new family member....

[TOP PREDATOR]

I had it in my mind that I was saving up for a CZ 452 or a varminter with a Nikon buckmaster on it. As it turns out I did a 180 and purchased another Savage MKII, F model. I have the BV, but it is a bit heavy for silhouette on which I plan on doing full bore this year. And the BV is a little too "purty" to do any serious field shooting, of which I thought the same of the CZ.

So I got this one at walmart for $127.00, ($107.00 as they had a $20.00 coupon with a credit card application) and thought it would work well for both a dedicated silhouette stick and a low budget "no worry about scratching it" centerfire trainer.

It is a stripped down no frills model, has gritty heavy trigger, open sights, and although the barrel seems "freefloaty", when flexed the stock does rub the barrel. the molding lines on the stock are present and sharp. All of which will be addressed.

I'm also going to try to keep it as "Walmarty" (things bought only there) as I can - to see what I can produce on a low budget trainer, hopefully under $300.00, that anyone can make. so some accessories / enhancements may be a bit "rednecky", but it's to stay within that "budget walmart trainer" catagory.

this will also limit my optics choice. i wanted to go with a target dot for silhoutte, but like the mildot for everything else. so i'm thinking aboout the centerpoint 4-16x mildot. it works well on my .22 mag, and should also do well on this rifle while keeping me within the $300.00 budget. as i shot both reticle in silhoutte, the mildot is ok, but the t dot definitely has an advantage for me.

i was surprised that the length of pull fit me well, since i have short arms most of my stocks have to be cut. this rifle seems to be a good fit and may actually be a bit too small for taller / longer armed folks.

i don't really like the 10 round magazine, if anyone has a 5 rnd that's in good shape, or two that are kinda rough, and would like to trade, let me know.

my first thoughts were to start modifying the stock to make it more tacticool / a4 / a5 ish, but as i'm going to use it for hunter class for small bore silhoutte, i don't want to end up with something that violates rules.

will post pictures, cost, and range reports as it develops, should make for a decent thread.








for some reason, the pictures got cut off by 1/4 when posting.....

[JCalhoun]

Welcome. :

It appears to be a pre-Accutrigger model. You can lighten the trigger pull on it by doing a shim trick. Rimfire Central has the details.

The last place I saw 5 round mags was Bass Pro Shop. Midway USA and Brownells may also have them.

[TOP PREDATOR]

i'm going to do the 1/4 trim off the coil spring at a time with the trigger. i should just drop a rifle basix in it, but i want to hold true to the "budget walmart trainer" concept.

i guess for walmart, savage makes a sepecial run of mkii without the accu trigger, thus the cheaper price.

i know it doesn't shine a light to half the rifles on the line, but we'll see how it works out. i figure less than 1.5" groups at 100 would be good for rams, hopefully this will do it. if not i'll have a neat little thing to play with without worrying about dinging it up.