Does anyone have information on the long range performace of the Savage 12 FV heavy barrel .308 bolt action rifle.

It looks quite impressive for a price range around 500 dollars. How would this stack up against a comperable remington at 1000 yards.

I have had, and have a few Savage rifles. I have never been disappointed in accuracy. I don't have a Savage FV 12, but I can say there are a few manufacturers that can equal, or beat a Remington as far as accuracy. A 26" barrel is very long. You can find others that will have great accuracy to the 1000 yd range w/ a 22" barrel. You can still stay with in the 500.00..600.00 range. The Savage is a nice rifle, if the barrel length is not an issue. JP

All I can say is I have had one Savage rifle. A $199 Stevens 200 with a standard 22" sporter barrel in .30-06. I shot the best group of my life with this gun. About 3/8" at 110 yards. Now if the cheap sporter is capable of doing that, I can't imagine the heavy barrel .308 isn't REAL accurate as well. Many of their rifles are not pretty and the actions are not silky smooth like a Model 70, but they do certainly know how to design, cut, and balance barrels (in my opinion).

The 223 savage 12fv I was able to shoot wasn't capable of very impressive groups, averaging just over 1". However, the 308 probably has a better twist rate for the bullets generally shot out of that caliber, so I would expect impressive groups, under 1" consistently. I think savage was working on a slower twist for their 223 anyhow.

You will not be dissapointed with savage accuracy. Remingtons are nicer looking, with nicer stocks. Chances are a bedding job is all your savage will need to make it a 1/2 moa shooter. www.longrangehunting.com is an awesome long range website.

I have a friend that has the 12FV in 22-250 and we loaded our pet load and it shot 1/4" groups first time out. It was bedded before shooting though. That is all that will have to be done to make it an ultra accurate rifle. It will do good the way it is though.

Both Savage and Remington make an outstanding product. To shoot at 1000yds you need a good combination (rifle, scope/irons and ammo), experience reading winds, and above all the ability to consitantly apply the rifle fundumentals every shot. I have only once shot to 1000yds and that was with a issue NM M14, match ammo, irons and prone unsupported. Every rifle will have its preference on what it likes to shoot.

CD

Does anyone have information on the long range performace of the Savage 12 FV heavy barrel .308 bolt action rifle.

It looks quite impressive for a price range around 500 dollars. How would this stack up against a comperable remington at 1000 yards.

I think that both Remington and Savage make a great product, but, If your talking about competition your not going to find many factory rifles on the shooting line and the one's you do find are going to be modified.

Most all of them will probably have an aftermarket barrel and all of them will probably have been blue-printed and have some type of target aftermarket trigger or factory competition trigger installed.

Chasing low scores in competition almost always means chasing high tech equipment and this usually means a pretty good investment. Few competition big bore long range target shooters have much less than a couple of grand in each rifle.

One thing for sure is if you have a Savage platform changing out barrels is a 20 minute operation with the few tools necessary.

Anyway I'm a Remington fan and though I'm long out of the competition shooting game my Model 700 VLS 26 inch heavy bbl in 243 works well on coyotes out to 500 yards and darn near that far for squirrels.

I've got friends with Savages and Rugers that are just as happy with them as I am with my Remingtons. I would suggest you check in with some of the guys shooting long range competition and see what they are shooting.

Faucettb....I went to the rifle range the other day and tried out my lastest project rifle. The wildcat is a 6.5/300WSM in a model 70! This rifle was built for hunting and not the looooong range target shooting but I just wanted to see how accurate it really was far out, like in the 1000 yard matches OK. We shot 750 yards that day in the field.

Well, I am a little disappointed that I did not shoot 12 inch groups with this rifle but then again I did not build it for such feats off the bench. My 300 win mag did out shoot this little rifle but then again I was using a Sierra bullet in the 190 BT made for target shooting.

Now at 300 yards this little project rifle did A-OK by hunting standards (mine anyway) shooting 2.75 to 3.5 inch groups during the 30 rounds shot. It might even shoot better in someone elses hands, now that my eyes are going south on me. However, I am pleased at waht the little featherweight can do at practical yardages.

The rifle at close range (100 yards) will shoot .760. I was wondering if I had of used the the .270WSM case, if I would have been better off accuracy wise?

Bet if you tinker with bullet/powder/primer/seating depth combinations you will find a winning load for this rifle.

I'm still messing with load combinations for my 6mm/284. It will shoot most heavy hunting bullets with a good degree of accuracy, but one is never satisfied until the ultimate load combo is found. In my case, barrel life may be reached before that happens, but I'll keep trying!

I've got to agree with kdub, some tinkering is going to bring those groups down. That is excellent accuracy for a pack in the woods gun.

I know what your saying about the eyes going south, I've got diabetis and end up getting a new prescription almost every year now.

I'm not sure you would have been better off using the 270 WSM case, probably a little easier sizing. Do you have to neck ream the brass? What kind of optics are you using?

Out of all the years of shooting and hunting I've done I've only owned one 6.5, a 264 Win mag I built for sheep hunting in AK. It got sold before the sheep hunt so never really did anything but sighting in with it. That should be a heck of a long range deer rifle. Let me know how it works this fall.

Most everyone I know that is into the static/square-range extended stuff shoot Remingtons.
However, I have a couple of friends up in Sacramento, that shoot Savages out to 1000yds at Sac-Valley...
- Both are very happy with their Savages.

Kdub I am up to the tinkering to find that magic load but I really built this rifle for lightweight and hunting out to 300 yards. It is to take the place of my 25-06 model 70 sporter, which I am giving to my son as a practice or target rifle. He also has a .338 mag I gave him several years ago too. Since he needs lots of practice in marksmanship, I figured the 1/4 bore would serve him well in that respect verses the .338 mag.....Ouch! :(

Faucettb....I have had to change perscriptions on my eyes 3 times in one year! I wake up every morning with blurred vision for half an hour and put drops in the eyes too. My old man used to say "Getting old is tuff business and you got to keep putting your own boots on" So I will grin and bare. ;)

Long range deer hunting (350 yards) is exactly what I built this rifle to do and in a light weight package too. I was using a Leupold 3 x 9 power in a vari x-2 scope. I might do better with more magnification, don't know really. I figure if I can still put em in a 6 inch circle at 300 yards, I am good to go. :D

Being diabetic and long of tooth (those that are left!), have problems with the eyesight, also. Don't get the prescriptions changed that often, but do have to wait for the "sliders" to move out of the way of the sight picture in the scope. No use trying iron sights anymore - just can't get any one thing into proper focus without a scope.

Find that if I pace the benchrest shooting slower the groups are better. Not near as tight as a few years ago, but well enough to suit me these days.

What some have said here is true.

For Benchrest shooting like IBS, most use a custom rifle for heavy competition, and modified rifles, barrels and such for the light competition built on 700 action or savage...and for factory, the 700 or savage and mods in trigger and scope mainly as well as rest and trigger pull. My heavy uses a bat action, 31 inch stainless kreiger barrel and jewell 3 oz trigger. My f class is on a 700 action with .308 and only mods to trigger pull, still blue printed trued action, almost as accurate as the heavy gun.

Faucettb....I have had to change perscriptions on my eyes 3 times in one year! I wake up every morning with blurred vision for half an hour and put drops in the eyes too. My old man used to say "Getting old is tuff business and you got to keep putting your own boots on" So I will grin and bare. ;)

Long range deer hunting (350 yards) is exactly what I built this rifle to do and in a light weight package too. I was using a Leupold 3 x 9 power in a vari x-2 scope. I might do better with more magnification, don't know really. I figure if I can still put em in a 6 inch circle at 300 yards, I am good to go. :D

I'm getting my eyes examined every six months now and have had prescriptions only once a year, lucky I guess. Like kdub iron sights are pretty much out of the picture. I just traded off both my 44 Redhawks, just to hard for me to shoot anymore.

A couple of years ago I bought a Rem 700 mountian rifle in 280 Remington. Up til then all my hunting was done with a Rem 8mm Mag. I'm really liking the way the 280 shoots and though the longest deer taken so far was 125 yards I would be comfortable with it to 300 with a decent rest.

I put a Simmons ATEC 2.8 to 10 on the 280. I'd been using one of these on my 8 mag for a few years and have been pleased with them. I figure if it will stand up to the 8 mag recoil it will stand up to most anything. They have a long eye relief and great field of view. The deer don't seem to mind that their well under 200 bucks to boot.

As far as the magnification is concerned my scope seems to stay set at the lowest power and I have yet to turn it up. I guess I'm waiting for that one long range shot.

Being diabetic and long of tooth (those that are left!), have problems with the eyesight, also. Don't get the prescriptions changed that often, but do have to wait for the "sliders" to move out of the way of the sight picture in the scope. No use trying iron sights anymore - just can't get any one thing into proper focus without a scope.

Find that if I pace the benchrest shooting slower the groups are better. Not near as tight as a few years ago, but well enough to suit me these days.

I hear you loud and clear on the "sliders too" yep it is a pain in the neck sometimes. Sorry, I neglected to state the other day in my post, that two other much younger shooters shot those very satisfying groups at 300 yards. I did manage to pull out a 4.5 inch group once at the bench.

I am going to get one of those new Leupold Varmint scopes with the new recticule and have that put on the barrel. I would like to have a 4 x 16 power it they have such an offereing.

I bought a Savage 12 at Dick's a last year, $249 and it came with a cheap but addaquate Simmons 4X-12X. I'm still working up loads for it, but it became evident right away that the 9 to 1 twist seems to like 60 gr bullets better than 50's or 55's. It shoots just about moa at 100 yds (as long as the range goes). but I expect to do better if I find the right combination.

savage is building some great guns right now, don't think you could go wrong with one

Bet if you tinker with bullet/powder/primer/seating depth combinations you will find a winning load for this rifle.

I'm still messing with load combinations for my 6mm/284. It will shoot most heavy hunting bullets with a good degree of accuracy, but one is never satisfied until the ultimate load combo is found. In my case, barrel life may be reached before that happens, but I'll keep trying!

There it is. ;)

My .270 Savage 111 shoots the lights out. My best groups come when I take the time to meticulously prepare the casings, hand-weigh powder, seat bullets (using the quarter turn method) to the Nth measurement....OAL to within a fraction of the .001

The devil is in the details....but those rounds will shoot if you do your job. I use Nosler Ballistic Tips for this application.

Does anyone have information on the long range performace of the Savage 12 FV heavy barrel .308 bolt action rifle.

It looks quite impressive for a price range around 500 dollars. How would this stack up against a comperable remington at 1000 yards.
I have some friends who shoot both Savages and Remington and from what I have seen of their shooting, there isn't much difference in the performance. Because of this, I'd go with the Savage. With the Accutrigger and barrel exchangability, I think it would have the advantage, that and initial price>

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