/2-3" was the best it would at 100. A friend of mine has a bore scope so we looked at the bore. It was awful so we took photos and sent them to savage. They wanted it back, after about a month they called and said they had replaced the barrel and it was on it's way back to me.

Once again I started working on loads, it was better but not by much. So I pulled the barrel and bought a new Shaw 1-8 twist 24" chrome moly sporter weight barrel to install. I got the barrel last fall and only had time to go through the break in process Shaw recommended but not enough time to work up a good load before deer season. During break in it shot way better than either factory barrel did. I have the test loads ready and the gun ready so today I may do some testing.

Yes, I'll probably buy another Savage rifle.

 

I bought my first Savage a few years ago a 10t-sr .308 , yup another Cabela's special.... Mainly because I didn't want to take a chance on remington anymore.... It shoots as good as I can shoot it , 3/4 or better with my handloads , box stock with a cheap Vortex 6x18 scope... Definitely more of a tactical rifle than a deer rifle but it's what I wanted... Took a chance and I have enjoyed it....

 

Bought a Savage 12FV in 223 for my son to learn to shoot. Got it on sale from Cabelas with a factory rebate. Right out of the box it was making under 1/2 moa groups with the plastic stock, so I decided to put it in a thumbhole laminate from EABCO.

Not long after working up a 53 gr V-max load, I watched my new to the sport son put five into a group that measured .068 CTC at 100 yds.

Oh, to have those young eyes again....

 

got my best gun bargain last year, here in Oregon Bimart had the axis in 6.5 creed in stainless in a combo with a Weaver 3x9,but mispriced the same as the blued model, 299.00 . Then on black friday they had 50$ off any centerfires, 249.00 now , then to top it off Savage offered 60.00$ rebates, 189.00$ now , I bought 3 , can't hardly buy a 22lr at that price let alone a stainless bolt gun in 6.5 creed.

all 3 are shooters, and easily sub moa, the best of the 3 i put a vortex 6-24x50 viper on and with 140 berger elites handloads shoots under 1/2 moa. real bargains. I feel lucky, got a 111 7mm mag that wont shoot 1.5moa tho. So i stole the accu trigger out of it and put it on the axis with the vortex . nice light hunting rig i have confidence in now.

 

Well you should have known he was going to out shoot you when he mentioned it's a Creedmoor... Just saying...

 

" At the range last week and my buddy shows up with a Savage Axis, 6.5 Creedmore with an SWF (I think that was the brand) scope. Never heard of that brand before - he purchased it off the internet. "

I do like Savage and hope that the new management does well . Just wish they would bring back the Stevens 200 Action for a cheap donor action .
It sounds like the scope is SouthWest Firearm's own brand scope (SWFA.com ) . I never tried one but have heard good things about them . I have bought some scopes and a Leica rangefinder from them that where display models at very discounted price over the years . That is from their Samples List site that has used and display models . On the top of their web site on the left you will see the Samples List button for that site . Worth checking out if you ever are looking for used scopes or discontinued and Demo models .

 

The "new generation" of rifles are amazingly accurate - and I think a lot of the credit goes to Savage- as for some time there - they were the only ones that seemed to have ultra-affordable rifles that shot so well out of the box. Every time I go ground squirrel hunting - I'm amazed of the accuracy of their .17 cal. rimfires - both the HMR and the newer Magnum version. My buddy shot his bore out on his .17HMR and Savage replaced it free of charge when he sent it to them, expecting to pay for a replacement. Understandably - I have noticed the prices on their nicer rifles rising quite a bit.

 

OK I'll join this one, but with a tiny twist...

This was shot at 100 meters with my Savage MK II 22 LR (22lr being the lil twist)... was using Eley Match, 5-shot groups.

Bought the rifle new for $ 240 Canadian pesos at the local gun store.
Might not be a 1 hole gun, but at 100 meter with a 22 lr that was cheaper than dirt it's not bad.




Here is a more realistic picture of 4 consecutive 5 shot groups at 100 meters.

 

I bought one of those cabelas savage 12fv in 6.5 CM for 200 bucks after rebates. Even with the crappy stock it’s 1/2 moa rifle with handloads.

 

SWFA scopes are probably the best bang for the buck out there. I have both the 6x and 10x and they are solid performers. Getting popular among people that want a scope the tracks well, returns to zero and is built tough.

 

I bought a bunch of Savage take off barrels ( like 40+) and purchased a Savage rifle to test barrels on before I sold them so someone couldn't tell me it was a bad barrel. I test fired some 308 and 243 barrels (about 10) and determined it was a total waste of my time. All shot very well with nothing but established OK loads. Now I just sell them, haven't had a complaint.