Famous 'PEEP & GLOBE' at 50 yards Savage MKII is on my bench!

[Harry Tobin]

Hi guys, well finally got a new rifle for my shooting bench. This is sort of a long intro but it needs to be said. Over the years OSOK (Charlie) have become close friends and talk a lot on the phone. Now Charlie saw I was trying to get bug holes with my marlin 60, and we talked about it trying different things to improve its accuracy. A lot of time was spent on that project and could not get it to work, a semi was not a bench gun. I knew really what was needed was a bolt gun, but being retired and on limited funds I couldn’t afford a new gun. Then out of the blue Charlie said we needed to talk, he saw I was struggling and said he’d send me his famous 'PEEP & GLOBE' at 50 yards... Savage MKII. Once he got his CZ452 the Savage was parked and he wanted me to have it. I was overwhelmed by his generosity and friendship and I thank my big brother Charlie for this opportunity to show I could shoot good. So this journey started in August, and a lot has been done to this rifle to get it where it is today. THANK YOU CHARLIE !!!!



First day back from the FFL dealer I was like a kid at Christmas, got it all unpacked and mounted a Athlon 6-18x44 on it. Off to the bench I went, needed to get the scope dialed in. Got that dialed in and set a 1" dot in the target and pulled a .393 5 shot group out of it with Eley Contact!!!! and was still using his homemade torpedo tuner on it at the time. And this story goes on for awhile as it evolved into a real good shooter.










Eley Contact


Sight in target

[OS OK]

Oh my gosh Harry...this is nice to wake up to this morning. I've been waiting for you to put pen to paper and tell the story that you have been through since acquiring that blankety blank rifle!
This is gonna be a good one.

I'll start by saying just one thing...(heheheee) "You wouldn't believe how much & how loud a little Bench Rest Rifle can make a grown man whine!"

[dverna]

Will be following with interest!!

[MrWolf]

Keep it coming. Waiting for more.

[Harry Tobin]

Well now I thought great, got a .393 on my first target and this should just walk right in. On the following days went out to repeat on what I saw before ( WRONG!!) This gun had a mind of its own!! Now granted I was using Eley Contact which is still a bulk ammo just a little better grade. Then I started to adjusting the torpedo tuner and that did have some good results at times but very hard to adjust. The quality of this Savage was really low but it was the only thing I had to work with. Countless hours on the phone with Charlie coming up with different ideas. So here are some early targets with ½ circle. This wasn’t going as I’d hoped and a lot more work needed to be done!!

All center #1 are warmers 1/2" circles on target













to be continued

[Gtek]

Wonderful story and glad to hear of your success, but silly me enjoyed the pictures maybe a little more!
My observations-
#1- Umbrella in PVC attached to zero turn, too cool!
#2- 2 boards on inverted five gallon bucket for correcting behind/line of sight issues.
#3- Down range wind indicator.
#4- Very, very nice shooting bench and set up.
#5- And my favorite is the "Brass Catcher Extraordinaire", that is truly over the top! I see all the thought that went into that one, very impressive.
Looks like somebody has been bit with the BR Bug some kind of bad. That stinking Eley, makes you happy when you find it now, then it hurts a little when you buy 22LR at that price, then it makes you smile when you shoot it. Have fun and keep it coming!!!!

[OS OK]

Wonderful story and glad to hear of your success, but silly me enjoyed the pictures maybe a little more!
My observations-
#1- Umbrella in PVC attached to zero turn, too cool!
#2- 2 boards on inverted five gallon bucket for correcting behind/line of sight issues. (For the life of me I can't get that Yankee to get a proper stool!)
#3- Down range wind indicator.
#4- Very, very nice shooting bench and set up. (This guy Harry needs something...he just builds it!)
#5- And my favorite is the "Brass Catcher Extraordinaire", that is truly over the top! I see all the thought that went into that one, very impressive.
Looks like somebody has been bit with the BR Bug some kind of bad. That stinking Eley, makes you happy when you find it now, then it hurts a little when you buy 22LR at that price, then it makes you smile when you shoot it. Have fun and keep it coming!!!!

I envy Men with sharp minds and talented hands! What I envy most is that attitude of 'never giving up', always 'mulling'...'won't quit' on something or somebody.

[BLAHUT]

You are on the right track, Need to try other match ammo, Every brand and every kind and find what your gun likes, Lots of the bench rest guys use Lapua ( sp )
Your work with the tuner is showing progress. Can you move it out to 100 yds ?

[Gtek]

I have one that MUST have the Eley 38 GR HP sub's, some this, some that. I wonder if he has started weighing and measuring rims and noses and sorting. Then we will know he has reached stage three!

[Abert Rim]

Harry, you shot some groups to be proud of -- but yes, you need to try other Eley and Lapua to eliminate the flyers.
OS OK: you're a good man.

[Harry Tobin]

part 3

Thank all of you for chiming in with your suggestions. Now as the days go on with this project I have mixed results, sometimes they go really well and get decent groups and sometime the groups are scattered. This does not stop my desire to be as good as I can with this non-custom gun. Now my wife says when I get into something I’m like a dog with a bone. This is true, I can’t and will not give in till I hit the goal I have set for myself. Now I’m showing all my targets as not to cherry pick the good only. And more hours of discussion with Charlie on the phone. I was never taught the proper way to handle a rifle and this was just self learned. Now I can shoot handguns really well but I was out of my element with this bench rest. Now thank god for Charlie as he took the time with me to walk me thru the techniques and the skill set to do this. There still is a lot left to this story and I will continue to tell it.

All #1 center are warmers if you see a number next to group it's probably my tuner setting













to be continued

[Harry Tobin]

Wonderful story and glad to hear of your success, but silly me enjoyed the pictures maybe a little more!
My observations-
#1- Umbrella in PVC attached to zero turn, too cool!
#2- 2 boards on inverted five gallon bucket for correcting behind/line of sight issues.
#3- Down range wind indicator.
#4- Very, very nice shooting bench and set up.
#5- And my favorite is the "Brass Catcher Extraordinaire", that is truly over the top! I see all the thought that went into that one, very impressive.
Looks like somebody has been bit with the BR Bug some kind of bad. That stinking Eley, makes you happy when you find it now, then it hurts a little when you buy 22LR at that price, then it makes you smile when you shoot it. Have fun and keep it coming!!!!

Thanks Gtek, I'm old but still learning

[Harry Tobin]

You are on the right track, Need to try other match ammo, Every brand and every kind and find what your gun likes, Lots of the bench rest guys use Lapua ( sp )
Your work with the tuner is showing progress. Can you move it out to 100 yds ?

Hi BLAHUT, I know ammo is a issue and will change as story goes on. Thanks for your feedback

[Harry Tobin]

Harry, you shot some groups to be proud of -- but yes, you need to try other Eley and Lapua to eliminate the flyers.
OS OK: you're a good man.

Abert you are right about Charlie he is a good man and I do consider him as a big brother. The groups come and go thru this whole journey and some major changes are made down the road. Thank you for your encouragement.

[Gtek]

Don't give up after round change and a couple groups, sometimes it takes a box or so for the new to "settle" in. When a new one is tried I scrub the bore clean and shoot a hundred before call is made to pursue or bail on it. Hard to chase with ladders when you pluck them out of the box, you get what you got! OS OK, was that barrel fed lead from day one, a few jacketed, the Flitz trick, JB, #0000?

[OS OK]

don't give up after round change and a couple groups, sometimes it takes a box or so for the new to "settle" in. When a new one is tried i scrub the bore clean and shoot a hundred before call is made to pursue or bail on it. Hard to chase with ladders when you pluck them out of the box, you get what you got! os ok, was that barrel fed lead from day one, a few jacketed, the flitz trick, jb, #0000?

Oh Lordie....that barrel has seen so many brands of ammo you wouldn't believe! Fortunately, it has only seen 'copper wash' Remington Yellow Jackets & Aguila Super Extra 40 grain for a short while. (Back then it was really tough to get a hold of any decent .22lr rim-fire up here in the Sierras where I live.)
I think they shot worse than I do as a shooter! ...
I think I used 'Sweets' to clean after those cu/wash rounds and the bore-scope showed me the barrel was copper free. (I don't want to say anything more about the barrel...I'll leave that to Harry.)
All I know so far is that you can't depend on getting a clean looking bore by looking into the muzzle...that used to fool me every time until I got a bore-scope & then my eyes were opened wide.



At some point I used this stuff...



and that seemed to improve things but I mainly used the MKII for 'Peep & Globe' work at 50 yards so that & the fact that I was a neophyte at this .22 BR game I couldn't tell much about group sizes and them being improved.
You could call my shooting then..."Minute of tin can!" ...

[BLAHUT]

Hi BLAHUT, I know ammo is a issue and will change as story goes on. Thanks for your feedback

The high and low shots are ammo variation in FPS ( consistence ) with better quality ammo you get what you pay for, usually ? I was taught when you change ammo brands, clean the barrel well, then 10 shots to change the lube, then start looking ?? I have chassed this for years, 3 boys and myself shooting competition. I suggest moving out to 100 if you can, shows the veration in ammo better, and then, if you can keep 10 inside a quarter ( 0ne inch ) at 100 you will be there. When you find the one ? Buy all you can in the same lot number. You will be in the top bunch on the leader board....

[Harry Tobin]

The high and low shots are ammo variation in FPS ( consistence ) with better quality ammo you get what you pay for, usually ? I was taught when you change ammo brands, clean the barrel well, then 10 shots to change the lube, then start looking ?? I have chassed this for years, 3 boys and myself shooting competition. I suggest moving out to 100 if you can, shows the veration in ammo better, and then, if you can keep 10 inside a quarter ( 0ne inch ) at 100 you will be there. When you find the one ? Buy all you can in the same lot number. You will be in the top bunch on the leader board....

I fully understand the importance of having consistent ammo with low Sd’s to make the impact the same. But through analyzing this gun’s behavior we thought of mechanical issues also.
For one the stock itself, it’s a Boyd stock. They tend to remove way to much material inside giving little support and movement.
As far as moving the distance, I can’t do that now. This is set up in the back yard and the backstop would need to be moved, and winter is setting in here. The best I could get would be 75 yards. That will have to wait till springtime.

[BLAHUT]

I fully understand the importance of having consistent ammo with low Sd’s to make the impact the same. But through analyzing this gun’s behavior we thought of mechanical issues also.
For one the stock itself, it’s a Boyd stock. They tend to remove way to much material inside giving little support and movement.
As far as moving the distance, I can’t do that now. This is set up in the back yard and the backstop would need to be moved, and winter is setting in here. The best I could get would be 75 yards. That will have to wait till springtime.

Glass bed the action with free Flot barrel ? Piller bed ? Check action screws to see they are drawing equally if there are two ? Longer distance, just lets you see the group spread better ??

[Harry Tobin]

Part 4 Savage MKII-FVT

This whole project started with the intent of enjoying myself in my own backyard. No need to pack up and drive to the range. Pure enjoyment for me, and if I needed to change something I could walk over to my shop and change it. Then try again to see if I went the right way.
Through analyzing this gun’s performance, a decision was made to bed the action. The Boyd stock has way too much material removed to give good support. I didn’t like relying on screw torque as that can change things and uneven support.
Bedding with pillars was a much better thought to me, then it would be a perfect match for the stock to action. And no more over torque, the pillars would prevent that.
I have shot enough rounds through this to know something is not right, just couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But believing there could be movement in the stock, humidity and the flex of wood under compression...so that’s why I bedded it. Using JB weld slow set on this.
So I'll bring you through the process of all the things I have done to improve this rifle. It was a lot of work but worth it.