Questions about my savage .308

[916dude!]

I bought a customized savage 10FP of another hide member and took it too the range the other day. I shot some 7.62x51 NATO ammo. With the first round fired I had pressure signs and the same with the second round and the case stuck in the chamber. After having problems with those two I switched to some brown bear that they were selling at the range house. And didn't have any problems with them. I was wondering what could have caused the problem with the NATO ammo? Or if my spacing could be off since you can do it yourself on a savage. I'm a newbie so what do you guys think?

 

[neutronics]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

Hard to say with such a short description.

I have a 10FP also and never any issues with FGMM ammo. Had some Prvi Partizan rounds that didn't want to chamber however (bullet was already into the bore before bolt was closed).

If you have the tools to headspace the Savage then it won't cost you anything to check/fix it. Hey... it's Memorial Day weekend, I can't think of a better project. ;-)

Otherwise, it's not expensive to either get it checked or buy the GO/NO-GO gauges to check yourself.

 

[Kells81]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

if its a DIY gun done by someone else you really might wanna consider a set of guages before firing this weapon again, they are something like $45 a set, not bad for piece of mind.

 

[916dude!]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

Thanks guys! I'll have to get the wrench and guage. Unfortunately I'm working this weekend so I won't be able to work on it but I guess that's what's you get when you're an overtime whore! LOL I'll get those parts on order. Thanks guys!
Ps- anybody know how to take a flash supresser off? The gun came with a funky ass flash suppresser on it and I wanna get rid if it! I'm sure there are better options than a sawzall or grinder LOL. Do I need a barrell vice? Are they right or left hand thread? Yadda yadda

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

My experience with 10FP .308's is that they tend to have shorter throats then many other factory rifles. This could result in rounds chambering well into the rifling, and perhaps spiking pressures somewhat. Working with NATO fodder, which IMHO tends to be rather hotloaded, I could see where a case might get stuck once in awhile.

First thing I'd suggest would be to see if you can find a cartridge that causes the bolt to close hard, then shortening the cartridge (very) slightly, a very little at a time, with a common vise, and seeing if this has any effect on bolt closure effort. If so, then your rounds are probably seated a tad long for the Savage chamber/throat combination.

Although this situation can be an issue with some ammo, the main compensating offset is that the shorter throat takes a lot more rounds to erode to the point where accuracy fades.

Summing up, I've seen this before with several Savage 10FP .308's, especially with newguy handloads, and I consider this to actually be sorta normal for this model.

Considering the potential advantage on throat life, it's a condition I find somewhat easier to live with, and take into consideration when handloading. It may come to a point where it may make sense to get a handloader buddy to shorten up the OAL a little on your NATO ammo, just bumping the seating depth a little deeper.

Simplest solution I can think of.

Greg

 

[sobrbiker883]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

"customized"??
What barrel/chamber is it? If you don't know I wouldn't be playing with anything but SAAMI 308 ammo until you do. If its the factory tube, everything Greg said is true.

The flash hider could be mounted anyway the "customizer" wanted, so its impossible to tell you how its mounted on the internet.

You are pissing up a rope and wasting barrel life blasting away with milsurp and 2nd rate ammo. You won;t have any idea if the poor shooting is you, the rifle or the load.

Get some good ammo.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

Better ammo was going to be my next suggestion too. This doesn't need to be supahdupah expensive commercial match ammo. All it really means is some handloading, or at least "Mexican Match-ing" some more mundane stuff. Even standard ball equivalent Rem/UMC, Fed Eagle, or Win White Box can be improved by disassembling and reassemblng with better attention to powder charge weights and/or maybe the substitution of a better quality (or at least weighed and grouped) bullets. All the ball equivalent stuff comprises is 'goes-bang' fodder, but it doesn't have to be that way. With some judicious deiassembly and recombination, it can end up being the components source of some pretty good shooting practice ammo. This is the kind of strategy that only really works well on a somewhat more grand scale, and lends itself to a little bit of load testing before combining all the components into 'production' loads. But thinking like this can make purchases of large lots of 'junker' ammo into a much better idea. It can also justify the acquisition of a 'bare bones' starter handloading setup.

Some of the more recent 10FP's come with a factory muzzle brake. Could this be the case with your rifle? At least, try to ask the seller.

Think about it.

Greg

 

[916dude!]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

Hey guys. I just got the rifle last week and it's my first 308. I didn't have any ammo for it so I just bought some junk so I could go shoot it! LOL I have everything I need to reload now and am going to start that asap ... Probably sometime this week actually. So I think that should help out a little on the ammo department. The flash hider is after market. I think it's a something like a ymh or something like that. I bought the rifle off a hide member in Texas and he was shooting it with a can that threaded onto the flash hider. Unfortunately I live in California so I couldn't get the can and I think the flash hider by itself is ugly as sin LOL. Thank you guys very much for the info! I will be doing some tinkering this week!

 

[Sixpakastan]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

A pic of the Flash suppressor/brake would help a bit in the what is it how do I remove it.

 

[Joeyhotfizzle]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

If it's ugly as crap it could be a YHM Phantom flash hider for the YHM quick detach suppresor. Pics will help confirm this.

 

[916dude!]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

It is a yhm phantom

 

[Slyder]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

this seems an appropriate place to ask, sorry if its misplaced still new here.i just picked up a savage 10fcm in .308 today at the local gun show, im curious what you all think might be a good scope to throw on there, my range doesnt have anything over 200yrds and i dont know anywhere else i could go to shoot further, i would however like a scope that could take me to 400+ incase i do get the option, its got a leopuld scope on there now, but i would like to get a mildot reticle and this just has a very plain crosshair. dont flame me to hard, im pretty new to rifles still.

 

[hill billy]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

Send the Leupold back to them and have them put a new reticle on it. Much cheaper than a new scope.

 

[marduk185]

Re: Questions about my savage .308

my 10fp closes ruff on privi too and i do know that this chamber is "tight" according to chuff so maybe the milsurp hot stuff aint the route to go. try handloading and start low with the charge..thats what im in the middle of now. good luck.
far as scopes i really like the zeiss conquest mil dot on mine and youll prolly want 20 moa bases.