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| One of Us |
I just bought a Savage Model: 11 FYXP3 in 223 rem. I normally enjoy shooting 375 h&h and 416 rigby, but sometimes I just don't feel like reloading when I want to shoot. I know a lot more about big bores than I do small bores. My main objective was to get a somewhat flat shooting rifle in smaller bore that I don't have to reload for because ammo is cheap. So I picked up the savage 223 rem. Is this a good rifle? | ||
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| One of Us |
223Rem is a good cartridge. As far as the Savage rifle you shoot it and tell us if its any good.  SSR | |||
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| One of Us |
There are those who do not care for the Savage due to it's "ugliness," but "pretty is as pretty does..." Savage rifles have built a reputation of being very accurate and with factory ammo as well. | |||
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While I agree 100% on the Savage accuracy reputation, I'd like to hear your assessment of feeding, extraction, safety, trigger, ejection and the other things that make a rifle complete.....accuracy is merely one of those things! /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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| One of Us |
for me, the 223 rifle wasn't supposed to be an elegant, super smooth rifle. as long as it feeds and is accurate, I'm happy. my big bores are where i put my money. I'll have to get out and try it. I realize they put a cheap scope on it, but with how little the 223 recoils, I don't think there should be any issues. I bought this gun as a plinker I can keep in my car, don't care too much if it gets beat up. so far it feeds and ejects fine, but the single stack, pistol style magazine is a pain in the ass to load after you get the first cartridge in. like I said, this rifle was meant to be low budget all around for me, but good accuracy would be a plus. Eventually I'll get a medium bore in a high end rifle such as, 3006, 270 win, 300 weatherby, 7mm mag, 300wsm ect.. | |||
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| One of Us |
The most accurate factory rifle I ever shot, out of several hundred, was a Savage heavy barrel varminter in .223 (don't recall the model). It would put five shots in 0.25" or less regularly, with an occasional group in the "teens". If groups got much bigger I knew it was my fault. It was a test rifle and I shipped it back to Savage, wish I hadn't. Another Savage in .308 would shoot almost as well but must have had a rough bore as it copper fouled quickly. Groups would open up after as few as ten shots. After a couple of hundred rounds, with cleaning as needed, it would go 30-40 shots without groups opening up. It would likely have continued to improve with more shooting. All those I've used were functionally reliable. Some older models needed trigger work but those with the AccuTrigger had decent trigger pulls. Vapodog gave you good advice above. There are a lot of factors which go into making up a good rifle. And as Cross L says the only way to know if your individual rifle is reliable and accurate is to shoot it. | |||
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Have yet to see a Savage that wasn't a shooter, most likely will be very accurate. | |||
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Those are great points vapodog. | |||
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When i was younger and didn't have alot of dough i bought a Savage 110 combo with a scope for like 320.00ish. The rifle was very accurate with factory ammo but the function and smoothness was not so much. But then you are asking alot of a 300.00 rifle. It was however a tackdriver of a 300.00 rifle and would outshoot much more pricey rifles at the range. Sure was ugly though,  | |||
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| One of Us |
You have it, why not take it out to shoot and then you tell us. ?? | |||
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I also just got a new Savage 10 Precision Carbine in 223. This is my first Savage since the late 80s when you could have any action length you wanted as long as it was the long one. The new Accutrigger is much better, but feels a little like I'm shooting a Glock. I'll have to get used to that. In one way I like it because I shoot a lot of two stage triggers and the lever feels a bit like the take-up of a military trigger. I like the design of the box magazine system. The centerline feed and the interchangeable bolt head means you can switch barrels and case head size without sacrificing any feeding on the same action. The feeding is excellent but loading isn't nearly as easy as an AR magazine. The magazine spring seems overly strong to me. Minor issue to whine about, but it is what it is. You pay a small price in single-feeding at the bench, though. There's no good surface to drop a rond onto and close the bolt, so you have to manipulate the bullet nose intot he chamber. Tougher on a little case like the 223 than a WSM. Mine is blasted for a matt finish and they use a pretty corse grit. You can feel the surface texture when you operate the bolt. That will probably smooth out as the gun gets some use. Ejection is not 100%; sometimes the fired case drops off the bolt face and lays in the action. All of my Savages did that sometimes if the bolt manipulation isn't very brisk. This model is a 20" heavy barrel gun. The Accustock seems to work well but is light in the butt as migth be expected. Overall the gun is way too muzzle heavy. I guess that's typical these days for most factory synthetic heavy barrle rifles. I may flute this one to make it carry better. The new squishy proprietary Savage recoil-reducing butt pad seems like it will work well; but it was wasted on a 223. This rifle only comes in 223 and 308 so I'm not sure why they used it on this model. Probably standard equipment on all Accustocks. I think it would really help when you get into the bigger cases. The stock shape is pleasing and I like the green digital camo better than I thought I would. The safety is much smoother than my older models. The shape of the safety button is much improved, too. More ergonomic for lack of a better description. Only have one trip to the range so far but iin spite of a 25-30 mph wind that was blowing me around in my chair, it looks to have good accuracy potential. The 9 inch twist handled bullets from 40 grs to 75 grs with equal results. I was pleasantly surprised about the 75 gr Hornadys. I was worried they would need 8" but the 9" worked this time. "Experience" is the only class you take where the exam comes before the lesson. | |||
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| one of us |
I have 3 savage 223s in the house if Ido my part they are all sub .5 rifles. I replace the savage stock tiggers with timmys. These are pre accutrigger rifles they can have some feeding trouble put doesn't much matter on p dog rifles. I had enough feeding trouble with the 6 savage rifles that I own I wouldn't use one for a big game rifle. | |||
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Thanks for the report....it's appreciated.  /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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| One of Us |
I do really enjoy shooting my larger bores. I typycally go through 40 375 h&h and 20-40 416 rigby a range session. i took the savage out yesterday. not very good results, but I can't really make a judgment at this point. I don't have a steady rest to shoot off of, when I got it back home, I found out the action was binding in the stock and I needed to remove some plastic. Also they didn't tighten the front scope ring around the body of the scope, so it was loose there. I'll have to get back out and give it a real accuracy test with a good rest. I do like that the recoil is almost nonexistent, and I can walk into the store and buy a box of ammo for $8. | |||
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I was in the same boat.Wanted something smaller to shoot and bought a Savage Model 11 .223 Rem.with a 3x9 simmons scope. Bought some winchester white box 45 gr HP from walmart and first time out shot 3/8th.inch 5 shot group at 100 yards.Most accurate rifle I own out of a bunch. | |||
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| One of Us |
I have 3 savage rifles. They are all very accurate especially my 204. It willy shoot 1/2" groups all day BUT it doesn't feed or eject like it should. I am in the process of replacing all of the springs, extractor, magazine spring, etc to get it to cooperate. Luckily Savages are relatively inexpensive and easy to work on. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit"--Aristotle (384BC-322BC) | |||
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 I took it out again on a good rest and this thing just doesn't fit me well. I figured out why when I looked up the model number. it is a youth gun. The guy at the store never mentioned that to me and it says nothing on the box or gun about being youth. It is still bigger than most youth guns so I didn't notice it at first, but it is too small for me. I'm going to try and return it for a normal size gun. could be accurate, but I can't shoot this gun well. | |||
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cabelas normally doesn't accept returns on guns, but the guy at the store was willing to exchange me a rifle so I payed the difference and got a tikka t3 varmint. I feel confident hitting bottles at 300 yards now. the cabelas 223 scope works, but it has it's own issues. you have to turn back the knobs and then turn it back for adjustment otherwise it's all over the place. once zeroed in though this thing spits 55 gr fmj in an inch ad 55 gr soft points into 1/2 in. can't wait to try some heavier bullets and see what it can do | |||
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Scope does not sound worth keeping. In machinery that is called backlash. I would expect (or at least worry) that over time with shooting vibration the POI will wander around within the window of mechanical slop. That defeats the purpose of making any fine adjustments. Ive been satisfied with the medium grade Bushnell when I did not want to spring for a Leupold. The Bushnell went to China, so not sure today. Never go wrong with a Leupold. You can definitely get a full refund on the Cabela scope if not marked up just re-box like it was it and return with receipt. | |||
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| One of Us |
Yeah, I'm not too confident in this scope. I can make it work but I have to use more ammo to get it to do what I want. I think I will return it so I can use that $100 for something more reliable. So what would be a good scope for a 223 for paper punching and small varmit? A ballistic type plex would be nice. What would probably be a good magnification? Like I've stated, I'm use to big bores so longer range shooting is fairly new to me besides using iron sites for long range | |||
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I have less experience than you. Never had a 22 center fire or any varmint class gun. Currently my smallest bore is 7mm. I had Japanese Bushnell 4-12x on a .25 for a while. I liked that. Same x could be had in a base model Leupold VX-I 40mm objective. FWIW. Must be some personal trade-offs in carry weight vs magnification vs cost. I dont know, at least it is bumped up. | |||
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Maybe you should have asked this question BEFORE you bought the gun. | |||
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I didn't think a store would sell me a youth model when I clearly said it was for me. Even the guys behind the counter didn't know it was a youth model. Like I said The size is bigger than most youth so when I shouldered it, I didn't realize it was short until i sat at the bench. I guess when ever I buy a rifle I should be expected to ask if it is a youth model even when the sales person tells me it would be a good gun for me and never mentioned it was a youth. I should be expecting that most sales people will sell me a youth. I should expect that, even though no where on the rifle or the box or tag does it say that it's a youth model, it is a youth | |||
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