I’ve been a fan of the Big Green for a long time, but yesterday I had my eyes opened to the new line of Savage rifles. I’ve been at the range the past few months looking for a good load in my new 700 VS in 223. An older gentleman and his wife are also regularly there with their Savages. He has one of the new 12BVSS’ in 223. So far, the best I’ve managed with my 700 is an occasional .450 group with most averaging in the .750 neighborhood. I’ve watched this guy consistently shoot .5 or better with his first handload. Yesterday he invited me to shoot his gun – ‘come shoot this thing and tell me what you think’, he said.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang - .225”!. Obviously, I’ve never shot this gun, in fact I’ve never fired a Savage in my life! He says ‘imagine what you could do once your familiar with it and experiment with more loads’. Needless to say I was very impressed.
Anyone want to buy a practically new 700VS??

Hollywood

Hollywood, I just started shooting my VS also and like you getting crappy accuracy, which I found out to be that my loads were too hot, cratered primers, I thought it was just from the firing pin hole being too big in the bolt, then I tried some 55gr Vmax bullets I had laying around from my sons 22-250 which didn't want to shoot that well, probably from the twist being borderline, so I called Bob at Hornady and asked him what the max load is for the bullet and I went about 1 grain lower than that, seated the bullet to 2.280, which is about .007" off the lands, went to range and on the second try, .194" 4 shots, wind got one of them, blew it 5/8" away, that was with 22.5grs. of H335, just read a review on the bullet on Midways website where a guy used 25.5grs. Varget and was getting onehole groups, I will try that too. Your best bet is to shoot on a calm day to take the wind out of the picture. Don't give up on that Rem. yet, most shoot so good some times it scares ya. I for one can't stand Savage, but thats just my opinion. What kind of load are you using BTW? Jay

My best results have been a Sierra 52 BTHP under 24.0g of AA2230. Agreed, I don't want to give up on the 700 quite yet so I'll keep plugging away.

Hollywood

Yes, I too was amazed at the accuracy of the Savage rifles. Below is a recent target I shot with my 100 yard loads in my 12FVSS. It took me about 20 experimental loads (bullets-powder-primer) until I found the best one for 100 yards.
The rifle shot mostly 1/2" groups the very first day I went to the range with factory Winchester 45 gn. "White Box" ammo.
Don't listen to the Remington Naysayers.
Good luck, Mad`

Jay,

It interesting what you said about taking the wind out of the picture. I am not a bench rest shooter by any means and know little about it. I just use a .223 for varmint shooting and like the loads to be as accurate as I can get. Last year I acquired a Mountain Research .223 which has a Sako action that was made specifically for them. They installed heavy stainless Kreiger barrel. I have been playing with the rifle and using a number of different powders and bullets. I finally hit on a load where I was very consistently under 0.5" with 5 shots. I have used Varget with a 24.5 grain load and it shot very well. The load I ended up with is 24.2 grains of X-Terminator powder from Ramshot, a relatively new powder company from Montana, the powder is imported from Belgium. Here is their web page It is a fine ball powder that meters very well in a Dillon progressive.

In the search for a one hole load, I spoke to, Elzie, a true bench rest shooter (he held 5 national records at one time, 3 still standing) and asked him how to do it. He looked at my targets and asked what my wind flags were doing. I, of course, got that deer in the headlight look and told him I don't have any. Whereupon he informed me that without them, the one hole gun is just luck. The infinite number of monkeys with an infinite supply of paper and an infitinite number of typewriters, one of them will eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare without a mistake - that kind of luck. I mentioned to him I will try to shoot when there is no wind and he said there is never no wind, even when we seem to sense that nothing is moving there are air currents and they move the bullet enough to mess up your groups. He said that he would much rather shoot when the wind is blowing because he can gauge the wind and shoot when the conditions are the same.

He also said that mirage is a big factor and can be more of a factor than wind. The local club where I shoot have built a mirage board that they erect during the matches. He is going to shoot my rifle for me with his equipment some day so I can find out what it can do it his hands. I will make sure that after I frame his targets, I give him credit.

By the way, a few weeks ago a group of us were shooting in Eastern Oregon for "Sage Rats," also known as ground squirrels. On one particuar day, we were set up and shooting with a fairly consistent cross wind coming off my right shoulder. The wind had the effect of increasing my range but the windage to be on target was around 6". I found that I could hold the left heavy end of the duplex cross hair on the little buggers head and get them every time at a distance of 225 yards (rangefinder). The wind seemed consistent which probably helped. The squirrels would pop their head up out of the alfalfa and poof. Most of the shooters in our group were using .22 rimfire or .17 Hornady rimfires and these guys were out of their range. I shot around 500 rounds of .223 ammo using 50 grain V max bullets and 52 grain HP match sierras and accounted for probably 300+ squirrels. Talk about fun shooting.

MAD, great shooting. BTW, UPS selling targets??? you have to explain that.

Well, I now do all my UPS shipping from the computer and don't need the labels anymore. I cut them in half and they make good sticky labels.
I go through alot of labels.
Mad`

customstox, Buddy of mine has a VS that he says shoots onehole, gave me some targets to 'prove it', one group is 15 shots that I measured .147" with Rem. 50grSP, I think it's a 3 shot group myself, you can see where he wrote over the 3 and put in a 1 and a 5, whatever. At any rate, I found out he's shooting at night with a spotlight, and it takes him 3-4 min. to get a shot off, he cancelled a shoot-off in which he challenged me, he told a co-worker I'm no competition, so why bother. Wait till he see's this latest group, he won't talk to me for awhile, he says "you can't shoot groups like that with a Burris scope". Hollywood, try some Benchmark, H335, 748, Varget, VV N135, or H322 or some of that X-terminator powder with a flatbase bullet, your rifle might like them better than BTs, If it don't shoot well with one of them powders, it won't shoot with anything. Although, the bullet is still the most important component. If you try some of the V-MAX bullets, seat them no more than .010" off the lands, Hornady bullets like to be close to the lands from what I've seen, and whichever Bullet manufacurer you go with, check with their manuals for load data, V-MAXs and Blitzkings are long for their weight, so they take a little less powder. Jay.