Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Help me understand

I love all my Savage rifles. From Ho Hum 223 field rifles to tricked 6mm Imp, all shoot great. My buddies all love their Savages, 250 Savage in a American Classic to his F Class 6BR.
What i need help with is why when Im in the company of Police Sniper Guru's the only gun one should have is some version of a 700. Now im not looking to bag on the 700, what im asking is there really any reason a Tactical/Sniper version of the Savage is inferior? Is there some issue mechanicaly? Or is this just personal opinion and snobbery?
Mark

To me, Salvage just says cheap... I've heard of some that would shoot and seen some that wouldn't. Had only one in 222 Rem years ago and it kinda broke me from even looking at them.

Now Remington's aren't perfect but they have a huge aftermarket support, gov't contracts, easy to work on and most of all, they ain't a Salvage.

Snobbery it is.

Savage gets their bad rap from years ago when they were a chitty rifle with a chitty trigger. Guys like me remember that and just can't get over it. To this day I think Savages feel cheap and just can't bring myself to own one in a centerfire.

I think Savage builds just a good of rifle today as a Remington. That means some aregood and some are bad like any other factory rifle. I also can't get over the accutrigger. Either build a rifle with a good trigger or leave the chitty one. I hate that they "kinda" built a decent trigger.

If you want a savage buy one and use it. It will be as good as anything else.

So to answer your question it's opinion and being a snob.

Dink

I could give a flip less what something looks like as long as it shoots well. Meaning a good trigger and good groups.

I've spray painted match rifle stocks primer gray and added bondo to them before. Meaning I simply don't care about looks, only performance.

And I've seen more than a few good looking guns that didn't shoot.

other than that I see that I can buy more components, shoot more and become even better than I am, via non expenditures for "pretty"

The Rem 700 sure does have a chitload of components built for it though.... Savage is catching up a bit though. But never will be totally there.

Great guys, Thanks. I can deal with that. Ive had both over the years and have favored the Savage in the end. I have never had trouble that was not normal wear and tare as on any mechanical product. I just want to make sure i wasnt missing some glaringly obvious problem. If its just that some like this and some like that, i will be content to not be one of the cool kids.

yes opinion & snobbery as indicated on the comments above. Savages in my opinion on average exceed the accuracy of the 700 and also in reliability. Read up on remington ejectors breaking and their famous trigger recall. To add to all this their QC has really let some duesies on the market as of late.

The two most accurate factory rifles I've ever owned were both heavy barreled .308's. One was a Savage 10FP and the other is a Remington 700. They both have/had strong and weak points.

My Savage was a pre "Accu-Trigger" model and the trigger was absolutely nasty. The best thing going was a Sharp Shooters Supply trigger which helped. The new models with the accu-trigger I hear are an improvement but I still hear some complaints that they have thier own problems. The one thing I hated about the 10FP is that it had a double stack magazine and feed off the sheet metal lips of the magazine and not feed rails on the action. This is a bad, unreliable, money saving design flaw and caused endless problems. The new model with the drop mags may have fixed this problem though. My rifle was extremely accurate but only semi reliable.

The last Remington 700 I bought was a MilSpec 5R in .308. It is without a doubt the most accurate factory rifle I've ever owned and will out shoot most if not all of of my custom rifles. The action is very smooth and it's feeding is about as smooth as it gets. I've heard stories and seen pictures of broken bolt handles but have never experienced it or ever had any kind of extractor problems. While I'm sure it does happen I think it's a somewhat rare event.

After having spent considerable time with both I personally think the Remington is miles ahead of the Savage in both design and build quality and that's not snobbery.

Terry

I will take the 700 over any factory rifle. I just don't think any factory rifle has a better action than the Model 700. The Savage is fine but give me the Model 700 and you can keep the Savage

Thanks TC1, thats what i was looking for. A realistic mechanical criticism of the design. Everyone has an opinion on whats junk and whats awesome. Im a big Savage fan and have no desire to go back to Remington. I have too many barrels, tools and equipment for Savage to make the change worthwhile. However, i build and shoot mostly varmint/target guns so i rarely feed from a magazine, i use single shot followers. I have a Robar built 308 on a 700 in my safe. Its ok, it shoots. Its a work gun so i have to keep it, but dont like it as much as my built up Savage guns. But now we are into my opinon....lol
I work with some guys that are "in the know" and they tout the 700 as if was forged on Olympus....and yet none have any real knowledge as to why.....they "just know". So what i was looking for was a REAL issue. I ll take the magazine issue. It would make a difference in a tactical gun, if i build one i ll do the straight line feed action. Thanks for the input
Mark

if you know how to adjust the old savage 110 trigger it will work as well as anything else. key is knowing how. if you go to far with the adjustments you will lose safety. i have a model 12 pre-accutrigger that shoots 3/8 groups at 100yds all day long and thats with the nasty trigger.

I can't out shoot my Remington yet but I'm working on those all day long groups.

even at 200 yards