This is going to drag on a bit but it's a good tale.
Back in June of 2009 when I was living in Hawaii I ordered a Savage Weather Warrior 16FCSS chambered in 7mm-08 Rem for $574.28 and $19.95 shipping. This would be my first, and as it turns out, only Savage. The Weather Warrior was fairly new to the market back then, and I was looking for a rugged, reliable and accurate hunting rifle to use on pigs and deer in the Aloha State. The Savage seemed to be a good choice based on accuracy reports for Savages in general but little did I know.
Soon after receiving the rifle I set about installing some Talley one-piece rings/bases and a scope and I remember that I had to lap the rings to such an extent that I assumed the rings were really bad. The factory recoil pad is still the worst I've ever encountered having the feel of melting cheese so I ordered and installed a much nicer one from HiViz. My initial impression of the rifle shooting some factory and handloaded ammunition (139gr SST) was that it was very bad to bad in terms of accuracy/precision. When I did some digging I discovered that for some reason known only to Savage, the barrel had a 1:11.5 twist or it could have been 1:11. Regardless, since the SAAMI twist was/is 1:9.5 I figured that my poor accuracy was due to the barrel. And so the rifle sat for a while.
Around December of 2010 I ordered a heavy 22" barrel from McGowen, a new knurled barrel nut (factory pos was smooth) a new recoil lug with a tab to engage the receiver (factory one didn't have the tab), an aluminum Picatinny rail from TPS and some aluminum 1" rings from Seekins Precision. I think the barrel arrived first so I opened up the barrel channel in the AccuStock and installed the barrel and then things got worse ... much worse. As I started to install the rail it became clear that something was very wrong. I realized that the tops of the bridges weren't in the same plane. They were in parallel planes angling downward front to back. Emails, phone calls, and photos to Savage got me nowhere. They refused to pay shipping back to them for what was clearly a big problem and certainly a warranty issue. And so the rifle sat for a while and I vowed to never buy another Savage product ... and I haven't.
I went to work for Remington in November of 2011 and during my two years there asked a number of machinists if they could fix the receiver but none thought it would be possible (easy). I realized that in good conscience I couldn't sell the rifle so I decided that I would attempt to true up the tops of the bridges such that the TPS picatinny rail would sit flush on the receiver. My plan was to mark up the receiver with permanent marker and roll/slide it over some coarse wet & dry paper on a flat, hard surface to grind down the bridges so that they were in the same plane, then rinse and repeat. It was slow work but I would do a bit here and there when I had time and was motivated. And so the rifle sat for a while.
In November of 2013 I left Remington and moved to Montana. Occasionally I would get back to shaping the receiver but it seemed to take forever so I would only work on it sporadically. Two years ago when ordering a Hogue rifle bag for my girlfriend for Christmas I decided to take a chance on a Hogue overmolded stock with a full-length bedding block for the Savage. When the stock showed up it was clear that there was an issue in that the entire barreled action was sitting way over to one side. This additional set back just about put the final nail in the coffin for that Savage. I was so fed up with the whole thing that I seriously considered cutting it up with my plasma cutter and spreading the parts to the four corners of the earth so that they couldn't somehow get back together to mess with someone else's life. And so the rifle sat for a while.
Three weeks ago and close to 10 years after I bought the rifle I figured I'd finally get this boat anchor down the road, but it had to be in a good enough state that I could live with the idea of someone buying it. This sudden surge of interest was inspired by my recently selling three revolvers on Gunbroker and being on a "cash flow high". With the initial purchase price, HiViz recoil pad, McGowen barrel, Hogue stock and a few bits and pieces I'm probably into this thing to the tune of $1,000 but if I could get $600 for it I'd be able to forget about Savage forever. So two weeks ago I sent an email and photos to Hogue in the hope that they'd replace the stock. It turns out that the color I had (olive drab green) was no longer available but they told me to send the stock to them for evaluation once I refused to try their ridiculous suggestions of adding shims and/or rotating the recoil lug. Last week I received a brown replacement stock from Hogue that still wasn't perfect, but close enough that I could work with it. I did a bit of inletting on the left side of the barrel channel and now the barrel sits nicely in the stock.
For the last couple of weeks my intention has been to get the Savage to the level where I would feel ok about selling it along with a few hundred rounds of 7mm-08 Rem that I wouldn't need anymore. Two days ago I installed the TPS rail, Savage rings and a Zeiss 3.5-10x44mm scope and everything fit perfectly. I have close to 300 rounds of Barnes VOR-TX 120gr TTSX ammuntion that I got when I worked at Remington in addition to a similar amount of Core-Lokt. So yesterday morning I shot the rifle for the first time in probably 9 years using that Barnes VOR-TX stuff which is loaded by Remington and uses crappy ball powder. I knew that I'd be ok with anything even half decent so my hope was that it would shoot well enough to make it worth my while to put a nice brushed finish to the top of the receiver so that it looks factory and then sell it. I had a coworker bore sight the rifle as I went inside to get a box of ammo. He was shooting with me at my home range yesterday morning testing some much nicer rifles. So here goes, let's see what this anchor will do. The first shot was nowhere to be seen ... uh oh! I'm rarely off by more than 6" when bore sighting so I was thinking "here we go again". He thought the shot was high, very high, so he held on the center of the board for the second shot and still nothing on paper. So he held on the bottom of the board for the third shot and there it was, a single hole 13" above his point of aim with near perfect windage. He dialed down 13.25 moa and shot a 5-shot group in a couple of minutes or less. Then I shot a 5-shot group ... mine was worse!
So here I am today with a Savage Weather Warrior FCSS with a McGowen barrel and Hogue stock that I could never sell for half of what I have into it and against all the odds I don't care. After this almost 10 year journey I think I'm going to keep it. The two groups weren't great but certainly weren't bad either and once I pull all those Barnes rounds, resize the neck, stuff a bunch of 4895 or similar in the case and shove the bullet back in I'm sure I can get five shots into 3/4". The rifle is heavy to the tune of 9lb, bolt lift is ridiculously heavy, the trigger is good, the stock comb is too low but lower rings might fix that, and based on the two groups, there's a very good chance that this rifle will shoot extremely well. I might even send the barrel off to @MachIVshooter to have him cut it back and thread it 5/8-24 for suppressed use. I figure after 10 years and $1,000 I might as well keep the anchor and stuff it behind the seat of my truck if nothing else. You never know when you might need a firearm capable of reaching out to 500 yards or so.
I hope this wasn't too boring for those of you still reading.
Top of bridges not in the same plane
Rail tightened down and the "wave" clearly shows bridges are not ground properly
Defective Hogue stock has barreled action sitting off to the left
Defective Hogue stock
Bridges corrected, rail sits flat
Savage Weather Warrior in replacement Hogue stock after minimal inletting
Heavy beast!
Barnes VOR-TX 120gr TTSX with good brass, decent primer but crappy ball powder
Two groups shooting Barnes VOR-TX factory 120gr TTSX that show promise for a handload using the same bullets, brass and primers but different powder. Average velocity was 2,980 fps
Back in June of 2009 when I was living in Hawaii I ordered a Savage Weather Warrior 16FCSS chambered in 7mm-08 Rem for $574.28 and $19.95 shipping. This would be my first, and as it turns out, only Savage. The Weather Warrior was fairly new to the market back then, and I was looking for a rugged, reliable and accurate hunting rifle to use on pigs and deer in the Aloha State. The Savage seemed to be a good choice based on accuracy reports for Savages in general but little did I know.
Soon after receiving the rifle I set about installing some Talley one-piece rings/bases and a scope and I remember that I had to lap the rings to such an extent that I assumed the rings were really bad. The factory recoil pad is still the worst I've ever encountered having the feel of melting cheese so I ordered and installed a much nicer one from HiViz. My initial impression of the rifle shooting some factory and handloaded ammunition (139gr SST) was that it was very bad to bad in terms of accuracy/precision. When I did some digging I discovered that for some reason known only to Savage, the barrel had a 1:11.5 twist or it could have been 1:11. Regardless, since the SAAMI twist was/is 1:9.5 I figured that my poor accuracy was due to the barrel. And so the rifle sat for a while.
Around December of 2010 I ordered a heavy 22" barrel from McGowen, a new knurled barrel nut (factory pos was smooth) a new recoil lug with a tab to engage the receiver (factory one didn't have the tab), an aluminum Picatinny rail from TPS and some aluminum 1" rings from Seekins Precision. I think the barrel arrived first so I opened up the barrel channel in the AccuStock and installed the barrel and then things got worse ... much worse. As I started to install the rail it became clear that something was very wrong. I realized that the tops of the bridges weren't in the same plane. They were in parallel planes angling downward front to back. Emails, phone calls, and photos to Savage got me nowhere. They refused to pay shipping back to them for what was clearly a big problem and certainly a warranty issue. And so the rifle sat for a while and I vowed to never buy another Savage product ... and I haven't.
I went to work for Remington in November of 2011 and during my two years there asked a number of machinists if they could fix the receiver but none thought it would be possible (easy). I realized that in good conscience I couldn't sell the rifle so I decided that I would attempt to true up the tops of the bridges such that the TPS picatinny rail would sit flush on the receiver. My plan was to mark up the receiver with permanent marker and roll/slide it over some coarse wet & dry paper on a flat, hard surface to grind down the bridges so that they were in the same plane, then rinse and repeat. It was slow work but I would do a bit here and there when I had time and was motivated. And so the rifle sat for a while.
In November of 2013 I left Remington and moved to Montana. Occasionally I would get back to shaping the receiver but it seemed to take forever so I would only work on it sporadically. Two years ago when ordering a Hogue rifle bag for my girlfriend for Christmas I decided to take a chance on a Hogue overmolded stock with a full-length bedding block for the Savage. When the stock showed up it was clear that there was an issue in that the entire barreled action was sitting way over to one side. This additional set back just about put the final nail in the coffin for that Savage. I was so fed up with the whole thing that I seriously considered cutting it up with my plasma cutter and spreading the parts to the four corners of the earth so that they couldn't somehow get back together to mess with someone else's life. And so the rifle sat for a while.
Three weeks ago and close to 10 years after I bought the rifle I figured I'd finally get this boat anchor down the road, but it had to be in a good enough state that I could live with the idea of someone buying it. This sudden surge of interest was inspired by my recently selling three revolvers on Gunbroker and being on a "cash flow high". With the initial purchase price, HiViz recoil pad, McGowen barrel, Hogue stock and a few bits and pieces I'm probably into this thing to the tune of $1,000 but if I could get $600 for it I'd be able to forget about Savage forever. So two weeks ago I sent an email and photos to Hogue in the hope that they'd replace the stock. It turns out that the color I had (olive drab green) was no longer available but they told me to send the stock to them for evaluation once I refused to try their ridiculous suggestions of adding shims and/or rotating the recoil lug. Last week I received a brown replacement stock from Hogue that still wasn't perfect, but close enough that I could work with it. I did a bit of inletting on the left side of the barrel channel and now the barrel sits nicely in the stock.
For the last couple of weeks my intention has been to get the Savage to the level where I would feel ok about selling it along with a few hundred rounds of 7mm-08 Rem that I wouldn't need anymore. Two days ago I installed the TPS rail, Savage rings and a Zeiss 3.5-10x44mm scope and everything fit perfectly. I have close to 300 rounds of Barnes VOR-TX 120gr TTSX ammuntion that I got when I worked at Remington in addition to a similar amount of Core-Lokt. So yesterday morning I shot the rifle for the first time in probably 9 years using that Barnes VOR-TX stuff which is loaded by Remington and uses crappy ball powder. I knew that I'd be ok with anything even half decent so my hope was that it would shoot well enough to make it worth my while to put a nice brushed finish to the top of the receiver so that it looks factory and then sell it. I had a coworker bore sight the rifle as I went inside to get a box of ammo. He was shooting with me at my home range yesterday morning testing some much nicer rifles. So here goes, let's see what this anchor will do. The first shot was nowhere to be seen ... uh oh! I'm rarely off by more than 6" when bore sighting so I was thinking "here we go again". He thought the shot was high, very high, so he held on the center of the board for the second shot and still nothing on paper. So he held on the bottom of the board for the third shot and there it was, a single hole 13" above his point of aim with near perfect windage. He dialed down 13.25 moa and shot a 5-shot group in a couple of minutes or less. Then I shot a 5-shot group ... mine was worse!
So here I am today with a Savage Weather Warrior FCSS with a McGowen barrel and Hogue stock that I could never sell for half of what I have into it and against all the odds I don't care. After this almost 10 year journey I think I'm going to keep it. The two groups weren't great but certainly weren't bad either and once I pull all those Barnes rounds, resize the neck, stuff a bunch of 4895 or similar in the case and shove the bullet back in I'm sure I can get five shots into 3/4". The rifle is heavy to the tune of 9lb, bolt lift is ridiculously heavy, the trigger is good, the stock comb is too low but lower rings might fix that, and based on the two groups, there's a very good chance that this rifle will shoot extremely well. I might even send the barrel off to @MachIVshooter to have him cut it back and thread it 5/8-24 for suppressed use. I figure after 10 years and $1,000 I might as well keep the anchor and stuff it behind the seat of my truck if nothing else. You never know when you might need a firearm capable of reaching out to 500 yards or so.
I hope this wasn't too boring for those of you still reading.
Top of bridges not in the same plane
Rail tightened down and the "wave" clearly shows bridges are not ground properly
Defective Hogue stock has barreled action sitting off to the left
Defective Hogue stock
Bridges corrected, rail sits flat
Savage Weather Warrior in replacement Hogue stock after minimal inletting
Heavy beast!
Barnes VOR-TX 120gr TTSX with good brass, decent primer but crappy ball powder
Two groups shooting Barnes VOR-TX factory 120gr TTSX that show promise for a handload using the same bullets, brass and primers but different powder. Average velocity was 2,980 fps
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