Bigeclipse
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2012
- Messages
- 1,967
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).
