11-30-2023, 12:20 PM
(12-19-2021, 01:38 PM)Old Marine Wrote: After two weeks with the Sportsmans Warehouse exclusive ''Savage Switchback'' I will share my early thoughts on this rifle.
It has a 22'' medium heavy barrel chambered for the 6MM ARC and weighs about 8#. The stock is the 110 base plastic one and is free floating but not the Accustock. I think this stock is used for the sport contour barrel as there is very little space between it and my rifles heavy contour barrel. After 60 rounds I have cleaned the tube 10 times and find it the easiest barrel to clean I have ever owned.
I did not measure the triggers pull but guess about 4# with a clean break. I ordered and installed the Savage varmit trigger spring and will measure pull as soon as my gauge arrives; it feels about 1 and a 1/2# and is much improved over the stock spring. I have not shot the rifle with the light spring installed. 20 moa picatiiney is standard.
Shooting it is enjoyable as the recoil for the arc feels almost zero. I removed the muzzle break as it increases muzzle blast and changes POI; a cap is on the way. Accuracy shows real promise as I have three 5 round groups just over 1/4'' and two 3 round groups just over 1/2.'' Hornady Black for the 5 shot groups shows this ammo is very good with 2691 average velocity. The 3 shot goups are 2 different hand loads using AA2230 with Noslers 70gr. Balistic TIp and Hornadys 87gr. V Max.
I have ordered the MDT Oryx chassis because the stocks forend will lay on the barrel if the front rest is too far forward and this opens the groupings. Also, the stock magazine is horrible and it is a nightmare to load. There are no cycling issues with the gun so far.
In summery what you get is the Savage 110 action and a very good barrel. I think the trigger is good if the lighter spring is used. The stock is good enough for hunting but not for the precision long distance shooting I want for targets and varmits. I am very happy to have this bolt gun chambered in 6MM ARC.
Your results are very similar to what I am getting with my Savage-Axis-II-6mm ARC rifle with a 22" sporter barrel. When I used the Hornady 105 grain ammo I was getting 1/2" groups at 100 yards also.
When I reloaded using the Hornady 105 grain BTHP bullet to the same OAL I had my best groups with 26.8 grains or RL-15 compared to the Varget and BL-C2 I tried. The best groups were at ~ 0.2". My "Quickload" software estimated that my MV was ~2608 fps. I added a cheek rest and a Harris bipod, but I shoot tighter groups off of a bag.
I use a relatively inexpensive Riton 5-24*44 scope mounted on a 20 MOA scope rail.