Savage Stevens 200

ejg

Thanks to Kevin Mc Carthy I won a rifle in a raffle last year at the J. Creedon shoot. At first I thought what will I do with this thing as I already had a 308. After asking around, my hunting friends son had a strong interest in taking up deer stalking and the Savage would do him fine. It took ages for the licence to get organised as he never had a shotgun or rifle before. He finally picked up the rifle and brought it to me. I had never handled any Savage before, but this cheapy stevens has a few good points. The typical plastic injection moulded stock is like most very flimsy but had steel pillars in the action screws. The blind mag loaded very well from the top and because the cartridges are guided to a central position it feeds very well, unlike some other rifles....
I reinforced the forend with epoxy carbon and managed to lay fibers left and right past the recoil lug to make a strong unit with the epoxy bedding all in one go. This turned out quite good and the stiffened forend can now easily take a bipod. Some old Remmy two piece picatinny rails fitted and I could mount an old 6x42 that I had lying around. A Roedale "Light" mod was also fitted. We zeroed with cheapy UMC 150gr FMJ's. The new owner who had very little rifle experience, shot a 2" group at first but slowly got the knack and managed to get down to 1" groups.
Once again a little bit of tweaking can make a cheap light weight rifle work really well. Although I was worried that the recoil of the 308 vs the light weight would knock the poor chaps fillings out, turned out to be no problem with the moderator.
All in all not a bad rifle.
edi

Feidhlim Dignan

if you happen to win a rifle any time soon and dont know what to do with it just send it my way. if you want to put a mod and scope on thats ok too

ejg

Feidhlim Dignan wrote: »

if you happen to win a rifle any time soon and dont know what to do with it just send it my way. if you want to put a mod and scope on thats ok too

Was the first time I ever won anything decent in a raffle.
Next Stevens I'll keep.

This savage, that is price wise at the very low end has a few details
that some expensive rifles don't have.
Only two negative points, stock and trigger. Once these are sorted
one has a good reliable and rifle that might even out-perform many others.

edi

It wasn't me!

ejg wrote: »

Was the first time I ever won anything decent in a raffle.
Next Stevens I'll keep.

This savage, that is price wise at the very low end has a few details
that some expensive rifles don't have.
Only two negative points, stock and trigger. Once these are sorted
one has a good reliable and rifle that might even out-perform many others.

edi

The newer Savage stock, the Accustock I think they call it, is actually quite good. Has an internal chassis and is stiff as all hell. The factory trigger on the actual Savage is pretty damn nice too, and they shoot. Not seen even a mediocre one yet, just damn good shooters. They feel pretty good in the hand too. Nice rifles. Shame they're a touch overpriced here. Still, if you know the right dealers they're excellent value. I know of a wood-stocked one in .243 going for €650 new (I think it was 650, could be 600. Either way, cracking price).