Hi All,
I’ve enjoyed reading lots of great posts in this forum and have finally decided to post something for the first time. It’s a pretty long story of how my new Savage target rifle did at my gun club’s (Niagara Sportsmen’s Association) 300 yard F-class benchrest matches. I've always been interested in seeing more detailed reports on how target rifles perform, not just a few cherry-picked groups, so I'm sharing all my targets for the four matches in which I participated. I hope that you find the story interesting and would greatly appreciate your help on some questions that I list at the end of the post.
To make things easier for people who are vertically challenged (in terms of getting down to and up from the ground!), the matches were all done from benches. The only rule was that the front and rear rests could not be attached to each other. At 300 yards it was nearly impossible to see the bullet holes in the black bulls (it helped if the bullet cut a ring), so you couldn't really make scope adjustments during the match. We shot 10 shots each into two bulls (one bull per relay, so you could make a scope adjustment after the first 10 shots). We used 300 yd F-Class (MR-63F) targets.
This was only my second year competing in local benchrest matches, so I still have a lot to learn. In the first year I used a Model 1896 Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55 with a Douglas barrel (DIY installed) and a homemade stock. I got third place, which isn’t bad for an action that was made in 1923, but that’s a whole other story. In the second year, which I’m reporting here, I used a Savage 12, which is actually the only powder burner in my safe that was made in this century!
Figure 1 shows profiles of the rifle. It’s a Savage 12 Target Action with a Criterion 26” barrel in 6BR Norma with a 1 in 8” twist. The stock is homemade from a Richards Microfit laminated blank. The scope is a Sightron SIII 10-50x60 Field Target on Warne QD mounts. I use this scope on two centerfire rifles, a spring piston air rifle and a Kimber 82G rimfire rifle, so I get a lot of bang for the buck from this scope. I think it's a lot better to have one really good scope that is swapped onto four rifles than four mediocre scopes that are dedicated to these rifles. POI changes less than 0.5 MOA when switched from one rifle to the next. On other hand, this isn't as rock-solid compared to a more permanent mount with the scope dedicated to the rifle. Maybe I need to buy another scope?!
Figure 2 shows the DIY aluminum bedding block that was glued into the stock. The receiver was then skim-coat bedded into the aluminum block with Acraglas Gel and the barrel and receiver tang were free-floated. I like the fact that three screws (all in front of the trigger) hold the receiver into the bedding block.
Figure 3 shows the two bulls from my first match. The 10 ring has a diameter is 2.85” and all but one shot were 10s. The 9 was on the second (right) bull at around 11 o’clock. It didn’t miss by much and I probably would have gotten a 10 if I were shooting a 6.5mm instead of 6mm bullet! I should have adjusted my scope down and right after the first bull, but was worried about the scope not settling in for the second bull. After this I always made adjustments after the first bull. I was lucky to keep a shot inside the 10 ring at 12 o’clock on the first bull, when my neighbor fired his 30-06 just a moment before I pulled the trigger and my POA jumped up. Still, I was happy with my 199-13x score, which was a personal best at the time.
Figure 4 shows the targets from my second match. I switched to IMR 4064 by accident (it was all that my local gun shop had in stock and I had read that it should work with 6BR). 27.0 grains of IMR 4064 powder produced slightly lower muzzle velocities at around 2620 fps compared to 2700 fps for the same charge of H4895, but tightened groups up quite a bit. I wish that I had discovered this powder before the first match! These are pretty mild loads, but I found that accuracy was better with the 107 grain Sierra Matchkings going around 2700 fps or less. After months of searching, I was able to find some Varget, which allowed me to push the muzzle velocity to 2820 fps, but accuracy was not as good. I’ve read that more muzzle velocity is better in benchrest shooting, but in N.G. Papagalos (pp. 53-56, Precision Shooting, March 2005) also found the best accuracy for 107 grain Sierra Matchkings in the 2600-2700 fps range with the 6BR (and he was trying to increase MV to knock over a 50 pound ram silhouette at 500 meters). Has anyone else seen this in their 6BR rifles?
Figure 5 shows the targets from my third match. I reduced the powder charge of IMR 4064 to 26.8 grains. I was a bit lucky to keep a shot at 3 o’clock in the 10-ring on the second bull! I had one wind flag and didn’t notice any wind change for this shot, so I’m not sure what caused this.
Figure 6 shows the targets from my fourth and final match. I included the sighters in the top left corner to show a surprising result. I shot two 5-shot sighter groups before shooting for record. No sighters were allowed during record shooting. The group in my second sighter target was a little to the right, so I clicked the scope 1 click (1/8 MOA) to the left. It looks like the group on the first bull moved a lot more than 3/8” to the left after that adjustment! This is why I’m a bit paranoid about making scope adjustments during a match. After the first bull, I clicked to the right and got a better centered group on the second bull. The group sizes look pretty good, each with a 10-shot center-to-center distance of around 1.4”. If they were better centered, I would have gotten a lot more Xs!
I tied for first place in season average score but lost on average X-count. The first place finisher also shot a Savage 12 Target Action with a Sightron 10-50x60 scope, but used a Shilen select match barrel in 6.5mm Creedmoor. I’ve read a lot of complaints about Savage rifles, but the some of the biggest complaints don’t apply for this particular situation. Since I’m using a single shot action, there were no failure to feed or magazine issues. I even removed the ejector to help protect the spent brass, so ejection also wasn’t any issue. Since I’m firing slowly, I wasn’t bothered too much if the sear accidentally tripped and got hung up on the AccuRelease safety lever. This never happened during a match. If I remember correctly, this happened only a few of times when I was first getting used to the trigger in January 2021 and was wearing gloves due to the cold weather. I really appreciated having a trigger pull of around 6 ounces, which allowed me to fire the rifle under free recoil with almost no body contact with the rifle. This is a great trigger for a factory action, as long as you can shoot slowly! Now if I was shooting in a PRS Match, these are important issues, but for this kind of benchrest match, the Savage worked really well.
I’m wondering if/how I can improve things. If you get the chance, please take a look at the following items and let me know what sort of changes make the most sense:
1. Cases: I’m using Lapua cases. Should I weigh them? Does it help to neck-turn them? I don’t have a tight match chamber that requires neck-turning, but have read neck turning could help with accuracy and reduce muzzle velocity spread. I’m neck-sizing and bumping the shoulders back about 0.002” with a Redding type S bushing die.
2. Bullets: Should I be using flat base bullets for this relatively short range, since they stabilize faster than boattails? I’ve only tried boattails (~100 gr Sierra, Berger, Barnes and Hornady) so far. I also had trouble getting Berger 105 gr hybrids to work as well as the 107 gr MKs. At some point I’d like to try shooting at 600 and maybe even 1000 yards, where boattails are best, but maybe a different bullet and load would be better for 300 yards?
3. New barrel: I have around 1200 rounds through this barrel, so eventually I’ll need to replace it. I’m thinking of getting a Shilen select match, but am bit overwhelmed by all the options: a) 1-7 Special for VLD bullets over 100 gr; b) 1-7.5 Ratchet rifled 4 groove; c) 1-8 Special for VLD bullets over 100 gr; d) 1-8 Ratchet rifled 4 groove. It looks like all of these can be made with tight necks (.272", 0 Freebore) that may require neck turning the brass. Please let me know what barrel you would recommend.
Thanks in advance for reading this post and helping with my questions!
I’ve seen much more impressive groups online, but I hope that you found the story and the results interesting!
I’ve enjoyed reading lots of great posts in this forum and have finally decided to post something for the first time. It’s a pretty long story of how my new Savage target rifle did at my gun club’s (Niagara Sportsmen’s Association) 300 yard F-class benchrest matches. I've always been interested in seeing more detailed reports on how target rifles perform, not just a few cherry-picked groups, so I'm sharing all my targets for the four matches in which I participated. I hope that you find the story interesting and would greatly appreciate your help on some questions that I list at the end of the post.
To make things easier for people who are vertically challenged (in terms of getting down to and up from the ground!), the matches were all done from benches. The only rule was that the front and rear rests could not be attached to each other. At 300 yards it was nearly impossible to see the bullet holes in the black bulls (it helped if the bullet cut a ring), so you couldn't really make scope adjustments during the match. We shot 10 shots each into two bulls (one bull per relay, so you could make a scope adjustment after the first 10 shots). We used 300 yd F-Class (MR-63F) targets.
This was only my second year competing in local benchrest matches, so I still have a lot to learn. In the first year I used a Model 1896 Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55 with a Douglas barrel (DIY installed) and a homemade stock. I got third place, which isn’t bad for an action that was made in 1923, but that’s a whole other story. In the second year, which I’m reporting here, I used a Savage 12, which is actually the only powder burner in my safe that was made in this century!
Figure 1 shows profiles of the rifle. It’s a Savage 12 Target Action with a Criterion 26” barrel in 6BR Norma with a 1 in 8” twist. The stock is homemade from a Richards Microfit laminated blank. The scope is a Sightron SIII 10-50x60 Field Target on Warne QD mounts. I use this scope on two centerfire rifles, a spring piston air rifle and a Kimber 82G rimfire rifle, so I get a lot of bang for the buck from this scope. I think it's a lot better to have one really good scope that is swapped onto four rifles than four mediocre scopes that are dedicated to these rifles. POI changes less than 0.5 MOA when switched from one rifle to the next. On other hand, this isn't as rock-solid compared to a more permanent mount with the scope dedicated to the rifle. Maybe I need to buy another scope?!
Figure 2 shows the DIY aluminum bedding block that was glued into the stock. The receiver was then skim-coat bedded into the aluminum block with Acraglas Gel and the barrel and receiver tang were free-floated. I like the fact that three screws (all in front of the trigger) hold the receiver into the bedding block.
Figure 3 shows the two bulls from my first match. The 10 ring has a diameter is 2.85” and all but one shot were 10s. The 9 was on the second (right) bull at around 11 o’clock. It didn’t miss by much and I probably would have gotten a 10 if I were shooting a 6.5mm instead of 6mm bullet! I should have adjusted my scope down and right after the first bull, but was worried about the scope not settling in for the second bull. After this I always made adjustments after the first bull. I was lucky to keep a shot inside the 10 ring at 12 o’clock on the first bull, when my neighbor fired his 30-06 just a moment before I pulled the trigger and my POA jumped up. Still, I was happy with my 199-13x score, which was a personal best at the time.
Figure 4 shows the targets from my second match. I switched to IMR 4064 by accident (it was all that my local gun shop had in stock and I had read that it should work with 6BR). 27.0 grains of IMR 4064 powder produced slightly lower muzzle velocities at around 2620 fps compared to 2700 fps for the same charge of H4895, but tightened groups up quite a bit. I wish that I had discovered this powder before the first match! These are pretty mild loads, but I found that accuracy was better with the 107 grain Sierra Matchkings going around 2700 fps or less. After months of searching, I was able to find some Varget, which allowed me to push the muzzle velocity to 2820 fps, but accuracy was not as good. I’ve read that more muzzle velocity is better in benchrest shooting, but in N.G. Papagalos (pp. 53-56, Precision Shooting, March 2005) also found the best accuracy for 107 grain Sierra Matchkings in the 2600-2700 fps range with the 6BR (and he was trying to increase MV to knock over a 50 pound ram silhouette at 500 meters). Has anyone else seen this in their 6BR rifles?
Figure 5 shows the targets from my third match. I reduced the powder charge of IMR 4064 to 26.8 grains. I was a bit lucky to keep a shot at 3 o’clock in the 10-ring on the second bull! I had one wind flag and didn’t notice any wind change for this shot, so I’m not sure what caused this.
Figure 6 shows the targets from my fourth and final match. I included the sighters in the top left corner to show a surprising result. I shot two 5-shot sighter groups before shooting for record. No sighters were allowed during record shooting. The group in my second sighter target was a little to the right, so I clicked the scope 1 click (1/8 MOA) to the left. It looks like the group on the first bull moved a lot more than 3/8” to the left after that adjustment! This is why I’m a bit paranoid about making scope adjustments during a match. After the first bull, I clicked to the right and got a better centered group on the second bull. The group sizes look pretty good, each with a 10-shot center-to-center distance of around 1.4”. If they were better centered, I would have gotten a lot more Xs!
I tied for first place in season average score but lost on average X-count. The first place finisher also shot a Savage 12 Target Action with a Sightron 10-50x60 scope, but used a Shilen select match barrel in 6.5mm Creedmoor. I’ve read a lot of complaints about Savage rifles, but the some of the biggest complaints don’t apply for this particular situation. Since I’m using a single shot action, there were no failure to feed or magazine issues. I even removed the ejector to help protect the spent brass, so ejection also wasn’t any issue. Since I’m firing slowly, I wasn’t bothered too much if the sear accidentally tripped and got hung up on the AccuRelease safety lever. This never happened during a match. If I remember correctly, this happened only a few of times when I was first getting used to the trigger in January 2021 and was wearing gloves due to the cold weather. I really appreciated having a trigger pull of around 6 ounces, which allowed me to fire the rifle under free recoil with almost no body contact with the rifle. This is a great trigger for a factory action, as long as you can shoot slowly! Now if I was shooting in a PRS Match, these are important issues, but for this kind of benchrest match, the Savage worked really well.
I’m wondering if/how I can improve things. If you get the chance, please take a look at the following items and let me know what sort of changes make the most sense:
1. Cases: I’m using Lapua cases. Should I weigh them? Does it help to neck-turn them? I don’t have a tight match chamber that requires neck-turning, but have read neck turning could help with accuracy and reduce muzzle velocity spread. I’m neck-sizing and bumping the shoulders back about 0.002” with a Redding type S bushing die.
2. Bullets: Should I be using flat base bullets for this relatively short range, since they stabilize faster than boattails? I’ve only tried boattails (~100 gr Sierra, Berger, Barnes and Hornady) so far. I also had trouble getting Berger 105 gr hybrids to work as well as the 107 gr MKs. At some point I’d like to try shooting at 600 and maybe even 1000 yards, where boattails are best, but maybe a different bullet and load would be better for 300 yards?
3. New barrel: I have around 1200 rounds through this barrel, so eventually I’ll need to replace it. I’m thinking of getting a Shilen select match, but am bit overwhelmed by all the options: a) 1-7 Special for VLD bullets over 100 gr; b) 1-7.5 Ratchet rifled 4 groove; c) 1-8 Special for VLD bullets over 100 gr; d) 1-8 Ratchet rifled 4 groove. It looks like all of these can be made with tight necks (.272", 0 Freebore) that may require neck turning the brass. Please let me know what barrel you would recommend.
Thanks in advance for reading this post and helping with my questions!
I’ve seen much more impressive groups online, but I hope that you found the story and the results interesting!