Savage Barrel Nut - one gunsmith's opinion

[victorcharlie]

Here we go again, down the same old track.

I have Remingtons and Savages, both shoot very good.

I do find some humor in watching the spotting scopes swing over to my target.  Shortly after a few fellows usually walk over and ask "What you shooting buddy?"

When I reply " A $250 savage 110" you should see some of the looks on their faces.

Quite simply, you can spend a lot more money on a lot of different rifles, but you'll be hard pressed to get one that shoots any better than a Savage, and in most cases, they won't shoot as well IMO.

[nomosendero]

Yes it's a bit like an English Oak, they say they take hundreds of years to die. Big Green won't take as along to succumb, that is hopefully someone will wake up and put things right there. A forlong hope so far as the slide continues. This recent economy slide might make a difference though. Let's hope it's not the end for although I intensly dislike modern Remington production they are an Old maker and it will be a crying shame should it go under. I morn the loss of the traditional quality and values in such old companies however modern methods hae not prooved as sustainable as the market was led to believe.

Frankly, I have not seen there financial figures or how stong they are since they were bought or the strength of the parent company. Would you like to enlighten us?

[Brithunter]

Seeing how the stock markets are collapsing world wide, unemployment is rising like a Saturn V off the launch pad I don't need to see their particular figures to realise they are in deep trouble.

Have not thought of this parallel before but I am thinking Remington now is like Harley under AMF  the faithfull would not publically admit there were serious problems with quality but privatley moaned about the lack of quality whilst still buying the machines. It finally took a buy out by Willie G I believe it was to bring Harley back from the brink. Lets' hope that there is soemone like Willie G at Remington if not it's more than likely to go under.

Let's be honest should you really need to start replacing stuff right away on a new rifle?

You only have to read these forums and others to notice that oen ofnthe first things owners of new Remington's do is replace the cheap and nasty stock and often the trigger. They spend as much as the whole rifle cost or more on these two things  The R3 recoil pad seems not to be durable even Swampman has been complaining about the one of his rifle.

Unless they improve such things they will be in trouble .................. serious trouble. USRAC thought they could get away with mediocre quality and design changes and look what happened.

[nomosendero]

Seeing how the stock markets are collapsing world wide, unemployment is rising like a Saturn V off the launch pad I don't need to see their particular figures to realise they are in deep trouble.

Have not thought of this parallel before but I am thinking Remington now is like Harley under AMF  the faithfull would not publically admit there were serious problems with quality but privatley moaned about the lack of quality whilst still buying the machines. It finally took a buy out by Willie G I believe it was to bring Harley back from the brink. Lets' hope that there is soemone like Willie G at Remington if not it's more than likely to go under.

Let's be honest should you really need to start replacing stuff right away on a new rifle?

You only have to read these forums and others to notice that oen ofnthe first things owners of new Remington's do is replace the cheap and nasty stock and often the trigger. They spend as much as the whole rifle cost or more on these two things  The R3 recoil pad seems not to be durable even Swampman has been complaining about the one of his rifle.

Unless they improve such things they will be in trouble .................. serious trouble. USRAC thought they could get away with mediocre quality and design changes and look what happened.

Your statements appear to be rather general. If not, why would a stock have to be replaced on a CDL? Or one of the Lam. models? Or a Sendero Stock?  I don't have any P&L statements from Rem & I see that you don't either. If you think they are about to go out of bus, fine, but that appears to be just an opinion since you have not backed it up.

And frankly, I don't understand folks gripping about a cheap stock on a Rem or a Mattel stock on a Savage. You can buy a more upscale model of either brand with a better stock or go for cheap & buy the stock of your choice, what's the problem?

[Brithunter]

Here we go again, down the same old track.

I have Remingtons and Savages, both shoot very good.

I do find some humor in watching the spotting scopes swing over to my target.  Shortly after a few fellows usually walk over and ask "What you shooting buddy?"

When I reply " A $250 savage 110" you should see some of the looks on their faces.

Quite simply, you can spend a lot more money on a lot of different rifles, but you'll be hard pressed to get one that shoots any better than a Savage, and in most cases, they won't shoot as well IMO.

Ahhhh now thing thing I have noticed is that some rifles like certain bullets and loads and not like others. Here is an example from yesterdays range session:-



I picked up the rifle a week ago last friday used, it was actually made in 1986, and spent a couple of days cleaning the barrel as it was fouled with lead over copper  . As I wanted to try it out on Saturday I loaded up a few test rounds using the Hornady 130 Grn Spire Point bullet (it's a .308) over 49.4 grains of BLC-2 powder. Never tried this load before just took it out fo the book and the weight is one that a 3.1cc Lee scoop threw then checked every scoop on the scales. Range is 75 meters (82 yards) the bottom three shot group is the last I shot whilst sighting in before leaving the range the upper three shots spread out are an old load using the Speer 200 grain bullet that has been sitting in the cabinet for some years. I just wanted to see what they would shoot like through this rifle. It obviously does not like that load.

   I will now load up a batch of this Hornady 130 grain/BLC-2 load and try it again over several range trips to see if it shoots well all the time of was this just a fluke? Somehow I don't think fluke as even off the bi-pod which is how I started sighting in I got two shots touching with one a little away it then occured to me that with this slim light weight stock perhaps the bi-pod was not the best way to try it so removed it and used a plain coin filled sand bag on top of an old ammo tin. All shots were prone and the scope is a 4x32 old Nikko Sterling "Special" with point post and hair reticle..

    As you may be aware things are much dearer here in the UK than your used to in the US  the rifle cost £225 ($416 US) which was a good price your $250 US Savage would be around £135 and a rifle costing that here would be rough indeed unless your lucky. It does happen as I only gave £95 for a P-H 1200V a couple of years ago and then I picked up a rather nice BSA Monarch (1st pattern) for £100 but that was becasue it was chambered for the 270 Win cartridge which is out of fashion here and the poor guy couldn't even get a dealer to make an offer on it  if it had been 243 Win it would have cost more like £250-£300. To give you more of a comparision I just looked up the price of Remingtons, the advert is from January 08, and a CDL is £633 ($1171 US).

[james]

It's as simple as "sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don't"....
"Savage's got nuts Rem's don't".  Right now my favorite is a Savage because I was able to screw a barrel on it in a caliber that wasn't offered by Remington or Savage.   I didn't have the tools to swap barrels on a Remington.