savage 30br

Monte, a local guy put together a Savage target action with a Shilen 17 twist barrel. It's in the HS factory Savage target stock with the orig. trigger and it shoots very well. He's started to come to with us to the registered IBS VfS tournaments in Webster City, Iowa and has taken home more than his share of hardware. Greg will get you 'smithed up the right way. :cool:

When it comes to bullets, there's actually very little cost difference between the hand rolled BR stuff and off the shelf bullets. The biggest thing you get with a handmade BR bullet is consistency, though the Berger 115-125's are right up there with the best hand rolled bullets. I can't overstate the need to practice with the same bullets you shoot in competition, though. And .30 cal J4 jackets are taking a significant price increase as of Jan. 1.

Hope to see you in the VFS game next season! -Al
 
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So... it is possible to shoot credible scores with non-custom bullets? I understand that to wring the last nth degree of performance custom may be the way to go... I just don't relish the idea of burning up hard-to-get custom bullets in practice, etc.


Monte,

Yes... There are those that say NO WAY......... BUT.... With the 30 caliber bullets, the consistency has been there for me. AND the consistency of 30 cal custom barrels HELPS too.

NOT with smaller, 6mm and 22 cal........ The factory bullets, no matter how hard I try, they are NO WHERE near capable of competing against an equivalent custom hand made bullet...

Let me just say with the 30 cal bullets (NOT all of them though), the competitive capability is VERY much shortened when compared to 30cal customs... Customs though have the edge, just smaller.

STILL...... What Al say is VERY TRUEpost 21...

What bullets...? 3 that I've had in real competitive arena VFS shoots.... Sierra 135gr MK (may not stabilize in 18 twists), Speer 125gr TNT, Nosler B-Tip 125gr......... All need a little sorting by weight and ogive but it's worth it.

The bulk box Speer 125gr TNT @ .18 - .20 cents a bullet makes them an amazing good buy..! Sort'em and shoot Itty Bitty.
X's too..! Last VFS shoot, shot sorted 125gr TNT's .. Didn't win but (4th 250 16X's) I KNOW it was due to not enough X's with the wind getting me (First 3 matches 12 X's with 7 or 8 clean wipeouts )... Was on ME, the bullets didn't go "weird", just with the wind on my mis-reads/dopes....

Simply give them a try, you may be surprised...
cale
 
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Well, its encouraging that I may not *need* to immediately purchase custom bullets just to get started. Might reserve that for 'next season' if I get the bug ;)

Kind of getting back to the Savage thing... I have basically zero time behind any custom action, but many thousands behind Savage actions, trued or otherwise. For those of you who have used them for BR... how do you get around the bolt lift moving the gun in the bags? From some of the stuff I've read it appears that being able to 'machine-gun' the target and run a condition can be crucial to success. In F-Class I either shoot pretty fast (17 shots under 4 minutes, and I was waiting on the target puller for much of that) - but not nearly as fast as some of the guys who have however many rounds down range in a matter of *seconds*. Granted, I don't think those guys are shooting score on a short range target where each shot is at a fresh bull... does that alleviate some of the drawback of having to wrestle the gun a little during loading?
 
A Savage action that has been massaged by Fred Moreo has a much better bolt lift but not quite in the range of my BAT. A close-fitting front bag will help keep the gun in position and I find that just putting my thumb on the tang will easily hold the rifle through the bolt-cycling.
 
Mmmm... I have a couple actions that have been trued-n-timed by SSS. They shoot well... but so do most of my un-touched actions. I can't honestly say the bolt lift is much less... I've even tried the little whiz-bang ball-bearing bolt-lift reducer hoozits in a few - both Fred's version with a ball bearing glued in a shortened .38 Spl case, and Kevin Rayhill's (Stockade Gun Works) version with a ball bearing with a ball bearing epoxied in a machined disc. Both require the inner shroud to be shortened ~1/10th inch or so... and the biggest bolt lift reduction I've seen thus far was when I took the bolt apart for something and forgot to put the disc back in - thereby reducing the amount the main spring was being compressed. Gun still went 'bang', and bolt lift was pretty easy. Not sure if ignition was up to par... never thought to check it at the time.
 
I am building a 30 br but i was wondering which twist works the best the 17 or the 18 twist.

"Pretty much".... up to 125gr bullets on 1.00 or shorter jackets... 18twist is all ya need...
If... You want to try "slightly more heavy", 17 twist...

Some say the 135gr Sierra MK >will< stabilize in a 18 twist for instance...

Some say that the 18 twist is >better< with the typical bullet seen in VFS 110 - 118gr <1.00 length jacket/bullets.

I like my 17 twist.....

Generalizations,
cale
 
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