Savage or Remington first precision bolt-gun

[T2C]

My first rifle was a Savage 10 FP in .308 and I should have about 5-6k rounds through it at this point. I've replaced the ejector and ejector spring on it 3 times and the extractor, extractor detent, and spring once. It still deposits its spent brass directly on top of the next round in the magazine roughly 75% of the time. It would run well for a little bit after replacing the ejector and spring but then return to its normal routine of shitting in my cheerios.

I think the floating bolt head design limits the length of the ejector spring to such an extent that it is easily fatigued. Combine that with a horrible extractor design and some tolerance stacking and you get rifles with spotty reliability. My old man has two savages that do not exhibit these issues. I also have zero complaints about the accuracy for a factory gun.

If I were buying a new, factory bolt gun today it would be a Rem. 700.

I don't like this or that brand, etc., are not helpful posts and we sure have seen a lot of them on this and other threads.

Posting specifics about problems with a rifle and what solutions you came up with to address those problems are what helps others who are trying to decide on which rifle to buy or identify future maintenance issues with their own rifle.

Thank you for your post.

[BoilerUP]

As noted upthread, I am a Savage guy. I do have one 700, and it is highly accurate with the factory barrel, but it is a Mountain LSS with pencil contour barrel dedicated to hunting whitetail.

I did recently get smitten by the shorty 700 Tactical 16.5" 308 and I got a new one off Gunbroker for <$600. It is my first 700 'precision rifle', and my first 308 (I shoot 260 and 223/223AI). Since the furthest I have to shoot is 650yd and I don't compete, the stub-nose isn't really a handicap.



I like this rifle a -LOT-. 168gr TAP averaged 2524fps over 10 shots, and two 5-shot groups at 100yd averaged a tick under MOA despite the crappy Hogue stock. And, unlike both of my Savages, ejects brass with AUTHORITY.

The only thing that would make this rifle better is a new stock (M40 Medalist arrives today) and it being chambered in 260 Rem.

I may not end up keeping this particular rifle, but if I don't, it'll probably be replaced by a 700 with a .260 Rem-Age conversion.