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.cgiWhat 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.