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Savage 12 FV .223

nilebartram

Silver $$ Contributor
I bought one of these rifles from Bass Pro last month for $419. I was planning to build a rifle and was not going to buy a $1000 plus rifles to change the barrel, etc..... Anyway, I shot it today, (100yrds), with my own loads, 55grs to sight it in, 62 grs then 69 grs. using W748 and Sierra bullets. I was impressed with this rifle, 62 and 69gr bullets shot really nice groups. Next time I will use Lapua brass and 8208 powder. I just want to say, that I did change the stock to one of those laminated Accu-stocks that was bedded and pillared. I am thinking of changing the trigger. I did get it down to 14ozs from the 2lbs. I may not change the barrel. I have better rifle to shoot for target. I should have saved the targets but I was breaking in the barrel properly, was not thinking. For the money, this is a great rifle. nilebartram
 
Bought one for my son. Put a EABCO laminated thumbhole stock on it and Vortex Crossfire II. I did bed the stock but really it was a plug and play stock. Also torque tuned the rear action screw. Really important.

Went to the range and was watching him shoot 53 gr. V-Max's over 3031 into very tiny groups at 100 yds.

For a low cost factory built rifle, it's just stupid accurate.

Anywho, if you want lower trigger pull, you can buy a used Target Accutrigger off the want ads here and it'll drop right in. I've done all my bench rifles this way. Aftermarket triggers aren't much more so you have options.
 
I'm curious, what does a 10-shot 100 yard group measure?

Bought one of the model 12s in .223 used with a factory laminated stock. Would only group about 1 1/2". Found out the freebore was .0015" undersized.
Have a Shilen pre-fit to put on, just haven't had the time. Life keeps getting in the way.
 
Savage has a track record of being very accurate out of the box especialy if you are hand loader. The cleaning side is were they are can be a pain with copper fouling being a usual issue. If you are like me and freq shoot until groups start to open then clean I find my Savage also a 12FV can not go as long as any or my rifles with custom barrels or with CHF barrels. It is not so much the method of manufacture rather the interior surface finish. So keep an eye out for it. The great thing about the 12FV is the top bolt release and center feed mag.
 
I just bought a stock for my 12fv 223. I'm amazed how well shoots, its a keeper.

This is more than 5 shots with factory "Frontier" ammo that has a hornady match bullet, 55gr. Picture is sidways.
 

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I've got 3 FV12's (204R/223/22-250), all three will shoot sub moa with handloads. I've gotten a few .3's on occasion, but the stars don't line up near enough to call it regular, usually in the .5 range. All are stock, even the tupperware.
 
Barrel method of manufacture does not matter only attention to detail, cleanliness, tooling maintenance and quality control.

All OEM are a balance between affordable design, reasonable tooling cost and reasonable levels of precision.

The cheapest and fastest way to rifle a barrel is button rifling and most custom barrels are using WWII Pryatt and Whitney machines unless they have been rebuilt so many times that they are no longer rebuildable. You can do a very average job or a fantastic job with this method. It just depends how you bias the above for the desired outcome you are looking for. OEM button rifled barrels will generally be terrible inside and very inconsistent while expensive custom barrels made with the same machinery and methods will be very accurate, consistent and clean inside!

Cut rifled barrels are all custom barrel last I checked no large OEM uses this method.

Cold Hammer Forged barrels get a bad rap because the only people that can afford the gear are large OEM since a cheap used older CHF machine can start at a million dollars. So all you custom barrel makers have their heads buried up their rear ends and only talk trash about them. It would take an honest man not interested in telling the truth to comment on the insane advantages they can offer. If some one is selling you something and they do not offer a similar product or method rest assured 1/2 of what they say will be a lie of omission. No one truly knows the accuracy potential of them since no mass production company has a vested interest in taking the time turn out the absolute finest most consistent product that is not what mass production is about and no custom barrel maker in the USA can afford a modern rotary CHF machine!

Factory mass produced rifles of today have the finest out of the box accuracy and consistency they have ever had! The makers with the most consistent products all use a lot of CNC production, CHF barrels, and mim and plastic parts. The companies that are still using mostly metal shapers and button rifled barrels in mass production are not the ones making the most consistent products.

Do not get me wrong I hate a lot of the designs that are in fashion today. That said more brands than ever will take factory ammo and turn in a groups consistently under 1 MOA. Are a lot of the designs today ugly? Yes! Are a lot of the designs cheap? Yes!!! That said they shoot. I would not want to take most bolt action design of today in combat but hunting not an issue!

Since no custom barrel maker can afford or is willing to afford a rotary hammer forging machine we can not A-B them. You can not compare a mass produced barrel with a barrel from a company that is only making and selling match grade barrels and only barrels.

To answer the question we would have to start with a fresh mandrel and pay as close of attention to each step and each blank before CHF as we do to each step in any other custom barrel. We would want a large sample size of many brands made with various methods all fired under controlled conditions in laboratory setting. We would need a decent sample size and a total forensic tear down and analysis of each barrel with the finest empirical testing.

No one can point to any such independent study or engineering white papers! Science was once my God before I grew up. Never trust anything a barrel maker tells you unless they sell every kind of barrel and have no reason for bias. No one will put their knowledge into the public domain only their opinion so I consider them all liars unless they can put up hard data that is repeatable and can be peer reviewed at university level or at the very least by a third party licensed and or certified professional that can and will stand up in a court of law!

I think we can saw with out reservation that the finest most accurate competition rifles in the world have all produced record levels of precision with button rifled barrels! We can also say that some of the worst barrels in the history of military and civilian rifle manufacture have been button rifled barrels. Both of those statements are true. People want to emotionally invest in things that are not worthy of emotional investment!

The technology of CHF is superior in every single way to button rifling! Anyone that says other wise is just ignorant of science and engineering. Just because the method is superior does not mean the people making barrels with this technology are turning our superior products.

There is not a single new production sniper rifle made for any 1st world military made today that uses broached, cut rifled or button rifled barrels that I am aware of. Who knows the Naval Marine Corp. might still be using button rifled barrels but that would have to be it. No machine guns and no individual infantry rifle either. Last I checked no mass produced European maker uses anything but CHF on military or civilian rifles. All of the large OEM in the USA other than Savage and maybe Henry all use CHF as well.

I use custom made cut rifled and button rifled barrels on any rifle I rebarrel and my competition rifles. That said I test and develop loads for OEM rifles and if they shoot and do what I need them to do I leave the OEM CHF barrels alone.

I have some CHF OEM barrel that are 1/2 MOA and 1/4 MOA rifles with my hand loads. I have seen a lot of Ruger's with their CHF barrels shoot 1/2 to 1/4 MOA all day long in bolt gun and AR clones. That is much better than back when they farmed out barrel production and were using button rifled barrels! In fact modern Ruger's are the most accurate and consistent they have ever been! Like all OEM's today when they fail to be accurate shooters 99% of the time the throat is too long especialy on a short action.

Unless you are shooting a 20lbs.+ rifle from a bench rest I would not get too caught up in method of barrel production. If you shoot F-Class, X-Course, Silhouette, PRS the margin of error from the shooter and wind reading is larger than the difference in barrel production methods. The gunsmithing, loading skill, shooting skill, wind reading skill will trump barrel production method. That said I would not expect the best accuracy from mass produced barrels or from methods not being targeted towards match shooter's.

If you are going to pay a precision machinist/gunsmith to true up an action and attach a barrel for a specific desired outcome go with a barrel made by someone targeting that market. Do not let the method of production sway you rather the reputation for attention to detail and for producing a proven product specifically for accuracy.

I have a TR rifle and Silhouette rifle that both have CHF barrels I also have match rifles with Brux barrels which are my preferred barrels for competition when I decide to spar no cost. Most of my hunting rifles have button rifled match grade barrels.

If you need your rifle to be able to shoot 1/2-1 MOA for 20K rounds of 7,62 NATO go CHF if you need it to be able to potentially shoot 1/4MOA or better for 1500 or less and do not care what happens after that go button rifles match grade! LOL

Truly gunsmithing, load development, shooting fundamental, wind reading and lots of practice are the more important things! LOL

P.S. Last I checked no one sells CHF barrels specificly marketed as "match grade" never mind no one nails down what "match grade" equals! LOL Even Lothar Walther does not advertise their CHF or Polygonal barrels as match grade!
 
I picked one up uesd 4 years ago. Original owner placed it in a stocky stocks wood stock. His asking price was $350. I did not hesitate to buy. Worked up a hand load and its shooting 1/4 inch groups all day. I am very pleased with this rifle.
 
Don't own a Savage but I've seen enough of them at the range and totally respect their accuracy potential - out of the box, even with factory ammo.

I've even seen their economy models, with no modifications, shoot in the 1 moa range.
 
Trouble is it's still a Savage! Small groups are literally all they have going for them, except for the fact that they are cheap. In every way! No thanks. Flame suit on! Lol

Paul
 
I have on at the Cabelas I work at in Sun Pararie, wi.

6.5 Creed, I think the price is $375.

I was thinking of buying it for class F shooting 600 yds.

I bought one about 4 years ago and got 6" groups in stock condition. Now I'm on my 3rd barrel and it has been upgraded to light gun, 600 yds.
 
I picked up a 12FV about a month ago in .223. It is heavy, the stock is cheap and I'm not crazy about the blind magazine, but it's a pretty decent shooter (have only gotten it out to a little over 100 yards; no long ranges around here) and will serve it's purpose for right now. Keep in mind the barrel is 1:9 in the .223 (may or may not be an issue for you). I'll eventually drop it into a boyd's or some other aftermarket stock (limited options), and get rid of the blind magazine. I also plan on putting an SWFA on there so I can start getting into dialing whenever I figure out where I can go to stretch things out.

I used my points for it, but it was on sale and there was a $75 rebate when I picked mine up which, brought it down to a little over $300 if I remember correctly.
 
My local farm store had three of them on the rack a while back, complete with cabela’s stickers. I thought it was odd, the distributor must’ve been selling them to anyone after the Bass Pro deal.
 
Hankpac said:
I picked up a 12FV about a month ago in .223. It is heavy, the stock is cheap and I'm not crazy about the blind magazine, but it's a pretty decent shooter (have only gotten it out to a little over 100 yards; no long ranges around here) and will serve it's purpose for right now. Keep in mind the barrel is 1:9 in the .223 (may or may not be an issue for you). I'll eventually drop it into a boyd's or some other aftermarket stock (limited options), and get rid of the blind magazine. I also plan on putting an SWFA on there so I can start getting into dialing whenever I figure out where I can go to stretch things out.

I used my points for it, but it was on sale and there was a $75 rebate when I picked mine up which, brought it down to a little over $300 if I remember correctly.
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If you don't mind, where did you find it? Which store and state? I purchased 2 Oryx Chassis and Arca rails plus mags from MDT. Well worth it.
 
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