What piece of equipment next ?

[grovey]

Can you explain what a stripped bolt meathod is? I hear it a lot, but have no idea

I see Jim beat me to it, and while I agree it's a more accurate way to find the lands .... it's still just a reference point.

 

[Richard Coody]

what kind of groups are you getting now? are you satisfied with them.

do you have a good front rest and rear bag. work on your shooting consistency first.

how are you weighing powder. my largest improvment was with consistent accurate powder charges.

if you do upgrade dies go with a honed forster or full custom made from your fired brass.

co-ax is an exellent press but i don't think you would see the difference on target now.

neck turning and concentricity can come a little later. i would probably just frustrate you now.

 

[DngBat7]

Remove the firing pin and ejector from your bolt. Seat a bullet long and adjust your seating depth until you find touch.

That works awesome and you don't need any additional tools other than a caliper to record your numbers. Once you have the touch number, you can work the other way with a freshly sized piece of brass to establish a jam length number. Or, you can find jam first then touch. It doesn't matter. What matters is that in the end you have two measurements recorded that allows you the ability to play around with various seating depths in an educated fashion instead of guessing where you are at any particular seating depth.

Thank you!

 

[Richard Coody]

stripped bolt method works great on customs. Not so great with savage actions. get a stoney point and practice until you have consistency.

be careful if you decide to strip your bolt. easy to lose some parts. do it inside a ziplock.

 

[jimmymac]

stripped bolt method works great on customs. Not so great with savage actions. get a stoney point and practice until you have consistency.

Why won't it work? I never owned a Savage. Is there something about the bolt that prevents this method from being used? Thanks.

 

[hoz53]

What's so terrible about it? I'd rather it be metal like the original SP, but other than that it works for me. Now I only use it for a reference point, but by sound of it the OP is flying blind. It was the obvious thing I saw he needed. I figure it's an entry level setup, but then I'm a entry level chooter... lol

didnt mean to criticize you - just giving my opinion to the op. for me anyway its nearly impossible to get the same measurement twice ina row with one of those length gauges because you are pushing the bullet into the rifling and i cant stop it the same spot consistently. other methods are more consistent for most people i have talked to. see alex wheelers video on utube or his website

 

[hoz53]

stripped bolt method works great on customs. Not so great with savage actions. get a stoney point and practice until you have consistency.

be careful if you decide to strip your bolt. easy to lose some parts. do it inside a ziplock.

stripped bolt method works on a remington to. i dont have a savage so you may be right. please explain that?

 

[hoz53]

I see Jim beat me to it, and while I agree it's a more accurate way to find the lands .... it's still just a reference point.

yeah its a reference point that you can measure with your comparator and save that measurement for that bullet in that gun. by comparator im talking about the ones that measure from ogive

 

[jimmymac]

yeah its a reference point that you can measure with your comparator and save that measurement for that bullet in that gun.

More to the point, it’s the exact reference point for the accuracy minded. YMMV

 

[grovey]

didnt mean to criticize you - just giving my opinion to the op. for me anyway its nearly impossible to get the same measurement twice ina row with one of those length gauges because you are pushing the bullet into the rifling and i cant stop it the same spot consistently. other methods are more consistent for most people i have talked to. see alex wheelers video on utube or his website

Right on... not trying to argue, and your 100% right about it being a more accurate method. I've had readings 0.010 different when I'm using the Hornady tool, but I feel like when your used to it you get a feel for which measurement is true. I measure 6 or 8 times and average the measurement from the readings I felt were right. I usually back of 0.015 from the measurement I deem my reference point. I'm sure Alex is right about my method being a jam measurement as well....

 

[hoz53]

Right on... not trying to argue, and your 100% right about it being a more accurate method. I've had readings 0.010 different when I'm using the Hornady tool, but I feel like when your used to it you get a feel for which measurement is true. I measure 6 or 8 times and average the measurement from the readings I felt were right. I usually back of 0.015 from the measurement I deem my reference point. I'm sure Alex is right about my method being a jam measurement as well....

i dont want to argue either and like we said different strokes different folks- if your way works for you thats great- weve given the op some good info and he can do it the way he wants

 

[CharlieNC]

I own a couple of Savages, sold more than I own now. For loading improvement probably the Lee collet neck die will help you the most, realising your loading for a who-knows-what chamber dimensions. Tweak the accutrigger, bed action if not done already; see SavageShooters.com for details to do yourself for free. Max benefit will come from calling Northland Shooting to order a CBI barrel, recoil lug, and barrel nut. In the long run you will know you have a good foundation that will last forever in 223.

 

[JimSC]

About a year ago I set out on the same quest. In my opinion here is how to see the biggest increase in accuracy. First go buy enough bullets brass and primers to load about 3000 rounds of ammo then load and shoot a minimum of 50 to 100 per week while keeping a good log of environmental conditions, ammo components, and target results. Buy a few good books and read then reread them. Use what you learn. My favorites are Tony Boyer's The book of Rifle Accuracy, Litz's Modern Advancements Vol 1 and Vol 2, and see if you can find a good book on wind and mirage such as Cunningham/Millers Wind Reading for Rifle Shooters. A good place to start your reading is with this blog series How Much Does It Matter. That will give you some perspective on how much equipment upgrades will give you compared to the cost of upgrading.

Then shoot, shoot and shoot some more analyzing your targets and refining your techniques. When you burn out the barrel get a spin on Criterion or a Shilen and learn how to install it correctly. Get into competition and learn from the other competitors. When I started I shot 170's to low 180s and a year later anything short of mid 190's and I am disappointed in myself. I shoot Savages also with over the counter stocks and drop in Criterion barrels. good luck just be persistent and learn from your mistakes, it is a great hobby

 

[JSH]

To the OP.
There is a lot of really good input in all the post ^^^.
Probably some of the best I have seen before it gets hijacked or off coarse.

I like books for info. Get a highlighter and mark it up,bend corners of pages to mark info if need be. Use it. I have a lot of reference material I have bought second hand. Most sellers are proud that their "used" book looks new.
The rifle will tell you a lot. You need to understand what it is saying.
I saw mentioned of neck turning, without knowing what the neck should be! I went down that rabbit hole. It may center up better to all your measurements, yet possibly shoot worse. A lot of stock rifles I have had will respond better to thicker necks. Look at it as a bushing for the bullet.
Custom barrels are a different critter than most over the counter barrels.
There is a lot to absorb,so to speak. All the measurements and data will do you no good if you don't understand what it is telling you.

Good luck to you. Keep it fun keep it safe, may all your hits be X's.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

A comparator so you can adjust seating depth using a method that is superior to using overall length. Sinclair makes a nice one. Hornady gets bad rapped, but you will see a ton of them at any SR group shoot so how crappy can they really be?

Get the Tony Boyer book and/or the Mike Ratigan book. There are some real nuggets of wisdom in there.

Where do you shoot sr group? In 22yrs i havent seen a hornady nothing at a match but i will agree that tonys book is a good next purchase

 

[jimmymac]

Where do you shoot sr group? In 22yrs i havent seen a hornady nothing at a match but i will agree that tonys book is a good next purchase

I’ve only shot one match in Fairchance, but I attended a couple others at the same venue to observe what guys were doing at the loading bench. I saw quite a few red comparator bodies, so I can only assume they were Hornady.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I’ve only shot one match in Fairchance, but I attended a couple others at the same venue to observe what guys were doing at the loading bench. I saw quite a few red comparator bodies, so I can only assume they were Hornady.

Oh when you said seating depth i thought you meant that goofy threaded case thing people stick in their chambers. The thing that attaches to calipers i see the green ones and sometimes the red ones

 

[jimmymac]

Oh when you said seating depth i thought you meant that goofy threaded case thing people stick in their chambers. The thing that attaches to calipers i see the green ones and sometimes the red ones

Not only no, but hell no.

 

[JimSC]

back to the OP - My .223 is based on a Savage 10 action scavenged from a Accustock also. The Accustock is adequate, learn to tune the action screws and it will perform decently but I found it too flexible. If I were you I would pick up a drop in Choate or HS Precision stock for your first major investment. I have mine in a 150 dollar bottom end Choate and I get consistent .6 MOA 10 shot groups out to 300 with the right loads. If you have not already found it there is a Savage Shooters dedicated to all things Savage related. There is a ton of good info about your gun there

 

[amboy49]

Lots of great information. To answer one of the questions - I have an Oahu’s beam scale that will register to tenths. I also have a Hornady digital electric scale with the same capability. I have been loading Varget powder, which doesn’t meter well so I am weighing charge and finishing with a trickier on the digitial scale. I.e. My RCBS powder measure will one or two tenths under 26 grains of Varget for a 55 gr. match boat tail bullet. I then trickle the charge up to 26 grains.

The rifle was a brand new and to date I have fired only 50 rounds. From a rest using front and rear bags I was able to initially a 5 shot group under MOA which promising. I am just beginning to start shooting for groups. My plan is to start out using an OAL of 2.260 with various powders to the if the gun has a preference. I will also begin to chronograph the loads and employ the ladder method that I’ve read about to also help determine which load is preferable.

I find the bullet seating depth interesting and would like to refine my reloads employing that process.

I am not extraordinarily anal attentive nor am I an engineer. Nevertheless I plan to give this accuracy thing a good go.