Savage 10FP-SR

[BarryinIN]

The SR means "Suppressor Ready".

I didn't know this model existed until the day before yesterday. Apparently it's been out for about a year.

I've had an AR-10 (T) 24" for 13 years as my heavy .308. That's the problem- it's too big and heavy. My back won't let me shoot the thing any more. Oh, I can shoot it, I just can't lug it around. Even loading it into the SUV (it's pretty long) and dragging it out at the range is too much sometimes. I used to hear all the know-it-all survivalists in the 80s mock the AR's .223 and say a real man could carry a 7.62 FAL or HK91. That was amusing to me because I knew these old guys never carried them any farther than from the trunk to the shooting bench they backed up to. Now I'm that guy.

If it shot like crazy it would be one thing, but while it did OK, it was never enough to make me say it was worth wrestling around.

I wanted something smaller and lighter in an accurate .308. A 20" bolt action would be nice, but when you get that short in a .308, they are loud. That wouldn't have been so important but they extended the covered firing line out about 50 feet at the club. Everything is loud. Loud guns are super loud. A few rounds from a noisy one and everyone without doubled up hearing protection gets jumpy.

When I shot Highpower, I thought 20" guns lost enough velocity to start to matter at distance.

The regular 24-26" ones are hardly enough lighter than the AR-10 to bother with.

This is a 22". Eight pounds without scope. AccuTrigger. It doesn't have a detachable box magazine, which I kinda wanted (for ease of unloading) but not enough to pass it up. I like the stock shape but think it's too "flexy". The stock can be changed.

I traded the AR-10 and my M&P 45 for this and another rifle, some glass, some bases and rings, and some other little trinkets.

Bore is clean, scope is mounted, ready to go to the range.

[RLH70]

Nice rifle! It's hard to beat a Savage for price and certainly performance.

[BarryinIN]

Thanks.

This is my first Savage bolt action. Two friends have been in love with them since Savage bolt guns took off in popularity in the mid 90s, but I never got one before.

I know it's blasphemy to some, but I'm not in love with Remington so when you take them out it leaves Savage and a bunch of brands with spotty availability. Then the really expensive stuff. So yeah, for $629, a trigger that needs nothing, and availability at almost every gun shop, it is a heck of a deal.

I just spent a few hours at the range.

First big discovery: It has a pretty tight chamber. Still in specs I'm sure, but on the tight side. I have three .308 sizing dies, and two won't size military brass small enough to chamber in my Steyr reliably. The Savage is at least as tight and maybe pickier.

This left me with a smaller selection of ammo to shoot because some wouldn't chamber. I didn't shoot many groups because I didn't have enough chamberable rounds of some loads to make a group. One or two round groups don't tell me much.

I threw a scope on as a temporary. I probably should have waited because I've never got the greatest results with that scope. I will throw a better temporary on.

I haven't measured groups yet. Nothing looks earth-shaking but nothing looks bad either. I didn't shoot it much anyway. A couple of groups were of my cheap FMJ load that I don't expect much from any time.

[BarryinIN]

One other thing. The muzzle is threaded (5/8-24) and I was concerned that the thread protector might unscrew under recoil. Knowing how little change it takes to alter group or point of impact with the Browning BOSS system, I wondered if I'd have to remember to snug that thing up every few shots.

When I took the rifle out of the case, it was a quarter turn loose. I tightened as tight as I could by hand.

At one point, I checked it and was able to move it just a little.

So yes, it can loosen when hand tightened, but less than I expected.

I don't want to reef on it with a strap wrench because I don't want to cause any peculiar bore constructions. Maybe not likely, but possible.

I love suppressors, but before buying one for this, I have others in line on my want list ahead of a .30 can. With that in mind, I will try to find a wavy washer to fit under it or go right to blue LocTite. The $80 Smith Ent Vortex FH is an option too.

[BarryinIN]

This rifle has been a bit challenging so far. It shoots fine, I think. It's hard to say since I haven't been able to shoot everything I wanted.

The chamber appears to be cut to the minimum, which is hard to complain about, but it means that cases that fit fine in every other .308 I own or ever owned won't always fit this chamber. I have three sets of .308 dies and can only use cases resized by the one that sizes them smallest (works the brass most). Even some of those won't chamber.

I checked with my headspace gauges and headspace is OK, although it does rub on the "Go" gauge, showing it's right there on the line.

That I can work with, even if it is a bit inconvenient. It's the other problem that is harder to deal with. They are probably connected.

Every type of ammo I've tried shows signs of higher than normal pressure. The only non-handloaded .308 I own is some military or military-equivalent, so this is mostly based on handloads.

Powder charges that have been fine in other rifles, and were actually on the low side, were flattening primers and sticking cases. So I dropped the charge even more. Still too hot.

For example: Loading 168 Sierra Match Kings using Varget, 4064, and 3031. My usual charge of Varget with that bullet is 44 to 44.5 grains. That falls roughly in the low to middle range of "book loads". After seeing how the rifle did with other loads, I didn't want to start there, and loaded some lighter. The lowest starting charge I see in any manual/book for 168s with Varget is 42 grains. I loaded some at 41.0, 41.5, and 42.0.

The 41 grain load was too hot. Primers aren't the best indicator of pressure, but having two cases out of five stick in the chamber is a pretty good one. When the first one stuck, I attributed it to a case that was a bit large for the chamber already. When the second one stuck after knowing it chambered easily, it was clearly from pressure.

My loads with 4064 were similar (starting load of 41.5- I loaded 40.5), and I didn't even try the 3031 load.

It sticks cases when loaded below starting loads.

OK, what to do.

Headspace? I know headspace is tight, but not too tight. That might cause pressures to be a little higher than in some rifles, but shouldn't be this bad.

The headspace can be adjusted with a Savage. I may back the barrel out a tad and see what happens.

Throat? Headspace gauges won't tell me anything about that. I don't know that the throat is short, but it isn't long. I can't seat bullets a little long, but it will accept them at "book length". That still doesn't tell me the throat shape. I may have to pound a soft lead slug in there to make a "cast" of it.

Bore? I suppose the bore could be a little undersize. I doubt it, and doubt it would be enough to cause this. It might be a little rough too, although I doubt that. It doesn't seem to foul bad. I gave it a treatment with Shooters Choice Copper Remover after about 30 rounds and got some, but that's expected with a new bore. I sure wouldn't say it was excessive.

I think my next step should be to slug the bore just to eliminate undersize as a possibility, even as doubtful as it is.

Next, backing the barrel out a touch to open headspace a little.

Then if needed, maybe give the chamber just the smallest "touch" with my finishing chamber reamer. I don't much want to do that because there is always the risk of going too far, but it might be the most likely solution. And hey, new barrels are everywhere for these!

[BarryinIN]

How I spent the first part of Summer break.

One of my biggest concerns with this rifle is the really flexible forend. The slightest touch to the side or bottom of the forend moves it toward the barrel. There is a generous clearance between the barrel and forend, but it moves all the way across it pretty easily. The slightest touch and you can see it.

It's no problem from the bench, but any number of positions could put the stock into contact with the barrel and throw a shot. I've read a lot of people say POI can change dramatically when using a bipod from the stock touching the bottom of the barrel. I don't usually use a bipod, but often shoot with a sling, which can pull the forend to one side into the barrel.

I need to be fair and say that Savage has better stocks. They have some quite nice ones in fact. This is the cheapest one available. Most people this bothered by it would have got a better stock to start with, but I took what was in the gun shop's rack.

I tested it by shooting groups from the bench, from prone rested on a sandbag on top of an ammo can, prone from the bipod, and prone using the sling, to find what the POI shift was. Surprisingly, it didn't change, which is unusual for rifle. I tried it another day, and got the same result.

Still, every time I touched the forend I saw it move, and I couldn't help but worry.

The smart thing to do is to buy a McMillan or Bell & Carlson stock, but I really like the shape of the factory stock and wanted to use it if possible. I decided to try to stiffen it up out front. I wouldn't be at the range for a while, so I had time. I also wanted to paint the black stock anyway because they are so hot in the sun, so could get it gooped up on the outside and fix it when painting.

And if I screwed it up, factory stocks are on eBay for next to nothing.

I was going to try gluing a stiffener or two or three in places in the forend. A better solution would be run stiffeners from the forend tip all the way back under the action and maybe even into the pistol grip. I just wasn't going to do that. Not at first. Doing that would require rooting out the main bedding area of the stock, and I wanted to see if I could get by with the minimum work in that area. I would try just stiffening the forend and seeing what happened.

The best stiffener would probably be sections of steel bar or all-thread, but I didn't want it to get too heavy. One of the reasons behind getting this rifle was because it was a little lighter than the big heavy barrel models. Looking around in a hardware store one day, I found some of those driveway markers made from fiberglass rods. For those of you in the south, we stick these rods in the ground by our driveway entrance so we can find it after a snowfall.

I bought one for a couple of dollars, and at four feet in length, thought I could get three stiffeners from it with some left over. And they wouldn't weigh much.

Someone was kind enough to design the stock with three lengthwise channels in the forend that were nice guides for where I wanted my stiffeners to go. One in the center, and one on each side. The channels were a little too narrow to accept the stiffeners, but were handy to have for placement and to act as dams for the resin. The plan was to fiberglass them in place. When I worked for the airline, I wanted to go to composite and fiberglass class but never did, so I'm not very good at 'glassing, but I can get something done even if the appearance is frightening.

First, I skim bedded the receiver to have a good solid seat to work from. Skim bedding is not a full bedding job, but rather the application of a thin coat of bedding material over the existing bedding areas. From my reading, it seems the rear tang of the Savage receiver gets floated so only the front receiver ring contacts the stock. With that in mind, I added three layers of tape to support the rear tang. The bedding area was roughed up with a Dremel and grinding bit.

The barrel was wrapped with tape, so that and the tang would use the stock as it's own V-block and locate the barreled action. The magazine, barrel lock nut grooves, the action's bedding screw hole, and anything I didn't want bedding compound in was packed with modeling clay I swiped from the kids. I gave the front and bottom of the recoil lug two layers of electrical tape for clearance so it contacts on the rear only. The barreled action got a nice spray coat of my super duper action release (non stick cooking spray). A little bedding compound was mixed, smeared in place, and the barreled action was lowered in. The front scope ring was directly over the bedding area, and since the scope ring was old and crusty and due for paint, I just stuck a big C-clamp over the ring on top and the stock on the bottom and snugged it up. I left it overnight.

The next day I removed the C-clamp and popped the action out. No matter what, there is always some resistance when it's first removed after a bedding job, even a skim job. It looked mostly good, so I went on to the main concern- the forend. A different tool would have been better to open up the stiffener channels, but a sanding drum on the Dremel got it done. Like the action bedding, the uglier the better here so the glue would stick better. I've read that the plastic used in these stocks doesn't bond well, so I undercut all I could to create a "mechanical bond" if needed.

The barrel was wrapped with several layers of thick tape to ensure clearance between it and the final stock interior. Electrical tape went on last because of it's "slickness" resisting the adhesives.

I cut the fiberglass driveway marker rod into three sections, cut fiberglass mat to size (oversize), and mixed up some resin. I put some resin in first, then a layer of glass mat. Once I had it where I wanted, I brushed in some more resin, getting it into every nook and cranny. Then came more resin, and the three rods.

A little more resin, then the upper glass mat was laid over and worked down in and around the rods. Resin was again brushed into every nook and cranny, a little more poured on top...

...then lowered the tape-wrapped barreled action into place again and clamped it up.

Glass stuck above and resin oozed out the forend, but I could trim that off later.

The next day, I split the action and stock, and trimmed down the overflow. It looks awful inside, but it's inside. Paint would cover it anyway.

The result is not rock solid, but it is stiffer. Without running stiffeners all the way back under the action, I'd never get it solid, but it got it so I have no worry over using a bipod or tight sling.

I picked the windiest day and took the stock and a box of spray paint into the backyard. I experimented with stencils, vegetation plucked from the woods, and ended up spraying it free hand. I eventually got brave enough to spray the entire rifle, barreled action and all. The result was this, although I have another bit of beautification to add.

Hey, it's no beauty, but it won't be hot to the touch when left in direct sunlight and it blends in with...something. I don't know what yet.