OVERKILL

Had her out today with these for the first time. A few observations: 1. I had two "fail to feeds". They would chamber 9/10th's of the way but I couldn't close the bolt. There's nothing obviously physically wrong with them though that I can see? 2. These shoot higher by about 3" and to the right a tad compared to the S&B 250gr ones I zeroed with. They are consistent. 3. They leave a dark ring of what looks like carbon around the part of the shell that the bullet seats into. Is this normal? It is different from the S&B shells which leave a tad but nowhere near as much as these. Most of the shells chambered beautifully; easier than the S&B ones. I had a few that it was tough to get the bolt down with but ejected perfectly. I had no difficult extractions with these AT ALL, which is different from the S&B's where I have the odd one that I have to give the bolt a bit of a whack at the top of its stroke to eject. Nothing serious, just a bit of sticking. Back when I first got the rifle I had very difficult extractions with it all the time and it ended up needing the chamber polished. Apparently a very common problem with the 110BA.

Yup, the local shop stocks it.

I picked up some 225gr Hornady InterBond bullets as well as the Hornady puller and collet combo. Reloaded 50 and just dug up another 60 brass to do this week

It was around $250.00, which is nice and affordable Ammo is pretty cheap, I can get 40 rounds for about $30.00.

I just picked up some Hornady 200gr (they were cheap) and the dies but need to get different powder. I'm looking at the H4831, which is recommended for this weight of bullet. I have around 100 brass, and I bought 100 bullets. And hey, with the FXT tips on these 200gr bullets, I could theoretically hunt with it, hahahha

So, my wife has been bugging me for some time to get her something to plink with. I had originally intended on a Mossberg semi-auto .22 in pink cammo but the order the local shop has in for them has taken literally forever to come in (it has to have been more than six months at this point). She wanted to go out to the gun store after picking the kids up today so we went. They had a Savage Axis in .243 on the shelf, which I thought wasn't the best choice for a beginner rifle, but it was Muddy Girl cammo, which my wife loved. We himmed and hawed over it for a bit and then the guy behind the counter said that it could be had in .223 and went to check availability. He came back and said he couldn't believe it but they actually had one in stock. Out it came and she wanted it so I bought it. Came with a cheap Bushnell scope on it, but it is more than adequate for her to plink 100 yards with and I already have plenty of .223 ammo, which is a bonus.

Sister to the thread I made on BITOG: The NFA appears to be ramping up to have one of these as part of their next great gun giveaway: http://www.pgwdti.com/ (shameless plug by myself for Rob Furlong here, the guy is freakin' awesome) They have some really sweet guns! Would love their .308. You guys ever heard of them before? Their about us page lists some interesting stuff.

OK, just grabbed a new scope for it. Bushnell Elite 6500 654305MD, which is 4.5-30x50 with the MIL-DOT reticle. My buddy is buying my old one off me for his 300 win mag. Hope to take it out maybe tomorrow and sight it in

OK, I'm finally going to be shooting this gun again, LOL! It was having a sticking casing issue when I first got it (very common) and the solution is to just polish the chamber. Apparently the finish on the chamber on some of them isn't fantastic from the factory. The local gun shop has a rig that they use for this process on this particular rifle. I had that done the week following the photos I posted. Basically, after firing, you have to apply some effort to get the cartridge to eject. On top of that, we kind of PO'd my buddy's dad with all the damage to the trees so he gave us a waiting period until we could fire the big stuff back there again. We are currently shooting the back field, which is about 120 yards long. Kind of a waste to shoot this at that range but I just want to fire it at this point. Jon has dug out a large burm with his tractor, so we are no longer going to be causing tree damage, which should keep his dad happy. We'll be doing the same on the primary field (which is 220 yards from the cabin, close to 300 from the fence) a bit later. Thoughts are that we could connect the two fields (they used to be one huge field) and have a solid 500 yard range. This would make a lot more sense for the .338LM and his .300WM. So we'd have staggered targets from 100 all the way to 500 yards.

[censored] straight! LOL!

So the other day I was handling my .308 and discovered that the scope mount bases (both pads) had come loose! Now, this gun has had a lot of rounds through it but still, I don't recall it being loose the last time I shot it? Anyway, I've never been happy with the setup that came on the rifle (it was a package with the scope, rings, rails, rifle) in terms of the mounting gear for the scope. It is a beautiful scope (Bushnell Elite 6500 4.5-30x50) and the same family of scope on my .223 seems to be much better mounted. I was originally looking to do a Picitanny setup with Leupold base and rings but the local shop didn't have them unfortunately so I ended up getting a Weaver rail (made in the USA!) and some Burris rings. I installed the screws using some loctite blue for the base, two of the screws ended up being a bit long for my taste (the one nearest where the barrel threads in was too long and was bottoming-out on the barrel threads) and so I reused the slightly shorter screws from the previous mount there. The enclosed screws worked fine in the rear holes. Here's the final setup: (Yes, I did the work on the stove, LOL!) I think it looks OK. Eye position feels OK at first try, though I will note that these mounts are a bit shorter than the ones they replaced, I'm hoping that doesn't end up being an issue.

Welcome!!

Wow, sounds like he was an incredible individual. I'm wondering if he was diagnosed with something like terminal cancer and just decided to take care of it himself rather than suffer and eventually succumb to it?

That is rather unfortunate. Sounds like plenty of folks are going to be losing their jobs

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/video-2530-yard-shot-savage-110-ba-rifle/ Very cool! (considering I have the same gun, LOL! )

OK, pics! (sorry for the delay): 1. Old scope (Simmons White Tail). This pic was taken in my buddy's dad's basement so don't mind the back-drop, LOL! 2. New scope:

Picked this up a few weeks ago but finally got it mounted on my .270 today. I already have the same scope on my .223, and it is a major upgrade from the Simmons Whitetail that was on the gun. Specs: Power/Obj Lens: 2.5-16x 42mm Reticle: Fine Multi-X Lens Coating: Fully Multi-Coated & Ultra Wide Band Coating RainGuard HD:Yes Tube Diameter:30mm Field of View: ft@100yds/m@100m41/[email protected] 6.55/2.2@16x Weight: oz/gr17.3 / 491 Length: in/mm13.5 / 343 Eye Relief: in/mm3.9 / 100 Exit Pupil: mm16.8 / 2.6 Click Value: in.@100yds/[email protected] / 7 Adj Range: in.@100yds/mm@100m80 / 1.9 Mounting Length: in/mm5 / 127 Focal Plane: Second This and its 4.5-30x50 sister are great scopes. The optics are clear, they hold zero perfectly, the focus even at full magnification is perfect....etc. Just some really great pieces, which is why I bought another one to go on the .270, which is my deer gun. This is the reticle: Nice and simple for a hunting scope with no graduations. Far less "busy" than the one I have on the .338LM. Pics after dinner

PAL is the Canadian Possession and Acquisition License, you need it to buy and own guns and ammo I figured for the stainless model it was a decent price. Gun worked great this weekend BTW! Quite accurate (the scope I fitted sucks but that's to be expected.... I knew it sucked going in) and of course super cheap to shoot. Got plenty of use out of the "bucket o bullets". My only gripe is how cheap the magazine feels compared to my other Savage guns. But for the price I guess I can't complain too much. And it does function perfectly fine.

Interesting, that's not how it was explained to me by my PAL instructor but I do recall reading the overall length restriction as well so perhaps it is both column A and B? IE, if overall length is <26" but the barrel is >=18" you are OK? I can think that say a pistol grip shotgun that might fall into that category? OK, I found this gem: https://nfa.ca/resource-items/barrel-and-firearms-lengths Yeah, looks like the rules are a bit Twilight Zone, LOL (Note the article is a tad dated and mentions the now obsolete registry but I believe the rules referenced haven't changed).

http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/MARKIIFSS/ Picked up one of these today from the local shop for $250.00 Also grabbed one of those Remington "bucket o bullets" with 1400 rounds in it to try out this weekend. My wife immediately became enamoured with it so it will probably become hers once she has her PAL. Going to put a cheap Weaver on it for the weekend and see how it shoots!

Those are some nice and open laws Dave! Wow! I have a thing for bolts, so that's what most of my guns are. Since we have a 5-round limit on anything not a shotgun and not rimfire I find semi-autos up here somewhat pointless in anything other than those calibres. A bolt with those limits works well and that's what most of the big calibres are anyway The shortest shotgun barrel we can have is 18". The restricted license allows you to own more stuff like handguns and short barrelled rifles. Some of the funny stuff you see up here is with guns like AK-47's and their ilk. Sold in semi-auto form and with a big clip that has a rivet in the side so it is pinned to 5 rounds, LOL!!

Thanks Bill! You too -Chris

Always Bill Not being safe has a tendency to ruin the fun, LOL Yeah, the big restriction up here is automatic stuff, that's a no-no. Anything semi you are golden and you can get the big calibres like .50BMG no problem. My next purchase is going to be an M99 actually. Handguns are OK to own but you need a restricted license and no carrying them around. I think some states are like that too though, correct? Anyway, my comment was meant to be taken in jest as I've met a few guys from south of the border that thought the only thing we could own up here were shotguns, LOL! I think reloading is going to be fantastic for me and will make shooting the bigger guns a lot more affordable.

Just like to introduce myself here. I'm from Canada (where we supposedly aren't allowed to have guns according to many of you Americans, LOL! ) and have always had an avid interest in firearms but didn't actually get into the ownership aspect of things until the fall of 2013 when I bought a Savage 10/110 in .270 WIN. I've been a casual shooter since I was a little kid starting with a .177 Russian pellet gun. Since December I've started a small collection of mostly bolt guns and mostly Savage. Latest acquisition is a Savage 110BA in .338 LM which is a beautiful gun and a lot of fun! Also hopefully getting into reloading soon, which I'm quite excited about!