Savage LRPV in .204 Ruger

[Craiger5658]

Does anyone have any experience handloading for this rifle? If so, I could use some help. I owned a model 12 Low Pro Varminter and it shot factory 32 gr Hornady ammo so well, that I never bothered to handload for it. However, the new gun is not the same. It doesn't like the factory ammo,either Horn or Rem) and I'm now using H322, H335, Varget and BLC-2 with Hornady, Berger, Nosler, and Sierra bullets and am averaging 1.37" for 5 shots at 100 yds. I've weight sorted my brass,Hornady), cleaned/uniformed the primer pockets/flashholes, full length sized then trimmed, chamfered the neck inside and out, and that's it for the brass. Dillon press,although I only single stage it), RCBS dies, and individually weigh the powder charges. My runout is negligible.

Help! I called Savage and they said I should expect 1" groups or better and that I should send it back. I've got it boxed and ready to go, unless somebody out there can give me a better idea other than re-barreling at this point. Might be what has to happen if it comes back no better.

Thanks for your time,

Craiger

 

[jpspeeddemon]

i recommend you got to a professional gunsmith and have the barrel recrowned, factory rifles often/almost always have crowns that could use touching up. also, glass bedding would not be a bad idea, and make sure you scope mounts are solid.

 

[Craiger5658]

JP,
The scope mounts are solid and I thought about bedding it, but it's already pillar bedded in the stock,HS Precision stock). Do you think it would still benefit from bedding?

I know what you mean about the crown as it appeared attrocious. A friend of mine is a metalsmith and would have recrowned it for me, but I ended up sending it back to Savage. Maybe this time they'll put some time and energy into making it shoot better. But if it comes back, looks the same,crown) and still won't shoot, rest assured that recrowning will be the first thing I do.

Thanks for your time and thoughts,

Craiger

 

[jpspeeddemon]

i just bought a savage f class 6.5x284 and took it to john myer in boyce, va. he said it looked like it could use a new crown and i am having it glass bedded on his recommendation. there were several other things i wanted to have done but he said they were not necessary for accuracy enhancement. i recommend using a gunsmith off the list on this website.

 

[HawkeyeJoe]

I have a 07 LRPV in .204. A load of 26-26.6 grains of Benchmark,35gr Berger,CCI br4 primer,and a OAL of,tip to base)2.260. 3 out of 5 in one hole is my best at 300 yards.My Savage VLP and Predator rifle also love this same load.

 

[Craiger5658]

Hadn't worked my up to the 35 grain Bergers. A friend of mine has a Remington in .204 that loves that load. And the one powder I don't have right now that I wanted to test was Benchmark. I think the rifle's back from Savage and I need to go get and see what they did to it. Then it'll be back to the drawing board again. Thanks for the heads up on the BM/Berger combo.

 

[Craiger5658]

Well, the gun is back from Savage with a very vague description of "repair". They included a test target with a .6" 5 shot group for factory Hornady 40 grainers. Not my desired bullet, but maybe it'll have to be. Now I've just got to find the time to get back out to the range and see if I can get that out of it.

 

[Craiger5658]

Took it to the range yesterday and it doesn't shoot 32g's any better than it did before. Not sure what I think about that, other than it sucks of course. I ordered some 40g's and will load them this week and see how it does with those. If nothing good comes of it, then I'm going to recrown the barrel and see if that helps as it looks pretty attrocious.

 

[Craiger5658]

Latest news. Went out and bought a pound each of Benchmark, H4895, and Win748 along with 40 grain Nosler & Hornady, 39 grain Sierra BK's, and 35 grain Berger's, and some Remington 7 1/2 primers. Now, the reloading starts again.

 

[alanw]

I have a LRPV in .204, and boy, does it shoot! I will admit to only having shot 39 gr. Sierra BK's and 40 gr. Hornady V-Maxes in it so far. I will say to, by all means, buy some Re 10X. Todd Kindler of "Terrific Twenties" and .20 TAC fame says it's the powder for the .204. Sure works in mine. With flags and fair to good conditions, there has seldom been a 200 yd. group over six tenths.
Alan

 

[Craiger5658]

OK, so here's the latest. Had the barrel recrowned with an 11 degree crown. At the same time, my smith discovered one of the stock screws was out of alignment with the other three. So he drilled/tapped a new hole in the barrel and the same with the stock. He also bedded the action just for you know what. The results?

All previous groups averaged around 1.43" or so. The same loads are now going around .73' or so. So we've cut the group size in half with very little work. I did shoot one group of 39 grain Sierra BK's and they shot into .29" for 4 shots. Not the bullet weight I want to shoot, but they really made me take notice. Might have to change my mind. Will tweak the better loads,most had the SBK's somewhere between .5-.6") to get down closer to .4" and then I'll be happy.

It's really too bad that Savage couldn't seem to find these problems with the gun...........

And one final note: I went out and bought a pound of Reloader 10x to try out the next time at the range.

 

[jebsr]

My LRPV in 204 loves 32 Sie BK, Benchmark pow, Rem 7 1/2 powd. avg is in 3s at 100yd. 4000+ fps chronograped.

oal doesn't seem to make any difference. I load thes on a Dillon 550

It was very load specific, 0.5 + or - would make it jump up to inch size groups. Did not like Horn V Max

Good luck and stay with it.

 

[Travelor]

I had the same problem with a 223 LRPV. Sent it in and Savage rebarreled. When the gun came back, it had my invoice,free repair) and a second invoice for another gun, a 204 Ruger that was also getting a new barrel.

Now betting a new crown, diamond lapping to barrel and rechamber to assure everything OK. A freind had this dame treatment to his 223 LRPV and it is now a bug hole shooter. Sad that these guns are having problems as I love Savages.

Also, having a 6mmBR Krieger barrel installed and gun modified to be a switch barrel with a second bolt so I can shoot both 223 and 6mmBR.

George

 

[Craiger5658]

Went out to the range the other day with a load of 26.5 grains of Reloader 10x, 32 grain Sierra BK, and Fed 205M primer and shot 4 rounds into one hole,.130) and then, sadly, I had a flyer that opened it up to .88". It was my fault as I was using a crappy front rest. Sinclair is sending me a much improved one, so hopefully this will end those problems. But I think this will be the magic load. And it came from the 20 cal page on this site!!!

Happy now,

Craig

PS - Squirrels beware!

 

[CZ223]

Craiger, glad to see that you are getting the kinks worked out. I am surprised that you were having so much trouble as I have 7 Savage BVSS and VLP's in various varmint chamberings and they are all 1/2" or better guns. I think that most of the problem was probably due to that screw exerting force in a way that it shouldn't. I have 2 Savage VLPs in 204 and they are almost too easy to get to shoot. My First reloads returned 5 shot groups in in the low to mid .3s. That is why I am writing. Do not give up on the BLC-2 loads with the 32 gr.BK. I can't find my data right now but I think that my load is in the high 29-low 30 grain range. As I said It shoots in the 3s. Do't worry about those fliers, they happen. Ususally on the last shot, right?:nono: Another powder I am having quite good luck with is Ramshot Tac. Sub half inch groups all day long. It is economical too. While other stuff is $20+ per pound you can probably get Tac locally for $15. I bought 23 pounds of the stuff when Midway had it on sale for $9.99. I thought I was gonna get into shooting my ARs quite a lot and for what I wanted to do accuracy wasn't a big issue. Well it turns out this stuff is just like H335 or BLc-2 which are 2 of my favorites. Now that you got it shooting better I'll bet that the 32 gr Hornady ammo will work to. My first 204 would put 5 shots of that stuff under 1/2".

 

[Craiger5658]

CZ,
I know what you mean about BLC-2 and H335. I also had decent luck with H322. All with 32 grainers. Yes, I had a Low Pro Savage in .204 that shot the factory Hornady stuff into .5" or better. Sadly, I sold it to "upgrade" to the LRPV. The only thing I wish I'd have done differently,to figure out what the true cause was) was to do both operations separately: the re-crown and the screw re-alingment. That way we'd know which was the real cause of the problem. But the gun is shooting and that's all that matters. Now it's just to cold to want to get out and shoot more. I've got a bunch of loads ready to go, but it's about 10 degrees out side.

Take care,

Craig

 

[Craiger5658]

For those who care, I just picked up a Remington XR-100 in .204 and after breaking it in, shot the load that worked so well in the Savage: 26.5 grains of RL 10x with a 32 grain Sierra BlitzKing and a Fed 205M. If I remember right, velocity was between 4100 and 4200 fps and shot groups between .2 and .4" in the Savage. Well the Remington started off averaging .530" with this load and I've yet to load up some other variations to see what it might really like. I'd also like to pillar bed it and then glass the action too. I'm not very happy with the 40X trigger and that'll probably getted offed after squirrel season and replaced by a Jewell.