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Why Not Savage?

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RKS

At our range Savage 6.5's and 6 BR's are as competitive as any "Custom" gun at 100-300 yard matches and at least one scored a sub-4" 5 shot group at 1000 yards.

I believe most "purists" to 1000 yard shooting would always point to individual component quality as a benefit of a custom gun over a Savage. For a fraction of the cost of a "custom" rifle build would the Savage not be a good choice if your club has a Hunter/Factory class for 1000 yards? (A Savage would be in the Hunter class at our range if it has a custom barrel on it.)

Is there something about the various 6mm Savages that I'm missing on why they are not highly recommended?

I do see quite a few listings of people trying to get rid of them but never read much on why. I do not own one.

I'm only looking for generalized responses on why someone might or might not recommend a Savage for 1000 yard shooting- not to start an argument between two possible camps.
 
I own numerous savage rifles and enjoy shooting them. Your question specifically mentions competition shooting, so my only drawback from using a savage rifle in competition would be trigger selection. A good trigger is paramount for accurate shooting. Savage rifles don’t have as many options as let’s say Remington 700 or the many actions that use the Remington style. That’s just my take on it, and I’m a big fan of savage.
 
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I've heard a lot of shooters liking the Target trigger if it is in the 10-12oz range which helps keep it from setting off the safety. I understand this would feel significant compared to a 1-2oz trigger. I have not used one yet.

Savage gunsmithing dot com also offers an "accurizing" service to deal with some of the issues for not a lot of money. Just putting this out there for consideration.
 
Pull the trigger straight back and it will go off , pull it sideways and it will not.... All this can be found in the operation instructions and is a safety aspect of savages triggers... I bought my first Savage a few years ago and have had zero problems with it , it's gone off every time I have pulled the trigger... It's a factory rifle and shouldn't be compared to a $5000 custom built rifle... Take that Savage and put a few thousand in it in the right places and you would have a Savage action but pretty much nothing else.. kinda like saying that a Nascar is the same because it has Monti Carlo and Chevy stickers on it...

Do bad guns get out sure , just ask Remington , Marlin etc etc etc... I can attest to Marlin , bought my first one a few years ago also , it literally fell apart on it's first outing , I called to get it sent back and remington answered the phone... I just fixed it myself....
 
I realize the action is no BAT and the trigger is no Jewell.

When others have set the Savage Target trigger down below 10oz they say that even carefully cycling the bolt will set off the safety- or at least a number of them have told me that.

I'm still curious to know why so many are for re-sale. I am considering one for 1000 yard factory class shooting but have been hesitating for over a year due to so many being sold on the web. I have a 6 BRI Custom LG but wanted a 2nd rifle until the money train comes in for a proper HG.
 
Horseshoe108 said:
At $220 for the trigger upgrade, $1300 for the rifle(12 F-class), $340 for bedding/accurizing/action improvement it's getting to be about a $2000 project.

Now it become an issue of...Can I get more quality out of a used custom gun?
Click to expand...
The difference will be in the ignition and the speed that a custom action will allow you to cycle the bolt and not upset the rifle in the bags.
You can get caught In changing conditions.
 
Horseshoe108 said:
At our range Savage 6.5's and 6 BR's are as competitive as any "Custom" gun at 100-300 yard matches and at least one scored a sub-4" 5 shot group at 1000 yards.

I believe most "purists" to 1000 yard shooting would always point to individual component quality as a benefit of a custom gun over a Savage. For a fraction of the cost of a "custom" rifle build would the Savage not be a good choice if your club has a Hunter/Factory class for 1000 yards? (A Savage would be in the Hunter class at our range if it has a custom barrel on it.)

Is there something about the various 6mm Savages that I'm missing on why they are not highly recommended?

I do see quite a few listings of people trying to get rid of them but never read much on why. I do not own one.

I'm only looking for generalized responses on why someone might or might not recommend a Savage for 1000 yard shooting- not to start an argument between two possible camps.
Click to expand...
I bought a used 243 Win built on a Savage "Target" action, Criterion barrel and McCree Precision chasis about a year ago, my first Savage. Previously I have always kind of looked down my nose at the brand, having shot Winchester M70 and Remington 40X/700, with Jewel triggers. I have changed my mind. I am impressed. Are they a bit rough, yes. Do they shoot, you bet they do! Everybody bitches about the Savage trigger, while its not a Jewel, it's not bad.
 
I picked up a slightly used Savage 12 Benchrest in 6BR. My semi-custom is getting rebarreled so this is my "practice" rifle and I'm happy with its accuracy. Like all factory rifles though sometimes you have to send them back to get kinks removed. Custom rifles are hand built and tend to have fewer "kinks".

My particular "kink" is that I have had to increase the trigger weight to get it to stop locking up. The original owner had it set too low. It would fail even if only using a trigger gauge about a 3rd of the time so I dialed up the resistance. 1st to 12 oz and it kept locking, so another tweak to a pound and it's stable now. With my particular rifle, it isn't a case of not pulling straight back, the Accu-trigger on mine isn't stable with light settings as others might be. I'll be replacing the trigger with a Rifle Basix. I looked at Jard but most of my fellow shooters with Savages recommend Rifle Basix

As for the caliber, 6BR has wind challenges at 1000yds, you can still get a Savage if you want to but I would look at something like a 6.5 284 at least. Most of the really competitive shooters are shooting straight 284

Regardless "keep em in the X-Ring"
 
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Once again comparison of apples and oranges..... When remington screwed up the 870 and they wouldn't chamber , then sent back multiple times and being told they were correct.. that's when I lost faith... This is not me but a bunch of people... I had money to spend and I wanted what I wanted.... But I didn't want to throw half the gun away like I have done before
with the AR platforms I bought Savage , the headspace is way tight etc... These triggers won't work with the accutrigger and like I said learn to pull a trigger correct and you won't have to spend that money. If not it's your money spend it as you want..
There's really no secret to shooting well , it's the same old same old , but a $6000 rifle with a $3000 optic will help...
 
WhiskyTahoeFoxtrot said:
...... most of my fellow shooters with Savages recommend Rifle Basix.
Click to expand...

I have heard the opposite. In fact, a year ago while researching Savage rifles on the Net I found more complaints about the Rifle Basix trigger than anything. I checked with 2 gunsmiths about them and they said to stick with the accu-trigger because the RB was junk. I can't spell out all of the reasons why as I don't remember exactly and gave up on examining their worth after so many negative statements.

The only opportunity I had to try one no longer exists as the guy I know who had one got rid of it and put the accu-trigger back on.

I think I could live with the accu-trigger from what few times I have tried it.
 
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