December 1999

The Savage 12BVSS-S Short Action Varmint Rifle

by

Roy L. Towers, Jr.
Tactical Shooting Magazine 1999

Some years back I was reading an article in Precision Shooting in which the author discussed Savage bolt action rifles and expressed his opinion that they are the most accurate factory rifles on the market. His statement surprised me: I was a dyed-in-the-wool Remington/Winchester man and had difficulty believing that the economically priced Savage could rival them in accuracy. I thought accuracy was a function of cost (someone once asked me what is the difference between a 1.50" MOA rifle and a .25" MOA rifle, and I answered "about $1000").

Recently, other writers have discussed design features unique to the Savage which they believe may contribute to its inherent accuracy. At the risk of repeating old information, I will briefly outline these features.

1. The bolt head of the Savage is a separate piece from the rest of the bolt, which allows it to float. This is a "forgiving" feature as it allows the bolt lugs to make full contact with the action, even if the action is not square.

2. Savage is the only major manufacturer which produces barrels via the cut rifling process. This process is generally considered superior to the hammer forging process employed by other major manufacturers. (All of the best custom barrels, i.e. Shilen, HS Precision, etc., are made either by the button rifling or the cut rifling process. I believe if hammer forging made the best barrel, these companies would be making their barrels by hammer forging.)

3. The barrel nut used to fit the barrel to the action allows for more precise head spacing.

I believe the foregoing design features can potentially contribute to accuracy. (Of course, the degree which these design features contribute to accuracy is contingent upon how well they are carried out at the factory.) Nos. 1 and 2 seem especially plausible to me, as it is a given that lug contact and barrel quality are important to accuracy. As for #3, I dont think that precise head spacing makes much difference if the shooter properly resizes the cases.

A couple of my shooting friends own Savage varmint rifles and speak favorably of them. One of them used a Savage single shot action as the basis for a custom .22 Cheetah. I shot that rifle and it was very accurate. Another friend has an old Savage single shot .22-250 which also shoots well. My only complaint about these rifles is the length of the action: they were designed to handle .30-06-length cartridges and their loading ports dwarfed cartridges of .22-250 length.

Recently, Savage began to offer a short action version of its single shot model 12BVSS-S varmint rifle. This rifle sounded interesting, so I called Tom Mihalec at Savage and discussed the possibility of testing it for the pages of Precision Shooting. Tom offered to send me one on loan, and two weeks later a Savage 12BVSS-S in .22-250 caliber arrived at my door.

What I had in mind was to test the rifles accuracy as it came from the factory, modify it with all of the usual accuracy techniques, and then test its accuracy again. Just how accurate is the Savage 12BVSS-S out of the box? How much will bedding and trigger work improve its accuracy? These are the questions I wanted to answer.

I was favorably impressed when I first pulled the Savage out of the shipping box. It is a sharp looking, no-nonsense varmint rig. The laminated stock was the first thing to catch my eye. Savage states that this newly designed stock is a heavy-prone style with an ambidextrous Wundhammer palm swell. It has ample proportions and fit me like a glove at the bench (I also have ample proportions). Someone should market this stock inletted for other rifles.

As for the metal work: the action is matte blue, and the barrel is stainless, fluted, and 26" long. The rifle sent to me had the usual .22-250 barrel twist rate of 1 in 14". As near as I can tell, the action on my short action is about 1" shorter than the long action, and a .22-250 cartridge looks at home in the loading port. (A more thorough description of this rifle is available at the Savage Arms Home page, at http://savagearms.com/index.htm.)

I was especially interested in the trigger. Savage triggers seem to have a bad reputation, and are usually discussed as the "weak link" of the rifle. However, my impression of the trigger was far from negative. It broke cleanly at five pounds, with no creep. It certainly felt as good as any other factory trigger marketed by the major manufacturers. It is fully adjustable and, although I did not try to adjust it for this test, Im sure a competent gunsmith could improve it through honing and proper adjustment. Tom Mihalec told me that Savage has been working to improve the quality of its triggers. While the design of the trigger hasnt changed, Savage has been paying more attention to the precision of its manufacturing and assembly.

Im infected with some kind of disease which causes me to compulsively disassemble rifles. (If you share this affliction, lets start a support group!) As soon as I get a new rifle, I have to reduce it to its component parts. When I took this rifle apart I discovered several apparent shortcomings which Id like to report. Savage advertises the 12BVSS-S as "dual pillar bedded". Upon examination I found that there were indeed two steel pillars installed in the stock, but there was no bedding material. In other words, the rifle is "pillared" but not "bedded". I tested the action-to-stock fit in the usual manner: by tightening the rear action screw, alternately tightening and loosening the front screw, and checking for barrel movement. The barrel moved quite a bit, indicating a poor fit. I also noticed that the pillars were a bit short, so wood was compressed when the screws were tightened. In addition, the stock had a magazine void under the action. Apparently Savage uses the same stock for its single shot as it does for its repeater, no doubt to save on manufacturing costs. However, this negates one of the advantages of a single shot action: increased bedding area. I fully expected these shortcomings to have an effect on accuracy.

I mounted a Leupold 36X scope on the rifle with Burris bases and Signature rings. Im a big fan of Burris Signature rings. I like the "live center" feature of the synthetic inserts, which allow the scope to be mounted without stress to the scope, and eliminates the need for ring lapping. In addition, the rings come in different thickness, which allows the shooter to get the scope close to zero without using the scope adjustments. They are rock solid and do not mar the scope. Good rings!

In order to achieve the greatest degree of accuracy possible, I decided to spare no effort in load development and to use the best components possible. For cases I formed Remington .308 BR (small primer pocket) brass into .22-250s. Im a firm believer in the accuracy advantages of small primers, and I have used this brass in earlier tests with excellent results. My past work with small primers has proven to me that small primers will reliably ignite a .22-250-length powder column as long as I use Remington 7 1/2 small rifle primers, which are relatively hot (see "Building and Shooting a .22-250 Ackley Improved," Precision Shooting, February 1997). Remington BR brass is very uniform in wall thickness and general construction. It also has relatively thin walls, which allows for more case capacity than other commercial .22-250 brass. Unfortunately, Remington BR brass is no longer available (I have a fair amount stashed away). I used a set of RCBS .308 to .22-250 forming dies to form my cases. I turned the necks of my brass to a thickness of .012 with a Sinclair neck turner, and reamed the primer pockets and flash holes.

I broke in the Savage barrel using the usual method of cleaning after each shot for the first ten rounds. It is debatable whether this break-in operation yields the same benefits for factory barrels as it does on custom barrels, but it makes me feel good so I do it. I then began my load development. I wanted to test 40, 50, and 55 gr. bullets, so I chose Berger MEF for the 40s and 55s and Nosler ballistic tips for the 50s. All bullets were moly-coated. I checked the chamber to establish bullet seating depth, and found that the rifle has a rather long throat (my rifle measured 2.084 from bolt face to lands). I like my bullets to just touch the lands, and I was able to do this with the 50 Noslers and the 55 Bergers. The 40 Bergers were seated .030" off the lands.

I tested three kinds of powder with each bullet to determine the best combination, and shot three-shot groups to develop loads. As I began shooting loads I noticed that the best combinations were making little Mickey Mouse-shaped holes in the targets. Once I settled on the best powder combination, I loaded 15 cases for each bullet and shot three five-shot groups for record.

My first five-shot group was fired with the 40 Berger MEF bullets and measured .349 MOA. The aggregate of the three five-shot groups I shot was .394. For some reason, the rifle didnt seem to like the 50 Noslers. The aggregate of the groups for this bullet was 1.101". (This is not a reflection on the quality of the Nosler bullets, but rather an idiosyncrasy of the rifle.) However, groups became small again when I shot the 55 Berger MEF bullets: the aggregate for the 55 Bergers was .504.

Notwithstanding the performance of the Noslers, I was startled by the accuracy of the rifle. I want to stress that these were honest groups. Honest! I did not fudge my shooting in any way. I used wind flags, but did not chase groups. I went to the range with 15 rounds for each bullet/powder combination, shot them, and measured the groups as they fell. With no accuracy work and with the unadjusted factory trigger, this is the most accurate factory rifle Ive ever shot. I started my shooting feeling handicapped by the bedding, but this rifle breaks all conventional wisdom. It didnt matter that the action-to-stock fit left much to be desired. This rifle shot.

I began to wonder what I could expect to accomplish by bedding and trigger work. This rifle was accurate and I worried about ruining it: I had ego-bashing nightmares of larger groups after I applied all my "expert" accuracy techniques. I was committed, however, and I took the rifle to my shop and began my accuracy modifications.

I started the bedding process by filling in the stocks magazine void. I wanted to take advantage of all of the bedding area afforded by the solid action, so I filled the magazine with four-to-one epoxy. I then removed the factory pillars and made my own pillars from aluminum tubing and glued them into the stock using four-to-one epoxy with fiber filler. After the pillars cured, I bedded the action in Devcon aluminum putty. When I popped the action out of the stock, I had a large, smooth bedding area. When I tested the bedding there was no perceivable movement between stock and barreled action.

My original plan was to hone and adjust the factory trigger. However, my plans changed when I became aware of the new Savage competition trigger offered by Sharp Shooter Supply of Delphos, Ohio (419-695-3179). I called Sharp Shooter Supply and spoke with owner Fred Moreo, the designer of the trigger. Fred told me that his trigger was a single-stage, three-lever design adjustable from 12 to 32 ounces. The trigger is designed for Savage model 10, 12, 110, 111, 112, and 116 rifles, and installs into the existing trigger housing. Fred agreed to send me a trigger on loan, and I installed it upon arrival. My trigger scale confirmed that it would indeed reduce trigger pull to 12 ounces. It is a nice trigger, and should be a popular one for Savage rifle shooters.

Now the moment of truth arrived, and it was time to test my modified rifle. I loaded my cartridges as in the first stage of this test and set off for the range, a bit wary of my results. Would the rifle show an improvement, or had I just spent a good deal of effort for naught?

My test results (both before and after modification) are on the accompanying table, and reflect that the rifles accuracy improved an appreciable degree. The greatest improvement was with the 50 gr. Noslers. The aggregate shrunk from 1.101" to .736" (an improvement of 34%). This is still not stellar accuracy but, as I mentioned previously, this rifle doesnt seem to like the Noslers. The aggregate for the 40 Bergers improved from .393" to .342" (14%), and the 55 Bergers improved from .504" to .421" (17%).

My test has convinced me that the Savage 12BVSS-S, out of the box, is a rifle which will consistently shoot groups of .5 MOA or less (with selected bullets). "Consistently" is the operative word here. I have shot other varmint rifles that would shoot groups of .5 or less, but they could not do that for an aggregate of three five-shot groups. In addition, bedding and trigger work will improve its accuracy to a measurable degree. Is it worth the expense and/or effort for one to attempt to improve a rifle as accurate as this Savage is out of the box? Well, thats up to the individual. I am an accuracy fanatic, so for me small improvements are worth the trouble.

My Savage 12BVSS-S short action (I bought it!) is one accurate factory rifle, and I have joined the increasing crowd of Savage fans. Im going to load up some 40 Bergers and go find some squirrels.

Good Shooting!