How I tune a Savage Receiver.
As shooters and more specifically target shooter (as well as ethical hunters), in our search for the pinnacle of accuracy in our rifles, we need to search for just that little bit more of an edge from our ammunition and firearm. It is easy to get one of the Savage rifles to shoot accurately even to match standards. If you are looking for that little bit more from your rifle then please read a method that I have found that works for me.
It’s that hyper-accuracy that I want to write here about, and how I am able to get a noticeable amount more from just the rifle itself. For those of you that are familiar with tuning a receiver as in a match .22 caliber rifle for instance this article will be nothing new for the rest of you reading this might be new material. What I’m attempting to accomplish here is to find the “sweet spot” for the rifle in relation to the torque settings used on the receiver screws for the rifle. The proper torque settings will often be somewhat different from rifle to rifle and will usually have a noticeable effect on consistent group sizes. A properly torqued rifle will be a rifle where you’ve adjusted the “harmonics” of the barreled action using the receiver screws so that it gives you its peak consistency.
What I’m about to explain is the process I have found that works for me in tuning a Savage rifle receiver to peak accuracy. To use my process you first must already have a load that shoots accurately and consistently in your rifle, and I always use a fouled barrel like I’d be shooting in a match. This process works for me in both the model 10 (two receiver screws), and the model 12 (three receiver screws).
On the model 12, I will first ensure that the recoil lug is securely against the stock by just lightly tightening up the front receiver screw then gently but firmly bumping the butt pad against the floor. Next I will tighten up the front two receiver screws to 30 inch pounds starting at 20 inch pounds and working up to the 30 inch pounds in 5 inch pound increments, and always tightening the front screw first and then the second screw. Once the front two receiver screws are torqued to the final torque I will set the rear receiver screw to 5 inch pounds and shoot a five shot group at whatever distance you should choose. After the group is shot and I am satisfied that I called all of the shots as good shots I will allow the rifle to cool off to about the temperature that the fist group was shot at. I will then add 5 inch pounds to the rear receiver screw and shoot another five shot group and allow the rifle to cool again. I repeat this process until I have tightened the rear receiver screw to 40 inch pounds or have seen the groups get smaller and then start getting larger again. Once you’ve seen the groups decrease and then start to increase in size then you will have found the area of torque to work in, you can fine tune this to the exact inch pound torque settings if you care to.
This is on the Palma rifle using the torque settings of 30 inch pounds on the front two reciever screws, and 15 inch pounds on the tang screw, it is approximately 1/2" center to center.
This is my second torque setting which for this rifle and this load is the optimal setting of 30 inch pounds on the front two reciever screws and 25 inch pounds on the tang screw, this group is approximately .180" center to center.
This is the third torque setting which for this rifle is moving away from the optimal torque setting towards the heavy side of the scale. This torque setting results shows that you will usually see a "bell curve" of accuracy as you move into the optimal torque setting. This group is almost .7" and the torque setting was 40 inch pounds.
The model 10 which of course has two receiver screws uses the same process as the model 12. I would urge you to measure your group sizes and place the measurements in front of you in such a manner that you can see the bell curve showing where your best groups were achieved. There may be a better way of doing this and if you should have one, I’d be very interested in hearing it.
Good shooting and I hope to see you all on the range.
Last 5 posts by Stan Pate
- Behind the Scenes with Stan Pate - January 4th, 2010
Stan, I thank you so much for the tip!I have been looking for ways to fine tune my F-class since I bought it last year! Savage has made MY DREAM OF A LIFETIME come true by introducing this gun!I love it!What an affordable gun that is able to make you competitive
Stan, great article. My question is: Is this technique applicable to the new AccuStock? I just purchased a 10- FCP-K in .308 and am looking forward to getting the best groups possible. Thank you.
Excellent Stan. My question also encompasses the Accustock system. Having bought a 116 Accustock model. The factory specifications directs to torque both the front and the rear action screws, along with the stock/recoil lug wedge screw to 40 Lb./In.(inch pounds, in a particular order.
Since the 16/116 action is a two screw design, is it beneficial to only tighten one screw to the 40 Lb./In. and allow the rear screw to remain at a lesser torque value? What about the Accustock wedge/recoil lug screw?
Thank You-
Does this technique work for 17hmr rifle as well? More specifically, Model 93R17 BTVLSS. Also, I noticed that 20grain bullets from Hornady don’t always load into the chamber as easily as the 17grain poly tips. With the 20grain bullets I often have to “bump” or press upwards on the magazine, which makes it harder to get a quick follow up shot. Is there a fix you recommend for this? e.g aftermarket magazine? or stronger magazine spring?
Please advise,
thank you
So did he back the rear tang screw back to the 25 inch pounds to bring it back or did he slowly back off the tang screw at 5 inch pounds per 5 shot groups until the pattern is even tighter than it was in the 25 inch pounds shooting pattern? I would like to know were his rifle finally ended up with on the tang screw? I like what I seen and what I read but it seems like the story was not finished! thank you and I pray I get my answers. May God bless this nation and not allow Obama to sell our sovereignty out to China or the UN, we must remain the only super power before China takes our place, and they will if Obama keeps spending and barrowing China’s money. Pray for our great nation and that God keeps us under our Liberty and our rights. Dear God save us. Amen.
Do you reccomend any glass bedding under the reciever on the model 12 ftr,palma,or benchrest?
Is this technique compatible to the accustock? If so, would you still be using the tang screw to adjust?
What about the 12LRPV with the HS full-length aluminum bedded stock?
Thanks.
Thanks for the information Stan. I have always just blindly followed the recommended torque specs, now you’ve given me something else for my bag of tricks.
Too bad you will be in Bisley during the Chilliwack BC match, I was looking forward to shooting next to you and Darrel again.
Hey Mike;
I have to agree with you about both the affordability of Savage rifles and the extreme accuracy that they are capable of both in hunting and on the range. Savage is the only firearms company that we approached about shooting for them, Savage has always been an accurate rifle. Once Savage Arms developed the accutrigger they then evolved into the next level of potential accuracy.
Hello Bill;
Your question about whether this technique will work on the Accustocked rifles is a good one and to be honest I haven’t tried played with it enough to find out. I have one of the BAT/S rifles and am currently working up loads for it, once I have a load that dependably shoots consistent groups then I start my torque testing. On a cautionary note, if you are going to attempt this I do believe that I’d leave the wedge screw alone, this is the very front screw that isn’t a reciver screw. I don’t think that I see any potential at this time for accuracy gains in adjusting this and some potential problems with over-torquing it. If you are going to do some testing with your rifle I’d love to hear what your results is. I can’t wait to see what kind of accuracy that we can get from these stocks.
Hello Michael;
Some of your questions I have answered in the response to Bill listed above. I do intend to test the torque settings vs. accuracy on the rifle I have and perhaps some others with the accustock that we may be testing for the factory as time goes on. My gut feeling is that these stocks have already captured the reciever so strongly that we might gain that small percentile of accuracy but the gains won’t be noticeable except to the target shooters among us. I’ll keep you posted.
Hello Remi;
I would expect this technique to work on the 17 HMR also just like the larger recievered rifles. The tuning of a reciever is actually done regularly on many brands of smallbore rifles that are used in smallbore competition. I was first introduced to tuning a reciever some time ago by a young gentleman torquing his .22 caliber rifle before practice. I wold recommend that you contact the factory about the feeding issue, I don’t have any experience with that particular rifle on this problem.
Hello Edward;
Good question, sometimes when you write an article it is easy to not be as clear as you should because you “live” the subject matter so you don’t think to mention all of the details, I did try. I never back off a torque setting to achieve another setting, I always “come up” to a torque setting from the low end. After torquing the two front screws on the model 12 reciever I then set the rear reciever screw at 5 inch pounds and worked up from there. On my rifle I actually found two torque settings for the rear reciever screw, one worked better with one load, and another setting worked better with the next load.
When I was doing the load development for the Worlds I had two loads that were shooting very well back to 1,000 yards so I tested the torque settings for each load. One load liked a torque setting of 30/30/15 inch pounds, and the other load liked as setting of 20/20/25 inch pounds. The load that liked the 30/30/25 inch pound setting used .3 grains less powder which kept me away from the jewel power limit that we had to careful of in England so I went that way, and it shot slightly better anyway. Hope this helps.
Hey John;
I’ve been asked this question many times and I’ve talked with several folks that have tried bedding the recievers on the model 12. I tried it once as an experiment and my results weren’t terriable but my rifle actually shot better without the glass bedding. I have talked with a few gentlemen who said that they’ve had accuracy gains by doing this and believe me they are very good shooters so I absolutely believe them when they say something like that.
I have no interest in attempting this again for myself, obviously the rifles will shoot extremely well anyway, I just don’t see the need. If you try this, I’d really like to hear your results. Thanks.
Hey Randy;
Are you gonig to be shooting at Chilliwak this Spring? For those of you who might be reading this, there is a match held at the Volks range in Chilliwack, BC. called the International Tactical Rifle Match ran by an amazing gentleman named Mike Cook. This is one of my all time favorite matches to attend, I will always to my best to be there, I encourage any who are interested in attending to do so. You will need to contact Mike to arrange the required paperwork before attempting to get your firearms across the border.