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I have never had any Savage rifles, but was on market for a 308Win with shorter heavy barrel. Someone was selling Savage 10 in 308 Win with 18in heavy barrel, varmint custom stock and vortex scope for cheap, so I decided to buy. I did not have much expectations for the rifle. Action is rough, metal magazine fits poorly and have feeding problem, barrel inside looks like crap (pitting, rifling looks rough with tons of machining marks, copper fouling all over, fire-cracking , etc). I took the rifle to the range and I could not believe how accurate the rifle is. I spent 5 rounds zeroing the rifle and took few 3- or 4-shot groups at 200 yards using Protector front/rear bag supports. Considering how bad the bore looks, I was going to be happy if I could get under 2MOA groups. Wow, from 4 groups that I shot at 200 yards using Federal 168gr Gold Match ammo, all the groups were under 1MOA including one 3-shot group at 0.35MOA. The rifle pretty much was shooting just around 0.6-08MOA groups. How can a barrel that looks so bad (inspected with a scope) shoot such accurately? Now my feelings about the rifle are mixed. Action, feeding and bolt angle throw sucks, but custom stock is "sexy" and very ergonomic, and accuracy is superb. Is there a way to improve the action on these Savage rifles? Can one change bolt angle throw (current one almost hits the scope)? I was able to improve magazine feeding by filing about 0.030" from magazine thickness around metal part where action screws go through, so I lifted the magazine about 0.030" and feeding seems much better. At least now the bolt is able to pick up every round. Previously, the bolt would only pick up about 1 in 3 rounds. By doing this modification magazine also fits tighter, but removing it is not as smooth as I would like. It is amazing that in this age of technology Savage makes rifles with poor machining such that my old Belgium FN Commercial Mauser is made "light-years" better than this Savage 10. I guess more expensive Savage rifles are made better, but I never had one to know for sure.
Cheers,
Dan
Cheers,
Dan