Aug 2001

Why Savage Rifles Shoot So Accurately

M.L. McPherson

Copyright 2001 Accurate Rifle

Synopsis: In the past decade, accuracy and prestige of Savage rifles has come from near oblivion to the forefront of production guns. What is behind this meteoric rise? The answer lies in two areas: first, this basic rifle harbors several brilliant design characteristics that presage accuracy (thank PS contributor Bob Greanleaf, among others); second, Ron Coburn, owner of Savage Arms, is driven to make Savage rifles as good as feasible. Coburn's brilliance fuels continued improvement across the entire diverse Savage Arms product line.

A bit of indirectly related history

In 1964 bean counters gained control of Winchester Arms, which had steadily been losing money. Then, without making any evident effort toward understanding the nature of the firearms market and those who make up that market, those "experts" made a unilateral decision that the obvious solution to the problem was to reduce production costs. In this regard, the chief culprit was the Model-70, which in the days before CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machining required considerable hand fit and finishing work. Evidently, Winchester lost money on every Model-70 sold.

Rather than reduce costs, while maintaining or improving quality, through a bottom-to-top effort toward identification and correction of problem areas, they made the decision to completely reengineer the product line so that practically everything was automated and so that hand work was essentially eliminated. In one sense, this plan was eminently successful; production costs plummeted.

Unfortunately, those in charge deemed it impractical to build the original Model-70 under the new plan, so they replaced that rifle with a new design but gave it the same designation. Evidently, they wanted to eat their cake and have it too gain the benefit of name recognition on a model that they could not afford to produce and to sell at a comparable price by selling a gun that was much cheaper to produce under the same name. This ethically questionable decision may have gone far toward the ultimate catastrophe that befell that century-old company.

More unfortunately, in the era between '64 and '68, Winchester's products showed dramatically reduced evident quality. Perhaps the worst offender was the "new" Model-70, which simply did not live up to the traditional quality that generations of shooters had come to expect from "Winchester," a name that had come to represent unquestioned quality and value. By 1968 the company had realized their problem and had begun to make a serious effort toward improvement in product quality but it was too late, the damage was done; enough shooters had bought these new Winchesters and were sufficiently disappointed with their purchase so that word-of-mouth soon killed a company that had prospered for many generations.

While the new Winchester company (related in name only) now makes truly fine rifles, many of several generations of shooters would not buy one on a bet they remember what "Winchester" did to them when they bought what was then a highly touted rifle back in the '64-'68 era and they have not been shy about passing that fact along to their children and grandchildren. That is the nature of serious shooters, we tend to have long memories and we expect a gun to be a lifetime investment that will become a family heirloom.

Savage Arms Today

Ron Coburn took the lesson of the Winchester disaster to heart when he obtained a controlling position at Savage Arms. He had watched as Savage had gone from a mainstream gun maker to one that catered only to those who wanted the least expensive gun, regardless of performance. Coburn presciently recognized that such a position was untenable it simply could not last.

Recognizing strong points of the company, its employees and its product line, Coburn set out to reinvent this century old company in the mold of its original founder and namesake, Arthur Savage. (A disinterested observer might see some degree of similarity in the evident ambitions, drives and perhaps even personalities of these two men, some might say the similarities are striking.) Here we will chronicle what Coburn has done with the basic bolt-action centerfire rifle. While certainly incomplete, this picture should give the reader a feel for what has recently happened and what is still happening at Savage.

As I understand it, fellow PS contributor Bob Greanleaf contributed to improvements on the original design of this action, the Model-110. As one that is easily described as a lot of things other than a bolt-action aficionado, I feel free to make the following statement: this action includes at least two critical design characteristics that Mauser would have used if he had been smart enough to think of them! Surprisingly, each is a design point to which certain pundits point when decrying the Savage. Nevertheless, both are critical to the impressive accuracy and cost effectiveness of this action.

First is the floating bolt head. Contrary to a common misconception, the primary purpose of this design characteristic is not to reduce manufacturing costs, although that might be a fact, the primary purpose is to allow the bolt head to properly align with the locking lugs, independently from the bolt body and despite minor alignment imperfections between the axis of the receiver and the axis of the bore. (In addition to any mechanical imperfections, gravity bends the muzzle of the barrel downward, which inevitably bends the front of the receiver out of its relaxed state, which, depending upon bedding designs, can force either the top or bottom receiver lug rearward in a free-floated setup, the front of the receiver is bent down and the bottom lug rotates backward, thereby loosing contact with the bottom bolt lug.) The Savage system works by allowing the front of the bolt to rotate as necessary to maintain contact with both lugs without the bolt body being forced to move. Equally, sear pressure on the bolt body does not affect the bolt head. A secondary consideration is improved gas sealing, which this design accommodates.

Second, is the barrel nut, this device dramatically reduces production costs because chambering and headspacing are significantly easier and are automated, something which no other company has achieved with any similar rifle. However, this design also accommodates proper barrel-to-receiver alignment despite minor alignment imperfections in associated parts.

These two factors work together so that the Savage bolt-action can produce accuracy that is nothing less than phenomenal and do so without the undue costs associated with maintaining precise dimensional control in every aspect of the system. Coburn recognized these valuable strengths. He also recognized weaknesses in barrel manufacture and chambering. In the past decade or so, his chief goals have been to build on the strengths of this action while eliminating manufacturing weaknesses.

Consider the barrel. Savage employee Fran Prawlucki is now in charge of every aspect of barrel manufacture, from bar stock to chambering. With many decades of barrel making experience, Prawlucki knows what it takes to make a good barrel and he works diligently to ensure that every barrel produced is of utmost quality based upon firsthand observation and conversation, I can attest that he is serious about this work. Moreover, my experiences and that of any number of PS readers with modern Savage rifles proves the point, Savage barrels represent seriously impressive production line quality. The barrel making line is where I spent most of my time while visiting. There I noted an almost reverent sense of pride among the employees this bunch is serious about their work.

Receiver manufacture is a contrast of hand production and CNC assembly line machining. This reflects Coburn's belief that some things are best left to the hands-on experts while others can best be done by a state-of-the-art machine again this is evidence of Coburn's cognizance of what happened at Winchester. In receiver and bolt manufacture, one sees row after row of modern CNC machines but certain critical and delicate operations are still done by hand.

Excepting coil springs and ball bearings, Savage now makes practically every part used in each Savage gun. With an annual production tally near 200,000 guns, this is no small task.

Looking at recent innovations, Savage has introduced a bolt-action handgun and a muzzle-loading rifle intended for use with smokeless powder. Since this is PS, I will ignore the handgun here. The muzzleloader is quite interesting. Coburn theorized that any in-line muzzleloader was bound to offend traditionalists so he took a mental step back and considered the matter further. He concluded thusly, "That being the case [traditionalists will inevitably be insulted], there is simply no point in going halfway." This is a conclusion with which I heartily agree.

Savage built this rifle to work properly with modern sabotted bullets, shotshell primers and smokeless powder. Muzzle energy and ranging potential are well beyond that which any traditional muzzleloader can offer. This design offers superb accuracy, safety and ease of cleanup. This innovation is poised to revolutionize muzzleloading hunting. Some may decry what this rifle represents but none can deny its functionality and quality.

Similarly, Savage has recently, and quietly, introduced a lock mechanism on their bolt-action centerfire rifles. A simple key accommodates complete action disablement. This system cannot easily be defeated and anyone who tries to manhandle the bolt, to force it to function, will simply break the firing mechanism, should he have the strength and work at it hard enough. As such, the rifle will have been reduced to nothing more than a very awkward club it will no longer fire. While many of us cannot get excited about a society that suggests any value to any such mechanism, reality is what it is and Savage's solution is brilliant in simplicity and functionality.

Savage Arms in the Future

Looking to the future, we see two significant improvements coming down the pike. While Savage now offers an improved trigger on one model, they are soon to introduce a revolutionary design that will forever alter our perception of how safe, simple and inexpensive a quality trigger can be. Expect to see a story on that when it is finalized for introduction, meanwhile, please do not pester this author, PS or Savage.

The other improvement centers on a suggestion by this author and might not happen for a few years. Nevertheless, the fact that Savage would consider this idea with serious intent suggests a lot about the company and their products. They are by no means finished improving their product line and they are not entrenched with the "not invented here" syndrome. As if to emphasize the former fact, I noted at least three minor design changes in the Model 12BVSS-S since I obtained my first sample, about two years ago.

If your goal is value, however you might define that, Savage has much to offer.