Results of rifle bedding attempt

That's a big dime! Or one accurate piece...

The holes really are 6mm dia, not .50 cal. :

Not sure what you meant by "pillar bedding," but from what I've read and one of my gun smith buddies says you can dramatically improve most all of those inexpensive bolt guns by fully bedding them about an inch or so past the chamber, and then floating the barrel. He says you still get some barrel warp as they heat up just from variances in thickness, but not as bad as when one side is in the air, and the other side is pressed against the wood. Also some guns simply are not bored concentric enough and the higher mass of metal on one side of the bore will cause it to warp anyway.

Yours is doing very nicely for a low end Savage, although Savage kinda gets a bad rap sometimes. They make some comparably affordable off the shelf guns that will shoot very nicely, and I really have not heard of any of their guns suffering from undue premature wear problems.

Now hear is one for those guys who can't afford a great rifle and don't have the time or the nerve to make modifications like you did. Sight your inexpensive out of the box gun in over a very extended time. Bore sight. Then take your first shot. Then give it 30 minutes or so before taking your second shot. Proceed in kind. You will find that it will shoot a lot more consistently than you expect that way. For hunting its no matter. You rarely get more than one good shot at a single target anyway. You are not going to turn a $69 1980s import into a $4000 custom match gun, but you will be able to shoot your one shot and be pretty certain its going to hit were you pointed it.

I'm certainly no gunsmith, but one of my first clients was a gunsmith and custom match builder. I used to hang around his shop and talk with him while he worked.

That's what I did. Two metal pillars are epoxied into the stock. The action is mounted on those pillars. The stock is relieved elsewhere so wood does not touch metal anywhere except perhaps under the tang. Then epoxy is applied in the gap so support on the action and behind the recoil lug is uniform. The barrel is free-floating.

That works.

Now you know what to use during the Great Cull.

Gunner

Savage is probably the most accurate of all the Big 5 manufactures at the moment.

Its a very very pleasant suprise what the "new" owner, Ronald Coburn, did with Savage Arms. He took a company that had a very spotty..in some cases..absolutly shitty reputation and turned it around.

Ive owned Savage arms for many years and with few exceptions, they were mediocre pieces of crap designed by mutants. Coburn took over..got them off virtual bankruptcy and produces some of the finest production arms ever made.

The only Savage centerfire long gun I ever owned that I really liked..was a mint+ 24D over and under...20ga Mag under 357 Remington Maximum. And its the only one Ive ever seen. I cant find any reliable records of that combination. I carry it a lot when out in the desert during bird season..as it takes birds and coyotes nicely. Not a bad score for $150, eh?

Gunner

Current model Savage guns ARE pillar bedded from the factory and their "tactical" line goes one better, they've got a machined metal frame that the whole receiver beds down in, then the works goes in a fiber stock. They're getting what amounts to match accuracy from production guns and barrels and for a most reasonable price. The ease of swapping barrels is just an added plus.

I've not seen that particular combination in a 24, the .357 Maximum had about 6 months of hooraw from the press, then it died. The 24 was a barn gun, pure and simple, but the price got to be over $500 and nobody pays that for a barn gun. Even now, the .22LR over .410s run $600 at the local shows. Crazy. So hang onto it, it's probably a collector's item now. Had one fellow at a show that was paying crazy prices for any over-under he didn't have yet.

Stan

That made the effort worth the while. Excellent results.

Your photo clued me into a piece of software that I need to try out.

Thanks!

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Oh golly, I'll miss that party since I don't have a banjo or even much of a porch.

Oddly enough..the Maximum is a pretty decent round. Near 357 Herret velocities with nearly the same size bullet out of a handgun and out of a rifle..it actually approaches..though distantly..the 35 Remington, if you can believe that.

D models were made on walnut stocks with decent bluing and polish. When I bought it some years ago, the fellow I bought it from, at a gun show had brought in a bunch of guns and was looking for miltiary style California legal arms and was wheeling and dealing to snag something before the Ban came into effect. I glanced at it. saw it was a nice looking weapon and thought it was a 357 Magnum upper. So we haggled a bit, I flipped out cash, he took it and I walked carried it back to my table and stood it in the corner. Buddy came by, we shot the shit for a few and he commented on the Savage. After looking it over..his eyebrows rose a bit and asked me if I had any brass for it. I told him I had many thousand..and he asked...Maximum brass???.. I blinked, grabbed it back and looked close..and sure as shit..it was a Maximum. So I had to go roust around until I found 50 new cases and paid a freaking premium for them. Next day, Id loaded some test rounds for it, took it to the range and found what it liked. What surprised me, was it was pumping about a

1" 5shot group at 50 yrds, with the crude folding sights. So I went home, loaded all the cases with its favorite load and thats what Ive been toting ever since. Tried a few other rounds over the years, found a cast bullet and a JHP load that it likes and I keep a few hundred rounds worked up for it. It shoots 20ga damned well, though its not a Perazzi trap gun.

Ive taken all manner of dove, quail, chukker and bunnies and also a deer, about a half dozen wild boars, a shit load of coyotes and whatnot.

I carry it a lot, dont shoot it much, but its a nice addition to the battery. Its not a paper puncher..but it has a decent wallop, about like a 3030 and is a pretty fair untilty arm for wandering around in the desert.

I seem to run into odd but cool stuff now and then....chuckle.

Gunner

Hey thanks! Ive got an elderly hand scanner I can run on the laptop at the range!

Gunner

Nah...you dont need a banjo OR a porch. When the Great Cull starts..herds of leftwingers will be on the run and you know how they are...criminal and mentally ill for the most part. So they will move into towns and steal everything not bolted down while passing through.

Like felonious caribou. So you simply use the .243 to thin out the herd so they dont attack the next town so badly, and those thin out the herd even more and so on and so forth, until they are down in numbers low enough that kind people can use them hooked to a plow or weeding in the garden, kept for raw labor and fed simple but good food..like dog kibble...shrug

But you do have to watch them, they are lazy, deranged and mentally ill.

Gunner

That'll work, or you can use any digital camera. The software accepts .jpg files. You'll need a size reference on the image. A dime is .701 dia.

That's only the 'good' ones. The rest are 'much' worse.