I would appreciate your input on two points:

1. What is your opinion of the Savage 12F Class?

2. If you approve of the 12F, would you purchase the 6.5x284 or the 6 Norma BR?

Thank you.

bought a 12F in 6mm norma and overall was very pleased. The accuracy was .30" at 100 yeards and tight grouping out to 300 yards. The trigger is great. The action is strong.
I would categorize this rifle as a starter for precision. I would not consider it to be extremely accurate like a custom project.

I had fun with it for about 6 months and then sold it to a friend for what I paid for the thing. he is happy with it too.

I have one in 6.5 x 284. I would really need more info from you as to what you want to do with it. Are you just target shooting, are you planning to shoot F-class with it, are you going to try benchrest with it, or are you after a long range varmint rig? What distances are you planning to shoot it at?

I was after long range 1K+ and prairie dog shooting with mine. I may still dabble in F-class with it, dunno yet. It's been hard to get connected with a club out here. There's really no place to shoot here at 1K unless you belong to a club.

I will say this, going back to the rifle. I have had some real issues with Savage factory barrels lately. My opinion is that something is drastically wrong in their barrel making process. The last 6 Savages my buddy and myself bought have all had horrible bores in them. Extremely rough and loads of reamer chatter, way beyond the reasonable level you may expect to see on a Savage.

This causes the barrel to load up very quickly with copper and carbon fouling. Plus the rough bore makes it more difficult than normal to get the bore clean. I could shoot 20 shots from my BVSS in 22-250 before it would totally go south accuracy wise, that would take maybe 20 minutes max to shoot. Then I would quite literally spend 3 hours scrubbing the bore to get it clean. Not my idea of fun at all. It did cause me to try the new foaming cleaners, which are excellent at getting the copper out of a bore. I guess it depends on your usage plans for your rifle. If you want to be able to go more than 20 shots or not.

I very nearly didn't buy a 12F for this reason. I just didn't want to deal with the factory barrel.

HOWEVER,

There is a plus side to all this. I found a vendor that advertises on the Savage forums that will sell factory stocked actions, without barrels, for a discounted price. I was able to buy my 12F from him, AND buy a McGowen hand lapped match barrel from him, and the bottom line price was only $50 more than just buying the factory complete 12F.

I'm not trying to shill for this guy at all, but he was great to deal with. He shoots Savages in competition, and he knows his stuff. He's also great to deal with and will spend all the time on the phone with you that you may need. Look up Northland Shooters Supply, and talk to Jim Briggs.

I've purchased the 12F, minus barrel, and a McGowen barrel, plus another McGowen barrel for my BVSS, and a barrel for my buddy's 204 from him.

The Savages make it easy to swap the barrels yourself, you don't need to take it to a smith. Just an action wrench, a barrel nut wrench, and the GO gauge for the caliber you are installing. Call Jim Briggs, he'll walk you through the whole process. It's easy.

I say buy it and put your own barrel on it. Brux, Shilen, and McGowen all make "drop in" barrels for Savage now. You can also change calibers easily by swapping barrels too.

I'm still doing some load testing with mine, but with Berger 140 match bullets in Lapua brass and H-4831SC, I've gotten rid of the single flier I was plagued with using Sierra MK's and am getting honest one-hole groups at 100 yds so far.


Here's a couple pics of mine.

As shipped:




Latest version with new Nightforce on it:

Slim,

thanks for posting the above story...

a lot of good info and a lot of good food for thought... when doing any gun project..

Looks like yours turned out quite well...

I moved from the general neighborhood in MN where the guy you mentioned from Northland is located... never knew he existed...

knowing the area I can follow his reason for moving from Maple Grove out to Buffalo...

did the same thing myself, moving out to St Michael...which has been consumed by suburbia also...