Sorting a Savage Part 1 By Laurie Holland
mat; potentially worse if it gets into the chamber and rifling leade ahead of the next round, which guarantees a poor shot. Moreover, despite Alliant ATK, Rel.15’s manufacturer, claiming that this propellant is not temperature affected, my American F/TR shooting Internet correspondents emphatically disagree.
spot’ down was nearly 200 fps lower with Rel.15. An alternative approach was to change powders, in particular to one that is temperature insensitive, ie a Hodgdon ‘Extreme’ type, which in this context means VarGet. This powder had been unavailable anywhere in the UK for most of 2010 when I was working loads up but, I finally got hold of some late in the year and proceeded with load development over the winter of 2010/2011 producing a lower pressure combination
The Savage as originally built with a 31” barrel and outfitted with a Sightron SII 36X42 BR scope.
2010 was the third cold British summer in a row but, commonsense dictated that sooner or later I’d shoot on a hot day and that would possibly cause the blanking problem to escalate to unacceptable levels resulting in retirement. While the number of ‘blanking’ incidents was very small, examining my fired primers showed I was walking a very fine line here. The psychological effect was a major downside thanks to worries affecting every important summer match as to how the equipment would perform unless the weather turned out unseasonably cool.
Chamber pressures were high but not excessive: it’s a firing-pin to bolt-face clearance issue – nearly all mass produced ‘factory’ actions suffer from this and Savage is actually better than most. If I lived in the USA, I’d simply send the bolt off to Greg Tannel (Gre- Tan Engineering) with a modest fee and it would be returned in a week with a bushing incorporating a smaller diameter hole installed in the bolt-head and the pin machined to give a close fit – but nobody in the UK offers such a service.
Why not simply reduce the charge weight? The 223 is a finicky beast with 90s and the next ‘sweet
that grouped well, if not as brilliantly as the Rel.15 load, with a charge that gave 2,850 fps and small MV spreads.
Sorted! I thought. I’d live with slightly larger groups and a bit less velocity to end the primer blanking worries, likewise face heatwave conditions with equanimity. This became my 2011 load, the hotter Rel.15 version only used once in the year – in a three- match international fixture at Blair Atholl, which included an 1100 yard stage.
Sore Throats
There was another nagging concern as the 2011 season progressed, partially linked to the previous use of hot burning double-base Rel.15 – sudden performance collapse from barrel throat wear. When I started out with 223/90, I can hardly overstate how many people on the other side of the Atlantic warned that these long projectiles only perform satisfactorily with barrels in tip-top condition and that I should expect a dramatic loss of precision at a modest or even low round count. So, when the rifle’s performance
14
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92