A quick note about the Savage 12FV at Cabelas:
They are backordered. Who knows when they are going to come in.
They had a recent sale for $318 out the door. There was mention of ALSO getting a $100 gift card for Cabelas. This would make the rifle $218 out the door. However, I have read that, that offer applies to these rifles and I have read that it doesn't. I don't know. But either way, it is a hellava deal on a new rifle that, in my opinion, is an excellent rifle.
I ordered two. One in .308 and one in .223. When I heard about the sale, I was at work, so I checked the inventory of my local Cabelas on-line and they were out of all calibers of the 12FV. So, I ordered the .308 on-line. About a week later, I was thinking about what a fantastic deal this is and ordered a second one in .223. They said, 5-8 business days and the shipping to my local store is free. So about two weeks later, I went to my local Cabelas to the customer service department and asked what the status was. They said they were backordered, she didn't know anything but advised me to check with the gun department. So, I went over there and talked to one of those guys.
He said that the morning of the first day of the sale, he got to work and there was a line from the door WAY down the sidewalk into the parking lot. They sold out of 12FVs (every chambering) in about the first five minutes they were open. He said that he has no idea when the on-line/backorders are going to be filled. He said as fast as Savage can make that many rifles.
In other words, there was a run on Savage 12FVs that rivaled the run on the banks in 1929.
This is perfectly OK with me. I am in no hurry. In fact, I basically just bought those two rifles because it was an incredible deal and I intend to use the actions to rebarrel into other cartridges. Initially I wanted the .308 but a couple days after I ordered it, I ended up trading for a .308 Savage chassis rifle (Savage-Ashbury). So, now I don't really need another .308 but I didn't cancel the order because I have ideas of what else I can do with that action.
As I said earlier, after buying my first Savage rifle, I am a true believer. I wouldn't really consider anything else in a production rifle as a budget long range shooter. Again, I went from never having owned a Savage, to owning two with two more backordered in the span of about six months.
Since the topic of optics came up..............I bought my 6.5 Creed for $499 on sale and ended up putting a Vortex Razor on it. Not to belabor the point, but the first couple times I showed up at the range I mentioned earlier that goes out to 1200 yards; several guys commented that if they had known you could buy a rifle that shoots like mine for $499, they wouldn't have spent the money on their custom set-ups. My buddy paid $3800 for his rifle in 6x47 Lapua and he says, every single time we have been shooting long range, that he wishes he would have just bought a Savage like mine instead of spending $3800 on his rifle. His rifle absolutely shoots better than mine. I would say, significantly better. But, he spent $3300 more to get it. And obviously he doesn't feel it was worth the money. When I saw him shoot an 10" group on paper at 1000 yards, I tend to disagree with him, but...................he does have a point from the financial standpoint.