mpayne
Well-Known Member
I say leave it alone, if you do bed it and it shoots worse that's on you and you will be buying your wife a new $400 dollar stock! Then you'll ask yourself why couldn't I leave well enough alone!
Have you ever done a 77 Ruger, that is hardBig, I think the Savage Is the most difficult to bed. If you've never bedded an action, leave it alone cause it shoots very accurately. Perhaps protect that new barrel with a quality bore guide.
Man has it been a crazy time with my wife's Savage Lady hunter rifle. This rifle started life out as a 7mm08 true 3 MOA rifle lol (not to be confused with .3 MOA). It was so bad I sent it in to savage. They were able to get one 1.75inch 3 shot group which they deemed was acceptable and would not rebarrel the rifle. I never got a 1.75MOA group myself but that would not have been acceptable to me any way. Of course I would not sell this rifle to anyone else just to pass on the pain so I decided to go semi-custom build route. First i replaced the budget scope rings with better ones and checked with multiple scopes. Same bad groupings. Next I replaced all plastic parts (bottom metal and such) with real metal parts as some people claimed this could help with accuracy on the savage forums. This cost me 120$. There was no improvement, accept the magazine and bottom metal now looks and feels better but the rifle is also slightly heavier now. Next I inletted the barrel channel just a touch more as I thought maybe the barrel was getting pinched a little and not a true free float. This did not help. I tried numerous re-loads. This did not help. So finally all that remained was bedding and/or barrel swap. Ive never bedded a rifle and savage seems a bit complicated for bedding but barrel swaps are easy and ive actually done that twice with other savage rifles. it does have pillars though which is good. So I ultimately decided on putting an aftermarket barrel on first. Ordered the barrel. I got a magnum sporter profile 23inch 6.5cm barrel for about 400$ shipped. First day out after installing it, I purchased 2 types of factory loads. Did the barrel break in procedure which was single shots for 5 shots with cleaning in between each shot. Then the procedure called for two to five 3 shot groups (until the barrel was not fouling as bad) with cleaning in between. The barrel was already not fouling hardly at all so I don't think it really needed this but I still followed the directions. On the first 3 shot group I got a clover leaf with all 3 shots touching. The second 3 shot group was very close with only one hole just barely not touching the other 2. The 3rd 3 shot group was a bug hole (my first bug hole ever). The first 5 shot group I did was an honest .4 inch group. Needless to say, me and my wife are both ecstatic with the new barrel. The question is, do we even bother with bedding this rifle? This rifle is a deer rifle which will only go out to 400 yards max so im thinking it is not worth it, especially since the only gunsmith near me who sounds like they would do a good job and knows what they are doing is wanting 250$ for devcon bedding job. thoughts? thanks!
Have you ever done a 77 Ruger, that is hard
Yes I always use go and no go gauges. Savage rebarrels are very easy in my opinion. This was not my first and wont be my lastI recommend you take the rifle to a decent Smith and have them bed it. You've already put a bunch of money to the rifle and a pro bedding job doesnt cost that much. Do it yourself is a hit and miss and there are some techniques with Savage rifles that will save you a lot of pain in the future. I also noted in a later comment that you swapped the barrel out. Did you set the headspace with go/no go gages? Not using them can cause some serious headspace issues.
Have you ever done a 77 Ruger, that is hard