Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Savage 16 lightweight stainless/ syn. 7-08 range report

The purpose of getting this rifle was for my second oldest to hunt with and for me to tinker with. The short summary is that I will mess with it for fun, but the rifle is good to go and doesn't require any upgrades to hunt with. That's my input based on one one range trip anyway!

I picked the rifle up Monday afternoon. (Savage 22502. Stainless/syn., lightweight 7-08 with 20 inch barrel.) I knew I hadn't been impressed with the inexpensive Savage stocks I'd seen, and this rifle stock looks to be...poor.

The barrel is no where near centered. The fore end is so flimsy, I can push it against the barrel with one finger.



Check out the "inletting" around the shank and barrel nut.



The description I read said the rifle was five pounds, eight ounces. My fishing scale says five and eleven ounces. My scale is accurate within an ounce. (Checked it against a certified scale in the past.) I was hoping for an accurate description because this is to be a light-weight rifle. Don't get me wrong, I know this is still really light, I just like accurate advertising.



What I don't like most of all is the gaping space around the bolt. I loaded the mag to make it easier to see. That space is huge.



I turned the trigger turned down to 2.5 and it feels nice.

The bolt handle rattles when walking, which I don't like. Once its cocked, its quite.

I cleaned the rifle completely and installed Dyna Bore Coat. Then I put some Talleys on and lightly lapped them. I mounted a new VX2 3-9 on it and headed to the range yesterday.

The rifle ejects loaded rounds about eight inches. It flips empties about six or eight. It works, but just to tinker, I'm going to add the larger ball bearings just to see if there is a difference.

I put up a big piece of paper at 50 to get on paper. My first shot from the rifle hit the edge of the 1.5 inch dot. The next five were all in/right around it. This was me shooting fast to cure the bore coat. I ended up sighted in two clicks down and four minutes right of the scopes mechanical center, which makes me happy.

Then I moved to 100 yards. First group of H4350 and SSTs was about 1.5 inches. I'm thinking the rifle needed cleaned. I'd brought my cleaning box, but had accidentally left the cleaning rod at home. The guy next to me lent me his and I punched the bore twice with some Tactical Advantage.

Then I shot another group with SSTs (.5 more 4350). Three of the five were touching, the other two touching about 3/4 an inch away.

Then I shot an A-Max load. Exact same as the description above.

I've seen other rifles that wanted to shoot but had flimsy stocks shoot similar groups, so I held the forend tightly and fired five more. (Each of these four groups were shot without letting the barrel cool. I was using a heavy front rest and a rear sandbag.)

There are five shots in this picture. I know it only looks like four, but unless I missed the board completely and the chronograph saw a ghost, there are five there. This is Hogdon book max for H4350. Rem brass, Fed 210 Match, 162 A-Max at 2.85". (About .020 off the lands.) The brass were weighed, checked for neck uniformity, and had less than .004 run out. It was 65 degrees out, light wind, overcast, and I had one flag at the target and one at the chronograph.)The group measures .532 on centers. The speed was: 2599, 2609, 2604, 2609, 2604.



I am REALLY impressed with this little rifle. I'll go back out next week to make sure it wasn't a fluke, but I think I'm going to enjoy our first Savage.

Something I found interesting was the velocity. I was also shooting another 7-08 with a 22 inch barrel. (And a longer throat by about .100.) With the same loads, velocity was identical. Different rifles, I know, but I thought I'd lose at least 50 fps with the shorter barrel.

Six pounds, eight ounces as pictured.

ID, many thanks for his thread as I just recently picked up the very same rifle from Cheaper Than Dirt and have just ordered a Meopta 6x42 and Tally lt wts for it. Strangely, my postal scales claim it to be 5lb 6 oz but they are old and are not digital + I haven't checked them against a known wt.

BTW, mine was $597 + $10 Shipping and - if it shoots (like yours), I think it to be the very best of the lightweight valued rifles out there especially when the Savage wood stocked model 11 lt wt is closer to the 800$ range.

Thanks again.

I've lost count of how many times this thread has been essentially repeated here.

Your sentiments with the Savage match my experience. They seem to have figured out what is important to make a rifle an effective tool and that's what they focus on. No frills beyond that. But they do shoot!

Where did you "pick this up"?

The same place as Old Toot, Cheaper Than Dirt. They have a list of FFL on their site. I ordered the rifle from their webpage and clicked on the dealer I wanted it sent to. (The local shop I had it sent to charges $25 for a transfer.) It only took a few days to get here and was really easy. The rifle, shipping, and transfer were just under $635. I know that is a lot for a Savage, but for a stainless, light-weight option, I thought it was okay.

The other light-weight contenders I was considering were a Tikka SL from Sportsmans. That rifle and a Limsaver would have been $740, so $105 more. SInce they don't make the SL in 7-08, and I've already had three Tikkas, I wanted to try something new.

I've also owned four Kimbers. (Three since retirement, one back in '2005.) Set up the same way, the Kimber Montana in the same caliber is eight ounces lighter. It's also $500 more. SInce I may spend more on a stock for this Savage later it would have been less to just get the Kimber, but again, I just wanted a gun to "tinker" with and to try a new rifle. I've also read here that Savages do well in the event of a ruptured case. I'm not planning on that happening, but it's a big design plus.

Anyway, load development was a lot faster (or more lucky) on this Savage than three of my Kimbers!

This rifle is not on the Savage website. I guess 7mm08 is it. Found it .243 .308 .270

Yep,,, now the OP needs to try a 120bt set just off the lands and a full load of varget

Excellent write-up; congrats on the fantastic shooter!