Rem or Savage

[dogear]

Which is the better for long range accuracy and barrell/stock conversion to custom brands: Rem. Sendero or Savage in either 300 or 338 RUM. What is a decent muzzle brake for the money? I want to build an accurate long range (600 - 1000+yds) target/tactical rifle. Any other better options/ideas for this as far as caliber, etc? Thanks. Dogear

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Take this for what its worth: when I was at Williamsport last weekend for the 1,000yd world open, I expected to find mostly custom actions on all those precision rifles. Surprisingly, I saw many, many Rem 700 actions along with the custom actions. I did not see a single Savage action at the match. If there was one, I didn't see it.

Without a doubt, there are far more bells and whistles for customizing Remington actions than there are for savages.

With that said, Savages seem to be capable of producing much better accuracy than their reasonable price tag would lead you to believe. But if I intended to trick out a sporting rifle, it would be a Rem 700.

VH

 

[preacherman]

...aftermarket "Jewell" trigger alone is enough reason to go fo the remington...

 

[kmassaro]

I have a jewell trigger on my 700, and a new Savage 300 WSM with the Accutrigger.

There is not much difference, although to a precision target shooter, being able to adjust down to ounces rather than 1.5 lbs might be an improvement.

For me, I can't really tell the difference, except the Savage is at 2.5 lbs, and the Jewell at 2.0

 

[chris matthews]

Gonna add a little technical advice here to add to all the other good stuff everybody has said.
Jewel vs the Accutrigger. Might feel the same to most, but there is a big difference. Not putting down the Accutrigger (AT) but it is made out of cheaper material than the Jewel and has more parts and will not last as long. The difference will be in the consistency of trigger pull from shot to shot.
Not that either is bad but overall the Jewel does have the edge. For competition I would replace the AT and use a SharpShooter anyway.
Both, if properly built, will put you in the winner's circle if you do your part.

 

[704]

the latest bechrest record was done by a savage
the longest groundhog kill also by savage

 

[Michael Eichele]

If you want to use the rifle as an out of the box gun and do NOTHING to it, get a savage. If you want to upgrade in the future with various parts and peices or have a custom built around the action later, get the 700.

700's also have a VERY long history and a tract record that speaks for its self. The savage is doing great, but long history holds a lot of stock IMO.

 

[chessman]

Yep. Had to throw another hundred bucks at the Rem to have a trigger as nice as the accutrigger on the Savage - that on top of the fact the Rem cost more to start with.

Both rifles can be made to shoot extremely well. I can speak for the Savage's accuracy out of the box. That said, Rem has been more porpular, and for longer. As such, there just isn't as much off-the-shelf stuff available for the Savage.

Now, how much of that drop-in aftermarket stuff really makes it more accurate? The stock really seems to be the only item on the list, and for maximum accuracy you need to fit it to the action by bedding it anyway, so some custom work needs to be done. If you need to do custom work anyway, you can start with either action and get to the same end for about the same cost.

I really think there are more Remmingtons in competition because of product familiarity and marketing. The winchesters make great customs, as do the Savages. Availability of bare Remmington actions and the fact that just about every smith out there knows how to trick them out has created a larger market for them that the rifles themselves merrit.

The added bonus of being able to switch calibers easily on the savage allows me to have two guns for the price of one Remmington, and my targets don't know what I'm shooting anyhow.