Savage FCP-K review

M

Metal god

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Savage Model 10 FCP-K review

The Savage model 10 FCP-K chambered in 308 has a

24" heavy fluted threaded carbon steel barrel 1-10 twist

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It comes with a muzzle brake installed from the factory

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It come with the Savage accu-stock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N49uIIRnA3w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZJnUyrEQk

It comes with the Savage accu-trigger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfT7asuOcXI

All metal has a matte black finish , weighs 8.9lbs and has an over all length of 46.5 " . It come with one detachable 4 round box magazine

Now that you have the specs lets talk about how it looks , feels and shoots .

The the gun is clearly built well and very solid . I see no problems with the fit and finish . The stock is quite ridgid and has almost no flex to it . For a synthetic stock I'm very impressed . The but stock is hollow and that does make the gun front/top heavy . It comes with a nice soft but pad that along with the muzzle break makes it a real sweet shooter .

The bolt is solid but does have a little wiggle when sliding it back and forth . It's not bad but it is there . It locks up tight and does take a little more then just a finger flip to open . Nothing hard but you do need to put some purpose behind opening the bolt . The bolt never bound up while cycling the rounds but it did fail to pick up the next round a few times ( maybe 6 or 7 times out of 100 rounds fired ) . It did how ever extract all rounds with out a problem .

The trigger came from the factory set at 2lbs . It is very crisp with no trigger creep that I can feel . To me it just breaks nice and clean . I left the trigger pull at the 2 lbs it came set at and did not attemt to adjust it . I am very pleased with the trigger and I think you will be as well .

With the scope , rings , base , anti cant level and cheek pad the rifle weighs right around 10lbs .

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All right lets shoot this thing already

All shot fired were off a bench with bi-pod and rear bag .

All ammo used was 168gr Federal gold metal match .

Ok after getting it on paper and close to zeroed at 50 yards this was my first 3 shot group at 100yds
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To be honest with you I was completely floored by that group . My buddy manning the spotting scope said he had never seen anybody shoot that small a group before . I told him me either ;) All I can say is WOW what an amazing rifle . I was shooting at least MOA all day ( yep all day ) and half of those were sub MOA .

This group was @ 100yds

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These next two pics are at 300yds . The black circles are 3' wide . The second picture I was aiming for the lower left black target . Not sure why I missed so bad but it was still one hell of a group :)

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I must say with the rifle weighing 10lbs and it having a muzzle brake . It was a joy to shoot . As some of you may know I have a Ruger American rifle in 308 . This Savage had maybe half the felt recoil of the ruger . I shot 100 rounds today and my soulder does not feel any worse then if I was shoot 22lr all day . It was so nice to be able to truly relax and shoot .

Im not sure who and or how Savage designed the muzzle brake but it was not really that much louder . Yes it was loud but I asked guys shooting next to me and none of them said it was to much to take . As the shooter , it was no problem at all . I just used ear plugs and did not need to double up with earmuffs .

All in all it was a great day for Metal God . I had not felt that/this gitty in a long time . I love my new rifle and highly recommend the Savage model 10 FCP-K .

Thanks Metal
 
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Dan Newberry said:
Good review... killer groups. Federal is currently using RL15 in their Gold Medal match ammo, fwiw.
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Concur. Very nice shooting. I suspected that Federal is using RL15 in that ammo, and according to the Alliant website, it is used in the M118 special ball long range round. The family has been using RL15 in our .308 ammo for several years and we've turned in some surprisingly small groups with that powder. If you go to the Hodgdon burn rate chart, it's surprisingly close to both IMR4064 and H-Varget and seems to be an wonderful powder for the .308 with several bullet weights.

Dan - I've been thinking about playing with the 175 grain Matchking for this summer's shooting. Do you happen to have a good load I can use as a starting point with Federal brass?
 
Nice to have a rifle shoot well right off. Good buy

Will you hunt with it too. If so get a Boonie Packers Safari sling Great for humping a heavier rifle around with and can do so hands free but still ready to lift and shoot. I have used these slings for 16 years with a 10lb 8oz heavy hunter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGwn6Kfno7o
 
pawpaw... with the FC cases, work up toward 42.4 grains from 41 grains with the 175's. If groups are not satisfactory at that level, try 42.7 grains... I'm sure you'll find good results somewhere in that window.

Dan
 
Dan Newberry said:
pawpaw... with the FC cases, work up toward 42.4 grains from 41 grains with the 175's. If groups are not satisfactory at that level, try 42.7 grains... I'm sure you'll find good results somewhere in that window.
Click to expand...

I had a hunch you were going to say something like that. Over the years we've had remarkable success with 43.0 grains of RL15 and the 168 grain bullets, on the nature of 1/2 inch groups with sporter barrels and our indifferent benchrest technique. We're hunters, not target shooters, yet that 43.0 grain load works in all (5) of our rifles. On a hunch, I loaded some 150 grain Hornady SSTs with that same 43.0 grains and had my son run them through his Savage 10 FLP. He managed to put a 10-shot group into under 3/4 inch at 100 yards. Not too shabby.

I'm just wondering if that 1:10 twist will stabilize those 175 grain bullets better than it stabilizes those 168s? (and I realize I'm talking about the difference between eeenie-and-meeenie).

Sorry for the thread hi-jack.
 
No problem on the hi-jack . I'm planning on shooting 175 smk out of this rifle . I have some 175gr smk , 178gr A-max and some 165gr sst I plan to start loading with . I have a bunch of reloading stuff on back order . When I get it I'll start reloading . I thought a 1-10 twist woud be fast enough for a 190 to 200gr bullet . the 1-10 twist is one of the reasons I picked this rifle . I already new I was going to be shooting the 175gr bullets
 
Will you hunt with it too. If so get a Boonie Packers Safari sling
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No plans to hunt with this rifle .I bought it for target shooting and so I can work my way out to 800 to 1000 yds . I have a Ruger in 308 that I would use for hunting . I have no real plans to hunt for any game that requiers a round that large . A couple friends and I are planning on going havelina hunting in AZ and for now thats as big as I want to go . My plan is to throw a scope on a AR and use it . That way if ever asked , I will be able to say I hunt with my AR :p

That sling looks pretty cool though .
 
Metal God, nice rifle and nice shooting. I own two Savages (223 10FP and a 308 FCP-HS) Both rifles shoot sub moa out of the box with quality ammo.
 
These next two pics are at 300yds . The black circles are 3' wide .
guns174.jpg
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3 feet at 300yds that's, what, about 12 MOA?. Just kidding man, nice shooting. How did you like the new scope?
-StaTiK-
 
3 feet at 300yds that's, what, about 12 MOA?.
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That's funny , I missed that oops . 3' or 3" what's the difference :D

I put this scope on the rifle as a temp till I can afford the better scope I have my eye on . This scope will then go on my Ruger American .
The scope is a Vortex crossfire 2 6-18x44 . I like the scope a lot . I have a 20 MOA base on it and the scope only has 50 MOA of adjustment so its almost bottomed out . I did 2 test with the scope to test the tracking . One test was to always aim at the center of the target and adjust the turrets 3 moa up and to the left shoot . Then back to zero and move them 3 moa down and right shoot etc etc . That 6 shot test the scope tracked perfect . 2 in the center and 1 in each corner . The other test was to make sure my reticle . anti can't level and rifle were all level to each other . I aimed at the bottom center of target . I took 5 shots and after each shot i would adjust the turrets up 3 moa . The shots went straight up the target 3 moa apart .

The only issue was at max mag 18x the scope got a little less clear . You could go to about 14x and the scope would still be crystal clear . I did almost all my shooting with the scope set at 12x mag . I don't have a lot of experience with scopes but I do know this is a nice scope for me
 
Thanks for the additional info on the scope. Much appreciated. Good to hear yet another satisfied story for the Vortex brand. I've never shot with a Crossfire and I appreciate your comments about it.
 
Hello again . Like I said in my original review . The butt off the stock is hollow and that makes the gun a little front end heavy . I wanted to balance the gun out a bit and add a little weight . What I did was fill the butt of the stock with a Bondo , copper plated BB mix .

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The inside of the stock was glass like smooth . I ruffed it up a bit by sanding the inside with 40 grit sand paper . This should give the Bondo something to bond to and keep it from popping lose .
This added 2-1/2lbs to the over all weight . The rifle now weighs 12.8 lbs and feels much more balanced . I have not shot it yet so I'm not sure what effect this will have . I sure hope it's positive :)
 
I've counter-weighted a lot of these type stocks...

What I normally use is plumber's putty... you can knead some BB's into it for more weight if desired... or just the putty itself is usually heavy enough to do the job.

Plumber's putty stays soft, so if you ever want to take it out it's real easy. :)

Dan
 
I filled my ruger with 28 ounces of plumbers putty last week. The difference it made amazing. I was shooting hotter rounds than I usually do, and felt recoil was reduced by a third I would say.
 
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