Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles New Stevens bolt actions = JUNK

Here's an AMEN to that.

I remember being poor. It sucked. It sucked big time. Having a couple of kids in diapers, student loans due, a mortgage, and a p.o.s. car that was sucking money down for car repairs, being able to buy a Savage 110 from an ffl buddy was the only thing that allowed me to go out and hunt. If I'd had an elitist attitude, I'd have had to have taken up golf (the horror). JMO, Dutch.

It cracks me up, people buy a Remington Mountain rifle and it shoots so-so, costs $700, and is fitted like a first year wood shop student put it together, so they gripe about the price they have to pay for a decent rifle.
Then, fast forward, and Savage comes out with the Stevens rifle, which is nothing more than a Savage 10/110, with a very good factory synthetic stock, which is rigid, a first class factory barrel, and a finish that is much better, for the most part than guns costing three times as much, and what happens? They still gripe about the gun. For $275, you get a pretty darn good deal.
I've shot several of the Stevens and currently have one in 25/06. I've also shot ones in 7-08 and .270. ALL were very good shooters right out of the box. Here's some pics of the first 9 shots out of the 25/06's tube, if you don't like these, then you really won't like the 260 Savage I rebarreled with a factory barrel, from .308 to .260. The worst group from the 25/06 was the "sighter" group marked on the target. I was fiddling with the scope and moving the gun off the bags when I shot it, even with all that it was 1.5".

Received the rifle on Friday. I am hobbling around on a broken leg <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />, so had a good friend of mine took the rifle to the range yesterday to give it a try.

He fired six rounds with it. Three to get it sighted in and then a three shot group. Group is right on one inch, almost a perfect triangle, using 73 gr of Norma 204, Rem 9 1/2 mag primers and 180 SSTs.

I wonder how well it is going top shoot with some load development?

Ted

Received the rifle on Friday. I am hobbling around on a broken leg <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />, so a good friend of mine took the rifle to the range yesterday to give it a try.

Shot it just as it came out of the box. No adjustments to trigger, didn't touch the guard screws or anything else. We wanted to see how it would perform just the way Savage shipped it.

Three shots to sight in, and then three more shots for record, printed right at one inch in size. Nice triangluar group, shot at nine power with 3-9X40 Bushnell 3200. Imagine that, right out of the box, and in a 30 KM wind! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Garry says the recoil is what you would expect from a light rifle in a magnum caliber (weighs 7 pounds 11 ounces) and that although the trigger seemed heavier than what he likes, it broke clean with no creep. We weighed the trigger last night and were both surprised it weighed what it does, 4 1/2 pounds. That is a full pound and a half more than we usually set our hunting rifles, but the trigger breaks so clean, it actually feels much lighter.

Load was 73 gr of Norma 204, Rem 9 1/2 mag primers and 180 SSTs for those who are interested. It will be interesting to see how it shoots with some load development and the trigger adjusted to around three pounds.

One very interesting thing, when I went to clean the rifle last night, there was no copper wash or streaking visible in the muzzle at all. Not even a bit. This is quite unusual, in my experience, for a brand new barrel. Maybe I have really lucked out and got an exceptionally smooth barrel.

Then again, maybe not. Perhaps the Savage button-rifled barrels are that good! Surely not.....................<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Ted

Yukoner, could you measure the length of pull for me??

It is exactly 13 1/2" to the centre of the pad.

Ted

Thank you!

Okay, same load, 73 gr Norma 204, with 180 gr Partitions puts five shots into 1 1/4 inch, 200 gr Barnes X with 70 gr does almost the same, and the rifle still has less than thirty rounds down the tube.

Certainly not as nice to look at as one of my lovely Husqvarnas, but not too bad for junk, eh? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ted

Wow, you guys should sell all your real guns and replace them with Stevens and start entering bench rest competitions, LOL.

Maybe McMillan should dump their current manufacturing and just start buying those great stocks from Stevens and sell them instead since they are so superior. Hahahahahaaaaaaa

Dogcatcher, from your first post in this thread:



You piqued my interest, and I bought one just to see. Turns out it is a cheap, throw around piece of junk that shoots! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />



...........and it will only shoot better as the barrel breaks in.

Ted