Ok, I know it's not a glamor gun, but I felt it was worthy of note and pictures, as it's MY DAUGHTER'S FIRST DEER RIFLE!


It's a Savage left hand 243.






She has a youth Javelina tag for November, then the rifle gets a 257 Roberts barrel for deer. If she gets an elk tag, I'll put a .308 win bbl on it.

I'm so proud, kid's first "real" rifle...

Slim, I hope she has all the luck and makes you even prouder.

D

Good thinking! Totally adequate rifle. Looks don't do squate for getting game. roger

You don't need a bigger bbl for deer.

wymple is correct---the .243 is plenty big for deer. Before someone tells you it is marginal for deer and if used you must use a premium bullet, I'll say you do. A premium bullet is one that hits where you wanted it to. You didnt mention your daughters age,size or shooting experience, but don't expose her to too much recoil.

My first deer rifle was a 243, many years ago when I was a freshman in college, and I really liked it a lot. I didn't shoot a lot of deer with it, maybe five, but I never lost one either. I would have been very happy with one like the Savage shown.

I didn't know it was easy to switch barrels like that. That certainly adds to its versitility and makes the Savage more interesting. I'll bet that thing is accurate. Frankly I would just as soon hunt deer with a 243 as a 257, because I think there is no practical difference in the result. Maybe there is, but I also agree with the 308 for elk.

KB

My nephew was given a .243 for his first rifle, and before he bought some inadequate bullets, I loaded up five boxes of ammo with 100 grain Nosler partitions. He's been killing deer for almost 15 years with the same set of cases without a loss yet. His son will soon be old enough to hunt and I have a .260 ready for him. I'll use 140s for the .260.

Slim,

Kudos on the 243 for your Daughter. That ranks way up high in life, maybe one of the best deeds that there is for a kid.

I hate to point this out but the bolt is on the wrong side. Just kidding. I use to coach a shooting team and the girls were always beating the boys. So much so that we would tell the boys to go out and shoot like a girl!

Congrats to you and your daughter. Sounds like you have a great plan. Good luck to both of you this season!

JPK

Well the main reason for the barrel change is,

I've seen some real problems lately with Savage factory barrels. Not much of a sampling I know, but 5 out of 6 rifles either myself or my shooting buddy have bought in the last year and a half or so, have all had horrible reamer chatter in the bores. I'm not talking about just barely being able to see a trace of the marks, I'm talking about real chatter.

They've looked like they were done with a jackhammer. The only one I've bought with a factory bbl in it that didn't have the problem was my ultra-cheapy Stevens 200 in 223. Go figure.

When I bought my 12F, I ordered it without a barrel, and ordered a McGowen barrel for it when I ordered the gun. I just didn't want to deal with it.

When I ordered my daughter's rifle, I ordered a 257 Roberts bbl for it from Sinman Arms. The 243 bbl was to be a "fall back" bbl, more than enough for Javelina for sure, but I didn't want my daughter's hunt to come up without the barrel making it in time for the hunt. Kind of a safety net. I do like the idea of the 257 Roberts and 120 partitions over the 243, especially if she gets a mule deer tag. Not so worried about whitetail, they're no match for a 243.

When I looked at her 243 bbl, sure enough, reamer chatter that is just astounding to behold. Sure it doesn't have to look like a hand polished Shilen bbl, but come on, this is really bad stuff here.

Now I'm sure it will fire 3 shots into 1-1.5 inches or whatever Savage's accuracy guaranty is, so there really isn't any point in sending it back to Savage, but it will copper up like crazy and definitely won't do more than 10 shots without opening up like a shotgun. I've been through all this before with my 22-250 BVSS.

I'm not really trying to trash Savage or anything, because I do like them for the whole barrel swapping design, it's just too bad you HAVE to swap the barrels when you get the rifle it seems now.

I've never really expected custom quality from Savage, but it seems to me that something has definitely changed in their barrel shop in the last year or so.

I still think I'll come out ahead, with the initial rifle and 2 custom bbls, I'm still in it less than buying 2 separate rifles of another brand.

I also like the modular way you can change barrels and bolt heads yourself and open up a whole lot of variations. Pretty flexible design to me. There's a bunch of aftermarket everything for the Savages now, including drop in barrels.

As far as my daughter's rifle goes, it met my requirement for light weight (6.5 lbs), left hand action, and had a floor plate type magazine for safer unloading (she's a youth). The stainless wasn't a requirement and I don't really consider it a plus or a minus, all my big game rifles are blued and wood myself.

The important thing is she likes it...

quote:

Originally posted by Slowpoke Slim:
Now I'm sure it will fire 3 shots into 1-1.5 inches or whatever Savage's accuracy guaranty is, so there really isn't any point in sending it back to Savage, but it will copper up like crazy .)

I have to second your findings. All my Stevens and Savages shot accurately out of the box. Some of them collect copper like Midus collected and hoarded gold. I'm into the second week of cleaning two Mod. 200s ( a .270 and a 22-250 ) and am still getting a lot of blue green. In all honesty though they never threw a pattern rather than a group. I've swaped three barrels with Shaw barrels so far and have not seen improvement in accuracy or copper collection.
My 12BVSS-s is better than MOA all day with no cleaning and later cleans up easy. A mod. 200 in .223 stays accurate all day long also. That one will shortly receive a 22 PPC barrel ( hopefully in about 4 or 5 weeks).
I have 6 Stevens Mod 200s that are greater than 22 caliber that I would not hesitate useing as deer rifles with one or two fouling shots.
I'm sure your daughter will do just fine with her Savage.

quote:

She has a youth Javelina tag for November, then the rifle gets a 257 Roberts barrel for deer. If she gets an elk tag, I'll put a .308 win bbl on it.

I'm so proud, kid's first "real" rifle...

My kids 1st rifle was a savage youth 243 over 10 years ago

It was a lot uglier than your gun

It's even uglier now but it still shoots good

Very cool

I can't wait till the day when I watch my daughter take her first hunt.

I've been carefull not to cram it down her throat and let her build the interest herself.

Just recently she watched a T.V. show with some guys daughter hunting with a pink rifle and I finally got my first request for a gun ( pink deer hunting rifle)

Congradulations Slim on her fallowing in your love of hunting. How old is she and how did you expose her to hunting without turning her off to it. I need to know all the tricks to make her grow up to be a great little huntress.

So far I just expose her a bit at a time. So far I think it's working. Here's a photo from this week. Please any help from someone who's already been there will help.

forgot to mention since it's been a topic here. I've taken over 20 deer with a .243 only lost one but found it the next day.

Slowpoke S,

Congratulations to both of you.

As a Lefty I'da been real pleased to have the Savage pictured as my first rifle - for sure. Looks like you got everything sorted out real well already.

Mine first was a Marlin 1894 in .44 Magnum, still have it and it killed a pile of Deer despite not wearing a scope - Ah, I regress.

I wouldn't write that Savage .243 barrel off completely though; regardless of the cheesey chambering job. Like you've said it'll most likely surely shoot adequately 'nuff for the game you've currently got in mind and probably better than most. I haven't seen a Savage 110/10 series that wouldn't shoot yet and most better than excellently.

As an aside; instead of purchasing another barrel (don't get me Wrong! I Like lots-s-s of options!) with that easily fixable Savage barrel lopping a coupla threads off the barrel at the chamber end and having someone who knows what he's doing run another chamber reamer into it would be a lot less expensive than a complete new barrel and basically give you a "custom" .243 Win. chamber. Just Food for thought.....or perhaps a 6mm Remington reamer? Lot's-s-s of Options.....

The two of you have Fun - O.K.....and let us know how the hunting comes along?

I'll bet dollars to donuts it looks Beautiful to her!

Looks pretty 'field beautiful' to me also...

we all wish the little lady a lot of good luck in the field with it...

and future congrats to a proud dad also!

quote:

Originally posted by Slowpoke Slim:
Well the main reason for the barrel change is,

I've seen some real problems lately with Savage factory barrels. Not much of a sampling I know, but 5 out of 6 rifles either myself or my shooting buddy have bought in the last year and a half or so, have all had horrible reamer chatter in the bores. I'm not talking about just barely being able to see a trace of the marks, I'm talking about real chatter.

They've looked like they were done with a jackhammer.

I've had the exact same problem with tool chatter marks that are deeper than the lands. Look like file teeth in the lands, look like gear teeth in the groove. I wondered why there was any bullet left by the time it got to the muzzle. Awful to clean.

Replaced the barrel, now it shoots into 1/2" with 55g, 75g, and 95g bullets.

I trued the front of the receiver while I had the barrel off - it took almost .011" of cut to get it to clean up.



I'm about to replace the barrel on my LRPV - the chatter marks are much less, more like scribe lines on the lands, but they are there.

After looking at them all with a borescope, my two CZ527 rifles have the best factory barrels in my gun safe.

Well done on getting the daughter such a nice rifle and the extra barrels.

Fitch