NIB lefty Savage

[RBHarter]

So I got a new in box Savage Axis in 223 from my local enabler . Slapped some mounts on it with a million miles scope I had laying around .

It's ugly , the twist is too fast , the stock is plastic and the trigger is heavy . It doesn't seem to be either a long or short action as far as a 1 piece mount goes .


It feels good , it doesn't touch the bbl and barely the action , the trigger is only about 5-5.5# and doesn't have noticable movement . The 2 piece round action mounts work fine .

It's friggin' hot out here !


My first effort was bad very bad not enough lube and to soft for the PB bullet .

The second effort would have I'm sure been better if the Factory ammo hadn't misfired 1/5 ....... I hope the Aguilia brass is worth picking up .....

It looks like the randomly selected 5.5 Unique will work out under the 225-55 NOE at 62gr . I had 1 misfire in my 20 round lot vs 4 in the Aguilia . Both loads hit high of point of aim at 50 but overall I'm not unhappy .



$300 rifle
$89 scope , 25 yr ago .
$22/50 223/556 55gr fmj
$7/100 cast loads 22 mag level 62gr GC
Great starter rifle .

 

[RBHarter]

Well that didn't go as planned .......

5 of the cast @ 25yd
.
.
14 more at 50yd .
.
I place 50% of the group size squarely on the nut behind the trigger .

Since the bench is the red hood and the orange Gatorade bottle above , the trigger nut gets a little slack . I should really dig out the bags again ......

 

[Ian]

Sounds like it's time for a firing pin protrusion check and a headspace check. Good thing about Savage is you can always break the barrel nut and turn the barrel in a few degrees if the headspace is jacked up. Savage barrels seem to always benefit from a break in and polish per your favorite method (PP, tubbs, VGC, shoot/clean/shoot/clean w/jacketed and copper solvent, whatever).

Try 2.4 grains of Titegroup and small PISTOL primers with those PB 62 grainers, and two coats of BLL. Also, if you haven't already, spend some money on a neck sizing die and a bushing that barely puts the neck in range for .001" interference fit so your necks don't get all wongomatic trying to expand them from a resized .216" ID. I found if I stayed under 2.5 grains of TG (950 fps or so) and left enough neck flare to barely rub the chamber neck I could just replace the primer, install powder, and seat a bullet for 3-4 firings without resizing at all.

 

[KHornet]

I bought a 223 Axis when they first hit the market. Cabela's 256.00 + tax. Trigger was rough, but a friend gave me an "easy pull" that works pretty well.
With Jacketed, me doing my share, it is MOA all day. With cast, and the right loads, it will hover around, and sometimes be below MOA for 10 rounds. Not a fancy rifle, but satisfactory for me for the price, and results.

Paul

 

[freebullet]

Congratulations! Yes, truck hood is not super stable rest. You might try fivers' approach & shoot out the window.

Also have one in 223. Its a threaded bbl model. With random mixed brass jax ar reloads it does well.

Going to put it in a boyds stock & attempt to make it accept ar mags. Probably will tinker with the trigger along the way too.

 

[Ian]

FB, had you considered a belt-fed option?

Might make a half-decent magwell out someone's ruined 80% lower project, there are bound to be plenty of those around these days in scrap bins.

 

[KHornet]

This thread could get real interesting!

Paul

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

mine went from a .223 to a 7tcu (barrel for sale) to a 308 (which has just been installed). Hopefully to someday have a matching 358 LH

 

[RBHarter]

I took some measurements last night .
Only 1 dimension seemed out of spec but without a datum tool for the shoulder the 1.463 on the drawing and the fired cases 1.514 is subjective at best more so when the neck/shoulder junction is where it should be .
My note book isn't.at hand so I may have the wrong number there .05 seems like something I'd have slammed on the brakes with . It would also so be naked eye visible .
I will have to pull the stock tonight and figure out how to measure the actual applied firing pin travel vs bolt out of the gun .

 

[Ian]

Another thing to watch may be the Aguila brass. A few years ago I picked up about 1200 shiny once-fired cases one time from a nice pile on the ground, thinking to myself "Oh boy, nice score!". Well, not so much. It had been fired in an AR-15, probably a carbine with a hogged-out or worn-out gas port (or maybe even an M-16, there are a few of those around the area) and the extractor had set back the rims of all of them about .010-.012". It was enough that they wouldn't fit a tight shellholder if you inserted them any way but with the pulled part facing out toward the slot. I fixed a few, sort of, with a primer pocket swaging die set up with a standard shell holder, but it was a lot of stress on the backup rod to move that much metal back in place and not worth messing with. Anyway, these would have had a pretty long firing pin reach if reloaded. Maybe it was a soft batch of brass? Not sure. I know you had troubles with the brand-new stuff so that's probably not the issue, just something to look for if you use range pickups.

 

[freebullet]

FB, had you considered a belt-fed option?

Might make a half-decent magwell out someone's ruined 80% lower project, there are bound to be plenty of those around these days in scrap bins.

Hehehe, if we had any full autos belt fed would be the ticket. I'd need a camdex to keep up with the wife though.

Yes, nail meet head. Planning to use a lower for the mod.