Preparing For Long Range

The Savage 110 Elite precision is the top of Savage’s line for entry into PRS and Long Range Precision. Though I personally have only seen them online I knew it was something special when my buddy called me up who is a fanatic for Remington bolt actions and said he now owns a Savage. I literally felt short of breath and weak in the knees. With a huge hole left by the vacancy of Remington I can only imagine Savage is in high gear trying to keep up with demand. My close friend chose 300 PRC to get him out to the distance of 2,640 or 1.5miles.

Savage 110 Elite Specs – Love Affair

Initially in looking over his rifle on the first outing I found myself drooling over the craftsmanship. I mean is there much more to say when you look at the MDT ACC Premier Gen2 Chassis. Just the looks of this thing screams quality and heavy. Let me tell you looks are not deceiving in this case. Like always my friend went all the way to get the MDT Rubber Dampeners to fill the rear of the chassis and they do make a difference. We did shoot it without and with them installed, the difference is in the noise or slight ping from metal on metal contact.

Savage Arms 110 Elite Precision Specs

• Type: Two-lug, long-action centerfire
• Caliber: .300PRC
• Capacity: 10-round AICS detachable magazine supplied
• Barrel: 30 in. hammer-forged stainless steel; 1:8.5twist
• Overall Length: 44 in.
• Weight: 13.2 lb.
• Stock: Cerakote-finished MDT aluminum chassis – built in Arca rail.
• Trigger: Adjustable AccuTrigger; 29 oz. pull (measured, as received)
• Sights: None; 20-m.o.a. Picatinny rail
• Safety: 3-position tang
• Price: $2,499
• Manufacturer: Savage Arms, SavageArms.com

There is one thing that really peaked my interest from the Savage website that is not shown in the specs. The action is supposed to be blue printed. How far Savage takes this I am not sure but I of course had to try and validate some of the work. I took some blue dykem to the rear of the bolt lugs and cycled 5 rounds through the magazine and they are definitely square to the receiver.  Though this is about where the love affair begins to sour. On the first shots with Hornady 225gr Match Ammunition the best we could achieve for accuracy was 2.5in at 100 yards. I began to ask myself if the MDT Chassis System alone is $1000 dollars did Savage cut cost in other places?

Savage Support

So after 50 rounds and achieving the same results some where between 2.5 and 3.2in at 100 yards. My friend decided it was time to place a call to Savage. Though support was very prompt and took his call the technician wanted him to fire more rounds to break in the barrel. This of course lead me to break out the borescope. It is not the best barrel I have seen though neither is it the worst. There were a few machine marks, my biggest concern was this groove at the very beginning of the bore it didn’t look right. 

You be the judge.

The crown on the barrel was perfect in my eye.  It did pass the Qtip test and was very smooth, it was the best looking part of the barrel. So here we are at a cross roads. Do we fire away with ammunition that cost $2.15 every time you pull the trigger or do you put a little elbow grease to it? With hopes of polishing some of the minor machine marks out. This is where you have to really know my friend a no nonsense kind of guy. He looks at me and says take it home with you and rebarrel it. There I stood with my mouth open and scratching my head in a bit of confusion. I asked are you sure? His answer positive, do we put work into this thing hoping we get the groups down from 3inches to maybe 1.5inches or go with what works. As a last ditch effort we checked to make sure the action screws were tight and the scope rail was tight and they were.

Northland Shooter Supply To The Rescue

Having used NSS to build a Remage 6.5CM which turned out to be one of the best shooting rifles we both have seen. He planned to get a 30in 1/8in twist barrel threaded, precision ground recoil lug and go no go gauges from Northland Shooter Supply. This outfit has always been good to us with a great selection of products. We had already acquired the action wrench and barrel nut wrench from NSS. The plan was to get this rifle up and shooting as quick as possible and use the factory barrel after polishing/lapping as a spare.

First Range Visit After Re-barrel

Not all the time do we follow the script. We had planned to take the rifle out and fire it with new barrel installed using the Hornady 225gr Match the same as before. 

Instead there were two suppressors and a Garmin chronograph we wanted to test with the new barrel. The question we were trying to answer. Do suppressors harm velocity in anyway and which reduces recoil the most making it easy to spot your long range 1mile hits and misses.

First we chronographed just the new barrel with my reloads.

Reloading components 78.4gr of H1000, 200gr ELDM seated to 3.575 COAL.

The suppressors were a Yankee Hill Phantom and Diligent Defense both made of titanium.

Let’s chronograph the new barrel

We then place the Yankee Hill Suppressor (no longer in production) on the barrel to acquire the readings.

Next up was the Diligent Defense of which I was most interested. This suppressor was hybrid mix between suppressor and muzzle break. It was outfitted with a Dead Air Silencer E Brake. At first I must say I was very skeptical of it’s claims. 

“Suppressors are often known for their recoil mitigating properties. The E-Brake tames the recoil further by acting as a brake at the end of your silencer. It’s a quick and simple way to get even more performance from your silencer.

The E-Brake provides added recoil reduction while also providing a more “diffused” venting of the high-pressure gases escaping the front of the suppressor. The vent holes allow for a softer release than other offerings on the market, so there’s less dust kicked up when shooting prone and it doesn’t burn the ears of bystanders.”

Call me a believer, the recoil was noticeably softer to the shoulder. Though we did experience a bit of weird velocity. We had one round with much higher velocity not sure if it were the load or something else. Though the previous data was very consistent. 

Stay Tuned More Testing

There is absolutely more testing to come and will be a full video as I am fully aware I owe everyone the groups and how it shot.