SmallCaliberCentral

I just picked up a 12FV. I was looking forward to working up loads, chasing accuracy, trying a half dozen different bullets, and a half dozen powders. All that stuff. But, first, the barrel had to be broken in, so I threw on a $40 junker scope from the closet, got some Hornady factory 40-grain ammo, and headed to the range:



After fire, clean, fire, clean, fire, clean, blah, blah, blah, I shot my first actual group:



Huh.. well, I guess that kind of takes the fun out of it. Sort of.

That target was larger and easier to aim at, as I could just see a sliver of red bullseye on all four sides of the crosshair when "on". The rest of my targets were smaller, and the crosshair completely obscured the bull, so it was harder to aim, and other groups looked like these:




Shortly after, the sun really came up, and the mirage got pretty bad. Between the wind, bad mirage, and a cheap, blurry scope, keeping any decent group became impossible, so I called it off. Well... I guess I need to hurry up and get that better glass soon.

I have to say, I was NOT expecting this, especially not with factory ammo!

It would be tough to have to stand such disappointment. Bill K

It's a real bummer when they shoot that good out of the box...huh! Nice looking groups I might add.

Amazed me too.when I shot my LRPV with factory ammo(Fed w/39SBK),Shot a .333 without tuning.Thanks for posting.Should shoot other bullets as well.

Joe O wrote:Amazed me too.when I shot my LRPV with factory ammo(Fed w/39SBK),Shot a .333 without tuning.Thanks for posting.Should shoot other bullets as well.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to find out before summer. Most all of my money this summer went to having surgery on my dog, so it will be a bit before I can get the better glass, some good dies, and start trying different powders and bullets.

Problems like that make life sweet! Congrats, brudda!

Poor guy! Next thing you know it will be shooting your hand load through the same hole!!! darn savage.

Kingcrawler wrote:Poor guy! Next thing you know it will be shooting your hand load through the same hole!!! darn savage.

Yeah, if I could find some powders to try. The only powder I have right now that is compatible is TAC, and that's earmarked for some .223 loads with 53 grain TSXs.

I just went and dropped another $250 on more Hornady ammo to get me through until more powders are on the shelves. It was hard to decide between that or a better scope, but I went for the ammo. Instant gratification and all.

My 12fv did the same thing. The 40gr hornady v-Max's shot one-hole 5 shot groups. I did finally work up a load with 32gr Vmax's that do the same thing. 29.0 gr of W748 plain small rifle primer. Since I'm only using the rifle for prairie dogs and vermin, I'm fine with that. I even hav a nice load for Barnes grenades (26 gr) using BL-c(2).

Gotta love those Savages. I love the 2 Savage 204s that I have. They like the same loads. Wait til you shoot a 39 gr Blitzking! You can get some good range with 204s so don't skimp on the power level for the scope.

Sidewinderwa wrote:Gotta love those Savages. I love the 2 Savage 204s that I have. They like the same loads. Wait til you shoot a 39 gr Blitzking! You can get some good range with 204s so don't skimp on the power level for the scope.

Since you mention it... what power range would you recommend?

I'm thinking of the SWFS SS line, and debating between 10x and 12x...

I have a 6-24 power and use every bit of it. I think that's one of the misconceptions about the .204. 400-500 yd prairie dog kills is well within the range of a .204. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a coyote out to 400 with the right load.

I have 6.5-20 and 6-24 Vortex Viper scopes on them. I spot on 6 power and shoot on the highest level when shooting out to 600 yards. Like I said, you can get some good range out of the little 204s.

Well, so far my new 12 FCV in 204 will not even hit a 12" x 12" target with factory 40 grain Vmax. 32 grain some better but not acceptable. With reloads I get acceptable (.75") groups using Varget and H4895 behind Sierra 39. But for the most part the rifle seems erratic. Not sure yet of the problem. Testing at 100 yards.

Irish wrote:Well, so far my new 12 FCV in 204 will not even hit a 12" x 12" target with factory 40 grain Vmax. 32 grain some better but not acceptable. With reloads I get acceptable (.75") groups using Varget and H4895 behind Sierra 39. But for the most part the rifle seems erratic. Not sure yet of the problem. Testing at 100 yards.

This may be obvious, but my Savage Model 12 LRPV ( I got it used) was spraying bullets into 2 1/2 to 3 inch groups at 100 yards with frequent fliers. I did alll the obvious stuff, checked scope mount tightness, carefully re-retorqued the stock, no change. It turned out I had a very copper fouled barrel. Used a premium copper fouling cleaner (forget brand at the moment) Groups immediately went to dime size or smaller. The patches coming out of my rifle were bright green!

I think rifles with very high velocities like .204 are more prone to copper fouling.

Target below was shot just after I gave the rifle a good cleaning. Load was 23.5 gr's fo H322 with Hornady 40 g V-Max and Fed 205M primers.