Is this Savage worth going for?

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TheSwede

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Hi!

Im from sweden and not familier with Savage rifles. I've owned a win M70 westerner wich I loved. I've found this savage 110 .30-06 with detachble magazine and I know nothing about it. The dealer wants 530 dollar for it. Thats much less than what you have to pay for a remington 700 here in sweden.
So, do I get a good accurate rifle for 530 dollar in this rifle? Consider it being in good shape, if not I wont buy it.

Thanks.
 

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Got one and had another

You CANNOT go wrong with a Savage. I had a model 11 in .243 winchester. I have one in M111 .270 winchester. I worked the .243 with a aftermarket varmint barrel.... should have left it alone, the factory sporter barrel shot better than the varmint barrel!!! Savage produces better barrels. I had a Remington 700 and had to buy two seperate tools to disassembly the bolt, the Savage you just need a allen wrench to take it apart.

On another note, do you all take big game with the 6.5x55 swede??
 
Savages are excellent rifles, very, very, accurate (Savage's shooting team is one of the few company teams that wins competitions with unmodified factory rifles). Savage is an old and respected US company. Their quality control is good as well. They aren't luxury rifles to be sure, and Savage has been known to cut corners in fit and finish to keep costs down, but they do not skimp where it counts (barrel quality, action, etc.). $530 is quite reasonable, they go for around that price here in Kansas as well. It will be a very different rifle than the M70 though, it is push feed and has a tang safety they are very far apart from a design standpoint.
 
Wow! thanks for the answere, sounds great. Wich barell length were they made in .30-06??? and twist rate? The dealer havent answered me yet.
 
The 6,5x55! well nowadays most of the big games here are hunted with .30-06 and .308. And I think its good the swede abandoms the 6,5x55 as a big game cartridge. On the other hand 60% of all mooses are shot and killed with the 6,5x55 and from the 50's-90's 6,5x55 dominated the big game hunting here. Everyone was hunting with 6,5x55. Actually a 156 grain bullet get the job done really good becouse of the long bullet (high SD) But when you hit big bones with 6,5 or hunting wild boars/hogs the 6,5 have troubles going throught with power. With a .30-06 you have better marginals.

As I see it 6,5x55 is an excellent deer caliber and a great long range caliber. Great BC and easy to load and get very good accuracy.
 
Ditto on posts # 2 and 3. I have a .204 LO Pro that shoots ragged holes with Fiocchi 40 gr ammo. Savage makes a great gun especially with the Accutrigger.
 
Savages are fantastic I have owned several of them. ALL have been MOA or better shooters. You just cannot go wrong with them, VASTLY better rifles then the Remingtons I have owned. The only other afordable rifle that will compete with the Savages are the Tikkas in my experence....and yes I have owned or shot them all.
I think $530 is a bit high, but I usualy don't buy wooden stocks since I live in 90-100% humidity year round. I just bought a Savage "package gun" you know the one with the cheesy yet very functional Bushnell scope, I only paid $386 for it, and yes the package guns can shoot too, I shot .75" on my 1st trip to the range, on my first run of handloads!! I am sure once I tweek my powder/primer/bullet/length I will be in the .5 MOA or better range, not bad for a rifle/scope that costs less than the avarge monthy car note :D
The 6.5x55 is an exellent cartrage, my favorite in fact. I do like 270s, 06s and the short mags too, but my 6.5 Sweed is my go-to gun for deer/hog sized game. The 6.5x55 is still commonly used around the world for big game hunting, now the 06 has stolen some of it's spotlight but it will still be dropping moose for many many years to come, and will remain the darn near perfect deer caliber as long as we push bullets with powder.
 
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The Savage was designed in the 1950s for low-cost manufacture. One of the things Savage did was to use a barrel nut.

Normally, barrels are "short-chambered" and final-chambered only after the rifle is assembled. The Savage is assenbled, a gauge inserted in the chamber and the barrel screwed in and out until the bolt closes, then the barrel nut is run down to hold the headspace. The result is an inherently accurate rifle.
 
I recently bought my first savage, in .308.. It came with the crappy but functional Bushnell scope, but has the Accu-trigger. You will want that if you have the chance. I paid $350ish for it new. I had it out again yesterday, and at 200 yards off of a sand bag was able to keep my rounds within 4 inches of bull. And that's with 1982 NATO ammo made somewhere other than the USA. Really nice gun.
 
Ok thanks all. Im a bit dissapointed its only 22 inch barell. I think .30-06 is best with 24 or 26 but I suspected 22.

One thing I've learned is that you guys should be really lucky! the rifles in sweden costs twice atleast. I guess its becouse its a small market over here. The only rifles wich are cheap is our own Huskys (husqvarna) you can get them for free almost becouse there is sooo many of them.

Anyway I will test shoot that savage and maybe the dealer can go down on the price becouse he have had it for a long time now.
 
Swede,
so the 6.5x55 lacks energy.... ok. I only heard that you all took big game such as moose and such... so shot placement is key, with any caliber. From my study the 6.5 bullet does have the best SD. Maybe step up to a larger casing?
 
I love it when the uneducated smack talk the 6.5x55s energy, I have more energy past 200 yards with my 6.5 then my 150gr 30-06 :D And even that is a mute point because ENERGY DOES NOT KILL! Ask any engineer, energy is the POTENTIAL to do work, but much like riding the redline of your mustang in 1st gear down the highway all that energy does not always result in performance. Dumping energy into hide/fat/muscle tissue is just as pointless, so penatration is peramount and very few will hang with the old sweed for penatration. They just have a tendency to go in very very clean and expend their energy in the vitals where is really counts. This is evedent by the fact that I get almost zero gunshot meat and the heart and lungs are utterly destroyed. I have been a 6.5x55 fan since childhood, and never had less then spectacular performance on game even with the way underpressure factory ammo. Energy figures are great and all, but when energy theory conflicts with feild proven facts energy seems kind of pointless.
I like my 30-06 too, it is ballisticly a 6.5x55 scaled up 1/3, they launch bullets of the same SD at near identical speeds and identical trajectories, but I perfer the sweed for all the game around here, it kills them as fast as anything and it kicks like a cricket with half the noise of the 06.
 
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Well since you were nice enough to explain how energy, being the potential, plays out in the equation, how about explaining what does the work? Unless I can answer it... speed(velocity) kills.

Sounds like velocity/energy/expansion/penetration kills. In order for a kill, you need velocity, in order for expansion you need velocity, in order for penetration you need velocity. So where does energy come to play.

With electricty voltage (energy) is the driving force. So without energy, all the velocity, expansion, and penetration in the world wouldn't drive the right weight bullet to accomplish nothing.

The potential of energy is at what point? To some bullet manufactures, it's at all velocities. And at various energy levels.
 
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If speed alone was responsable for the killing we would all be hunting with 17 Fireballs, and 45-70s would be worthless. As it turns out the 17 is worthless on big game and the 45-70 has been putting down nearly every species of big game around the world for over a century. Now speed helps by expanding the range of the shock cavity. There are some very high speed cartrages that have plenty of energy that are marginal at best for big game, 220 Swift, 22-250 and 204 Ruger. Penatration is the by far the most important aspect, more important then shock damage, more important then caliber, even more important then expansion. If you don't have the penatration to pass through the vital organs you are just kidding youself I don't care how fast your bullet is. The key is tuning your gear for the level of penatration required for a given species of game. Deer bullets should panatrate a minimum of 12" with 16"-20" probably being ideal, elk sized game should be about 18" minimum and 24"-28" being ideal, for water buffalo and other dangerous game the rule is more is better because you never know what angle you might have to shoot them. That is why most large dangerous game hunters use heavy FP or RN solids that punch through a few feet of bone, muscle, hide and fat.
You would be supprised how well some low speed projectiels penatrate, there are some handgun cartrages that will penatrate over 40" of soft tissue. The world record polor bear was killed with the very low speed 44 mag. The 44 is nowhere near as fast as a 220 Swift, less energy too, yet it makes a much better (though still not ideal) bullet for dangerous game.
 
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That's kinda funny. Here in Oregon a used Savage runs around $350-$400 whereas a clean Husky can run into the $500 department depending on chambering.
 
I should start a thread dedacated to the mechanics of terminal performance. Many hunters don't understand the mechanics of it, there are just too many myths/sales pitches that obscure what terminal performance really is and how it works. I have heard the 6mm guys going off about some kind of molicular accelaration theory, and the big bore guys preaching the TKO formula like it had some kind of application in the real world. I have spent many hundreds of hours studying what bullets really do, so I think I understand better then most.
 
Its ok I enjoy talking about 6,5x55 I own one myself (sako). 6,5 doesnt lack energy and its true that 6,5 outperform .30-06 beyond 200 yards but whati ment was that i have never seen a 200 grain bullet from a .30-06 stayed in a game like i have seen 6,5 bullets do. Ofcourse shot placement is everything. You should choose the gun/caliber that shoots best. What i like with the .30-06 is the flat trajectory put to 200 yards with a 150grain boattail bullet. Velocity 2950 in my rifle. I cant get that in my 6,5 without go down to too light bullets.
 
I get 3000fps in my 6.5 with 120gr bullets, which are comprable to the BC and SD of 165gr 30 cals. That load behaves exactly like a 130gr 270, hit about the same too. With 180-200gr bullets the 30-06 behaves very much like a 140gr 6.5x55, retains alot of energy, and drives very deep. If you want extream penatration the 160gr 6.5 and 220gr 06 are close rivals though the 6.5s tend to have better BC in this class. The 160gr weldcore is .500+
If you had a 140gr 6.5 fail to pass thorough you are either shooting some very soft bullets of you are shooting them lengthwise :D Even my 120s have a 100% through and through record on deer. I have yet to recover a 140gr from ANYTHING, and 160s will pass through anything shy of an M1A1 Main Battle Tank.
 
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I agree with you Swede. Some guys here have never seen a moose and get a little too carried away about some brands and cartridges.
 
Seems to me that no matter who I talk to, everybody has thier own therories.

Who knocks the .270 for elk,"oh the .270 isn't enough for Elk, I have a .338."

But what he doesn't know, and He doesn't, because he doesn't handload, that a 150 grain .270 has just as much SD as a 200 .338.

What's the big deal about a bullet passing all the way through an animal anyway? Barnes advertises thier bullet drops off with expansion/penetration once it leaves the animal, which thier price isn't worth it to me, no matter what they say.

I e-mailed Sierra bullets and asked them, about start loads for hunting. They said yeah you can use them. So I asked why do you publish max loads then? His response was because "that's what people want." And if you think thier bullets are too soft, guess again. Carroll Pilant once told me that people have called in and reported that they have taken elk with .270 pro hunter 130 grainers. He said "it's one tuff bullet". So to sum it up, most people have thier OWN therories when it comes to terminal performance, you got yours and I go with what works.
 
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I dont doubt that 6,5x55 is effective. I know it is but the problem is thar the law in sweden forbidds lighter bullets than 150 grains on big game. Its illigal. The goverment have focus on weight and energy so thats it. So if I want to shot flat and be legal i have to hunt with .30 cal. I could go with 7mm rem mag but i dont like belted.
 
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