Originally Posted By: VarminterrorOriginally Posted By: Mike BI'm reading all this, and generally agree, (and am a Ruger CRF fan as a disclaimer), yet wondering how the Savage actions are doing soooo well in factory form with a hacked apart action, and a "tupperware" stock?? They just shouldn't shoot like that according to our preconceived notions, should they??
A few observations here, 4 actually:
First off, I think the Savages earned their reputation the hard way with hunters. Guys buy them as an affordable workhorse, then find out that they shoot lights out. "Better fit and finish" doesn't go very far when you're looking at your Weatherby on the bench and wishing it shot as well as the 'ugly' Savage your buddy is laying on next to you.
Secondly, beyond hunters, Savage does a nice job on their Target actions, and markets them well. A lot of shooters will criticize and say "it's still a factory action", but they're as close to a pure custom action as a "factory builder's action" really gets. They keep the price exactly where it should be, so it's not trying to compete with pure custom actions, but stands apart from standard factory actions. (Usually you can get a Shilen drop in and a Savage Target action for about the same price you'd pay for most custom target actions + Jewel trigger.)
Third, I think the floating bolt head and the barrel nut design went a LONG ways for Savage to build the two reputations above. You'd think that having so many parts to a barreled receiver would make it hard to get everything in lock-step, but it actually works to the shooters advantage. Much like the AR-15 design, the way the Savage action decouples the barrel and action, it takes away some (not all) of the pressure to have the entire rig be concentric and true. You hear AR shooters say it all the time "All you need is a good trigger and a good barrel," which is basically also true for the Savages. Arguably, the Accutrigger, especially the target action version, is a pretty dang good trigger, and I don't think that anyone will argue that Savage puts out slick barrels.
Fourth, really the same thing as the 3rd, but from a different angle. Savages are a high volume shooters wet dream, rebarreling a shot out Savage couldn't be any easier. It literally takes me less than an hour to rebarrel a Savage, even eating a sandwich at the same time. No lathe required, just a wrench and a vise. With the floating bolt head and the barrel nut tension design, and an affordable initial investment cost, a competitive shooter can get into a Savage, and maintain healthy barrels, for much cheaper than other custom rifles, and not worry about shipping their rifle out for 4-6wks at a time to get rebarreled.
This is an excellent post, but I have a question.
Given all this, why is it that for so many the default is that a custom rifle is built on a Remington action?
Is it just a case where everyone does it because everyone else is doing it? Kind of like back in the day when making a sporting rifle on a millitary action, it was assumed that this meant a Mauser action.
For me, it wouldn't evern cross my mind to use a Remington action. I wouldn't even think about it. But if you actually say this out loud, people look at you like you've lost your mind.
Grouse
