Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles E R Shaw

Naw,was just wondering what Ingwe has against the Shaw rifles.

My cousin has one and he's been looking for a load goin' on 4 years now. He wants to kill a prairie dog at 1000 +/- yds with it. It's a .260 Rem with a muzzle brake ( ) and a big Leupold mounted on it.

Personally,would rather have a Mauser 98 or a Winchester M 70.

Back in the day I sent E R Shaw a Remington 700 Action to be rebarreled in .257 Roberts Ackley Improved. Nothing fancy, CM steel, heavy sporter weight contour. When it came back the lash up shot under 1 MOA, not bad for a cost of $135.00. Used it to develop really high velocity loads, and it lasted longer than I thought it would. At the time Shaw was reportedly one of the suppliers of barrels used on the Ruger M-77, and mine was a true tack driver that had been rechambered from .257 Roberts to the Ackley.

In looking over what Shaw is offering in the way of custom rifles today, there is one standout that would likely be a good buy: the Mark VII VS. The specs say it's built on the Savage Single Shot Precision Target Action (they call it a receiver). Although I'd have to call Shaw to be certain that we're talking about the same product.

Now I am a great fan of the Savage Single Shot Precision Target Action (PTA), I have four of them, three right port-right bolt, and one dual port-right bolt models. Below is a photo of a new action as it comes from Savage, E R Shaw isn't using the barrel nut, but the kit comes with a precision 0.250" thick recoil lug. It also comes with the Target AccuTrigger which can be adjusted to a pull weight under one pound.



In my case, I got really carried away building varmint rifles on these actions, and by using the barrel nut I could swap between barrels of various calibers, cartridges and even between four different case head diameters by exchanging bolt heads. This also allowed me to experiment with various twist rates in a given chambering to perfect bullet stabilization. Because each barrel is installed using headspace gauges, they maintain the same fired dimensions for sizing die settings. All actions were used without truing as they came from the box.

Below is a view of one such homemade rifle using the Savage PTA, a pillar bedded semi-finished stock from Sharp Shooter Supply, and a Pac-Nor Super Match barrel chambered for .204 Ruger with a 1:8.5" twist to accommodate the Barnes 50 grain or 55 grain HPBT bullets.



This rifle combination resulted in good accuracy, as the test group below demonstrated. 10 Shots at 100 yards two called fliers. This became my standard .204 Ruger load over all platforms.



Below is another such contraption using a Dual Port PTA that loads from the left and ejects on the right. The stock is a Savage factory benchrest stock bought as a part, it came pillar bedded and I skimmed bedded it with epoxy. This barrel is a Pac-Nor Super Match in .223 Remington with a 1:9" twist POLYGONAL rifled barrel.



Below is a 10 shot group at 100 yards using Winchester primers, if other brands are substituted, the groups expand to almost 0.5"!



Does this mean the Shaw rifle will shoot along with the Pac-Nor, Shilen, Hart. Kreiger and Brux barrels I use? No way of telling, but it certainly should shoot better than most rifles in it's price range. After all, these guys are professional gunsmiths, and I'm just a guy with a garage that has been tinkering for 50+ years. You will improve your chances if you resist ordering that goofy barrel fluting, and select cartridges that allow a selection of barrel twists. Faster twists are necessary with the new monolithic copper expanding bullets and even explosive powdered metal core varmint bullets i.e. Varmint Grenades.

In order to know what twist is optimal for your selected bullet(s) measure the length of the bullet and plug the data into the calculator here: http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi

What is really great about the Savage actions, all of them, is that they are robust, and can be maintained and repaired with nothing more than a set of Allen wrenches, a screw driver, and a 1/16" punch. Parts are cheap, abundant, and can be purchased in quantity just in case. The extractor can be replaced in the field with a thumb, providing you hold on to the detent ball (a simple 1/8" ball bearing available in packs of 100 for around $10), and the ejector pin is the most complicated replacement that requires the punch. I haven't had anything break yet, but if I don't have the parts available it will. Oh, and you don't need special tools to strip the bolt on these actions, because when the bolt handle retention nut is backed off it unloads the mainspring.

So there you have it. Are Savage actions ugly? Sure, to some they resemble an explosion in a hardware factory, to others the targets speak of the WOW factor. It's up to you, if I were in the market for another varmint rifle I'd give Shaw a call, but I'd have to purchase a third gun safe first.

I called about a Shaw Rifle back around 2007-8, as I have no issues with them using a Savage action. The price was right as far as I was concerned, but the problem I had is they wanted 100% payment upfront with an 18 month lead time to build the rifle. I was willing to do a deposit and pay the rest upon completion, but ER Shaw said that wasn't an option. So I passed on the rifle, and haven't really looked at them again.

Nice stuff. That sort of application is where I could turn off my stylo-meter and go for the Savage. In the woods, where 99% of my time is spent admiring my rifle or walking, something a bit more svelte is in order.

When you have rebarreled and restocked a Savage ( And I will not deny that they shoot extremely well...) its still a Savage.....

Just like anything else ( blondes, brunettes, redheads...) we all have an opinion on what is attractive and will offer shall we say.....'good service'....

I like mine. To be blunt, a Mk.VII from ER Shaw is a Savage action with a shanked in(no nut) barrel and a thicker recoil lug bedded(at the lug) into a Boyds Classic stock. Mine(in .300 Win Mag) has been MOA with most handloads. I made a few changes to mine this year. Bedded into a nice 114 stock(always liked those) switched it over to DBM and added a Timney trigger. Frankly it didn't NEED any mods, but I like it better this way.



Before...

Thanks for the answer Ingwe,was just curious about your comment.

I snubbed Savage for the longest time because aesthetically they just aren't pleasing to the eye. But they are just so dang good at putting bullets where you want them to go that I have warmed up to them lately. I have another one on a UPS truck right now. A 116 Lightweight Hunter in 223. That'll bring my total to 4.

That's my point. For what you pay, they're a great value.

I just ordered the same off GB. For $500 - the $75 current rebate I couldn't pass. I have a lady Hunter stock and SS HFP I'm putting it in. I justified it as a perfect starter for my 3 yo old daughter.

I have four Shaw barrels, have recommended them to others, and my brother has his second one. All are very accurate.

Same here. Did you get yours from Elk County Arms? I have a Leupold VX2 in silver finish that has been sitting in my closet for years. I got it on closeout for $129. After the rebate, I'll be into a really sweet package for under $600. I justified it as my post shoulder replacement rifle. None of my other 223s would work.

I did. I was in the same boat. I had a Weaver k-6 I picked up used that I really liked, but couldn't get the eye relief right. So, I picked up a lady Hunter stock from Numerich and a HFP from Jim at Northland. Can't beat it for the price. After shipping xfer, and all the upgrades, I'll be into it for $785 including new Talleys. I almost picked it up couple months back, but I wanted to see what the new rebates would be; glad I waited. I've watched Too many people talk about the 223 recently. I figured it's time to try some Barnes in one for myself.

Keep me posted on how yours works out for you. I haven't decided what route I am taking for rings and bases. I have a set of low dovetail rings in the spare parts bin. All I would need to add is some bases. I may go with Talley low. They'd be a nice compliment to the lightweight rifle.

I love the Talleys. I have another 16 LWH in 7-08 I had Todd Bettin put one of his stocks on. 6.8# all up with s Trijicon Accupoint and Talleys.

I just looked up those Todd Bettin stocks. Nice, but a touch spendy for this redneck's blood.

They are, but that's really the only rifle I have "done all up". When you break it down, the stock is about $350. He full length beds and cerakotes for that same price. Once I factored that in, it was a wash. Granted, it was $650 when I stared looking, but since I waited till first of the year I paid $750, which sucked.

I know what you mean. When I order custom barrels some want the money up front. The second to last one cost a bit over $700 with all the options I ordered, so I whipped out the magic plastic flying card to happiness and prepaid the order. Seven months later, it arrived.

I just ordered two Hart barrels in a custom configuration that absolutely no one else would want, and they charged a $240.00 deposit on each, no problem, unless I croak before they get here.

The thing is these folks are leery of the gee wiz factor, a guy orders a custom rifle then looses interest during the lead time and wants to cancel. A friend of mine, a true rifle loony, ordered a special custom stock from Lee Six, then forgot about it, Lee passed away in 2009 and my friend was lucky to get the barreled action back. Things happen, and the loss a old friend makes it worse.

I got burned once paying 100% up front for some custom work. The guy had my money and wasn't in a hurry to work on my rifle. As a result it took a threat of small claims for him to refund my money and parts, and more than two years of my time on a project he quoted six months since I had him order the barrel. So I don't do 100% on custom work anymore, but I'm happy with paying up to 50% for a deposit to get the ball rolling. I also have no problem with non-refundable deposits and restocking fees if there is a change of heart.

I just priced a Shaw rifle, single shot 220 Swift, Varmint profile barrel with grade 5 wood, really not much more than a factory varmint rifle.
They are requesting 50% down and stated it will take up to 12 months, I think I'm going to go ahead and order it. Here is part of the e-mail with details of what they do, seems to be a pretty good deal for the money.

Thanks for asking about the ER Shaw MK VII rifle. The average turnaround time on a MK VII build is in the 12 month area. We require a 50% deposit to submit the order for manufacturing, the balance can be paid upon completion of the rifle. Upon completion we will need an FFL dealer in your home area to send in a copy of their license so we can ship your gun out to them. All of the stocks are glass and pillar bedded and the barrel channel is free floated. All barrels are crowned, the 11 degree target crown is std. Rifles chambered in 220 Swift will be single-shot right hand only. We use Grade 3 walnut stocks as our standard. We do offer a Grade 5 walnut for an additional $150.00.