"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 06 May 2010 19:29:58 -0500, cavelamb
wrote:

Don Foreman wrote:
I promised to report results on this activity. I'm pleased with the
results. The accuracy of a decent but inexpensive rifle was
significantly improved with one of the several loads tried today.
There were also some loads (different powder) it didn't shoot well at
all, though it has never shot any load so badly that it'd miss COM on
a deer at 200 yards, which is too far to be shooting deer with a .243.
I think after bedding it is now accurate enough to be used on varmints
out to 300 yards.

http://members.goldengate.net/dforem..._rifle_result/



That's a big dime!
Or one accurate piece...

The holes really are 6mm dia, not .50 cal. :)

That group wouldn't rate a sneer among bench rest competitors whose
multi-thousand dollar 6mmPPC rifles (with similarly pricey scopes)
routinely punch 0.200" groups at 200 yards. 6mmPPC is ballistically
very similar to .243 Winchester and shoots the same bullets but the
rifles are hand-crafted to very exacting standards, using bull barrels
maybe 1-1/2" in diameter. There were two of those at the range today.
Their owners weren't shooting them anywhere near that well today but I
don't doubt that the rifles are capable.

But I feel pretty good about how my little off-the-rack
consumer-grade Savage, bought from floor stock at The General Store in
Osakis, MN, seems to work after bedding it and doing a bit of load
development. Oh, and moving up to a $195 scope.

Not sure what you meant by "pillar bedding," but from what I've read and one
of my gun smith buddies says you can dramatically improve most all of those
inexpensive bolt guns by fully bedding them about an inch or so past the
chamber, and then floating the barrel. He says you still get some barrel
warp as they heat up just from variances in thickness, but not as bad as
when one side is in the air, and the other side is pressed against the wood.
Also some guns simply are not bored concentric enough and the higher mass of
metal on one side of the bore will cause it to warp anyway.

Yours is doing very nicely for a low end Savage, although Savage kinda gets
a bad rap sometimes. They make some comparably affordable off the shelf
guns that will shoot very nicely, and I really have not heard of any of
their guns suffering from undue premature wear problems.

Now hear is one for those guys who can't afford a great rifle and don't have
the time or the nerve to make modifications like you did. Sight your
inexpensive out of the box gun in over a very extended time. Bore sight.
Then take your first shot. Then give it 30 minutes or so before taking your
second shot. Proceed in kind. You will find that it will shoot a lot more
consistently than you expect that way. For hunting its no matter. You
rarely get more than one good shot at a single target anyway. You are not
going to turn a $69 1980s import into a $4000 custom match gun, but you will
be able to shoot your one shot and be pretty certain its going to hit were
you pointed it.

I'm certainly no gunsmith, but one of my first clients was a gunsmith and
custom match builder. I used to hang around his shop and talk with him
while he worked.