I discovered a 6mmbr and 308 version of savagearms manufactured benchrest target rifles while visiting my regional gun suppliers racks.
I investigated threads here and see some info that seems dated close to when savage started producing these rifles in 2006 timeframe.

Botoom line is that these are big heavy benchrest pieces. Button barrels, attached to mcmillan stocks. Single shot, left and right ported options, and all are stainless. Actions are smoothe as silk.

Store sales guy is also a well known gunsmith in my area and he says that he is starting to recommend these to starting benchrest shooters as a first precision gun. He personally has used match quality factory ammo from federal to pull off .5" groups witht he 308 on a totally consistent basis at 100 yards.

Gunsmith also said that the savage single actions come with a target trigger (6 oz-2.5#). He has rebarreled 4 of the rifles and says they are designed for barrel swaps at the bench (assuming you have headspace gauge in hand).

any input? My original impression was that savage was not on my favorites list. maybe they have had a wakeup call?

input appreciated....

Savage rifles have always had a reputation for high accuracy, far beyond what their price would lead you to believe. They are accurate enough, off the shelf, to compete at a club level in F class competition for example. But, they are not benchrest rifles.
Peter

well seeing as how accurate normal off the shelf savages can be....if they really put in some extra work at the factory on these "benchrest" models...they might very well be damn fine shooters.

I have two savage Varmint types. One is a 12fv in 22-250 the other is a 12fv switch barrel in 220 Swift. Both shoot half minute at 200yds consistantly. I have killed prairie dogs in excess of 400yds consistantly. I truly believe with a better stock and the more rigid action the Savage Benchrest rifles have some real potential. If I was inclined towards benchrest that is where I would start.
GOOD LUCK and GOOD SHOOTING!!!

Savage is very possibly the most popular varmint/target factory rifle available today. I think they are real values and real winners.

thanks all.....for your comments and insights. I decided to purchase a benchrest 308 and I will report on how well it does. I called today and was told that this benchrest rifle would be $1,080.00 and it was totally new.

life is grand! at least the first 1000 bullets through an quality tube.

I have a savage 12 f-class rifle in 6.5x284. I have to agree with peter, good enough for club level f-class. Mine shoots an average of 1.5" @ 300 yds, but it's definitely not benchrest quality. With a better barrel it would come close though. My barrel shoots as good as i expected it to but is awfully rough. ( lots of tool marks inside )A fellow f-class shooter that works at a gun shop said that is the reports he's been getting. Accurate, but rough.

For you to learn how to shoot and read conditions with a rifle, it must be able to put every bullet on the same hole. Anything worse than that, you´ll never know whats going worng - the gun, wind, bullet, shooter, etc, and will not improve neither your shooting abilities nor your equipment. Your shooting rig must be predictable for you to know whats going on when anything changes.

It is very unreasonable to expect such qualities from a factory gun.

Maybe Savage rifles or actions could be competitive in F-class, because of it´s bigger tolerance for mistakes, but not in benchrest. And, even so, you are handicapping yourself from learning as your conditions reading capabilities and you shot call radius will be determined by the accuracy of your rifle.

Get a good used bench gun, and save a lot of bucks. Go over benchrestcentral.com , they have a huge classifieds list.

Cheers,

Reiter.

No doubt that no current factory rifle will compete in national level benchrest competition.

A factory Savage rifle did win the 500 yard groundhog and egg shoot in North Carolina -- one in which competitors from around the world routinely build $3,000+ custom rifles to compete and win.

.

I casually competed in some local 600 and 1000 yd shoots a couple of years ago....

of course there was the core of guys who were regulars with spendy snobby rifles and spendy snobby glass on top, shooting exotic magnum calibers....

yet some young eskimo kid shows up with his dad, who was in the above crowd... but the kid worked for $8.00 an hour, so his only rifle was a heavy barreled Savage, synthetic cheap stock, that he got for UNDER $400.00 new, chambered in 260 Rem.. all Straight factory... with a $69.00 Tasco Scope in 4 x 16 mounted on top...

this kid was always placing in the top two or three and usually won about 50% of the time...

I personally compliment Savage for making those F class rifles available as a stock item... for the average guy, they are an excellent value...

I bought a separate one of their actions, and plan on building the equivalent of their F class rifle...chambered for a couple of traditional calibers that are not factory available...

myself and my shooting buddie got one of the savage 308 F/TR last year and have to say they shoot better than I can shoot.Right after we got them we was talked into shooting a 600 yd match,for four 5 shot groups he avaraged a little under 4 in and I averaged 4.57 in which for a first timmer though it wasn't bad.Plan on doing better this coming year.Shot some one holers at 300 yds monday,so think I have a 600 yd load worked out.The match we went to a fellow broke the record with a group of .711 with a bench rifle the savage won't never do that good but it is a very good rifle to start out with.
To brag a little more on the savage went to a 300 yd egg shoot last year,there were rifles of all makes there including some expensive light bench rifles I got very lucky and won with a $400 savage 223.
Have another buddie that has the 6.5x284 savage,went with him to a 300 yd shoot,he came away winner in the light bench and factory class.He has won the 1000 yd factory class at Hawks ridge shoots also with his rifle.Last time I talked to him he said he had the 6 BR on order.

Seafire, that reminds of a day at a local trap club I use to belong to. On this day all the old, rich guys were present with their 5-15K super, duper trap guns when this young Asian man shows up with a emington 870 .410 in a bullpup stock. He smoked these snobby rich dudes all day long, breaking 98-100. The look on their faces was priceless. Lou