(This is a reader gun review contest entry, click here for more details.)
By Mr_B
I consider myself to be a fairly pragmatic individual when it comes to firearms. Every gun I own serves a purpose. Whether it is a shotgun for hunting or a pistol for concealed carry, I make sure that each guns fills a designated role. I also try to avoid buying anything that is overly flashy or covered in superfluous accessories. To put it simply, I like my guns to do their job right and look average while doing it. The one area where I was failing in this was deer hunting. I didn’t get serious about deer hunting until I was in college, and for the first few years I had been using my 1942 Mosin Nagant 91/30. While not entirely impractical, it did fail on several accounts . . .
- It is fairly heavy to be lugging around in the field (~9 lbs.)
- It only had iron sights; no scope for longer distance shots
- Sloppy doesn’t even begin to describe the trigger
- It was accurate, but not accurate enough
I was hankering for a better tool to complete the task, but funds were low and I couldn’t afford anything better. Luckily, I have a father-in-law who is both thoughtful enough to see my predicament and practical enough to provide me with the correct firearm. He bought me a Savage 110 in .270 Winchester as a birthday/Christmas/college graduation present. Needless to say, it was exactly what I needed.
My father-in-law purchased this gun for a few specific reasons. First, he knew I needed a better rifle for deer hunting. Second, he was able to get it at Walmart for a decent price. Lastly, he and his two sons (my brothers-in-law) already owned rifles in .270, so when he reloads ammunition he doesn’t have to buy a new die set. Again, practicality is the backdrop of this rifle’s story.
Now that you have a short history of this rifle’s significance (which is important to understanding the review), let’s move on to the rifle itself.
The Basics
The Savage Model 110 in .270 Winchester is a no-frills bolt-action rifle designed for engaging targets at long range. The rifle arrived in a standard cardboard box, nestled in Styrofoam bedding. Included with the rifle were the boilerplate instruction/safety manual and a gun lock, which quickly found itself in a box with many of its unused cousins.
Upon first examination of the rifle I saw that it had a basic, black synthetic stock. A black carbon steel barrel and action sits on top of the stock. The rifle is, for lack of a better term, plain, but boy is she wonderful.
I do a majority of my deer hunting along the bluffs of the Missouri River, so keeping track of the weight of my gear is important. The gun does not weigh that much – just a hair over 8 lbs. unloaded, including scope and sling. With a proper sling this makes it more than comfortable to carry on long hikes up and over the hills throughout the day. It came with swivel studs already installed, making sling installation a breeze.
Shouldering the Savage 110 is exactly what one would expect. The length of pull is 13.75 inches and has a small rubber butt pad on the end of the stock. The ergonomics of the rifle are perfectly suited for the task at hand. There is no need to deal with a fancy or expensive aftermarket stock when the factory stock functions flawlessly (at least for this reviewer). I added an elastic ammunition holder to the butt stock that holds nine round, but doesn’t interfere with my check weld.
Sights
The rifle has no iron sights, but came with a Bushnell 3-9×40 rifle scope and rings. The rings were loose upon arrival (which was expected), but it didn’t take me long to get it set up. I constructed a makeshift vise out of towels and boxes and used my set of levels to align the scope on its axes. I also properly positioned it along the fore/aft plane for correct eye relief. With the included Allen wrench, the process didn’t take more than 20 minutes to complete.
The scope itself is nothing fancy. It has a 3-9 adjustable zoom with a 40 mm objective lens. I find this scope to be perfectly adequate for shooting deer at 200-300 yards, perhaps further if I can eliminate a certain amount of user error from the equation.
Safety
The safety on the 110 is located directly behind the bolt and has 3 positions:
All the way to the rear is full safe, locking both the trigger and the bolt.
The middle position, which shows half of the red dot, locks only the trigger, allowing the user to operate the bolt and unload the rifle with the safety on.
The forward position takes the safety completely off and makes the rifle ready for firing. Personally, I love this safety and prefer it to any other safety mechanism I’ve used on a rifle. Of course, the only real safety when using a firearm is the one between your ears.
Disassembly
Taking apart the 110 is incredibly easy. Using an Allen wrench, you must remove three screws on the bottom side of the rifle. The stock then comes off with little resistance. All internal maintenance on the rifle may now be completed.
Trigger
The trigger on the Savage is where the rifle truly starts to shine. The 110 is fitted with Savage’s Accutrigger system, considered by many to be the best factory trigger on the market. I have not fired enough rifles to be an authority on the subject. However, I will say that from my experience the Accutrigger works wonderfully.
The Accutrigger is an adjustable trigger with a very clean break and little to no creep. Out of the box the trigger is set at about 2.5 lbs., but can be moved up to 6 lbs. or down to 1.5 lbs. Savage has made adjustment very easy. Once the stock has been removed (as mentioned above) the trigger assembly makes itself known.
The Accutrigger has what Savage has termed an Accurelease that bisects the trigger itself (think of the trigger safety on a GLOCK). The Accurelease must be engaged before the trigger is pulled, otherwise the sear hits the forward end of the Accurelease and the gun will not fire.
To make adjustments to the Accutrigger you must release or add tension to the trigger return spring, located on the rear portion of the trigger assembly. This is done with an adjustment tool provided with the rifle. If you’re anything like me and tend to misplace small tools you hardly ever use, you can make a small, flat head screwdriver work instead. I used this video from Tactical Advantage to learn how to adjust my Accutrigger.
I had adjusted mine up to 6 lbs. and down to 1.5 lbs just to see how those trigger pulls felt. Six pounds was too much and 1.5 was a little light so I returned it back to the factory setting of 2.5 lbs. Some may criticize my decision to not turn the trigger down to the lightest setting, but that just exemplifies the beauty of the Accutrigger – you can adjust the pull to whatever YOU desire and make it work for YOUR applications in the field or at the range.
At the Range
When I first took the rifle to the range after initially mounting the scope, it was easy to sight in. I started at 25 yards with a large piece of cardboard and took a practice shot. I hit very low – about 14 inches below center and 3 inches to the left. No problem here, I took off the adjustment caps and dialed in both my elevation and windage. My second shot was slightly high, but much closer to where I was aiming. It was now time to move out to a longer distance and perform a true test.
I set up at 100 yards and settled my rifle into my front and rear bags. After a few shots and some more tweaking I had a nice small grouping, about 1 MOA. With further minute adjustments I was able to dial the sights exactly where I wanted them, hitting at almost three inches above center at 100 yards. This would allow me to be right on at about 250 yards and three inches low at 300. While not perfect, it would be practical enough for me to hunt deer at reasonable distances.
I have put several types of ammo through the Savage 110 – from 130 and 150-grain factory ammo to custom loads from my father-in-law – and have not experienced any issues with feeding or ejection. I’ve shot mostly 130-grain because they shoot flatter than the 150-grain bullets.
In the Field
This past deer hunting season was spent with my in-laws near Chamberlain, South Dakota. Chamberlain is a sportsman’s paradise – great fishing year round, pheasant and dove hunting in the fall, varmints of all sorts to plink at, and both mule and whitetail deer hunting, depending on your proximity to the Missouri River.
Deer numbers in Brule County have been down the last few years, resulting in a lower number of tags being distributed by GFP. Luckily, I drew a tag for Any Deer – buck/doe/mule/whitetail. I packed up my sighted-in Savage 110 in .270, along with the rest of my hunting gear, and got ready for a great week of hunting.
Great is the wrong word. Frustrating would be more appropriate.
We hunted around my wife’s family’s family farm (a half section about 5 miles east of the river) and on some public land along the bluffs of the Missouri. We expected to see whitetail around the farm and mule deer along the river.
But what we saw was nothing.
Zip.
Zilch.
Nada.
At least anything that we could legally shoot. We saw a few nice bucks on private land next to the bluffs, but there was no way we could ever coax them onto public land to take a legal shot.
I went out every day for a week and did not see a deer that I could shoot. My Savage was begging to be used. I was frustrated from the lack of deer, tired from waking up early and hiking all day, and disappointed that I never even had a chance to take a shot. Finally, on Saturday, November 29, we went out for one last hunt. My wife and I would be going home the next day and I was determined to bring home some food for her and my unborn child.
We went back to where we had seen the bucks the day before. My wife’s grandfather had surprisingly gotten permission from the landowner to let me take a shot at one of the bucks we had seen. We just had to hope that they were still sitting in their usual spot. As we came around the curve for the last time there they were: two bucks sitting in a thicket on a side hill watching us get closer.
We were upwind and they definitely smelled us before we saw them, but fortunately they hadn’t moved yet. My brother-in-law and I walked about 20 yards to the left and took cover behind some smaller hills. We were about 200 yards away at that point. I flipped off the safety on my rifle and crept closer. We moved slowly over the hills and I took cover behind a cedar tree, 150 yards from the deer.
I brought up my scope to put him in my sights.
As I did he got up to run away and started trotting backwards up the hill; his body was turned ¾ away from me. “That’s okay,” I told myself. “I got this. 150 yards = ~2 inches high, just aim behind the shoulder and your golden.” I wrapped the sling around my left arm for support, pulled the rifle in tight, and squeezed the trigger gently.
The shot rang out and the deer kept running. I missed. I finally got a shot and I missed.
I worked the bolt and reloaded quickly. I got him back into my sights for another shot, but by then he was at the crest of the hill and I was not about to take a horizon shot, even though my bullet probably would have landed in the river. I ran up the hill to try to get an eye on him, but he was already gone, down into the hills to live another day.
To say I was disheartened would be an understatement. I put in all that preparation and effort and I had nothing to show for it. My rifle had performed perfectly. It was my fault; I had a good shot and I pulled it. As I sat there feeling sorry for myself my eyes picked out two blobs about 700 yards away. There were two does grazing down in the valley.
They either hadn’t heard the shot or didn’t care. My brother-in-law came up beside me and asked if I wanted to search for the bucks or go for the does. Obviously I wanted to get that buck, but I was sure I could get one of those does if we got closer; 700 yards is much too far for me to take a shot. I took a second to remind myself that I went hunting for practicality, not glory. We started heading down the hill toward the does, wind at our backs, hoping that we could get close enough to take a shot before the smelled us.
We inched closer for what seemed like hours. In reality it was about 10 minutes, tops. We came up over a hill and it happened again – they started to run. I took a seat and got my rifle ready. My brother-in-law took a range measurement: “310 yards,” he said. I got the front doe in my sights as she stopped to look back. I slowed my breathing and squeezed as gently as possible. As the shot went off I saw her jump. She staggered a bit and ran for about 10 yards. She then wavered and started to bed down. Thus, after over a week of hunting, dozens of miles hiked, and countless hours put into the process, I harvested a deer.
After butchering it I only got about 40 lbs. of meat. Though not a substantial amount of food, it was better than going home empty handed. I was able to bring home the bacon venison because I had the correct tool for the job. My Savage 110 was the perfect companion for the hunt and it worked flawlessly when I needed it to. The shot went straight and killed the deer humanely; the bullet entered halfway down her left lung and exited her right lung just behind the shoulder.
Conclusion
The Savage 110 is, when all is said and done, a boring rifle. It’s not pretty and certainly not extravagant in any way. But it will shoot straight and bring down a deer at 300 yards, perhaps further if you have a better scope and a more skilled shooter.
If you need a simple rifle to complete a simple task, the Savage 110 in .270 is the perfect rifle for you. Are there better long-range rifles out there? Of course. Is there a better deer-hunting rifle out there? Probably. Will those rifles cost more? Absolutely. But the 110 performs its task well and will do it time and again, at a fraction of the price of any high-end firearm. It is a practical rifle for the practical sportsman.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Caliber: .270 Winchester (other calibers are available).
Barrel Length: 22”
Overall Length: 43 3/8”
Weight (unloaded): 8 lbs. 2 oz.
Stock: Synthetic
Sights: No iron sights; Bushnell 3-9×40 scope included
Action: Bolt Action
Capacity: 4+1 (internal magazine).
Price: ~$500 (I received this as a gift, so I’m not exactly sure of the price).
RATINGS (out of five stars):
Style * * *
It’s a black gun with a black scope and black barrel, although the Accurelease is a shade of silver. To quote The Boss, “You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright.”
Ergonomics (carry) * * * *
With a good padded sling the rifle is easy to carry. Eight pounds isn’t a chore for anyone used to lugging around firearms.
Ergonomics (firing) * * * * *
The rifle shoulders nicely and the Accutrigger eliminates much of the user error from the shooting process.
Reliability * * * * *
In the ~150 rounds I have put through it I haven’t had any problems.
Customization * * * *
The 110 comes ready for any number of scopes or slings to be attached. Aftermarket stocks are available if you’re into that sort of thing. The Accutrigger eliminates any need to install another trigger or to even make a trip to a gunsmith. Savage makes customizing trigger pull almost too simple.
Overall * * * * *
This gun is accurate, reliable, and inexpensive. It’s everything you need and nothing more.
Nice review, sir; I’m an avid functionalist as well.
I do hope that you intend to keep your veteran of the “Great Patriotic War” around, though; a “Hammer of God” can be useful from time to time.
The trigger on my late ’30s 91/30 is actually very nice, and ’round here there are too many trees to hunt at over 75 yards or so, so iron sights still work for me. One o’ these days, though, I’ll have to get me something with a scope; the eyes aren’t getting any younger.
I just might get one of these as a birthday present for the offspring…
I have the Stevens 200 in .270WIN – basically the same rifle, w/o the Accutrigger. Got it cheap from a buddy who won it in a raffle. I have put a lot of venison in the freezer with it. Also stopped a few coyotes around the neighbor’s ranch. A no-frills stopper that you don’t mind gets banged around in the truck or in the field.
IMHO, savage rifles are highly underrated. I love mine. And the accu-trigger is pretty neat.
Great review.
Oh, and congrats on the harvest!
2 years ago when my part of NYS went from shotgun to rifle for deer, that’s the exact gun I bought only with a Nikon bdc, $400 out the door.
Love it! Killed 4 deer with it so far, sure beats a12 pump beating my shoulder to death, and it’s nice knowing that bullet is going to hit just where I want it to. I’ve killed over 100 whitetail with a 12ga slug , but this rifle really makes it a slam dunk!
A Savage 110e was the first gun I ever bought, back in 1978. It was a little over a hundred bucks with a cheap 4X, and would shoot 1 and a half MOA with any brand of 30-06 I chose to stuff in it. I took many an animal with that rifle, and am still sorry that I sold it when I got into more expensive and flashy guns. They were prettier, and performed better on paper, but I started to do less well in the field. My advice is to stick with what works, and don’t get too fancy.
OFC, no one will now listen to that advice, any more than I did those who told it to me back then… “Knowitallness” seems to be a systemic problem for us as humans. We all need to make our own errors, in order to learn from them. It reminds me of the old saying: “You better get to running the world right now, while you are still young enough to know everything!”
🙂
I was taken aback by the article’s main photo: the landscape looked almost identical to the country hereabouts (Nebraska’s Central Loess Hills), complete with incipient eastern-redcedar invasion. It is beautiful country until the trees get out of hand, a problem I expect to be working on in South Dakota soon.
I used to work on a nature preserve where older buffalo cows were “field harvested” in the winter. The buffalo manager used a .270. Of course the range was about 10-20 feet with the shot placed to sever the spine at the skull base. You could shoot three or four out of the pickup window and the others wouldn’t even stop grazing. It’s little wonder the old-time buffalo hunters were able to knock down a hundred or more in a “stand.”
On a side note, the UN Ammo ℅ sells a trigger kit for the 91/30 for ~$8. It only evens out the pull and smoothed the travel but I will not complain for the price.
Great review.
Just looked up that company as I hadn’t heard of them before. They do have some good bulk ammo prices (except .22; $79 for a brick of f’ing Thunderbolt?!) but the fact that they are based in Phoenix yet want to charge more to ship to the lower 48 makes me not want to do business with them. Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation, but I didn’t see one.
By the way, you can get that same spring kit from Amazon for $5.50 shipped.
I will admit that their site is clumsy to navigate and laid out in an unusual manner, but they do NOT charge MORE to ship to the “lower 48”. Yes, they do charge more to ship their products than if you were to walk in the door and carry it out yourself. No big surprise – I have yet to see any ammo company that didn’t charge for shipping, and in fact UNAC’s shipping rates are lower than many others.
Apparently you were confused by the fact that UNAC lists the item price and a shipped price instead of listing just the item price then hitting you up for shipping only after you are half way through the checkout process like most online companies do.
The “shipped” price includes the item and shipping — and it only covers shipping “to the lower 48” because shipping to Alaska or Hawaii costs a lot more.
I needed a deer rifle in a hurry this past year and I was looking for an accurate .308 so I bought a Savage model 11 at my LGS. I was looking at all brands an settled with the Savage over a foreign built Howa or Tieka. The Howa was heavier than what was needed for lugging up the Badlands ravines and I regret not getting the Tieka.
I did not research the detachable magazine issues that the Savages are known for and I found out that design failure for $500. The magazine drops out and is hard to seat correctly until I had to permanently fix it, and now the Savage is safe clutter as a back up reliable single-shot bolt action .308. I can’t get rid of it as it is an accurate gun that swacked my deer this year at 600yds.
“The Savage 110 is, when all is said and done, a boring rifle.”
Well, maybe now it is. A decade down the road, when you’re taking your oldest on his/her first hunting trip, it won’t be a Savage 110. It’ll just be “Dad’s rifle”. The one he brings home venison with. The one he’s never missed a shot with (we’ll just keep the above story a secret). Several decades later, it’ll be Grandpa’s rifle. The one that the grandkids will ask to borrow for their first hunt.
I remember the exciting experience of being able to shoot my Dad’s rifle the first time. Then I grew up some and thought that it was just a boring old Marlin that he got from Sears. Then I grew up some more and realized that it was the only real rifle I wanted. So, keep hold of that Savage. It’ll be exciting given enough time.
Great review. When Remington is still replacing triggers on my 700, that Accutrigger will still be taking meet.
Thanks, great review. Thats some pretty country. This is the rifle I’d choose as a first meat harvester, too.
I like the user adjustable trigger, and the box mag appeals vs the ‘boolits and spring-clip falling out of trapdoor while unloading” the old Win 70.
Same three way safety idea, too, but better as it wont get caught on a branch whilst strapped over my back, whilst wiggling down a pig tunnel, and maybe letting my bolt slide out, like I fear, anyway with the side lever.
The magazine issues seem to be fixable, by the average user:
http://www.shootersforum.com/rifles-rifle-cartridges/29809-savage-110-feeding-problems.html
I found .270 to be in stock all the time, Wally Whitebox, and online, during the Great Obama Ammo Scare when the dot.mil stuff was snapped up to refill secret underground bunkers, apparently,
and the only complaint I’ve read was there’s no factory match grade made for it.
Except checking now, seems like there is: maybe the in-house experts can offer insight.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/hsm-trophy-gold-270-win-130-grain-vld-rifle-ammo-20-rounds?a=892641
PS: I look forward to reloading too, someday, when investment in technique coaching, and more range time makes it worth it. For now both rifles are more accurate than me…;)
P.S. I took a long range rifle class one time from a navy seal sniper and brought the old wood .270, and with some very fine coaching managed to ring the bell at 500 yds, even with some flaky breezes.
Lots of much fancier tacticool rigs, but only one guy was doing better than the rest of us, and it was lots of practice, and his own past investment in coaching, that made the investtment in the platform, part of the end results, imho.
Guys that shoot long seem impressed witth savage accuracy:
http://www.sniperforums.com/forum/cartridges-calibers/38102-270-win-range.html
Way longer than I’d shoot for my personal ability, and standard for hunting with a humane kill, but imho its nice to have room to grow on one platform if you like that challenge at the range.
+1 on the impressive quality, the only people who don’t like or at least respect Savages are people who are simply put off by the low pricetag.
The barrel nut is kinda ugly for rifle purists. But it allows Savage to save money on how they make barrels and headspacing them at the factory.
For a guy who likes to experiment, the Savage barrel system allows you to change barrels on the Savage rifle without the services of a gunsmith. All you need is a barrel nut wrench and headspace gages.
Good review. My buddy has this exact rifle and shot a coyote at 200yards with it. No deer in Illinois with this(as far as I know).
Great rifle! Great review!
As a Savage owner myself I have two pieces of advice.
First order yourself a set of Talley one piece scope mounts, the mounts that came with your gun will work loose it is not a matter of “if” but rather “when”, my 308 worked them loose after about 30 rounds, I applied locktite and that held them for another 40 or so. Get the Talleys they cost $45 for a set and will last well through your children and grand kids.
Second, when you are ready slap that great rifle into a Boyd’s Prairie Hunter laminate stock, they cost $95 make the rifle look beautiful but not flashy and a laminate stock with pillars and a beaded recoil lug will beat 500-1000 dollar composite stocks every single time. Think about it, it is wood veneers saturated in epoxy resin and pressed together. It doesn’t get much stronger or impervious to the elements unless you machine the thing out of a block of steel.
Do those two things and for less than $200 your Savage will be the ultimate rifle for generations to come.
After semi-automatics are banned, this will be the new “assault rifle” it’s all black and it has XXXXing live cartridges on the side of the stock. Zero legitimate sporting purpose for this rifle. If it saves one more life… common sense gun control… reasonable gun regulations…keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people… it’s for the children.
We know your’e being facetious, but the gun grabbers aren’t. To them and the sheeple that’s not a deer rifle, it’s a sniper rifle, and you have no legitimate need for it.
Good news is there are way too many old deer rifles floating around for them to confiscate them all.
If I’d had the funds, I would have picked up this rifle just before the new “firearms safety certificate” law took effect out here in California (which adds a $25 fee to the process), with the Nikon BDC scope. With a Savage rebate, it rang the bell at just over $400, and I have never heard anyone complain about the out of the box accuracy or the trigger. I’ve been a Savage fan since I bought my first Savage .22 rifle, and this is a great buy that likely outperforms the Remington, the Ruger or the Mossberg in accuracy.
My son has the economy Savage in .308 and I have the economy Ruger in .243. I have a 3×9 on mine and he has a 4×12 on his. So far we’ve only been able to shoot them on paper at 100 yards. Neither rifle outperformed the other.
For a basic, no frills meat rifle you can’t go wrong with either.
We hope to make the trip to some open country to our south, public land that allows shooting, and see how they do at longer ranges.
My son recently picked up a reloading kit for the .308. Once I supply dies and components I will be able to work up some loads for mine.
I passed on an impulse buy of a Mossberg .410 bolt action shotgun yesterday because of the new 25 dollar long arm fee in CA.
Step by step the one of the largest firearms markets in America is being shut down. Wonder how that will effect bottom line for gun and ammo companies nationwide?
Congratulations on the shot you didn’t take. Too many people will take such a shot without thinking about the consequences.
Savage have a good reputation down-under as the best out-of-the-box rifle. In telescopic service rifle competitions, it is not uncommon for State-Of-The-Art class to be taken out by Savage rifles in the top-3 positions.
If you want a custom rifle, buy a Remington 700 and go wild with a Brownells’ catalog. If you want a shooting rifle with minimum fuss, buy a Savage.
If you want a custom rifle, buy a custom Rem-700 compatible action, then crack open the Brownells catalog.
You’ll be money and time ahead in the end.
Totally agree. Start off with a BAT or a Stiller or a Surgeon or Kelbly though I considered buying a Savage action and building a gun around it before. I opted for a BAT action instead. Finding stocks with Inletting is easier with Rem Clone actions.
There a nickname for the “factory class” or “stock class” or even “hunter class” shoots around the various clubs I attend. Lots of people refer to them as the Savage classes because of the out of the box accuracy of the Savage brand.
Dan; While reading the part about the loose scope rings, I was wondering if you “lapped” in the scope mounts, using a 1″ diameter steel lapping tool and some medium lapping compound.
I always use this method, as it eliminates any “bending” of the scope body. Also, as a bonus, if you should need to move the scope fore, or aft a bit, it will probably maintain it’s zero.
Nice review, I have a Savage Model 10 Precision carbine with a 20″ 223 heavy barrel. Will shoot 1/2″ MOA when I do my part.
Judging from the pictures above it is one of those Trophy Hunter package rifles, in that case the rings that come on those rifles are pretty terrible. Mine were loose on my Savage 308, tightened them and they came loose again after about 30 rounds so I tightened them with locktite and they stayed put for about 40 or so rounds. They just arent deisgned for even a modest recoiling rifle like a sporter weight 308. A friend bought a 243 around the same time as I got mine (based on my recommendation from mine) and his were loose when he bought it, but 40-50 rounds later his is still tight.
That in mind I would NOT lap these rings, partially because I think its a waste of time and money should be spent on a better mount when his rings come loose (and they will, and soon s a 270 is a bit stouter than a 308). Also, when I took mine apart the second time to replace them, they had this thin nylon like adhesive tape on the lower half of the ring which I assume was to increase holding power. This makes me think they are off on the dimensions, if you lap them and remove even more material I would bet they would even hold the scope.
To the author, like I said above, spend $45 and get a pair of Talley Lightweight ring/base combos. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1781145957/talley-lightweight-2-piece-scope-mounts-with-integral-rings-savage-10-through-16-110-through-116-round-rear-axis-matte?cm_vc=ProductFinding
I lapped mine, but I dont think thats necessary, they were nearly perfect I’m just obsessive. I was so impressed I put a second pair on a long range heavy barreled 308 I just picked up.
Was this the Bushnell scope package? Have updated with Weaver (Axis II) and Nikon on more recent package. Certainly should be to the good.
My 308 and my friend’s 243 were the Nikon package (think it is an older model of the Pro-Staff). I have looked at the others and even though they have different scopes they still all use the same crappy rings and bases. Im pretty sure they are the same rings you can get for air rifle scopes at big box sporting goods stores, really not something you want on a centerfire rifle.
Actually, I would never buy a new rifle with a factory mounted scope.
As mentioned above, best get a GOOD scope mount and rings, and the best scope you can afford.
Nicholas Brewer’s masterpiece is also very popular with southpaws. For the longest time it was the only port side bolt rifle available at any price. Seemed like only left handers knew just how good the Savage 110 was.
Savage has a very good reputation for better bang:buck in the accuracy department. This is, in part, because they button rifle their barrels, rather than the new cold hammer forge their barrels onto a mandrel as is now common in low-budget rifles.
Savages aren’t pretty, they’re pretty basic rifles, the “Accu-Trigger” isn’t my choice of triggers. They have a better safety setup than most non-Mauser/Winchester/Dakota rifles (which are the better choice of safety, IMO – on the cocking piece on the bolt). Still, if we hew to Whelen’s proscription that “only accurate rifles are interesting,” then Savages are interesting rifles.
The comparison I’d make is to Mossberg’s line of .22LR rifles from 50+ years ago. Mossberg .22 rifles were known for being absurdly accurate for the money. Why? Mossberg put their money into the barrel. It was lapped, even, which means that it lead-fouled less, etc. I’ve seen Mossberg .22 rifles that sold for $25 50+ years ago (and still command less than $250 today) shoot right up there with my $2K+ Anschuetz at 25 to 50 yards off a bench.
Savage rifles are seen as low-grade because of one thing more than anything else: the barrel nut. A rifle made with a barrel nut allows you to adjust the headspace without the same effort as on a Rem700, Win70, Mauser, etc, etc. This is a fairly big reduction in labor costs and barrel rejects. But it looks ugly – as in “shave your dog’s butt and teach him to walk backwards” sort of ugly.
One tip on rifles that have three screws to hold in the trigger guard & bottom metal. Your front screw (the one near or in the recoil lug at the front of the action) should be fully tight. If it is a target rifle, you probably should have a screwdriver or hex key with a torque reading or have a torque wrench.
Your rear screw should be tight as well, but tighten it after the front screw.
Your middle screw should be just barely snug. Don’t reef down on the middle screw, as it can distort the action unless your action has been pillar bedded on all three screws.
An out of the box practical no frills Bang stick that works and does it well! Savage make their own barrels and are pretty much the most accurate OEM barrel! My first New bolt action rifle was a Savage Model110 with Wood Furniture 30-06, had to sell it! Fast forward 30 years, A Model 111 in 30-06
was Purchased holds minute of angle out too 400! My .270 is from big Green
with Wood Stock, anyway both hold minute of Angle with edge going to Savage with Home loads @ 1/4 minute and 1/2 minute for .270, most of my Grand kids have either an Axis or Stevens 200 in 7mm-08, my oldest Grandson has Used his for 7 Seasons, replaced the scope but it delivered every time for 7 Years!
One of my first rifles was the 110 in 30.06 , scope mounted and no adjustments needed , right out of the box , very impressive , shot 2 inch group at 150 yards and the trigger is scary light . One of my ” best buy ” list . I must also include on my best buy list a single six I picked up at a pawn shop for $150.00 , like new condition , 22 wmr . Best shooter ever made out to 100 yards . Never underestimate the 22 wmr . If you don’t own one of these Rugers , you should acquire one .
I had a Savage 110 xp. I just got rid of it. Sold it to Cabelas. On a good day it would group at 3 to 5″ at 100yds. Shooting it at one God’s creatures at 200yds would have been criminal. I Tried different rounds, different shooters, and three different scopes. Honestly I have lever guns that are far more accurate. I made up every excuse to myself as to why it would not shoot. I blamed myself, the scope, the ammo. Finally I faced it – I had a bummer rifle. I should have known it from the look of the rifling. The rifling looked like it had been tapped and threaded like the inside of a hex nut. There was that much machining left on it. It has come to my attention that Savage was recently bought out and laid off over a quarter of their work force. This was a post-buy out Savage. That also may have something to do with why it was real junk.. I don’t live to far from Westfield and if Savage would let you drop off the rifle I would have had let them have a shot at doing something about. But they insist you risk more money to ship and insure it. Nothing short of new barrel would have fixed this rifle and if I got a generic “functions as designed” response my blood pressure which is already to too high would go even higher. So I dumped it and moved on and am honestly glad to be rid of it. So just a thought – I may be unlucky or Savage may already be a different company than it was just a year or so ago.
I have two cheap Savages and I love them, a 110 in 30-06 and a model 11 in 270 WSM the 06 prints 1/2″ groups with 150gr TTSX over RL19 and the WSM will tighten that up to about 0.32″ groups with 150gr SGKs over RL22. They are not the most accurate rifles I own but they are more then accurate enough for hunting, my most accurate is a Tikka T3 6.5×55 that shoots one hole groups so small you simply would not believe it. I have used my Savages in regular rotation for years and only have a couple gripes, during a very bumpy truck ride my soft foam butt pad tore a chunk out, not too bad a little super glue and it was good as new. My factory el-chepo Bushnell scope gave out after a few months and I replaced it with a very nice VX-2, and after shooting my silky smooth Tikka the Savage action feels very clunky and rough. I cannot recommend Savages to anyone, my 30-06 does not like any factory ammo I put though it, Savages are very bullet picky IMHO and best suited to handloaders unless you want to go buy a box of everything to see what it likes, though the WSM was not nearly so picky.
I have the Savage Axis in .270 and love it. At the sports shop I bought mine, they didn’t have the Accutrigger model, but I didn’t let that bother me.. { I know to cut a couple coils off the spring lighten the hard trigger pull }
I bought mine in Lac La Bische, Alberta and the gun tech pulled it out of the box and right at the counter, he showed me as he did his work in mounting the scope { 3×9 } that came with the rifle and made sure I understood all of the features of it. I watched as he did his job and he taught me a few tricks about it. After all was said and done, it wasn’t all done- he took it out back and they have a small range back there where he dialed the thing in to lethal accuracy. I walked out about $700 lighter as I bought all the gear to go with the rifle and several boxes of ammo.
Next day I was out chasing deer- bagged two and picked up a nice black bear as a bonus. Later that week, went out toward Fort MacMurray for some moose. Got a massive bull in sprint and another blackie. Back at the house, found another moose in the field and bagged it, too. Lots of meat for the freezer at home in BC. The rifle functioned smoothly and flawlessly. The accuracy cannot be beat. The bull was in sprint at about 250 yards or better and yet a single shot dropped the old man like a piano fell on his head.
Back in BC, I’ve taken down a few mulies and two more blackies. I am very happy with the rifle, no complaints at all.
My 8 year old daughter huts with me and uses a 303 Lee Enfield and a few times she misplaced a shot and I would finish the show with that 270 as an immediate backup shot.
For us, going after groceries means grabbing guns and heading to the woods or taking the boat out. We are planning on going back to my home state of Georgia to shop around for some fresh ham. By then, she’ll have a Savage .270 of her own.
I just bought me one in a Pawn shop, it was never fired, scope is still on it, No scratches on stock. I love the rifle. You should try Hornady ammo, that one is set at dead zero at 200 yards, little over 3000 fps. Works great.
I have a Savage 116 in 270 Win.
The extractor broke. So I went online to purchase an extractor kit (extractor, ball and spring).
I found a company called Sharp Shooters Supply in Delphos, Ohio, who “supposedly” specializes in Savage rifles and components.
I ordered and extractor kit from them.
Its been three weeks and NO PARTS. My many emails are not being answered
They don’t post their phone# on their website, only email address.
Here’s why…
They have a reputation of screwing people. They take your money and don’t deliver.
Here’s a remark from the BBB:
“This company has a pattern of unanswered and serious complaints concerning problems with the products or services as well as delivery issues. Specifically, consumers allege the company does not ship the merchandise which has been ordered and paid for. Consumers also report difficulty reaching the company, as they fail to return phone calls and/or emails.”
“Additionally, the company has failed to respond to BBB attempts to help resolve the matters.”
So stay away from Sharp Shooters Supply in Delphos, Ohio.
I got taken….hope you don’t.
THE most accurate centerfire sporting rifle I ever owned was a Savage110 in .30 – 06, VERY pre Accutrigger, about 1970, bought used from an Army Navy store…I did adjust the trigger down to about 2 pounds, and mounted a 6 x fixed scope on it…It amazed me whenever I took it to the range.I now have another older Savage 110 .30 – 06, with a nice wood stock and an old Redfield 3 x 9 scope on it…Amazing rifle. I also own Savage .22 and .22 Mag bolt rifles and a ’70’s Savage Model 99 in .308 Win. I like them.
My 110 in 7mm mag saw action fro 50yd shots to 350yd. Very easy to shoulder an find aim point. After 12 yrs has preformed flawless. Just purchased a 110e hoping for less recoil as Im a senior now.
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