First, I see a lot of people are getting sound advice so I'm really glad I asked for the community's help and very appreciative that you all responded.
So Saturday was the test. Having shot the 700 (thanks again 1911Pro) I wanted to see how comparable it was to the Savage. The Savage rep had a trunk full of Hornady ammunition. I shot the 110 in .308 with the detachable box magazine, threaded barrel, Accu-trigger, and a fugly digi-cam stock. Also spent a good bit of time behind the BA in .300 Win Mag.
Orkan... now I get what you were saying. The trigger was set heavier on the .308 than on the .300 but they were both finicky and I didn't like the feel. Several times I had to lift the bolt handle straight up and slowly bring it back down because the trigger was dead. If you didn't pull the trigger exactly the right way it wanted, it wouldn't go off. Don't know if that's an issue with aftermarket 700 triggers or not but it didn't speak to me of reliability.
The DBM was rattly as hell. I don't know; maybe all DBMs are but no way would I want that much noise. The magazine did lock positively into place though.
Both were certainly accurate enough for my purposes though I recognize 200 yards is a chip shot with these rifles. I was happy that with my lack of bolt-gun experience I was able to keep the bullet holes overlapping one another at 200.
I was surprised that the felt recoil on the .308 was markedly higher than the .300 Win Mag. The BA has a pretty large muzzle brake on it so it was loud but very soft shooting. Of course it weighed three times as much as the .308 so....
Both had to be very smartly cycled to keep from binding up, something I did not expect. Had some issues feeding and ejecting. The 700 didn't have any problems but I didn't put as many rounds through it. I haven't heard of widespread 700 reliability problems yet many people have commented on such issues with the Savage.
I didn't write down the models of Vortex glass on the rifles but they were certainly more than adequate and seemed to be clear and rock solid. Again, I'm no pro but I'd be happy with either of them as I've been pleased already with the Vortex glass I've owned and other Vortexes I've shot with.
Having shot both rifles now, I think either would suit my particular needs; I'm not looking to get into competitions and have nowhere to shoot more than 500-800 yards.
That said, if I'm getting into the long-range .308 game, it's going to be a 700. But I had to shoot them both myself to come to that conclusion. It's just how I roll
Thank you one and all for your advice and sharing your experiences. Hopefully before too much longer I can shift gears from "what rifle should I get?" to "what changes should I make to my 700?"
Thanks again and best regards,
-'bridge
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