Recently finished the glass bedding on my Savage and headed to the range to punch some holes. I've been slightly disappointed in the accuracy but resigned myself to thinking it was poor technique and that I just need more practice.
The rifle was also was freshly cleaned so I ran a few rounds 55 grain "fouling" rounds through it and set up some fresh targets. Got the usual results from the 55 grain FMJ. 1-1.5" (or worse) groups at 100 yds
I had done a bit of reading and decided that the 1:9 twist that Savage uses may be a bit too much for the 55 grain and with that in mind I switched to a 69 grain BTHP. The scope was not zero'd for them so they dropped from POA a fair bit (2" dwn and left) but seemed to be tighter groups. I switched back and forth until the next target change and did a quick and dirty re-zero for the 69 grain.
@ 100 yd range (longest they have), I shot the following 3 groups of 5 and 2 groups of 3, starting lower right moving to center upper right- upper left-lower left. I let the rifle cool a few minutes after the upper right (where I started ok but pulled the last two rounds
) I also rushed the last group of three to beat the next target change
The first group of 5:
and using
OnTarget Software to score it:
I'm sure it's not a complicated program but I think it's pretty cool for freeware. Just scan your target and go. You can also take a picture of the target and import but there are a couple more steps to set the parameters.
I ended up with an average of .58 over the 5 groups, the kind of accuracy I expected from the rifle (but not necessarily from me).
Overall I'm VERY pleased
Range Report - Savage 12BTCSS .223
Linear Mode
