Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 375 H&H Savage Photos

John,

I have only 80 rounds through it so far, and everything is fine. I had heard about the same thing in older 110s, but it seemed to be not too common. ONCE is too much, however.

I believe from living with this new 116 series that Savage has done some homework.

ALSO... the person to whom that post was directed is a real straight guy and a credit to the forum. We were just exchanging some testosterone... I have absolute respect for him.

I just love this stuff, all these experts yet you havent even used the rifle. "Oh my god its ugly" so what? Your not going on a date with the thing! Maybe you should be fondling something else besides your gun, but some how i think that may not work as well as your stupidity

Have accumulated a few Savages in 375 H&H, 416, 458, and 470 Capstick over the years. Obviously, some of these are rebarreled.

Like the quick rebarrel option and think it has special merit in Africa. Not recommending it for others, but starting with a 470 while DG is on the list and then switching to 375 when all the DG have been taken ain't too bad a plan. Even if you don't switch to 375, having the extra barrel in a common caliber (even 300 Win Mag) is not a bad idea. Have run out of ammo for a specific gun on occasion when a culling opportunity unexpectedly arose. Takes less than five minutes to switch barrels in the field. Wouldn't do it during the middle of a buffalo charge.

Extra barrels are lighter for airline luggage than extra complete rifles, but would always take at least two complete rifles with backup scopes to Africa. If both are Savages, then the extra barrels could be used on other Savage too. An extra complete bolt assembly for 30-06 would further increase the options. As ya'll know, the bolt action Savage is a complete erector set gun.

Have not had a failure to operate (feed, fire, extract) with the Savages yet.

Have had a few trips to Africa and other remote places so can appreciate the need for reliability in the field far from home.

Think Savage is OK.


My Brownings, Dakotas, Granite Mountain, Mausers, Montanas, Remingtons, Sakos, Weatherbys, Winchesters, etc. are OK too.


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No dog in this fight, just a report of my limited experience. I picked up a Savage 116 in 375H&H when it was the Alaskan Guide Model in 2006. I was in Valdez after brown bear carrying a custom 338WM from a well known maker, but that 338 was a rifle that I never trusted was reliable enough for a possible fight at close range. I sighted in the Savage - shot well with Fail Safe 300s factory ammo - but fortunately (?) I didn't shoot at a bear with the 375. A couple of things bothered me about the Savage, even before I bought it - the plastic magazine follower and too many unprotected carbon steel parts for a rough weather rifle. After getting home I worked with the M116 .375 enough to proof to myself that the feeding wasn't what I was looking for in a DG rifle. I admit it's a sample of one and may be just me. I wound up with a Ruger Hawkeye Alaskan and 3 bears in my last 2 trips back to the Great Land. Just reporting my personal experience with all the caveats surrounding anecdotal 'data.'

Catter,

What type of feeding problems did you experience? This 116 of mine is pretty slick and feeds perfectly, no matter how erratic I purposely work the bolt. I am still evaluating the gun, as I have little experience with the 110 design, but many years with pre-64 mdl 70s and 98 Mausers; all is OK so far.

Luv2safari, apologize for the delay but have been away from this thread for awhile. Main type of feeding problems were caused when the mag follower tipped down and the bolt overrode the next round and failed to feed it. Admittedly this didn't happen with every round and may well have been due to the mag spring and may have been cured with a replacement. Every type of rifle can have bad parts, etc. As do others, I believe there's a 'mystical' quality of faith in DGR reliability that once breached can be hard to re-establish. I admit to magical thinking in this area. I found a Ruger Hawkeye about this time, traded the Savage for it and have now used the Alaskan enough to think it's reliable for DG. Maybe I wasn't fair to the Savage, but there it is ...

YES.

BMT

TTT for the fellow who inquired about Savage .375's

I have generally been a Remington man, but I won a Savage 110 in 270 a few years ago in a raffle, right after the Accutrigger was introduced. I was going to re-barrel it to 35 Whelen but fortunately I shot it first. It shot .8" groups at 100 yards with the el-cheapo Remington 130 grain core-lokt factory ammo (well, it was cheap then), and that's for 5 shots, not 3. I have since bought two more, one of which I did re-barrel to 35 Whelen. I have never had a failure to feed, extract, or eject with any of these rifles, and I have at least 500 rounds through the 270, a couple hundred through the 35 Whelen, and at least a hundred through the other, a 30-06.

Yes, the Accutrigger is as great as Savage makes it sound.

FYIW, my father finally got to go on a moose hunt in Newfoundland a couple of years ago. He had been talking about going on a guided trip for some time, after us kids were done with college. He scrimped and saved to go, selling stuff on Ebay, etc. I think the whole bill came to around $4000, including travel, tip, etc. He couldn't afford to also go out and buy a dedicated moose rig, so he just took his old 721 in 30-06 with a steel 4x Weaver, and shot a nice bull. Everyone else in camp had 30-06's. Most of them had 742's.

There are a large number of people who travel to Canada, Alaska, Africa, or even just "Out West" every year that get by just fine with rifles they can afford. I don't think their satisfaction in their hunts are affected one bit by the price tag on their rifles, nor do the elk/moose/buffalo know the difference.

JV

Never actually owned a Savage bolt action myself...almost got my hands on a 99 a couple of times and have shot them. May get that nice lil .308 winny my buddy keeps yakkin bout sellin yet.

Used to be quite the range rat and over the years saw a lot of different rifle brands performing at the range as well as field shooting here in B.C.
Savages are just plain accurate..not lovely but accurate, function above form rifles. Some guys value that above looks and name some don't. At the end of the day both will prolly be pretty darn happy with their personal choice. (and that's what its all about)
I can tell you from personal experience they are hell for strong rifles tho.
Years ago my brother and his buddy Vic were hunting Black-Tails in real nasty winter conditions. It was raining then snowing and suddenly got pretty cold. Well Vic is kind of a character.. he thot that puttin a small twig in the muzzle to keep out the snow would be a great idea. So sure nuff about an hour or so later he spots a dandy buck bedded in the timber and takes a poke at him. I was a fair distance from Vic at the time but even then I was able to tell that something didn't seem right about the sound of that shot. Well I found Vic a short time later still standing where he fired that shot and there was his rifle leaned against a large fir tree with the classic umbrella bbl look! Yep blew it up and not a scratch on him. It was a old 110 in 7 mm rem mag btw. The action was fine just the bbl blew and it only split up to the fore stock tip. Guess the twig got water behind and round it and froze solid for a nice little plug effect.
He still has that rifle exactly like it was when it blew up and shows it off... with the don't try this warning.LOL

I will say that I have had some similar feeding issues with my Savage 114. Wish it was a floor-plate style instead of the detachable mag.

Seems like if the bolt is worked too quickly, it will ride right over the next round in the mag and not load anything.

I like it 'cause it's accurate and isn't a DG rifle since it's just a 30-06.

I've had ZERO feed issues with either Dad's .416 Rigby Ruger M77, my own M77 in 30-06, or dad's M77 30-06.

I like the RSI's too much to put a scope on them and mess up the lines so I need the Savage for long-range work.