Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Savage Rifles = red headed step children?

Don't seem to hear much about these rifles, at least from what I've seen. Are they sleepers, junk, or _____? I've never owned one, obviously. Have heard a little about the Axis series and the race to $300 rifles, but the rest seems rather quiet.


What say the 'fire?

They are not junk. i have 2 and one of them is my main deer rifle. Savage 10 in stainless and syn.. Every year i go to sight it and wonder why. At 100 yards its spot on with 3 bullets almost touching one another. It has handled bad weather, snow, rain, ice, it has handled me falling thru the ice, and on the ground during a stalk. They come highly recommended by me that is for sure. I would chose it over a remington anyday but then again i use my rifle as a tool and not a show piece. Some also say they are ugly, but they look like any other rifle. As far as the Axis goes, i got a friend of mine into hunting last year and he bought an Axis. Accuracy the same as my model 10 308.. once sighted it shot so well for a $299 rifle.

savage is known for accurate rifles.

The Savage bolt guns are one of the most accurate rifles out of the box you can buy. The only thing that comes close in my experience is the Tikkas. Every Savage I have owned has been a tack driver and absolutely trouble free.

Usually shoot well. Feel and look like cheap junk. Known to have rough bores. I've been around a couple that had feeding problems. At one time they could be bought cheaply enough that they made sense, but the price has increased so much it's easy to look elsewhere. Too many other good rifles out there today at similar prices to the Savage. Plus, with RemAge barrels now available, there's no reason to buy a Savage for the slow switch barrel setup.

I don't know anything about the entry level rifles of any brand. Savage 110 rifles were made to under sell the competition but are normally very accurate out of the box. Many Remington 700 fans used to squall like a mashed cat about them since the Savage rifles typically were as or more accurate for less money. While they were a real bargain before they are on the same price point as the competition now.

If you look at the history of Savage rifles The 99 has to be one of the most popular lever actions of all time. Well built and very dependable. I lost the vision in my right eye so I wanted a LH rifle to carry while Turkey hunting just in case we ran into some pigs so I got the Axis 2 with the accutrigger. Put a good scope on it and surprise surprise, it keeps putting them in the same hole. Hated the stock so have just put a Boyds on it. Not a lot invested in a very accurate rifle.

Not junk as others have mentioned. I have two of them, a Model 116 .30-06 that's about 25 years old, and Model 11 .260 Rem. I bought this spring on clearance. The .30-06 will shoot everything I put through it in at least a 1.5" group at 100 yards for 3 shots. I can go shoot it every year to check it, and it has not moved. It will also shoot 168 gr. and 180 gr. Barnes TTSX bullets within 1 inch of each other. The 168gr. are an inch high when compared to the 180 gr. versions. It used to group 150 gr. Rem. Cor-lockts under 3/4" all day long, but the groups have opened up t about 1.5" in the last 3-4 years. I love that rifle, but it's a bad luck gun for hunting. It has been on numerous hunts and I've never shot an animal with it. My son two years ago saw I was wanting to take the .06 moose hunting with us, and he said if it went he was staying home. I took a different rifle, and didn't see a moose one.

Now the Model 11 .260 Remington. I've got to get a better scope than the Nikon BDC that came on it, as I do not like that scope. Maybe late next summer when I return home for good, I can find a round it actually likes. So far, it's nothing like the Model 116 .30-06.

I have a Savage 114 classic .300WinMag stainless, accutrigger, with wood stock. It shot MOA or better out of the box with most off the shelf 165gr rounds, with Federal Fusion being the most accurate out of those I tried. It didn't shoot 180gr all that well. I bedded it and the groups got better, but still didn't like 180gr off the shelf cartridges. I got in to reloading and tried 180gr NAB over H1000 and it is easily 1/2 MOA. As Yukon said, like Tikkas, and I'll add Steyrs (I have two that are tack drivers), Savages are known to be one of the most accurate rifles out of the box.

the action is built like a tank, magazines are flimsy, barrels collect copper. all mine shoot well.

had a 110 in .300 win mag that i sold here on the fire. wish i still had it, never could get it to shoot like i wanted. the recoil shredded my sandbags.

Never tried to shoot groups but always minute of dee. I have a rebore from 30-06 to 9.3X62. Purchased from the fire as 9.3 it hasn't seen a hunt yet. I'm sure it is sad. But it awaits a trip to Texas for Nilgai and pigs right now. Hope to shoot some much larger game in the future but have to save for the trip. Rusty.

I bought a Savage 116 in 7-08 because I wanted the famous out-of-the-box accuracy. The gun is a mediocre shooter, where it will shoot most factory ammo into 2" groups, and some loads much worse.

Shinbone some of those were 11 twist and did not do much accuracy wise. See if savage will put a 9 twist on like they do now. You might try 120 grain bullets too.

I've got a couple and they're both tack drivers. My model 16 in .300 WSM will consistently shoot .5-.75 MOA. Used it to harvest a decent MT bull elk a few days ago.

I like them in general. Wish they were still 400 bucks. Not really a fan of the accutrigger but they do shoot very well. I agree, the mags are flimsy and just a bad design. They also screw with stuff for seemingly no reason, like where the bolt release is and the lengths of the actions and the style of magazines and etc. Kind of annoying when looking for aftermarket stuff for them.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll check my records to see if I ran any 120gn'ers through it, as well.

I have 3 Savage bolt guns, all shoot sub inch. I have a 99 that will also. They are great guns for the price!

Savage rifles could be considered Rodney Dangerfield rifles...it doesn't get any respect, and many call them Salvage rifles, but I have found them to be very accurate right out of the box. My present 16 Weather Warrior 22-250 with good bullets shoot sub-MOA consistently and has accounted for piles of prairie dogs, several coyotes and a few Whitetail deer. Wish they offered a special run of 7x57s.

They should offer a special run of rifles that don't have rough bores.

This is about the best summary of Savage bolt guns I have ever seen.