The Savage sports the same chassis as the Proof rifle but costs $4,000 less. The Savage also posted one of the best groups, as I shot four rounds from a freshly cleaned barrel into 0.25 inches, with only the first round (fouler) off the group. Same chassis, same caliber, and comparable accuracy—that’s where the similarities end.
I’m never going to say that Savage will win the smoothest action award and they don’t need to. I’ve always found them to be adequate, especially given the accuracy performance for the dollar. But this models’ action was rough. Really rough. It had more rounds through it than any of the other actions so you might assume it would be a little further broken in.
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I couldn’t figure out if it was the coating on the bolt or what, but it would bind and catch and drag frequently and all evaluators experienced this. It also would fail to eject once in a while—not what I typically expect from a Savage.
The rifle was light with a relatively light-profile barrel but it fared well with the muzzle brake on board. There is no denying it’s a shooter because several evaluators pumped impressive groupings into their paper with the Savage.
Aesthetically it looks good with the MDT chassis, and I liked the stainless colored barrel with black action—and if they would add slight aesthetic changes to the action, you wouldn’t know it was a Savage.
The Savage contends with the RPR for the bargain of the group at $1,999. With a great, fully upgradable chassis, incredible accuracy and a really good price point, it could get many people up and running in the precision game. Sadly, it was all overshadowed by the action that “brought us to profanity,” as stated by one of the evaluators.
