Team Savage Takes National Title, Breaks 1,000-yard Record

Link: http://www.savagearms.com/news/article/?id=2K5nTzegQ

This list of long-range events Team Savage has won recently is getting almost as long as the distances they shoot at.

They recently added the 2010 F T/R National Championship to that list by taking the team competition in grand fashion. The won both the 600 and 1,000 yard events, establishing an new 1,000-yard record of 778-21X.

Darrell Buell of Damascus, OR; John Weil of Welches, OR; Monte Milanuk of Wenatchee WA and Stan Pate of Milwaukie, OR made the trip to Sacramento, CA to represent Savage Arms. The competition featured some of the best talent and most expensive custom rifles from around the Country. But, once again, those expensive custom guns were no match for four skilled marksmen armed with stock Savage Model 12 rifles.

"We continue to be thrilled with the winning results from Team Savage. It says a lot about them and it says a lot about the rifles," Savage VP of Sales & Marketing Brian Herrick said. "We're not trying to tell anybody that they can just buy a Savage and shoot like Darrell, John, Monte and Stan, but it should be fairly obvious by now that shooting stock Savage rifles isn't holding these guys back at all."

That's what I'm talking about.

I notice those advocating out of the box remingtons are silent on you post.

308's always do their best,when only 308's are in the "race"............

Which means what?

Any/all 308's,have a much tougher hill to climb...when the chambering isn't a mandate.

Which is why they are typically swept beneath such rugs...and why even the 223 becomes a greedy first choice in comparison.........

These guys obviously aren't using a factory barrel because the one I replaced had a big, crooked chamber, and the bore looks like it was cut with a dull chisel.

If you think the barrels they used are factory, ask them if you can borescope it.

I've had some good Salvage tubes................

I have seen off the shelf Savages (12 series) shot sub one inch groups at 300 yards with good handloads.

BMT

Beating custom barrels, at 1000yds., with one of THEIR factory chambered tubes?

What about "stock Savage Model 12 rifles" isnt understandable?

You had a factory model 12 in 308 with a crooked chamber, or some old savage at some time in the past with a crooked chamber?

If your comment is not about a new Savage, its a bit irrelevant, I think.

The QA/QC on the new Savage rifles is pretty good.

One of the guys on "Team Savage" is my friend, neighbor and sometime shooting pard, Monte.

He'll show anyone who cares that he's shooting a factory Savage barrel. I'm pleased he's doing so well - yes, he has other custom rifles with match grade barrels, but the Savage has shot remarkably well for him. Time to time he shows up on 24 Hour Campfire, maybe he'll address this.

Regards, Guy

FWIW:

I picked up one of those "single Subject" gun mags last year.

I think it was titled "Long Range Shooting" or some such.

They had a product review of the Savage target rifle in 308.

The author shot five 5-shot groups with 155 amaxs. Average group Size at 500 yards was under ONE INCH.

The author was almost apologizing for publishing that number, but it was true, and he had photos of all five groups.

Spooky accurate.

BMT

Here are some Savage F/TR groups.

155g Berger's, RL 15


155g Bergers, (bottom group .223)


155g Berger's (bottom group .223)


5 shot 1000y group with 155g Berger's


600 yard group with 155g Berger's


My brother's will shoot!

I'm sure you are stirring the pot a little. I recently came around on Savages. I like traditional hunting rifles and think Savages are ugly (Tikkas are uglier). I recently decided I wanted a tactical style bolt action and bought a Savage Precision Carbine. My first trip to the range was yesterday. I loaded 4 different bullets/weights with TAC and all of them shot 1/2 inch at a 100 yards.

I'm a believer now. I think Savages represent a great value with tremendous accuracy. Any other tactical/target style rifles I buy will be Savages.

I'm with Scott

Beauty is as beauty does.

No, not stirring the pot. I have a Savage .308 with the 20" barrel, and it does have 1 load that shoots well, but only 1, and it's really picky about that one. The chamber is crooked, so it only shoots when you FL size the brass, and seat the SMK 175's into the lands. Any jump at all, or neck size cases, or a powder other than IMR 4064, and it just throws up.

It's not the only Savage I have seen with the scope mount holes drilled crooked also. So, it's hard for me to believe that they are using a stock rifle. Now, if they have taken a blueprinted action, with a carefully chambered barrel, Then I could see it being a shooter. Chambering a rifle with a pilotless reamer doesnt work too well.

Not sure why you are even commenting on this thread when you are not even shooting a Savage F/TR rifle; the topic of the thread.

What is your experience with the F/TR rifle?

Oh, so now I have to have the exact model to talk about it.

there conter partneer stevens 200 are great rifles also an group like savages i have them

I have two buddies with the F/TR models both shoot amazingly well. I have seen both shoot 1/4 MOA at 800 yards for 3 shots. One of the guys usually gets some fake wood at all of our local matches and he is shooting against several customs. He is a newbie shooter to boot.

What does 1/4 MOA = to at 800 yards? Is that 2 inches? If so, that's some unbelievable shooting.

just a SCH over 2"

I have read quite a bit about these accurate, ugly rifles. S'pose those boys just pick one off the rack and it shoots that way? I would expect they pick between how ever many they need to find the one's that shoot to that standard.

Weatherby does that and stamps "SUB MOA" on the floor plate and charges a few hundred more for the rifle.

Exactly, and in my estimation they are worth more if they shoot up to that standard. This might now be a great marketing move for Savage to do the same.

Well DUH... it would help to deal with the same rifle... or would you compare a skinny tubed SPS Rem to one of their 40x versions ... duh is an understatement...

A 20" Bull Barrel is pretty damn close. Close enough to make a comparison of the same cartridge.

Actually no it isn't. The barrel contours are different, the trigger is different (the Target Accutrigger adjusts down much lower than the standard) and the F-class and Palma Savage barrels are much longer--in some cases 8"-10" longer depending on the rifle which with the 308 allows for increases in velocity that allow that cartridge to retain accuracy past 800 yards.

It sounds like you got a lemon. A sample of one. That has nothing to do with the Savage F-Class rifles that Team Savage are using which, if you check out the interviews guys from Team Savage have done online, are using factory barrels.

Yep.

Yes about 2 inches from a factory rifle shooting factory fodder. Actually 1/4 MOA at 800 is not much more difficult than 1/4 MOA at 100 yards.

I think the real issue here is the pain these Savage rifles are inflicting on guys that have invested thousands of dollars in a rifle that won't shoot any better than a $500 Savage. Ken

The Savage target rifles run about $1,000 and Team Savage runs handloads for competition; still, $1,000 won't even buy a low end custom action, let alone a complete rifle with a usable stock. I am seriously considering a Savage Palma rifle, just have to figure out how to fit up a set of Warner sights.

Savage rifles are cheap junk! .... That shoot good. Keep in mind though.Most of the 1000 yard records are not by savage rifles they are from full blown customs with Lawton actions,Stiller etc. and many were shot by kalispell MT. guys!

1000 yard benchrest is a whole different game than Palma or F T/R; any BR event is much more of an equipment race than the 308/223 caliber restricted matches that the Savage rifles have been doing so well at.

I remember quite a few years ago Dave Petzal did an article on Savage's "turnaround" (my words). He went to their factory, did the tour, got himself a .338 etc etc. I love Petzal's writing, and the fact that he's LH. Savage made LH stuff earlier and better than most did. Then they ponied up and did the Accutrigger ... to make a long story short, I have a semi-custom on order that is arriving any day. And their days of being low-priced are over -- and I'm glad for their sakes.

I hope mine shoots this way! It's a 7 WSM LH Weather Warrior, 25" tube, 1 in 9 twist. 180 grain Bergers and 160 grain Accubonds on my bench already ...

And 6.5 x 20 Vortex Viper I've yet to look through.

Hmmmmmm this post has a STICKY ring to it.

Lefty C

His observation was true but irrelevant; F T/R competition is restricted to 308 and 223 which makes the game much more a contest of wind reading than the equipment race that some F-Open matches can be.

Why exactly are they cheap junk? I know they have some inexpensive models but their mid to high priced rifles are far from junk.

My 10FLP is completly factory except for the McMillan Stock and it's had over 2000 jacketed rounds down the barrel (not sure how many cast bullets). It's my favorite bolt action. My Remington 700 SPS (.308 Winchester) has a throat like a giraffe so I'm getting it rebarreled.



Five shots at 100 yards



Four shots at 200 yards (blew one)

I'm not a 308 kind of guy, my preference lies with the 6.5 bore, particularly the 260 Rem..

I also don't have one of Savage's FT/R rifles... although looking to put a copy of that barrel on one of my Savage Actions..

but as far as having a 'bent barrel'... my most accurate rifle is a Pac Nor barrel that was a reject of theirs... because the chamber supposedly wasn't straight ( so I assume what is being called "bent" here)

I tested 15 different powders with this rifle.. and only one was not overly impressive ( H 4895).. the rest were more than acceptable accuracy... and H 414 was hands down nothing short of stellar...

with a 'bent barrel'... the chambering is 6mm Rem with a one in 7 twist...I shoot 75 grain HP Hornadys to 115 grain Bergers out of it..

I have got chewed on pretty hard on a few other forums for stating the fact that a few factory rifles i have owned shoot as well as my customs. I had a rem 700 varmint (old bdl style) in 308 that shot as well as my GAP and R@D 308. I have a 10fp that had galled lugs when i bought it(cheap) and it still shot well enough. I have no doubt that those are factory rifles that team shoots ( maybe hand picked factory rifles though)

Your right about the stevens 200 shooting good. My friend bought one a while back and it shot less than 1/2 inch groups the first time whe took it out. This was with factory remington coreloks. I gernerally don't like pushfeed rifles, but this one makes me want to get one. Savages have an excellent reputation for out of the box accuracy and I can testify to it first hand.

For sure!!!!!

Look at the PA 1000 yard club and Montana 1000 yard club and look at standings and world records,Not many savages shown mostly all are customs,Nesika,Lawton,Bat,stiller etc. Krieger,Lawton,broughton etc barrels. I don't see hardly anything Savage.Savages shoot good but I don't think they shoot the best.The remington 700 platform is the most copied and used benchrest action I can think of.And has been very successful.

The NEw world Record id what it is . . . . .

I know that SAVAGE makes a very accurate factory, right out the box rifle! I now own 3 of those rifles, 22-250,.204 and .223 calibers. However, they are very accurate for me, meaning they will shoot with my handloads, 1/2-MOA or better at the rifle range.

Now when you start to speak of "world records", YES I agree that you will NOT find any 700 BDL Remingtons, model 70 Winchester, Marlins, Mossbergs or SAVAGES in those listings of record holders at that level of competition. Those Boys are using $3,500 dollar and up products to set records with at the range. Barrels like HART, SHILLEN, KRIGER, LILJA etc.

It just goes to show that you can pull an ugly turd out of the punch bowl and win a competition.

I believe it that those Savage rifles do shoot stock barrels,
but I don't believe they were random out of the box rifles.

"I believe it that those Savage rifles do shoot stock barrels,
but I don't believe they were random out of the box rifles."

bingo......

read the post wondering the same thing.. if i owned savage and assembled a team to shoot my "factory" rifles i would certainly have my best smiths assembling them with care... all factory but some extra attention to detail... absolutely nothing wrong with that. nothing....

anyone can do the same... without spending 3k plus...

woofer

I bought a Model FCP-K earlier this year.
http://savagearms.com/firearms/model/10FCPK
168gr A-max/44gr RL15/Federal gold medal brass and primers have delivered groups as small as .009" at 10yds for three shots, with the five shot group average right at .3". Clay pigeons at 300 meters are dead meat. One rifle I'll never get rid of.

"as small as .009" at 10yds for three shots"

Ten yards...really?

Yeah, but it'll do it at 100, too.

OK. I'll speak up. Savage...absoutely the best tomatoe stake on the market...right out of the box.

Accurate tomato stakes, though. A guy at the range yesterday was shooting his 6BR F class Savage. Shoots 1/2 minute to 600yds, so far. That's all the farther he's had a chance to shoot it.

I detest the looks of a Savage rifle. However, one cannot argue the fact that they shoot--very well.

Your experience is proof that they weren't shooting factory tubes just like that one extractor failure on a 700 way back when was proof that all 700s sucked.

Bad logic there...

A friend of mine gave me a Savage model 116 in 7 Mag, fantastic piece of wood. I sent it to Sharp shooters Suppy and had the trigger adjusted(honed and re sprung to 1 1/2 lbs), pillar bedded, and a vias muzzle break added.

Standard loads for about any 7 mag is 65-65.5g of IMR 4350 with a 9 1/2 in a Rem cases, adjust seating depth to touch lands and you should be shooting screamer groups.

Well, I went through this drill with this savage 116. I use an old B & L 36x for load testing. I was getting groups (3shot) that measured from 0.129-0.225 with 140g NOsler ballistic tips.

Accuracy started going down hill at the 15 round mark to about 1" groups due to copper fouling. I knew that shooting would smooth the barrel up over time, but this was not target rifle, just a deer rifle.

One thing that needs fixing at the factory on the stock factory rifles is that all the bolt faces are concave, Sharp shooter sells a bolt head that has been milled perfectly flat.

I just inherited two Savage model 12 BVVS in 223 with 5 oz Sharp Sharp Shooter triggers, I'm going to see what is what with these rifles.

We have a gun club about an hour's drive from the house. They shoot 300 and 400 yard matches, Stock savages do quite well in these matches.

I am really curious as to how the Savage action handles the pressures of Max loads for that rifle. From looking at the bolt head, there seems to be some flex between the removable bolt head and the bolt body.

Years ago, I had a flock of the solid bottom savage 112 J's in 220 Swift, 25/06, and one 243. I learned real quick to just scrub hell out of them with JB and good bronze bristle brushes from the get go...accuracy was outstanding. I shot the barrels out of them and sold the action and stock to a bunch of shooters that shot lead bullet competition with Elmer Shook in S. Ca.