AusVarmint

I rolled out to the Townsville SSAA/Bigbore range today to catch up with some folks, and tony Z was running in and fireforming his new F class rifle, a Savage model 12T (308, 30" bbl) at the fly shoot. I didn't see the target, but the report from the butts was around 3"; promising for 500 meters and an eFfie... (my nickname for F class rifles)
His comments on the trigger were, "It's great, can go down to 3oz, but set on the 1 lb for class, and the action is as true as some/most of the customs, out of the box."
I'll chase him up for a rerport.
the WOOB
ps. his only disappointment was that the McMillan stocked LRPV is not available in 308, otherwise that would've been his first choice.

Z-Man actually bought a factory gun ?

yup.
Don't have a heart attack, anybody...

It was a case of getting the F/TR and shoot now or buy a barrel, machine up another stock and fit it all together and shoot in 18 months. So i decided to join Matt and Marty down the FS road. The Savage is definetly a good rifle for those that want to get into FS without the long wait of putting a rifle together and still be competitive right off the cuff. From what i'm seeing it won't take much to get this thing to shoot tight groups. The trigger is a far cry from the old 112s getting about and the action is as good as it gets for the job at hand. At $995 for a bare action with trigger assembly, it would be a great base for any target rifle. The option of right bolt and left port makes for a good LG in Fly, 600 or 1K. This is the first factory gun i have bought in so long i can't remember and i am not disappointed with the product in any way so far. As woob said i originally wanted the LRPV but the're not made in 308 nor are the barrels 30 inch in length but rather at 26 inches.
Those of us that have been around for a while and seen all the custom and factory stuff are not easily taken by a factory offering but i was certainly impressed.

Tony Z.

tony z

good to see that you are playing with match "savages".

they maybe a little agricultural in design, but they certainly seem to "work OK".


cheers
dg

Any chance of a detailed review and some photos? Not much going round about them so far. I'd offer to do it for you, but something tells me that you'd be nuts to send it to me to play with

Actually, on a more serious note, if I have a rifle that i'd like to let someone have a go with and can't physically hand it to them, would you be able to just ship it to the person via a dealer without a PTA and then get them to ship it back? I'm not sure how this would work, I can't think why you'd want to.. but interested to know anyhow


-Arch

i know in canberra you just apply for a "Application for endorsement of a firearm" cost $10, and then, its technically both names on the rifle for a given time. me and a couple of mates do it when we dont have the right tool for the job but know some one else does. save having to buy before you try certain guns.

These are some pics of my new F/TR which i have only shot at Fly recently as a run-in and fireform exercise so i have no load info yet. As you can see it is a solid single shot action which is suprisingly smooth from new. The firing pin protrusion and sear timing can be adjusted by removing the rear nut on the bolt body and removing the pin assembly and adjusting the lock washers and nuts from there to suit. The trigger is brilliant and very simple in design whereby it can be adjusted to a reliable 3 ounce all the way up to about 4 pounds with a little tool Savage provides with just the removal of the trigger guard. It is set at 1 kilo for FS at the moment. These new barrels are button rifled and do show tooling marks internally most probably because there is no lapping process but even so it cleaned up very well and as easily as most of my custom barrels. The Savage claim of minimum headspace setting needs clarification as the new Lapua cases still allowed 6 thou of bolt float and the chamber dimensions on this particular barrel are definetely on the high side of SAAMI specs.
Whoever sat down and designed this particular target action has in my view read through Vaughns' book Rifle Accuracy Facts as there has been a great deal of attention paid to action symmetry in the critical lock-up and tennon area. From this alone i can believe some of the hype written about them where claims of the LRPV in the varmint calibers and factory match ammo having shot goups on test targets from the factory at .2s or below quite regularly. Also the tennon size has been increased from the old 1 inch 16 TPI to 1 1/8 inch 16 TPI which should help to strengthen the chamber area a great deal and add to these claims.

The only drawback with these new actions is that they do not lend themselves to a glue-in if someone was to build up a LG of some sort with the actions available for sale individually. This is because of the style of pin sear and trigger release sear and bolt stop/release mechanism which are totally different from say a 700/Omark/Stolle/Barnyard etc which can all be setup for drop out or pin removal through the bottom of the stock.
What this action does lend itself to is putting a 3/4 inch slot cutter through the opposite side of the port to turn it into a dual port left load right eject which would make it super quick for the likes of 600 or 1K. The bolt head design on this particular action unlike any of the previous Savage's is that it can be rotated 180 degrees in less than a minute to have it eject cases left or right which is perfect as Linda is left handed and hates most of my rifles ejecting cases into her face. I have ordered one of these actions in RBLP configuration and intend to slot out a right port just as described for a 600 rifle to be built down the road.

These actions are not a Stiller or a Farley and certainly not a Nesika, but for the money and if one can put up with the trigger being oh so different to anything else about, which has been my stumbling block with Savage for years, these actions/rifles from all accounts i'm getting from idividuals, not magazines, are going to produce some very accurate rigs in the future.

Tony Z.

Here's an interesting post on the Savage 12t actions, with a summary on truing by the 'smith concerned.
Have a squiz, fellas...
http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek040.html

Very interesting.. I'd love to build a rifle on one of these actions.