Re: Predator Rifles
If you were to go over to the Savage Home Site and look up the Predator Hunter Max I, you'd see mine; it's chambered in the .260 Rem option. It's light enough that my Wife actually commented about the ride it was giving me; I was shooting some relatively peppy 140SMK handloads for 50 shots in the last FV200 match I shot, trying it out.
So, since it's to be mostly a bench rifle, I added some (roughly two handfuls) of buckshot ballast under the extremely effective recoil absorbing butt pad. I'm also going to need to add some cheekweld support and a mirage band setup would help, too. The shot is loose in a plastic bag, and can be removed easily for field work. The soft, thick butt pad is backed by a rigid bulkhead, so it doesn't get distorted when you put some compression into the buckshot.
The zero walks a bit when the barrel gets especially hot (I really got it too hot, too fast, for serious accuracy. I'm going to need to slow down, and maybe download the cartridge some for 200/250yd work, the 140SMK is way overboard for that, too... The HDY 95gr V-Max should be the more proper ticket for this event). Taking one's time, the basic NIB accuracy was just a smidge under 1MOA at 100yd, using an arbitrary handload and no load development.
I will also look into inserting a barrel pressure pad to tame the walk; the barrel is halfway between a sporter and a varminter, so maybe a pad is in order. Easy enough to try.
But for a factory rifle, the gun has potential, and any bad habits look relatively easy to deal with. All up, all the mounts and optics bells and whistles, 50 pcs brass, powder, bullets, primers, tax, etc.; the complete cost was under a grand, and that's a neat pleasure in this day and age.
Greg