Not another which rifle is better thread!

[MudRunner2005]

Hi all,

New to LRH but long time lurker and shooter. Looking for advice on a nice entry level long range rifle. I don't mean to clutter the forums with redundant 'this vs. that' rifle threads but I'm looking for some firsthand experience.

Use:
- Solely for LR target shooting (let's say anything out to 1,000 yards)

Budget:
- $1,000 - $1,500

Caliber:
- .300 Win Mag

Candidates:
- Savage 110 FCP-HS Precision
- Savage 110 BA
- Remington 700 Sendero SF II
- Others?

I would also consider entry level custom rifle packages (Sniper Central) or other alternatives (Sako, Howa, etc.). I know all of the rifles will "do the job," but I'm really looking for something that will be a tack driver out of the box with minimal tweaking.

Full custom is out of the question, I'm set on .300 Win Mag, and I already know the rifle is only going to be as good as the shooter, glass, and load. I'm just looking for a something that will get me there with consistency.

And here's a picture of my Winchester Model 70 7mm Rem Mag that's being replaced:

Thanks.

Common misconception, but the 7mm RemMag and .300 WinMag are not that far apart ballistically. And the 7mm RemMag is a phenomenal hunting round.

However, if you are wanting a range-only targer rifle chambered for .300 WM, there is only one option that comes to mind...

The Remington 700 5R Milspec 26" .300 WM.

http://www.impactguns.com/remington...mag-ss-26in-5-r-barrel-5505-047700855059.aspx

 

[just browsing]

Common misconception, but the 7mm RemMag and .300 WinMag are not that far apart ballistically. And the 7mm RemMag is a phenomenal hunting round.

However, if you are wanting a range-only targer rifle chambered for .300 WM, there is only one option that comes to mind...

The Remington 700 5R Milspec 26" .300 WM.

http://www.impactguns.com/remington...mag-ss-26in-5-r-barrel-5505-047700855059.aspx

It's not that I'm expecting the .300 Win Mag to be all that much better than the 7mm Rem Mag ballistically. I know that the 7mm has long been a potent hunting round as well as a good long range shooter, and it's served me very well. But I like the idea of having a much wider variety of factory ammo and bullet selection with a .30 caliber round.

I haven't seen that 700 but that's a great option, I like that it has a 26" barrel. If Savage can't accommodate me with the longer varmint barrel then I'm going to be forced to take a better look at the 5-R. Not a bad price either.

Thanks for the link. Any other opinions? I'm hoping to have made a decision by Wednesday.

 

[MudRunner2005]

It's not that I'm expecting the .300 Win Mag to be all that much better than the 7mm Rem Mag ballistically. I know that the 7mm has long been a potent hunting round as well as a good long range shooter, and it's served me very well. But I like the idea of having a much wider variety of factory ammo and bullet selection with a .30 caliber round.

I haven't seen that 700 but that's a great option, I like that it has a 26" barrel. If Savage can't accommodate me with the longer varmint barrel then I'm going to be forced to take a better look at the 5-R. Not a bad price either.

Thanks for the link. Any other opinions? I'm hoping to have made a decision by Wednesday.

I recently got one just like in the link, but have not shot it yet. However, I have had the "little brother" to it (24" .308 Win) since 2010. And it will shoot .2" to .3" groups on the regular with my handloads (off of sandbags). I'm sure it would be even better if I took out the human-error factor and used a Lead Sled to hold the rifle in place. So I'm expecting the same precision out of the .300 WM, as I get with the .308 Win.

 

[just browsing]

I recently got one just like in the link, but have not shot it yet. However, I have had the "little brother" to it (24" .308 Win) since 2010. And it will shoot .2" to .3" groups on the regular with my handloads (off of sandbags). I'm sure it would be even better if I took out the human-error factor and used a Lead Sled to hold the rifle in place. So I'm expecting the same precision out of the .300 WM, as I get with the .308 Win.

Good to know. I'm going to put a call into Savage tomorrow to see what they can do for me. I'm really leaning towards the 110 FCP HS Precision, so I'm going to see if they can put a 26" Varminter Contour Barrel on it and call it a day. I've heard that they're pretty accommodating to 'custom' orders, so I'm going to see what comes of that first.

I've heard nothing but good things of the 700 MillSpecs. But I've also heard that the Savages will outshoot the Remingtons from the factory 9 times out of 10, with the 700s needing about $300 worth of work to really improve their accuracy. Not to say that one is better than the other, I'm just looking for something that will be a 7-800 yard shooter out of the box.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Good to know. I'm going to put a call into Savage tomorrow to see what they can do for me. I'm really leaning towards the 110 FCP HS Precision, so I'm going to see if they can put a 26" Varminter Contour Barrel on it and call it a day. I've heard that they're pretty accommodating to 'custom' orders, so I'm going to see what comes of that first.

I've heard nothing but good things of the 700 MillSpecs. But I've also heard that the Savages will outshoot the Remingtons from the factory 9 times out of 10, with the 700s needing about $300 worth of work to really improve their accuracy. Not to say that one is better than the other, I'm just looking for something that will be a 7-800 yard shooter out of the box.

That doesn't apply to the 5R Milspecs... And 9 out of 10 is totally inflated and exaggerated. That's just Salvage supporter BS. I've seen pictures of Savage factory barrels that looked like they were rifled by a pick-axe. Seen some cheap budget Remingtons like that, too, but they were the cheap junk models (710, 770, 783). I personally owned a $2,100 Weatherby that wouldn't shoot a 1.5" group at 100 yards with factory ammo, because the barrel walls were caving in the more wear it got...

When it comes to the internet, believe 1/2 of what you read, and none of what you see. I don't care which direction you go on rifle brand, as I'm not affiliated with any of them, I just like for facts to be kept straight. And I hate it when people feed newbies a bunch of supporter BS to try to sway them to their favorite brand by puffing up numbers.

I've only shot 2 Rem 700's that wouldn't shoot. One was a .338 WinMag that I immediately rebarreled into a 7mm RemMag, and the other was my buddy's CDL in 7mm RUM, that also immediately got rebarreled, but into a 7mm STW.

 

[just browsing]

That doesn't apply to the 5R Milspecs... And 9 out of 10 is totally inflated and exaggerated. That's just Salvage supporter BS. I've seen pictures of Savage factory barrels that looked like they were rifled by a pick-axe. Seen some cheap budget Remingtons like that, too, but they were the cheap junk models (710, 770, 783). I personally owned a $2,100 Weatherby that wouldn't shoot a 1.5" group at 100 yards with factory ammo, because the barrel walls were caving in the more wear it got...

When it comes to the internet, believe none of what you read, and only half of what you see. I don't care which direction you go on rifle brand, as I'm not affiliated with any of them, I just like for facts to be kept straight. And I hate it when people feed newbies a bunch of supporter BS to try to sway them to their favorite brand by puffing up numbers.

I've only shot 2 Rem 700's that wouldn't shoot. One was a .338 WinMag that I immediately rebarreled into a 7mm RemMag, and the other was my buddy's CDL in 7mm RUM, that also immediately got rebarreled, but into a 7mm STW.

While I do agree with all of what you said, you don't read much about accuracy problems with Savages, period. And obviously it's impossible to completely negate quality control issues, especially considering the number of rifles that these companies have sold over the years. There are always going to be exceptions with higher sales volumes, and that's to be expected. 9 out of 10 probably is inflated, and I'm sure I would be surprised to find out how much of that could be contributed to human error. Both are obviously proven rifles and both are going to have strong followings.

However, disregarding all of the Savage supporter BS (which I'm well aware there's plenty of), I've also spoken to more than a few people with Remington 700 rifles that have admitted to Savages being better shooters out of the box. Between trigger adjustments, skim bedding, etc., you're still looking at a few hundred bucks worth of work to get a Remington to perform up to it's full potential. As I said previously, both of these rifles would far outperform me as a shooter, so I'm just looking for something that I can buy and be done with. I'll deal with re-barreling when the time comes, but at this point I just want something that I know will be consistent.

I've read a few things about the MillSpec 5-Rs anyway, do you know what the deal with them is? I've read rejected military, manufactured to tighter tolerances, whatever. What actually sets them apart from their "lower end" rifles? I know 5-R refers to the rifling, but I haven't been able to find out why they're renowned as better and consequently, carry a higher price tag.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Capt RB]

The FCP stock will be more comfortable than the 5R from a prone position. I'd prefer the McMillan with the butthook but that's a personal. The 5R stock is not a vertical grip combine that with more recoil and it will be less comfortable. I use to do alot of shooting for a shop that had an accuracy service. I shot more sub .5 groups with the savage brand than the rest combined. We avg about 6 rifles a week during the busy season. Most people would goto K Mart buy the canoe paddle 110 in 270 or 06 and we would tune them. Usually it was just a bedding job trigger adjustment and a handload. We would load 59gn of reloader 19 with a 150 interlock shoot a 1/2 group and then sell them handloads for the life of the rifle or until they started to reload. The 270's were 59grns of H4831 a 210 and a 130 gk. Same thing would happen. Winchester's were second. They needed the pressure point removed for all but the fwt and lightweight. Some needed material at the bolt handle cleaned up. Remington's would need trigger work bedding and some were great some were best used for parts.The thing about this was the price of all the guns brought in never showed what they were capable of. We had top end stuff you could see with your naked eye were not straight. Primer strikes at the edge of the primer rust on one lug etc.
I'd put a barrel on what you have and buy a good stock. Bullets.com has Bartlein 5R barrels in stock for 345. You can buy a Boyds thumbhole for $100 or goto Stocky's for a tactical. They have HS Mc Manners Bell n Carson. The T5 manners is $512 The adjustable M24from HS Precision is $602
Benchmark has here group buy going also 700 for a action trued barrel chambered and installed. You'd have wat you want as far as length contour and a great pipe for sophisticated rock throwing
​

 

[just browsing]

The FCP stock will be more comfortable than the 5R from a prone position. I'd prefer the McMillan with the butthook but that's a personal. The 5R stock is not a vertical grip combine that with more recoil and it will be less comfortable. I use to do alot of shooting for a shop that had an accuracy service. I shot more sub .5 groups with the savage brand than the rest combined. We avg about 6 rifles a week during the busy season. Most people would goto K Mart buy the canoe paddle 110 in 270 or 06 and we would tune them. Usually it was just a bedding job trigger adjustment and a handload. We would load 59gn of reloader 19 with a 150 interlock shoot a 1/2 group and then sell them handloads for the life of the rifle or until they started to reload. The 270's were 59grns of H4831 a 210 and a 130 gk. Same thing would happen. Winchester's were second. They needed the pressure point removed for all but the fwt and lightweight. Some needed material at the bolt handle cleaned up. Remington's would need trigger work bedding and some were great some were best used for parts.The thing about this was the price of all the guns brought in never showed what they were capable of. We had top end stuff you could see with your naked eye were not straight. Primer strikes at the edge of the primer rust on one lug etc.
I'd put a barrel on what you have and buy a good stock. Bullets.com has Bartlein 5R barrels in stock for 345. You can buy a Boyds thumbhole for $100 or goto Stocky's for a tactical. They have HS Mc Manners Bell n Carson. The T5 manners is $512 The adjustable M24from HS Precision is $602
Benchmark has here group buy going also 700 for a action trued barrel chambered and installed. You'd have wat you want as far as length contour and a great pipe for sophisticated rock throwing
​

Yeah this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Someone that has experience with a lot of different rifle models and can speak to what needed to be done to really make them good shooters. I'm going to go with the 110 FCP HS. I'll still probably call Savage to see if they could put the 26" contour barrel on the HS stock for me but even if they can't, I'll shoot it until it's throated and throw a Shillen or something in there.

I would have used the Winchester action but in all honesty, I was just looking for a change. I've shot 7mags for enough years to know that it's a great round, just thinking that I'd like to try something a little different now that it's time for an upgrade. I just found 200 yd. SCDNR range for sighting and a 1,000 yard range for shooting, both inside 25 miles from me. Going to put in my order tomorrow.

 

[MudRunner2005]

While I do agree with all of what you said, you don't read much about accuracy problems with Savages, period. And obviously it's impossible to completely negate quality control issues, especially considering the number of rifles that these companies have sold over the years. There are always going to be exceptions with higher sales volumes, and that's to be expected. 9 out of 10 probably is inflated, and I'm sure I would be surprised to find out how much of that could be contributed to human error. Both are obviously proven rifles and both are going to have strong followings.

However, disregarding all of the Savage supporter BS (which I'm well aware there's plenty of), I've also spoken to more than a few people with Remington 700 rifles that have admitted to Savages being better shooters out of the box. Between trigger adjustments, skim bedding, etc., you're still looking at a few hundred bucks worth of work to get a Remington to perform up to it's full potential. As I said previously, both of these rifles would far outperform me as a shooter, so I'm just looking for something that I can buy and be done with. I'll deal with re-barreling when the time comes, but at this point I just want something that I know will be consistent.

I've read a few things about the MillSpec 5-Rs anyway, do you know what the deal with them is? I've read rejected military, manufactured to tighter tolerances, whatever. What actually sets them apart from their "lower end" rifles? I know 5-R refers to the rifling, but I haven't been able to find out why they're renowned as better and consequently, carry a higher price tag.

Thanks for your help.

They are NOT rejected military barrels. They are a specialty once-annual production run rifles. They make them 1 time a year, and a limited number of them, and when they're gone, they're gone...Until next year. They build the barrels to the exact same specs as the M24 barrels, but they cut the contour down to the Remington Sendero/Varmint taper, whereas the M24 contour is heavier.

The Obermeyer 5R rifling is easier to clean, more refined, and doesn't create a pinch-point on the bullet's jacket, causing less copper fouling in the barrel. I don't know if you could call it more "accurate" than other rifling options, but I don't have any other rifles that are putting 3 shots into a .2xx" to .3xx" hole. Most of my other rifles are around the .5" range with handloads, which is just fine by me. However, that being said, every rifle reacts differently, so I don't have any proof enough to verify if the style of rifling makes it any more accurate than other styles of rifling. All I know is mine shoots lights-out, cleans super-easy, and takes a long time before it needs cleaning.

 

[Bigeclipse]

Hi all,

New to LRH but long time lurker and shooter. Looking for advice on a nice entry level long range rifle. I don't mean to clutter the forums with redundant 'this vs. that' rifle threads but I'm looking for some firsthand experience.

Use:
- Solely for LR target shooting (let's say anything out to 1,000 yards)

Budget:
- $1,000 - $1,500

Caliber:
- .300 Win Mag

Candidates:
- Savage 110 FCP-HS Precision
- Savage 110 BA
- Remington 700 Sendero SF II
- Others?

I would also consider entry level custom rifle packages (Sniper Central) or other alternatives (Sako, Howa, etc.). I know all of the rifles will "do the job," but I'm really looking for something that will be a tack driver out of the box with minimal tweaking.

Full custom is out of the question, I'm set on .300 Win Mag, and I already know the rifle is only going to be as good as the shooter, glass, and load. I'm just looking for a something that will get me there with consistency.

And here's a picture of my Winchester Model 70 7mm Rem Mag that's being replaced:



Thanks.

if you are a do-it-yourself kind of guy and budget is a concern I would definitely go Savage. With minimal tools/knowledge you can re-barrel a savage. I am by no means a craftsman or anything like that. I have recently re-barreled my savage and learned how to bed rifle actions. The cool thing is if you shoot the barrel out or simply get bored and want to change caliber you can do it yourself and have a pretty dang accurate rifle. I would certainly feel comfortable shooting out to 1000 yards and hunting out to 700 yards on deer with the rifle I built.
The savage FCP HS is a great base rifle. The stock is solid.

Now if you are NOT confident in doing things yourself and you would use a gunsmith, definitely go with the Remington. After market support for Remington 700 actions is HUGE!!! If going this route, buy yourself either the sendero, 5r, OR you could buy the Remington "long range" model which is basically an older style sendero for 400+ dollars cheaper than the sendero SF II (this is the route id probably take).

No matter which route you go you will probably want to have your rifle bedded (to ensure most accuracy possible) even if the rifle has an aluminum bedding block preinstalled. Most gunsmiths charge 150 or so bucks for this. Or again if you are a do-it-yourself kind of guy you can watch videos and bed it yourself. I will say that bedding a savage is definitely a bit more difficult than bedding a Remington BUT it really isn't that hard. More prep work than anything else.

 

[just browsing]

if you are a do-it-yourself kind of guy and budget is a concern I would definitely go Savage. With minimal tools/knowledge you can re-barrel a savage. I am by no means a craftsman or anything like that. I have recently re-barreled my savage and learned how to bed rifle actions. The cool thing is if you shoot the barrel out or simply get bored and want to change caliber you can do it yourself and have a pretty dang accurate rifle. I would certainly feel comfortable shooting out to 1000 yards and hunting out to 700 yards on deer with the rifle I built.
The savage FCP HS is a great base rifle. The stock is solid.

Now if you are NOT confident in doing things yourself and you would use a gunsmith, definitely go with the Remington. After market support for Remington 700 actions is HUGE!!! If going this route, buy yourself either the sendero, 5r, OR you could buy the Remington "long range" model which is basically an older style sendero for 400+ dollars cheaper than the sendero SF II (this is the route id probably take).

No matter which route you go you will probably want to have your rifle bedded (to ensure most accuracy possible) even if the rifle has an aluminum bedding block preinstalled. Most gunsmiths charge 150 or so bucks for this. Or again if you are a do-it-yourself kind of guy you can watch videos and bed it yourself. I will say that bedding a savage is definitely a bit more difficult than bedding a Remington BUT it really isn't that hard. More prep work than anything else.

This is a great way to look at it. I'm no gunsmith by any means but I do have a mechanical engineering background and understand how a rifle works. I know my way around tools and I do think I would be able to DIY any adjustments that I'd need to make without a problem. My budget isn't super strict at this point but if I can spend less and get a rifle that's going to outperform my abilities as a shooter on a daily basis well that's what I'm going to do. Do you mind sharing the details of the rifle that you built?

I have looked at the Remington XCR Long Range, and they are nice rifles, but as I said before I would much prefer to get a nail driver out of the box. I just feel like any adjustments that I would make on the Remington would be to get it up to par whereas the Savage would be to further improve it.

I will be skim bedding the action on any rifle that I end up with and re-barreling will come once the throat is shot out. I called Savage and they're able to put the Varminter Low Profiel 26" Contour barrel on the long action & HS Precision stock, but they marked it up like $600 LOL. Going to take a trip to the LGS and see what they can do for me.

Thanks again for all of the insight!

 

[Bigeclipse]

This is a great way to look at it. I'm no gunsmith by any means but I do have a mechanical engineering background and understand how a rifle works. I know my way around tools and I do think I would be able to DIY any adjustments that I'd need to make without a problem. My budget isn't super strict at this point but if I can spend less and get a rifle that's going to outperform my abilities as a shooter on a daily basis well that's what I'm going to do. Do you mind sharing the details of the rifle that you built?

I have looked at the Remington XCR Long Range, and they are nice rifles, but as I said before I would much prefer to get a nail driver out of the box. I just feel like any adjustments that I would make on the Remington would be to get it up to par whereas the Savage would be to further improve it.

I will be skim bedding the action on any rifle that I end up with and re-barreling will come once the throat is shot out. I called Savage and they're able to put the Varminter Low Profiel 26" Contour barrel on the long action & HS Precision stock, but they marked it up like $600 LOL. Going to take a trip to the LGS and see what they can do for me.

Thanks again for all of the insight!

I built a 7mm rem mag off of an older savage 110 action. I re-barreled the action with a criterion match grade barrel. Gave it a B&C medalist stock. Lightened the trigger to ~2.8lbs and skim bedded the aluminum block with devcon. This thing will shoot .5MOA all day long so far with my handloads (as long as I do my part) out to 400 yards (that is the furthest I can currently test to). For me it was a no brainer because I had the action sitting around so that part of the rifle was basically free. Here is a run-down of costs you will typcailly face if you build your own savage starting from scratch:

1.)used rifle or barreled action: 300-450$ get one with an accutrigger!

2.)match grade barrel: 300-500$ depending on if you want a muzzle brake..etc. Shilen is great, so is criterion, Krieger, pac nor..etc...I went with criterion because they are premade and readily available (no wait time).

3.) stock of your choice: 100-500+......if you want a wood stock...check out boyds. great stocks but you WILL need to pillar bed it. B&C makes a great budget friendly synthetic stock. you can of course buy a manners or McMillan but those will cost >500$

4.) tools needed: action wrench ~75$ and barrel nut wrench 25$. Go/no go gauges ~40$. these obviously are a one time buy and you can use on your next project or sell them and get 75% of your money back.

So as you can see you can go from cheap to really expensive build rather quick but it WILL shoot well. Personally I would stay on the cheaper sides of the build .... i.e. boyds or bell and Carlson stock. If you start approaching the 1500$ mark you are approaching a used custom rifle cost. Used custom rifles come up for sale here typically in the 1600-2500 dollar range. My next build will be a boyds stock. Yes they are wood but they are laminate and actually look really nice. I am a believer of savages.

Now for your situation, yes out of the box accuracy will go towards savage or tikka. I like the idea of the savage fcp-hs. It comes with a very good factory synthetic stock. I have held one and it is nice. Obviously it has NO adjustments so you will want to check and see if it fits you nice as well. Yes the barrel is only 24inches BUT you wont miss those 2inches until you start getting WAY out there! Then if you get bored of the caliber you can always change with a new barrel (you may have to change bolt face as well but you can find those fast and cheap on savageshooters forum).

I will say this...if you have a good gunsmith and he isn't that expensive...another idea is definitely to go for the sendero. You can always build it in stages. I would maybe do this if I had a local gunsmith but I don't. The sendero (with skim bedding) will most likely shoot well in it's factory form. The trigger will probably need to be replaced immediately. Timney triggers are easy to install and shoot fine and are relatively cheap. You may luck out and that's all you have to do. I have only heard of one sendero shooting bad on this forum. guy ended up selling it but who knows if it was his load work up or maybe he only used factory loads...etc.

 

[just browsing]

I built a 7mm rem mag off of an older savage 110 action. I re-barreled the action with a criterion match grade barrel. Gave it a B&C medalist stock. Lightened the trigger to ~2.8lbs and skim bedded the aluminum block with devcon. This thing will shoot .5MOA all day long so far with my handloads (as long as I do my part) out to 400 yards (that is the furthest I can currently test to). For me it was a no brainer because I had the action sitting around so that part of the rifle was basically free. Here is a run-down of costs you will typcailly face if you build your own savage starting from scratch:

1.)used rifle or barreled action: 300-450$ get one with an accutrigger!

2.)match grade barrel: 300-500$ depending on if you want a muzzle brake..etc. Shilen is great, so is criterion, Krieger, pac nor..etc...I went with criterion because they are premade and readily available (no wait time).

3.) stock of your choice: 100-500+......if you want a wood stock...check out boyds. great stocks but you WILL need to pillar bed it. B&C makes a great budget friendly synthetic stock. you can of course buy a manners or McMillan but those will cost >500$

4.) tools needed: action wrench ~75$ and barrel nut wrench 25$. Go/no go gauges ~40$. these obviously are a one time buy and you can use on your next project or sell them and get 75% of your money back.

So as you can see you can go from cheap to really expensive build rather quick but it WILL shoot well. Personally I would stay on the cheaper sides of the build .... i.e. boyds or bell and Carlson stock. If you start approaching the 1500$ mark you are approaching a used custom rifle cost. Used custom rifles come up for sale here typically in the 1600-2500 dollar range. My next build will be a boyds stock. Yes they are wood but they are laminate and actually look really nice. I am a believer of savages.

Now for your situation, yes out of the box accuracy will go towards savage or tikka. I like the idea of the savage fcp-hs. It comes with a very good factory synthetic stock. I have held one and it is nice. Obviously it has NO adjustments so you will want to check and see if it fits you nice as well. Yes the barrel is only 24inches BUT you wont miss those 2inches until you start getting WAY out there! Then if you get bored of the caliber you can always change with a new barrel (you may have to change bolt face as well but you can find those fast and cheap on savageshooters forum).

I will say this...if you have a good gunsmith and he isn't that expensive...another idea is definitely to go for the sendero. You can always build it in stages. I would maybe do this if I had a local gunsmith but I don't. The sendero (with skim bedding) will most likely shoot well in it's factory form. The trigger will probably need to be replaced immediately. Timney triggers are easy to install and shoot fine and are relatively cheap. You may luck out and that's all you have to do. I have only heard of one sendero shooting bad on this forum. guy ended up selling it but who knows if it was his load work up or maybe he only used factory loads...etc.

Thanks for the run down. Sounds like you've got yourself a shooter. I've held the 110 FCP HS and it fit me well. It was a little on the heavy side but this is going to be a bench gun. I've decided to stick with the 24" heavy barrel for now even though it's not ideal... It's going to save me a littlle up front cost, allow me to do as much load development as I want without having to worry about shooting the throat out, and, as you said, will get the job done out to 500 yards or more.

I'm going to bed the action with devcon and adjust the trigger to start. That should give me a good platform to work on my abilities as a shooter and eventually, get me out to those longer distances. Once I do start working my way up then I'll consider re-barreling it and really setting it up nicely for 1,000 yard shooting. This rifle in factory form will be plenty for what I'm looking for at this point though.

I'm going to get the action wrench and barrel nut wrench along with some head space gauges just because they're never bad things to have. I don't really have a local gunsmith to me (that I trust at least) so I'd like to keep the work within what I'm comfortable doing. With the Savage, it sounds like that shouldn't be a problem outside of barrel threading or other machine work.

Looking forward to getting this thing going! I'll have it ordered up sometime this week and will post pictures as soon as I get it. Thanks for all of the help guys!

 

[WildRose]

I looked at them as well but you really don't see that many of them in long range shooting for some reason. I'm going to see if I can find a Varminter in .300 WSM but factory rounds are harder to find in some of the LGS.

You don't see many of them because they only made a handful of them. They are a very rare find like the Winchester Sharpshooters.