Tale of sorrow with Savage F-class rifle

[effendude]

Interesting story regarding one of the first Savage F-class rifles I bought in 2007 I believe. I bought both a 6mmBR and a 6.5-284 Savage F-class rifles when they first came out. Both shot reasonably well for being very long throated. Please remember F-class was not nearly as competitive as it is now. Anyway, interests in rifles changed and they were set aside for a few years.

The 6mmBR was used as a loaner rifle to several new shooters just getting started in shooting, and a couple of our girls shot them before boys were invented, but otherwise the rifle never competed. This winter, I had a friend pick up a new Criterion barrel for the 6mmBR to see if it would shoot better. He scoped several and pick the best of the bunch. We easily removed the factory barrel, and installed the Criterion barrel. Headspace was set and away I went. I put the action into the stock and noticed the barrel drifted left a little but was still free floating. Off to the range to break the barrel in and test some loads. At 100 yards, I had one MOA of right windage remaining on the NF BR scope. !@@#$%^&*&* I thought. Rechecked base, rings, and then I noticed the barrel. I reinstalled the action into the stock, still the same.

I called up my buddy, and suggested we might have a barrel not threaded true to the bore. My solution was to loosen the nut, rotate out a quarter turn and make the yaw in the barrel point up. Long story shot, we did a quarter turn, a half turn, tried another stock, all with the same results. We also laid a straight metal ruler along both sides of the action to verify the barrel was not true to the action. After talking to several gunsmiths with the concern that we bent the action removing the original barrel, we were assured we couldn't have damaged the action. We reinstalled the original factory barrel, headspaced, and it drifts way to the left in the barrel channel. We rolled the original factory barrel on a couple different flat tables and there definitley is a bend in the barrel just a few inches in front of the threads.

I have to conclude that the action was not threaded true at the factory. Then the barreled action was bent "straight" before shipping. I will keep everyone posted as to how Savage handles this situation. I think the F-class rifles are a great value and don't mean to rip on Savage. If they did let a crooked action leave the plant, disguising it by bending the action/barrel assembly I will be greatly disappointed.

Scott

 

[nhm16]

I feel ya... I had a Stiller Tac30 action that was like that, the barrel was crooked to the right when threaded on. They sent my smith a new action and it was all taken care of in a few days - he didn't even have to do anything to the barrel, it headspaced the same, and now it's my most accurate gun.

I also have a Stevens 200 action that has the scope base holes crooked... I ran out of windage and still couldn't zero the scope. Since I already paid for the action to be timed and trued and Cerakoted, I didn't want to send it back to Savage, so I just used Burris Signature Zee rings and the offset inserts, which allowed me to zero the scope within less than 1moa of the center of its windage adjustment, and this gun too now shoots great.

 

[Forum Boss]

I have to conclude that the action was not threaded true at the factory. Then the barreled action was bent "straight" before shipping. I will keep everyone posted as to how Savage handles this situation. I think the F-class rifles are a great value and don't mean to rip on Savage. If they did let a crooked action leave the plant, disguising it by bending the action/barrel assembly I will be greatly disappointed.

Scott, have your smith check the thread diameter INSIDE the receiver as well. A close friend who is a machinist, has one of the Savage 6mmBR F-class rifle. Same problem -- but in his case the gun shot way low. It went back to the factory, barrel was replaced. But my friend still had a problem. He found that the threads were cut way oversize as well as off-center.

 

[chestsprings]

read your story.......thought, you found your problem sooner then me.

I have a VLP with 3 custom barrels. 223, 22-250, rem6mm. bought it 5 yrs. ago from a member of the Savage forum.
didn't make any difference which one of the barrels i put on, shot 22 inches to the right. used Burris inserts + & - 20 to get close. initially sent the rifle back to Savage......told with in specs.

got discussed.......into the safe for about a yr. last yr. decided to send it to SSS, explained the problem. 5 weeks later it came back. Fred told me the threads in the action were cut crooked.......he fixed that...........don't know how.

now screw on any of the 3 barrels, no Burris inserts, all shots will be with in 2 1/2 inches of the bull's eye at 100 yds.

Fred said he rarely sees a situation like mine. looks like you got the twin of mine.

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

After reading this, it makes me want to send my Savages down the road! I don't know if there is anything wrong with them or not but, there very well could be. However, I'm not one to sell something that is knowingly defective to someone unless I let them know up front!

Mike

 

[Keith Glasscock]

If you get disgusted with it, PM me, I'll take it off of your hands....

Seriously, I have had the same problem with prefit barrels in a small shank action. Trust me, the threads were true when we went after them on the lathe. The problem is the extremely sloppy fit of the threads in the receiver. In my case, the solution was a custom cut thread on the barrel and a shoulder like a Remington. If you measure carefully, the threads in the nut are actually smaller than the threads in the receiver...

You can "straighten" the install by changing the angle of the wrench when torquing the nut. Try running the wrech on the other side of the action.

 

[effendude]

Great news to pass along. Hopefully this information will help others with similar problems. I had put the problem rifle aside after the disappointing experience with the bad threads. Anyhow, I decided to put the 6BR Criterion barrel on the other F-class rifle which I had previously rebarrelled without a barrel nut in .308. A friend has Jim Borden building a 6BR rifle for him, but it won't be done until August. I wanted to loan my friend the Savage with the 6BR barrel for the summer so he can shoot.

New barrel put on the different action did the same thing. It laid in the stock to the left just like the other action. After a bunch of experimenting, Nosualc and I determined the barrel nut was not true. After a quick call to Jim Briggs at Northland Shooters Supply, we ran to his place and got a new aftermarket barrel nut. Put the barrel back into the original action. Whoooo-hoooo! Success!! A $28 part solved the issue. I shot the new barrel tonight, it easily shot .6MOA with some old loaded ammo.

It seems as though the original action was ok, but the barrel nut wasn't true. I forgive Savage a little bit, but I still have a barrel they bent to hide the problem with the original rifle. That still pisses me off. Please don't hesitate to call Jim Briggs for your Savage supplies!
Scott