Savage frustration leads to a positive note

Some of you may have read my other threads on the issues I have been having with my wife's Savage Lady Hunter. For those of you that didn't here is a real quick run down of what happened. I purchased the wife a brand new backup hunting rifle (Savage Lady hunter). This was in 7mm08, has a wooden stock which is pillar bedded but not recoil lug area bedded and comes with cheap plastic bottom metal, including the magazine. We were getting some of the worst groups ive ever seen 2-5inch groups (average being 3 inches) with all different kinds of factory ammo. I called savage and they had me send it back. They sent it back to me with a target showing they were able to get 1 three shot group that was at 1.5inches with their premium ammo which meets their quality control guidelines. I tried the ammo they recommended and still got the typical 2-3 inch group with one group of 1.75 inches but I truly think that was a fluke as no other groups were ever below 2 inches with most being 3 or larger. We tried different scopes, different shooters, and even purchased real bottom metal which cost 100$. I finally had enough and decided to rebarrel the rifle. I purchased an excaliber blank and had a gunsmith contour, chamber/ream/finish the barrel. Well the wife and I finally got the barrel on and went shooting this past weekend. We did the recommended break-in procedure (5-10 single shots with cleaning in between and then three shot groups with cleaning in between). The first 3 shot group yielded a .6inch group. The second 3 shot group yielded a bug hole which I estimated was about .3inches but I did not have my calipers with me. That was all the time we had for shooting that day but I must say I am absolutely thrilled with how this gun was shooting and this was with factory American Whitetail Loads. I purchased the cheapest ammo since I knew I would be breaking the barrel in. It is shooting so well I don't even think I will work up handloads for it since 1MOA accuracy is all we need for the hunting we do. At the end of the day we spent much more on this rifle than anticipated (700$ for the brand new rifle, 100$ bottom metal, 300$ for the custom barrel including finish work so about 1100$). I know we could have cut our losses and sold the rifle and purchased a nicer rifle for that much money but there was no way I was going to try and offload this rifle onto someone else...it was shooting that poorly. I will never buy a factory Savage again and likely never a factory rifle period. I know it is not typical to get a lemon (especially with Savages) but it really sucks when you do. The time put in to try and make that rifle shoot was a waste and lead to a lot of frustration. I could have purchased a used but in good condition savage rifle for like 300$ and threw a custom barrel on it which will likely guaranty sub 1 MOA accuracy if not much better (I have now built 3 Savage rifles with after market barrels and all 3 are bug hole shooters).

Congratulations, I think.

Rich Coyle said:

Congratulations, I think.

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Yes it is very bittersweet. The time and money spent are definitely a negative but the outcome of what I believe will be a really good shooting rifle is great.

That's awesome, I have no qualms at all with the Xcaliber barrel I have.

If you get a substandard custom barrel or your smith is having a bad day looks like your out of options based on your disgust of factory products, what's left? Unfortunately there's the human element involved in both ...

NDF said:

If you get a substandard custom barrel or your smith is having a bad day looks like your out of options based on your disgust of factory products, what's left? Unfortunately there's the human element involved in both ...

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Well it's a good thing my Smith has a .75MOA accuracy guarantee with his barrel work. also, I think I have the right for disgust in my situation. 3inch being a typical group is not acceptable in my opinion. Lastly, I have 12 factory rifles to my name ranging from Remington, to browning, to savage, and tikka. None have been able to achieve bughole accuracy with handloads. 7 achieve sub 1moa accuracy with many loads while the other 5 only shoot sub 1MOA with a specific hand load and no factory loads that I have found. Now switch to the 4 savage rifles I have built, 3 of which I own....all 4 shoot sub 1 MOA with many different factory offerings and all 4 shoot bug holes with a few loadings. Too me that says it all. Factory...flip a coin. Built by me/smith, your chances of an accurate rifle go WAY up.

It makes me wonder how the factory was able to squeak it in within their "acceptable" limits?
Congrats on finally getting a good rifle, and thank you for seeing it through instead of dumping it.

MtPockets said:

It makes me wonder how the factory was able to squeak it in within their "acceptable" limits?
Congrats on finally getting a good rifle, and thank you for seeing it through instead of dumping it.

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Agreed...it seemed very convenient that their accuracy limit is 1.5inches for factory sporter barrel and that was exactly what they got...I even tried using the ammo they recommended (3 boxes) and only 1 three shot group got below 2inches at 100 yards. All the others were larger averaging in the 3inch group range.

Post #6, point well made

Your choice but personally I would not accept Savages excuses. There is no way to tell if the group they shot was with your gun and a 3 shot group does not represent a normal basis of evaluating group size in any case.

Glad you got the gun shooting but having to screw on a new barrel is pretty extreme and you have spent $1,100 for a gun that still has the crap Savage Tupperware stock on it.

Dean2 said:

Your choice but personally I would not accept Savages excuses. There is no way to tell if the group they shot was with your gun and a 3 shot group does not represent a normal basis of evaluating group size in any case.

Glad you got the gun shooting but having to screw on a new barrel is pretty extreme and you have spent $1,100 for a gun that still has the crap Savage Tupperware stock on it.

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You obviously did not read my post. It does NOT have a plastic stock. It has a rather decent wood stock. I will keep enjoying my sub .6MOA savage and likely much smaller groups with hand loads. Sorry you are trying to make me feel bad about what I've done. Lastly it's not like I gave in to Savage. I spent literally hours with customer service calls and speaking to managers. All of which basically said there was nothing they could do because it shot that one group in their test. I was not about to try and sell the gun to someone else either because I would not feel good passing my problem on to someone else. So the only option remaining was rebarreling.

Sorry, read cheap plastic bottom metal and missed the wood stock part. I was not trying to make you feel bad, I am very happy it now shoots well. My only point is $1,100 is a lot of money for a Savage.

Dean2 said:

Sorry, read cheap plastic bottom metal and missed the wood stock part. I was not trying to make you feel bad, I am very happy it now shoots well. My only point is $1,100 is a lot of money for a Savage.

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I fully agree and I will never recuperate that money if I ever tried to sell it but if you really think about it most middle of the road factory rifles are in the 800-1000$ range and you could still potentially get a lemon with those and those only may have an accuracy guarantee of 1moa. By building this rifle, I very likely will have an easy sub .5moa rifle with handloads. Isn't that the point at the end of the day for a rifle? Accuracy? But yes it is not a Sako or a higher end remington or a browning hell's canyon...etc

I find it disappointing the way Savage handled your problem. They have spent over 40 years building an accuracy reputation for their ugly rifles. Now they make a few nicer looking models and don't care if they shoot or not. I build my varmint rifles on Savage actions with good results. I think they should have replaced your barrel. The good will would have offset the few bucks it costs them and 1 1/2 inch isn't much of a standard.