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

Every Savage rifle that I have/had, has been very accurate. A gun is a tool to me. I could not care less if the damn thing isn't "pretty", as long as it shoots well. Savages have always shot any bullets that I have put through them-WELL! If you want to stand around and take pictures of them, then go buy an expensive rifle with a fancy wood stock. If you want a gun to use, that you can depend on putting meat in the freezer, or shots in the bullseye, then buy a Savage.

If you decide that you want to trade calibers, Criterion makes outstanding barrels that can be easily screwed on. I have done this with two of my three Savages. I burned out one 7 mag and re-barreled it, and just decided to change a .308 to .260.

I will always be a 110 fan.

I have ALMOST bought a Savage several times...just never could make myself do it.

All things aside, most bolt gun rifles today will be accurate with some tinkering. A properly bedded barreled action will show immediate results in performing better groups. Savage's reputation for out-of-the-box accuracy has long been agreed to, but so has Howa (Wby Vanguard) at lower price points. The problem with Savage is not only their unattractive look (IMO only), but their extractor sucks. Similar to Rem 700 (plunger type-spring loaded and pinned to the bolt head), they wear bad, thin out and fail to function properly over time, especially when dirty. For Rem 700 you can now buy M16 extractor conversion, a worthy upgrade IMO. But why bother with Savage when Howa already uses an M16 extractor, the receiver/action is pretty much a duplicate of the Sako L61 (Finnbear) and L579 (Forrester), which means high quality in design and function. You can strip, clean and reassemble a Howa bolt in minutes by hand. There is no comparison berween Savage and Howa when it comes to design/quality in my opinion. Savage loses. Howa actions are used quite a bit today in lower end custom gun building and all gun stock makers include Howa in their full inlet inventory. Can't say that about a Savage.

The Howa is basically a weatherby vangurard. You speak of extractor issues and how the Howa is better? I can attest to the fact that they are not as great as you are saying. I bought a vanguard about 5 years ago and it had nothing but extraction issues. Since it was a new rifle and I bought it here locally, I had the gun shop I bought it from send it back to Weatherby (or so I thought it was going back to them, later found out it was going to some ham fisted "authorized repair center"). After having to send it back for the third time (every time I got it, I checked it and it still only extracted 1/2 the time) due to extraction issues, I swore I'd never buy another. The rifle was clearly a pos and the extractor was no better than a remington 700 or any other push feed action I've seen. You guys taut these push feed rifles as being top notch, but there again, they are not. Eventually (if you shoot a bunch) the extractor is going to fail on these rifles. However, some do it sooner than others. The positive side of this is they are easy to change and most times cheap as hell. A savage extractor is $9.00. A price some of us have to pay to shoot these wonderful fugly rifles... Here's my pretty much bone stock 12fv creed, with a $300.00 scope, during a centerfire shoot yesterday:

Hey Jerry, From what I can tell, it is a 2 position safety:

No, the Wby Vanguard is a Howa 1500. A lot of folks shoot Howa 1500 (Wby Vanguard). Failures/problems can occur, I don't doubt yours, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find your extraction problem is consistent and probable to the great majority of Howa 1500 bolt guns in service since the mid 1970s, including the Wby Vanguards. That design hasn't changed except for triggers and safety. Savage has had an epidemic level of extraction problems throughout its history, but its not the end of the world as you say, you can repair easily. I own and shoot Howa 1500s in 308 Win, 7 Rem Mag and 338 Win Mag, never a problem with extraction, even under rapid fire employment with 308 Win. Works like a charm. Sorry for your bad experience and again not discing the Savage, its just not my cup of tea at that price point.

On my Savages, the safety is a three position. Fire, half way allows the action to be cycled, and there’s all the way set that locks the bolt.

Yup. the tang safety is a 3 position

I looked and see that I currently have 7 Savage 110 series rifles; 22-250(x2), 257 Roberts(x1), 260(x3), and 30-06(x1).

The 2 that are scoped, zeroed, and in the rack are a 22-250 11FV and a 260 11F parts gun with a Shilen barrel and McM Hunter stock.

That's some pretty funny shyt. Wear and thin out from what, rubbing on cartridge brass ? Not likely for a steel part to wear much against brass. I will agree that Savage's do have extraction issues at times but that is generally because of having a relatively small gripping area on the cartridge rim and/or a combination of weak extractor spring and a poorly fitting actuator bearing which is what moves the extractor back into the extractor groove after snapping over the rim. I've never seen a Savage extractor "worn thin" from use and I've put thousands of rounds through multiple Savage's over the past 4 decades. Oh, and the Savage extractor is much closer kin to a push feed model 70 than a 700.

I have a savage 116 weather warrior 30 06. It shoots 180 corelokt handloads to .8. at a 100 yds. It has been picky in the bullets it likes. It doesn't like any boat tails, nor does it shoot 150 gr bullets well. By well, I mean an 1" or under group. The rifling is rough, I start to lose a bit of accuracy after about 30 rounds. A big plus is that there is no cold bore issues. The first second, and third shot all hit the same, a must for me. I have a SS 3x9 on it, and it will shoot a consistent 5" to 6 " group at 600yds. Quite adequate on deer and elk at that range if needed. I really like the 3 stage tang safety as well. For a factory rifle, though, I would now go with a tikka. Overall, not as picky with bullets, and better, smoother barrels.

I don't own a Savage nor do I claim to be an expert. The article below explains the wear problem I spoke of earlier and how the extractor tip wears under standard operation.

Savage Extractor Replacement

What is interesting is the use of sintered metal for the extractor part (don't know if Savage still uses this process). This is the use of a single metal type or combination of differing metal types ground to fine powder and placed in a mold and then put under high pressure and high temperature without melting the material to produce a single metal part. While cost effective, it may not yield the best quality and part integrity.

They are the "Rodney Dangerfield" of rifles, but they are good rifles..

I've got one Savage model 10. It's chambered in 223 with a 20" 1-9 bull barrel, and has a Tupperware stock. It shoots O. K., but nothing special. I've had more problems with that rifle than any other bolt action I've owned. After the first 500 rounds the sear would trip and get caught by the accu-trigger if the bolt was worked with any vigor. The rifle had been shipped with the trigger adjusted all the way down, and adjusting it all the way up eliminated the problem.

Also somehow when cleaning the bolt the extractor came out and the detent ball went sproing. I had to order another one. A friend has one in 6.5 Swede. He broke the extractor trying to us Norma cases. According to him the rims were enough thicker than the Winchester that they wouldn't fit properly under the extractor. He doesn't have a problem with the Winchester cases. Of course his detent ball went sproing and was lost when he changed the extractor.

I don't like tang safeties, so that's not a selling point for me.

I still have and use mine, but I'm not planning on getting another.

In 2016 I bought a used Savage FXP3 (Model 11) at a gun show for $295 out the door. It was chambered for .243 Win and was purchased to be a donor for a 6.5CM build.

Foolishly, I bought a set of .243 Win dies and some brass and bullets and built a single test load - 95g SST over H4831SC. It clocked at 2925fps, over 200fps slower than I could achieve with other powders. The heartbreaker was it shot like my old M110E in .22-250 - cloverleafs at 100. So long, 6.5CM.

Now I need to find another at the same price point or better. Good looking? No, but it's another Savage keeper.

There is no denying that they shoot well....

but at the end of the proverbial day, they are still a Savage.

You can only polish a turd so much...





But its a matter of taste, which is why god created blondes, brunettes, and redheads.

I've checked out a controlled feed, claw extractor equipped Ruger Hawkeye that wouldn't reliably extract. It was less than 50/50 with unfired rounds/brass that were an easy fit in the chamber. It took two trips to Ruger to get it right.

OTOH I've been shooting Remington 700's since the 70's and have never had a failure to extract. A couple of them in my stable have round counts over 4000, several more nearing 3000.

That said, I have seen a 700 or two that did have extraction problems.

It's easy for me to believe problems are more often due to poor manufacturing execution on particular examples rather than whatever the design may be. In these days of bean counting and supplying a market the biggest part of which is populated by folks who don't shoot nearly as much as members here, it doesn't surprise me that QC isn't what it could be.

I bought my first savage in about 1980. It is a 112R and was a 22-250. It never ejected cases right from day one. A new extractor did nothing. I now have 5 that do not eject cases correctly. The ones that shoot long cartridges seem better than any short case one. This is only 37 years of experience so your mileage may vary. P.S. I have never had an issue with any 700 Remington. Ed k

Thanks. Since I only owned 1 Savage bolt I didn't know about newer models. It seems as tho they DID change at some time.


Jerry