I'm a convert - new Savage 10FCP

I

Ike666

New member
Picked up my new Savage 10FCP (this one came with a McMillan stock) today, ran home and dropped my backup scope on it (SWFA SuperSniper), and off to the range.

It wasn't bore sighted, so after burning my first 5 rounds and not getting on the paper a friend helped me bore sight it the old fashioned way. While I looked down the bore, he dialed the scope in to center of mass on the paper.

Still using my reloads (41.1 gns 4064 pushing 168 gn SMKs) I brought it in. Final three-round group were all touching inside the Shoot-N-C 1.25" dot. Wow!

I then got out the Federal GMMs to "really zero" it. It was already in there and I proceeded to lay one after another inside the remaining three 1.25" dots. Wow, again!

This is a genuine sub-MOA rifle right out of the box. I'm a die hard Remington 700 guy and avoided Savages for the longest time (this is my first and I'm a semi-old fart). My bad to be sure. I still love my Remmies, but this is wonderful rifle. What a day.
 
My bad to be sure.
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I understand! I literally just finished cleaning my 700 ADL (from '95, '96) and I forget just how beautiful that rifle is. But I definitely love Savage rifles. I'm almost finished with a Stevens 200 build in .223, lacking only the barrel. I put in a Rifle Basix trigger, B&C Medalist tactical stock and am using a really old Bushnell 3-9x scope my dad donated from his early 70's 700 ADL. Even with factory pencil-thin barrel still on there, it shoots pretty good.
 
a friend helped me bore sight it the old fashioned way.
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That old fashioned way works as well as the new fashioned way and is a heck of a lot cheaper.

Congrats on the Savage. No matter the price they are hard to beat.
 
Congrats on the new Savage. The 10 FCP models are nice indeed. I picked one up near the beginning of this year. It had the HS-Precision stock on it.

2nd trip to the range with some of my hand loads (see below).....not even yet attempting to dial in the load....just checking a spread of them with different powder weights. An off the shelf rifle with zero mods doesn't get too much better than that.

FYI....it is OK to shoot more than 3 shot groups. If you do your part, they will stay tight.

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I'm a die hard Remington 700 guy and avoided Savages for the longest time
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Converts!!!!!!..... ya gotta love'em Now you know the POWER of the JEDI... and you move into the next level of smarts, moneysaving, and a better shooter.....
 
That's some good shooting AZ. I can see now how it can be done with this pure-stock gun. I am still amazed.

When I start doing my load work-ups, I'll use 5-shot groups. I was using some "generic" reloads to get on paper yesterday. They're supposed to approximate Fed GMM loads (but mine are loaded into mixed headstamps etc.). And truth be told, I was being cheap when shooting the real Federals at about $1.75 per round.

This is going to be fun.
 
IKE

Your experience is almost identical to mine with my 10 FP.
Of course, mine has more than 1300 rounds though it and is still shoots lights out with what the ammo it likes.

After trying some factory ammo in 150 gr, 168 grain and 175 grains I was convinced it was a 168 grain rifle.

So I focused on 168 loads with Reloader 15 and got really good results. Not willing to stop there I eventually found that it really liked H4895 loads and it has averaged 0.58 for 163 measured groups across 4 powders and 9 loads, but it averaged 0.575 for 25 groups of H4895.

Its best groups are under 0.15 inches.

I have since found that it shoots 150 grain SMKs even better than 168s and it shoots 175 SMKs almost as well as 168s.

It now averages under 0.46 inches with 150 grain SMKs using H4895 powder.

My buddy liked mine so much that he bought its brother and has had similar results. His seems to like the loads further back from the rifling than mine by about 5 thousandths, but otherwise he has had great results.
He shot a 0.049 group last weekend with his. I suspect that his eyes and technique are a bit better than mine.

Both rifles are incredible and are pure factory with standard stocks.

Enjoy your jewel. It is so great to have a rifle that just shoots great.
That is why I can't seem to put it down.
 
@Rimfire5

Thanks for that information. I'm just beginning to experiment with 155 gn and 175 gn loads. I'm pretty happy with the 168 gn loads - at least for the other two rifles. OTH, I'm not getting group averages anything like what you're getting.

But I can see where it is possible with this rifle. I'm looking forward to finding its favorite diet. I think I've got a good starting point.
 
Ike,

I didn't get those averages right away.

The factory ammo was under 1 MOA but not under 0.8 except with a couple of the slower 168 match ammos. Black Hills Sierra Match King managed to almost break 0.6 inches and Federal Gold Match got just under 0.73.
But factory ammo is generally seated at 2.800 C.O.A.L or shorter and mine seems to like 2.805 to 2.810 depending upon the velocity.

It wasn't until I found that the higher velocities weren't the key to accuracy that I found this particular rifle's sweet spot. People buy velocity in factory ammo but rifles don't necessarily like to shoot that way.

My 10 FP is a 2631 to 2675 fps rifle depending on the powder burn rate with 168s and 2725 fps with 150s.
It has one really great result at 2650 fps with 175s but seems to also have a performance node around 2500 fps.

On my rifle, the slower burning powders seem to perform loaded just a bit hotter than the faster burning powders. That would seem to indicate that this particular barrel/stock harmonic combination responds better to a lighter pulse than a high power shock. Also, on my 10 FP, when I load the bullet deeper into the rifling, I notice that I have to drop the velocity just a tad ( maybe 10 fps to get a great result). When I move it out to standard, I can load for a slightly faster velocity.

Every rifle is different and it takes a while to find what makes it really perform.
I got mine in August and it took me about two months to get enough data to begin to focus down on performance. Now, when I put the first round into the chamber, I am expecting to put all the round in a group inside a 1 inch circle every time. When I don't, it is usually me, not the rifle that messes up a group.

Try some different loads and see where your rifle's sweet spot is.
 
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