Savage Barrel Scary Looking Bore Picture added

AWS

AWS

Custom Accessory Maker & Retired PM Staff
I bought this Savage 10 stagger feed 223 for the action (slow twist 22 ARC in the future) and save the barrel to re-chamber to 22-204. I decided to shoot it to see if the barrel was any good, it shot around an inch with some 62gr SPs I loaded for the AR, that works. I cleaned it up and prepped it for hunting two years ago and blooded it, that is a story in itself. I loaded it with 222 Rem ammo by mistake and had a coyote stand at 28 paces while I cleared two misfires and a stovepipe before I was able to grab a correct round out of the butt bag, load it and kill the coyote.

Well, I decided to work up a load just for this rifle and have a load with a 50gr Vmax that shoots about an inch with the little Sightron 1.5-5 scope.

After the shooting session I decided to give it a good cleaning. The barrel didn't copper bad but carbons up, I think Im still getting black mud out brom the original owner. Well I bought bore scope a while back to diagnose a 20P barrel (major carbon ring) and took a look at this savage barrel and it looks like they ran a fine thread tap down the barrel when they reamed the bore before rifling. The little marks while tiny in the bottom of the grooves are more visible on the top of the lands. If I would have seen this barrel I would have thought it trash. Now it want to put a bigger scope on it, lighten the trigger and see what it can do.

It is amazing sometime what seemingly done barrels can still do
 
Bowhntr6pt said:
I have a couple barrels that look scared and scratched up, one kind of bad, but they shoot under an inch... bore scopes can serve a purpose, they can also cause unnecessary stress over nothing.
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Same here. A bore scope is interesting and a good thing to have around, especially as inexpensive as they are nowadays. But, they can drive ya a little crazy. I have some high end barrels that shoot <1/2 moa that have bores that look less than perfect.
 
I scoped a POF 308 that was brand new. It had some issues. Sent it back before firing a round. I didn't want to be dealing with copper miner/ collector for the rest of my life regardless of how good it shot.
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My gunsmith says that most Savage barrels look like you are looking down a sewer pipe and that there is no good reason that they should shoot as good as they do. Lol
 
I recall an article which interviewed a Savage employee.

He said it wasn't any one thing they did that made a Savage rifle shoot well, but a bunch of little things.

Among them, a floating bolt head, which helps center the cartridge in the bore, the barrel nut, which allowed for precise head spacing, adding pillars to each stock, free floating the barrels, etc., etc.

I've never owned a Savage, but have thought about it numerous times, just because they shoot so well.
 
Savage has upped their game a little with the Axis Pro II. I've looked at a few and am tempted to buy one in 6 Arc just to see if they will shoot as good as the older model. Vertical grip stock and a spiral fluted barrel add to the appearance and they have the Accu-trigger. If they shoot as good as the Pro II looks it should be a shooter. I actually like the Axis better than the Rugers at least in the looks dept.
 
Yea the old savage barrels looked horrible but they never failed to shoot really good for me.
Ive got a older Steven 200 223 that has about 3800 rounds thru it and have never cleaned it.
Still shoots 60gr TMK's around 1.25" at 100 yards. Which is plenty fine for what i use it for. Was kinda hoping it would wear out so i could rebarrel it to a 8 twist 223 but looks like ive got a few more years of blasting with it for now.
 
I'm looking for a bullet that will work with this one for coyotes. My favorite 52gr Speers HP is so big the nose cavity catches on the mouth of the chamber and I don't feel like bending feed lips so I dug out a box of 50gr NBTs and Vmax. I haven't messed with the trigger and still have the 1.75-5 Sightron and got the Vmax down in the low .7s and the NBT's just under an inch but I think I had something to do with that as they were strung horizontally. We're in coyote hunting quality now so this just might stay a 223 as have not had a 223 bolt gun since the 90's.

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I ran into a Stevens 200 with a factory heavy barrel a year or so ago at a gunshow. It was 223 also. At the time, I didn't know that Stevens made a heavy barrel rifle but it did say Stevens on the barrel. I went home and did a little Goggle searching and found out that the heavy barrel version was a special run for some company that I can't remember now. I should have bought it but didn't. I don't think they are considered rare but maybe hard to find.The Stevens 200 and the Remington 788 both had the reputations of being good shooters. Value on the 788's keep going up and the Stevens kinda just stay the same.
 
AWS said:
I'm looking for a bullet that will work with this one for coyotes.
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Erich, I had a heavy barrel Savage that shot this load well under MOA but replaced it with an AR as I didn't like the heavy barrel for predators. Load shot well in the Bushmaster Predator as well and the 55 gr bullet worked well on coyotes as well for culling hogs and whitetail does w/careful placement.
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I inherited my Dad's much used, 1966 Winchester Model 70, in 30-06, about 20 years ago, and loaded up some rounds to see what it could do.

It shot about 3" at 100yds, with the best loads. So, seeing lots of green at the muzzle, I gave it a deep cleaning.

I worked on it, off and on, for several days, using Hoppes Bench Rest Copper cleaner. After using about 1/2 the bottle, I was still getting blue on the patches. And then I read about Wipeout, and bought a can of that.

Over a Memorial Day weekend, I would foam the barrel and let it sit for awhile, including 2 overnight soaks (and, yes, I did turn the barrel over after the foam turned to liquid), and, finally, the patches started to come out clean.

The first shot out of the squeaky clean barrel missed the 100yd target, at 100yds, it was completely off paper. Shot #2 was 8-10" off the aimpoint. Shots 3 and up, were on target.

After about 21-23 shots, the groups opened up again, and after seeing this repeated a few times, I now shoot 3 rounds down the freshly cleaned barrel, and stop shooting when I hit 20 shots.

The rifle is capable of sub-MOA, but only from rounds #3 through about 21.

I've not looked down the bore with a borescope, but if I did, I suspect I would see hacksaw blades for the rifling, lol.
 
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