savage mk2 report

[aiformula]

I picked this thing up a couple months ago to use as an instruction rifle for teaching the many folks among my family and friends who have suddenly expressed an interest in learning how to shoot. I got the stripped down model because it is my belief you should learn on the most basic of guns.

It has a pretty cheap feeling plastic stock, the old school notched elevation bar for running the rear sight up and down, and an iron front post that you can drift for windage (which beats the old remington I learned on that you had to bend the post if the rear sight was attached wrong. The magazine is an assembly of stamped steel plates that have been staked together. The edges are not razors, but they are sharp enough that if you hit it wrong, it will draw blood. The mag release is a spring steel clip too which is tolerable as it is large and easily manipulated even with my fat paws.

That being said, it's good points far outweigh the bad ones. The rifle comes w/ the accutrigger which feels just as good as my FP10's trigger. The bolt worked very smooth after just 25 rounds of break in shooting. The rifle is so light, I had very little trouble shooting offhand strings of 10 rds with no noticeable muscle fatigue/tremors, even without the sling installed. This does not detract from it's accuracy as far as I can tell though. I was using Aguilla hi velocity ammo and once I got the sights dialed in (which was a simple elevation adjustment... it was dead on horizontally out of the box) and settled in to a good position, using my range bag as a front rest, I was holding 1.5-2" groups at 50 yds. The one thing I did notice was that this is the first rifle where I noticed the sights bouncing w/ my heartbeat. It was weird to have that much feedback from feel. I started to get back into my breathing exercises to slow the heart rate and was actually paying attention and squeezing off rounds between heartbeats. I'd heard about this in the past, but never had experienced it myself.

Anyway, for those that recommended this thing to me, THANK YOU! and for those looking for a cheap little tack driver, don't rule it out. Brand new from my dealer out the door, it ran me $160. I've shot 3-400 dollar guns that don't behave anywhere near as well as this thing does. Now I'm going to have to get one for me to play with and start shooting rimfire smallbore competitions with.