Well, I bought one last Feb. and have had nothing but trouble. gfirst I got a bullet stuck in the bore, then I must have had a high pressure load, The front of the bolt, ejector,firing pin,shell plunger ect. was rurined. I sent the back to Savage and they redid the whole thing. Got it back monday and went to the range this afternoon. The rifle shot fine for the first five shots. Then it blew a case, primer backed out and case is still in chamber. Again it rurined the bolt and it has to be rebuilt and headspaced all over again. I', tired of messing with it. It's a .243 and if any wants it ,maybe to do a custom job on (you can get bbls. from midway for 129.00) Send me 150.00 plus shipping and it's yours as is. I'm tired of the hassel. I still have the box,all papers and warrenty. I'm just done with it. !

Sound like yer pressures are a bit high!!!Were these factory loads?? Or, you're sizing the cases too short, and they stretch.

Do I understand this right....you want $150 for a Savage 200 that has a damaged bolt and a case stuck in the chamber?

Do I understand this right....you've stuck a bullet in the barrel and blown up cartridges in the gun twice and you think that there is something wrong with the gun?

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Do I understand this right....you want $150 for a Savage 200 that has a damaged bolt and a case stuck in the chamber?

Ya think that might be just a bit high do ya??

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Originally posted by Fjold:
Do I understand this right....you've stuck a bullet in the barrel and blown up cartridges in the gun twice and you think that there is something wrong with the gun?

Well.....he does post under the name of Hard Luck

Sold it ! to a guy who likes to tinker. I was using a load of 43 grns /imr 4350 and 100 grn bullets. used this load in 10 different .243's and never had any trouble. I guess I could have gotten a bad case ,but twice ! I've reloaded for over 50 yrs with no troubles. Maby I need some new reload manuals as mine are old. I took this load out of an old hornady vol. II 1973 manual and it has the same load in one of the winchester phamplets. As a matter of fact those manuals show 43.5 as max. I do appreciate your comments, must be getting senile in my old age, I bet it was the old brass I used. Again thanks for the comments.

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thanks for the comments.

Hard Luck.....best of luck to ya...I sincerely hope your next rifle treats you better.

Is there any chance that can of IMR 4350 is actually IMR 4064?.....it happens....

hard luck you must be a good salesman.I wouldnt want to give you $50 for a blown up anything.

Consider yourself lucky!! A Savage will handle gas and pressures that will send a 700 or 77 into pieces. Let me guess, were you seating close to the lands??? All my Savage rifles lately have liked about .070" of space between bullet and lands.

I tried seating the same as a factory load and it was imr4350. I sure appreciate al your helpful comments.
I'm a lousy sales man, the guy is an amirure smith and wants to turn it into a .358 win. It really sounds worse than it is. The replacement parts are only 7.59 and he can do the work himself. Besides I would never cheat anyone so I gave him a set of .358 RCBS dies and 4 boxes of bullets plus a powder measure and 100 new cases.
I'm going to look for another .243 and new brass this afternoon.

Hard Luck said,

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As a matter of I bet it was the old brass I used. Again thanks for the comments.

Could it be that the "old brass" was resized for a different rifle and you inadvertantly created a serious headspace problem? I think you may have answered your own question. You didn't say if you'd tried any factory ammo or handloads with new brass, so I'm thinking that the old brass was the problem.
Paul B.

I think I found the problems ! Just got back from a Gun shop. I looked at a new manual put out by imr powders and my load is 1/2 below max.
But the brass is old and brittle and ,one I didn't think of, was my powder scale was very dirty at the balance point and between notches. We checked it aganist others and it was weighing heavy and sometimes sticking.
Now in the 2006 imr phamplet it gives 43.5 as max with a 100 grn bullet in a 24"bbl for 3100.
My former Savage clocked 3033 in a 22" bbl and a load of 43 grns. So now I'm going to buy another and start again. I just wanted a cheap rifle to carry in my pickup when I'm checking around the farm to shoot a coyote or maybe a deer.
I really appreciate you guys imput and it's kind of you to try and spare my feeling. I took no offence at all, it's a way to learn, constructive criticism.

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and sometimes sticking.

Now that is a scary statement. I have had it happen to me, but I caught it when I checked the levels of powder in the cases before loading the bullets. Glad you found out what was going wrong.