Snakum
Member
I've fired a Savage 114 with Accustock previously and saw 1 MOA right out of the box with factory ammo. But this was a surprise:
A friend from home stopped by early today with his new rifle, a Savage 10FCP with muzzle brake in .308 picked up yesterday afternoon. He had already cleaned it thoroughly so we took it straight to a local guy's place to test it with three kinds of factory ammo. At 100 paces - which with my long chicken legs is about 110 yards - it shot 'four per groups' of .5" or better with two different weights of Federal Power-Shok and with Winchester BST once we got the bipod and sandbags set up properly. We allowed the barrel to cool between groups for record, but we also noticed that the barrel getting hot after, say ... four quick four-shot groups as fast as we could load 'em in and jack the bolt, didn't affect the groups size so much as POI. My beloved Winchester and the older Rem 700s I use will start to open up pretty badly when I shoot like that, of course they have sporter barrels.
It seems Savage is really kicking butt nowadays. I've been looking for a new bolt gun and have ruled out Sako/Tikka for CS issues, ruled out new Remingtons for QA issues, and ruled out Ruger for the fit and finish I saw on their guns in the shop. Savage was running neck and neck with Thompson/Center, but being able to get a bolt in .308 may make Savage the winner. Money's tight and .308 plinking is cheap compared to 30-06 and 7mm mag.
So, when out-of the box Savage rifles shoot sub MOA groups regularly, some models even doing it with factory ammo, does this mean .5 MOA is the new standard. It seems most rifles produced nowadays will probably shoot MOA with some factory round or another, right out of the box. They're all more accurate than ever. I've even read gun tests where Savage's Stevens and Marlin's XL7s will shoot 1" groups with certain factory loads and are dependable as can be in the brush.
It's a good time to be a gun nut.
A friend from home stopped by early today with his new rifle, a Savage 10FCP with muzzle brake in .308 picked up yesterday afternoon. He had already cleaned it thoroughly so we took it straight to a local guy's place to test it with three kinds of factory ammo. At 100 paces - which with my long chicken legs is about 110 yards - it shot 'four per groups' of .5" or better with two different weights of Federal Power-Shok and with Winchester BST once we got the bipod and sandbags set up properly. We allowed the barrel to cool between groups for record, but we also noticed that the barrel getting hot after, say ... four quick four-shot groups as fast as we could load 'em in and jack the bolt, didn't affect the groups size so much as POI. My beloved Winchester and the older Rem 700s I use will start to open up pretty badly when I shoot like that, of course they have sporter barrels.
It seems Savage is really kicking butt nowadays. I've been looking for a new bolt gun and have ruled out Sako/Tikka for CS issues, ruled out new Remingtons for QA issues, and ruled out Ruger for the fit and finish I saw on their guns in the shop. Savage was running neck and neck with Thompson/Center, but being able to get a bolt in .308 may make Savage the winner. Money's tight and .308 plinking is cheap compared to 30-06 and 7mm mag.
So, when out-of the box Savage rifles shoot sub MOA groups regularly, some models even doing it with factory ammo, does this mean .5 MOA is the new standard. It seems most rifles produced nowadays will probably shoot MOA with some factory round or another, right out of the box. They're all more accurate than ever. I've even read gun tests where Savage's Stevens and Marlin's XL7s will shoot 1" groups with certain factory loads and are dependable as can be in the brush.
It's a good time to be a gun nut.
