My Ongoing Experiment with two "Fixer Upper" 12FV Savages

[Hohn]

Well, the deal I posted was too good for me to pass up myself. I ended up buying not one but two of the Savage 12FV models that are exclusive to Cabela's. One is .223 (9 twist) and the other is 6.5CM (8 twist). At $319 each for a non- Axis Savage, it's just too good to pass. Savage kicks in some free swag to sweeten the deal, but I'm not feeling especially grateful for yet another poorly made bag and a Chinese-sourced T-shirt.

So what makes it worthwhile? These are real model 12/10 Accutrigger short actions. No bottom bolt release nonsense here. Which means you can actually find aftermarket goodies pretty easily. IMO, the barreled action alone is worth the price of admission.

Both rifles are 26" varmint barrels. They are front heavy and not something you'd want to carry in the woods.

Both have blind magazines and low-rent plastic stocks. The stocks have significant internal reinforcement and they are NOT the truly awful tupperware junk of yesterday. They are today's take on a very cheap and arguably junk stock. They have thick love sponge recoil pads, even though you probably don't want or need them for either caliber in rifles this heavy.

The actions are, shall we say, lacking refinement. They are Savages. Not Sakos or Tikkas or Bergaras or (insert custom action). They have both a good bit of play in them, and the 6.5 manages to find a way to add a tight spot to the play for the worst of both worlds.

I can't say I mind much, because unless it causes feed, extraction, or accuracy issues, it's kind of irrelevant. They'll work just fine and I'm sure the snug spot on the 6.5 will break in well enough.



Why are these fixer uppers? Well, they might end up being bad barrels. You don't often hear of Savages with major accuracy problems, but it happens. I'm expecting that one or the other will need a Shilen or something to shoot.

Also, the blind mag MUST GO. It's truly awful. Looks like Accurate mag DBM bottom metal is about $160. I'll be adding that to whatever stock upgrade happens. Might go cheap with a Boyd's at-one, might step up to GRS on one or the other. (The new GRS BiFrost looks like an absolute winner).


I'll update periodically with changes as they occur.

 

[DRob]

I have three of those Cabelas 12FVs among my battery of Savage Model 10s and 12s. They are .223, .240, and .22-250. They all easily shoot one minute of prairie dog. I second everything Hohn says about the stocks, balance, and overall weight. However, mine are all used as high volume bench guns. Several hundred rounds a day is not unusual so the heavier the better. Half the fun of shooting p dogs is seeing your hits, therefore I have added weight to the hollow butt stock of the .204 and the .223. The .22-250 doesn't have added weight as it's for sale and I'll leave that up to any buyer. All of them have been converted to single shot with the addition of a Sharp Shooter Supply adapter. They are good guns in their own right and, at the sale price, are a steal. Just checked and they are no longer on sale. Back to $420.

 

[Hohn]

Installed a pair of Warne scope bases on my rifles.

These are well-made STEEL bases that should work better than a single-piece base with that awful blind magazine setup. Proper TORX screws instead of the slotted ones Weaver seems to think are OK. Single-piece Weaver on the top-loading blind mag design just wasn't working for me.

I'll need to be sharing a Viper PST II 3-15 FFP between these two, so a set of Warne QD rings is also planned:

I've had good luck with Warne hardware, and the use of steel I appreciate, as well as the excellent machining quality.

These Warne QD rings with their base should be very repeatable from one rifle to the other. I'm not expecting the rifles to share the same zero, but I'm expecting that re-zeroing will be a minor tweak rather than not even being on paper.

 

[Hohn]

Well, the fixer upper project is not going to happen.

IN a moment of sober reflection I started to ask myself if a price-point Savage is the basis upon which I want to build a rifle with a $400 barrel and a $600 stock. Yeah, I think these rifles are best left as is before I sink in a bunch of money that will never come back and end up with a whole less than the sum of its parts.

I'm keeping the 223. I'm going to put the 6.5 up for sale. Surely someone wants in inexpensive way to get into Creedmoor.

H

 

[Hohn]

Well, I changed my mind. Project Fixer Upper Savage Specials (FUSS) is go.

We now have received the GRS Bifrost Stock, but not yet the Accurate Mag bottom metal:

Today I removed the long from buffer from the .223 version and replaced with the standard part to restore full bolt travel. This is necessary to allow both the 6.5 and .223 versions to work with the AI mags and A-M bottom metal.

 

[Hohn]

Here's why I changed my mind about putting money into these Savages.

First, I had no concerns about the .223 at all. It was GTG right out of the box and was an assured keeper. The 6.5 however I was a little concerned about. The bolt was somewhat sticky. Not sticky like gummed up, but like wanting to gall kind of sticky. It would bind. I cycled the action hundreds of times and it seemed ok after awhile.

Until I actually shot it. Then it would hang up again. The side load of the ejector pushing the case would make ejection a bit more effort than it should have been. Cycle it empty and it's smooth, put a case in (and the side loading) and it wanted to bind.

I decided that before I passed the rifle on to someone more patient than I am that I would use a spent case to cycle the action a bunch. Insert deprimed case, close bolt, extract, repeat x200.

Wouldn't you know it, that stickiness all but left and it started to get nice and smooth. So I'm starting to think maybe this 6.5 is also a keeper?

The beauty of having identical twins (Savage 12s) is that they take all the same stocks and bottom metals and such. A stock upgrade bought for one will work with the other.

So the worst case scenario is that I left the upgraded stock and such on the .223 and kept the 6.5 as is and sent it on down the road. Or I could share one stock between them (barreled actions swap in < 5 min) and have nearly two-for-one.

I also have identical scope bases on the two rifles, so I can even share optics between them with only a minor re-zero.

 

[Hohn]

My 6.5 is done. Got the bottom metal in tonight. As most people are experiencing, the included screws from Accurate-Mag are way too long and will bind the action if not shortened. I ground them on my slow speed knife grinder to a height that works very well.

The A-M bottom metal is excellent. And the GRS stock required only very minor filing of a couple tight spots to get the bottom metal and trigger guard into the provided channel. It's still snug, which I prefer.

Best of all, the feed and such is PERFECT with no need to tweak the inlet of the stock or bottom metal. The included 5 round mag (which I chose over the optional 10rd mag) is very high quality. But it will tear up your brass with its sharp edges. I filed the lips a bit to smooth them, we'll see if that helps. It's set up for .308 and loading 6.5 into the mag, while it works perfectly, it not easily or quickly done. I'll probably stick with single feeding unless I'm loading hunting ammo in disposable brass. Peterson or Lapua cases deserve better.

With the action mounted, the rifle feels VERY solid and has unexpectedly good balance. (unexpected after handling the rifle in the original Savage plastic stock in which case it's super muzzle-heavy). It's still not great for an offhand shot, but it could be done.

Even more unexpectedly, all of the "stickiness" and binding seems to be gone from the action. It's so slick it barely feels like a Savage. I'm forced to conclude that the blind mag setup in the original stock was a major contributor to lack of smoothness.

 

[Hohn]

First range trip after the new stock and bottom metal. When I started shooting, the round count on the rifle was 19 rounds.

I arrived just after they had gone hot again, so I shot my first 10 rounds at a target that was already hanging down at 100y.

36gr of RL15 under a 140 ELD (very mild, probably ~2500 fps from my 26" bbl)

The high flyer was something I can't really explain, but I was pleased with basically 8/10 touching.

Then I got to hang up my homemade targets and fire a few strings.

36.5gr RL15:

37gr:

37.5:

38gr:

Factory 147 ELD ammo:

and also:

My technique was going to crap at the end and the barrel was way too hot to touch. I was shooting pretty fast and I'm thinking I didn't do those last groups proper justice.


I'm pretty happy with that as a starting point.



I have a bit more development to do, and I'd like to try something cheaper than ELDs to shoot. If I can get a 140gr Hot Cor to shoot under 1", I'll be ecstatic.

I also need to get some RL16 and push things a good bit heavier than these really mild loads with a fast powder.

H

 

[Hohn]

Alright, time for an update. I've shifted the focus to the .223 copy of the rifle. I moved it to the new GRS stock with the Accurate-mag bottom metal.

Since I plan on doing more target/competition/varmint shooting with this .223, I needed to upgrade because a 9 twist simply will not do for 600y.

So as of a few hours ago, we have a new Criterion tube with the longer .090 freebore and a 7 twist that should support up to 90gr bullets.

Also, it's wearing a Vortex Golden Eagle now. This rifle is legal for FTR and the CIHPRS F-practical class. The blue barrel cap is a plastic thread protector until I get a proper one.

I'll post some targets once I actually get to shoot it. At this point, I consider this rifle basically complete. I really wanted something like a Savage 10GRS but they are about $1100 and still lacking a bit. Starting with a $320 12FV, my total expenses to build a version of that rifle with a better barrel and a nicer GRS stock is <$1500. Obviously a scope and bipod and such are extra.

Even better, when I burn this barrel out, another $350 gets me back in business.






ETA: a barrel replacement on a Savage is stupid easy. Like I was practically laughing in the <15min it took once the barreled action is out and using the proper tools. The headspace with the new barrel is such that even a single thickness of cellophane tape is enough thickness to turn the 1.4636" "go" gauge into a "no go". Obviously, a real "no go" at 1.4666" is also too long.