Initial report on my new Savage/Stevens 200

[kraky1]

Just got one in 300 win mag. After reading some good initial reports on this gun I wanted to "play with" a less expensive rifle and see how good it might shoot. (I love an underdog) I figure I can reload it down to 308/30-06 for our Wis whitetail season and use the extra power for an out west gun.

Here's some initial info so far:

Paid $279 brand new at local gunshop.

Is supposed to weigh 6.5#'s--I don't have a postal scale but I think they are pretty close with the wt--it feels light!

Fit and finish seems ok. Barrel totally free floated all the way back. Bluing quality is average to good. Stock looks and feels ok but it's got kind of a hard plastic feeling that may be a little noisy. Recoil pad is very hard and will be the first to be upgraded.

Trigger: It breaks pretty crisp but is heavy-probably 6#'s. I see it is adjustable but haven' pulled the trigger guard off to play with it yet. This may be the 2nd thing to upgrade but am hoping to adjust it down to "cold weather big gloves" trigger pull.

Barrel: is very thin profile. A tight fitting cleaning patch goes up & down very smooth. Fired 8 rounds to site in today and see absolutely no copper fouling.

Brass Tolerances: The blind magazine will only take up to 3.338" oal. I found that a win power point bottoms into the lands at 3.443 oal so...that means even a PP will have over .105" jump...the sleek plastic tipped bullets will probably be jumping .150" if matched to the magazine. (Guess I shouldn't complain unless it's not accurate but won't have to worry about the .050" jump that barnes wants!)
I checked the headspace on the 8 fired shells and found they had grown .030"--I thought this was excessive but will set up my sizing die to not oversize the fired cases. I guess I'll have to keep my eyes open for stress ahead of the belt area on fired brass. Taking a bullet and sliding it in the case mouth of a fired piece of brass I found that there is just a tad of looseness...it certainly isn't snug but I've seen lots "looser" case mouths so I'm thinking the chamber tolerances by the case neck are pretty good.

Accuracy: I didnt have much time today and only tried one load...I used an accuracy load for 165's out of the barnes manual which is a medium load of RE19 and I used 165 interbonds. I didn't use a boesighter so I started at 25 yds, got it close and moved to 100 yds. After 8 total shots I got it 1.5" high with the last two landing within an inch of ea other. (Certainly not an accuracy test) but figure I need to do alot of load developing before judging.

So far the only two negatives is I wish there was more "clip" room but maybe this is the way most 300 win mags are.....and I wish it had tighter headspace to save on brass life. I'd still buy the gun again and will post more after more work with it.

Probably not much of a report but some might find the info usefull for whatever reason.

[LOBO]

Sounds like you got your moneys worth, anyway. Sounds like a very nice rifle for less than $300.00 Keep us updated.

[Waltech Jim]

Kraky,

The few Savages I have switched barrels on I was able to tighten the barrel (from factory) about 1/2 turn using a full length sized empty case as a gauge. I wonder just how "tight" yours is as it should be headspacing on the belt???

Yup, there is no way I could resist that slippery slope. I would have the nut loose in no time seeing if I could tighten it up some. Oh crap, can't tighten it up? Ok, borrow reamer from gunsmith buddy, do a light ream. Take a few thousandths off the back. Screw it back in,..............Bang, Bang, Bang.

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

You can actually resist that???? Your a good man Kraky. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Jim

[kraky1]

Thanks for the info I may talk to my local smith about it.
The only other gun I've seen that much headspace on was a winchester model 70 chambered in 300 wby. With full power loads it would start to crack just ahead of the belt in 2-3 reloadings. Mine might be the same way. I see that there is some "shine" just ahead of the belt from the case stretching forward to match the chamber dimension. I do have a cool shim kit from sinclair that you can set a die to do a factory resize but then you put some of these shims under the sizing die to match the headspace to what you want without playing with the lock ring. (I just don't know if I've got enough shims to take up about .030"!
I guess just for brass life I should get the thing set correct.

[abinok]

Definately think about popping that barrel loose and tightening up the headspace. Its my understanding that these are built on what was the standard Savage 110 action (pre accutrigger), and as such, the savage aftermarket triggers should fit.