You guys obviously know absolutely nothing about Team Savage. That team was formed totally independent of the company and stayed that way for several years. It wasn't until Savage noticed what they were doing with their stock rifles that they got involved.
I included a statement from a member of Team Savage in my post I referenced in another thread. Did you bother to read that? Clearly you didn't. The statement is from Monte Milanuk. It's posted below. I know the board he posts on. It shouldn't be hard to find if you want to go ask him the same question he's been asked 1000 times from other doubters. I just don't get why people think they can assume things without having any evidence to back those things. You couldn't be more wrong in your conclusions. Team Savage was not something Savage Arms put together. And they absolutely do use stock rifles in some cases and what few modifications they make are minor. They use stock triggers and barrels. They made modifications to the cheek piece and one person actually bedded his rifle. That's what the statement says. Until you come up with proof they are lying I know who I'm believing.
Not only that but I have a Savage rifle very much like those rifles used by Team Savage. It shoots better than any rifle I've ever picked up. And I've been shooting for over 50 years.
But just for the record I'll include that Monte Milanuk statement in this thread too since you guys think you can assume facts out of thin air.
"The 12 F/TR rifles we've been using since 2007 started out, and still are, pretty much stock. Not exactly 'bone' stock anymore, but nothing earth-shattering or out of the reach of someone else with one of these rifles.
When I received my 12 F/TR in July 2007 it had already been in someone else's possession previously. So far as I know, all that had been done to it up to that point was a skim coat bedding job using Devcon. The barrel was original, the Target AccuTrigger was stock, and it still had that hideous 'lump' of a cheekpiece.
Due to a mistake on my part remounting the scope between a match here in the Pacific North West, and the SOA/FCNC that year, I ended up augmenting the cheekpiece with some foam padding and a fair amount of duct tape. I used the same stuff to add a bit to the LOP - which didn't work so well. It would compress easily under recoil, and bop me on my glasses every few shots. Still, I think the results were pretty good regardless
At that point if I recall correctly, a couple of the others were running Tubb adjustable buttplates, albeit somewhat modified (lightened) to make weight. One person eventually bedded their rifle, a couple eventually went to the Karsten adjustable saddle cheekpiece that I mounted on mine after 2007, and one person (Darrell Buell) to this day still has not done *anything* to his rifle - no bedding, still uses that factory cheek piece (yuck!), nada. If you've kept track of how we've done as a group, well, Darrell's performance has been a strong testament to the capability of the rifle as it comes from the factory. Prior to Bisley this year I sent my bolt off to Gre-Tan to have the firing pin hole bushed in hopes of buying a little insurance against pierced primers if some water got in the chamber. As it turned out, it was more a matter of 'when', not 'if', and the mod paid for itself several times.
Along the way we had an opportunity to have the rifles re-barreled at the factory - several members of the team were going back for a tour, and to take a factory armorer's course. Mine got re-barreled along with the rest, and shipped back (along with the 'old' barrel (#1); made dang sure of that!). Long story made very short, the new barrel (#2) got sent back because of some problems, and a new one sent out (#3). After the 2008 season, we had another talk and I ended up with barrels #4 & #5. After a thorough scrutiny with the borescope, #4 got mounted on the gun. Anyone who thinks that we aren't getting 'factory' barrels is more than welcome to bring your borescope and take a look down the pipe on one of these and draw your own conclusions
Now that I've once again spent a fair amount of time defending that the Savage rifles we've shot up to this point have been basically stock - with some minor modifications made at our own expense - and that the barrels are most certainly standard factory issue... let me add the caveat that what we may be using in the future may *not* be something you can find a direct match for in a catalog. Oh, it will most likely use standard parts (haven't been able to talk them into letting me stick a Rock or Brux barrel on there... yet) but the configuration may be something a little non-standard. The 12 F/TR rifle still shoots like a friggin' hammer when you get it dialed in - as evidenced by the pile o' goodies we brought back from Bisley with them - but F/TR is evolving. Subtly, but it is changing. Whether what we use ends up filtering back into the product line (gee, there's an idea...) remains to be seen."
There's more to his posts than this. He gives a complete history of the team among other things. Just for the record they started out as the first ever United States F-T/R Team just FYI. Savage didn't come along until much later. Years later.
To answer your ammo question that's a hard ball to call. I've seen rifles in the same session shoot factory cartridge "match" loadings out of the same box absolutely sub-minute in one rifle than a 3 inch group the same session out of the same box in a different rifle of proven sub-minute precision. That second rifle held sub-minute precision later in the session with a different brand. At the accuracy you're requiring you're simply going to have to try different loads...If you're willing to invest in a rifle like a Surgeon than you might try to find a Match Grade custom ammo loader in your area.
