Stuff We’ll Miss When the Left Succeeds in Gutting America

My friend Mike spent several days here, and now he’s on his way to the airport. I’m glad he managed to make it, because he has been working way too hard, in an area where it’s not easy to get out and shoot.

He brought an assortment of firearms, and we got a lot of range time (i.e. backyard time) in. We had successes and failures.

He has two new Savage rifles. I like Savage because their rifles are very accurate, they come with great triggers, and they’re not expensive. I have a Savage bolt action and a semiauto .22, and they have been trouble-free. Sadly, Mike’s experience has been different.

He brought an A17, which is a semiauto rifle in .17 HMR. I suggested he get a bolt gun, but he wanted to be able to spray at will.

We put up some targets and got to work zeroing the scope. Things went poorly. The gun fed very badly, crushing a lot of cases. Mike finally noticed that it fed reliably when he wedged a piece of plastic between the magazine and stock. The hole for the magazine was too big, so something was needed to make it fit. It’s going to have to be worked on. Many people who own this gun have similar complaints. Maybe Savage got a batch of bad stocks. There is no excuse for letting a gun with this kind of problem leave the factory. It’s a known issue, and it’s simple to check before packing the gun.

I put him on my shooting platform, and he was not able to get comfortable. He has some problems with his neck. He has a cervical fusion operation scheduled.

He managed to shoot maybe 2 MOA, which was good under the circumstances.

The next day, after setting up a table and chair, we tried to shoot his Savage Model 110 in 6.5 Creedmoor. It refused to fire. Something is going on with the bolt. You have to activate the safety and go through a complicated procedure to get the gun to fire. Very annoying. Time and again, he got set up to shoot, pulled the trigger, and got nothing.

The scope was also a problem. It hit him in the nose when he shot. I thought he wasn’t supporting the gun with his shoulder, but then I shot it, and it hit me in the nose, too. To make the gun work, you have to lean over so your nose is off to the side. I have never had a gun with that problem before. Is the stock too short? No idea. I should have checked the length of pull.

We were really hoping to get the gun working. We lapped his scope rings and bought match ammunition, and we expected good results, but it didn’t work out. I shot a few rounds and got about 1.5 MOA, which was definitely the gun’s fault.

On the up side, Mike will only have to make one trip to get the guns fixed, since both will go to the same place, and he’s within one hour of the Savage factory.

He also brought an old Marlin 60. It gun stovepiped about 50% of the time. I Googled and found that a lot of people have feeding problems with this gun.

I’ll say it again. I think the Model 60 is junk. So far, I’ve worked with three, and all three were losers.

He left the Marlin here. I’m going to clean it and see what I can do to make it feed.

On a positive note, I shot my Savage A22 on the same day, and it ran perfectly.

The nicest gun he brought was a Dan Wesson 1911. Very nice weapon. It’s beautifully made, and it shoots fine. I got my PC1911 out, and we lit up my steel targets. I think the Dan Wesson’s trigger is too heavy, and Mike wants fiber optic sights, but it’s an excellent gun.

If you buy a new gun, and you want to travel with it, I strongly suggest you get the bugs worked out before you get on the plane. Otherwise, you may eat up vacation time trying to get it to work.

I shot my Ruger Precision Rifle and my Tikka T3x Superlite. The Tikka was disappointing. It’s a great rifle, but it’s not the right shape for prone shooting, and I was not really prepared to prop it up effectively. I didn’t want to use a bipod, because I figured a hunting gun should be zeroed the way you plan to shoot it in the field. I shot a little over 1 MOA, which is more than good enough, but I know the gun can do better. The factory recoil pad was a horror. It feels like it’s made of iron, and it has a sharp point on it so it goes right into your shoulder when you shoot. I have ordered a Limbsaver pad to replace it.

The Ruger Precision Rifle was a joy to shoot, as always. Strictly sub-MOA. Never a problem. If your groups are bigger than five eighths of an inch, you’re doing it wrong. My Savage 93R also ran perfectly. I fiddled around with it at first, but when I got it where I wanted it, I made a neat little string of 5 holes covering less than an inch.

The 93R has been discontinued, and people who review the successor model criticize the 93R over piddling things. Hmm. Great trigger, astounding accuracy, complete reliability, a good rigid stock that works fine once you put a cheap adjustable cheek rest on it…and the gun cost something like $280! I don’t see the problem. I have a $400 scope on it, and I feel it was 100% justified.

I can literally shoot ping pong balls with it at 100 yards and expect to hit them nearly every time. I couldn’t be happier with it.

The RPR is almost boring, which means I need to get to a long range and shoot at longer distances. Shooting endless 5/8″ groups at 100 yards isn’t going to teach me much.

I find myself wondering if there is any point in trying to make the Tikka shoot better. I’m pretty sure the whole problem is that it’s just harder to shoot than an RPR. I think it’s possible to develop more skill and overcome the rifle’s unfriendly geometry and relatively stiff trigger. Is it worth it? Will I ever want to shoot a hunting rifle that accurately? My guess is that if I ever have a legitimate need to shoot that well, the smart move will be to lug the RPR with me instead of fighting the Tikka.

I have at least three rifles that will reliably shoot sub-MOA from a rest, and I have two more that will do nearly as well. I have some others that might come close if I fiddled with them. I think the bases are pretty well covered.

Mike is planning to change his work schedule, so he should be able to visit more often. Maybe we’ll hire a guide and kill something edible.