Savage VLP First time

[darchell]

I am new to this forum but have been following it for about a month now. I found a lot of good information on here and have decided to make a purchase. Thanks for all the "good". I have always been a diehard Remington 700 man. The tide has turned and I am going to purchase a Savage 12 VLP in .204. I have the opportunity to hunt ground hogs in NJ at several farms who are having a problem with them. I have a Remington 788 in 6mm but wanted something a little smaller. The .204 sounds great and looks great on paper. I have a couple questions.
I was going to start reloading with Benchmark, Remington 7 1/2 primers, Remington brass and Hornady V-Max. Any suggestions in bullet weight, 32 or 40? Also does this mix sound good?
I also wanted to know about which scope mounts I should get I have checked three different catalogs and found two different numbers for the mounts. I will be mounting a Nikon Monarch 6.5 X 16.
Any other information you may want to enlighten me to would be appreciated also. I am always open to suggestions. Thanks.

[glenn asher]

I'm a cheapskate, I like the Weaver two piece mounts, they leave a lot of room to get at the chamber and magazine, are lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to find, most of the time. Most of the guys I know like the Burris Signature ZEE rings for Weaver bases, they are strong and have lots of neat advantages if the reciever isn't drilled exactly right, or, you can add some elevation to your scope for long distance stuff, with those eccentric inserts you can get. Plus, they leave no marks on the scopes. Nice rings.

Your component selection seems just fine, it's the same stuff I use, anyway . My rifles seem to prefer 32s, so that's what I feed them, but let your rifle tell you what it wants, there's no rhyme or reason, but some rifles won't shoot the 32s, or maybe not the 40s, no one can say without trying each.
I can't remember which bases I use, and Weaver's base page is closed for some reason, but I THINK it's the same as a front base on a Remington 700, you just use two of them on the Savage, front and rear.

[WaltherP99]

Good Choice! Fellow VLP owner here!

As for a mount suggestion...check these guys out!

http://www.dednutz.com/

Can't go wrong IMHO!

Good luck, Have fun and Shoot safe!

[acloco]

I prefer the Burris Signature Zee. If you need to add MOA to the particular rifle, just slip in the 5, 10, or 20 moa rings and you are done.

The other best part, they don't mark the finish on the scope.

One note, if you buy a set of Burris rings, scribe a mark on each top and base that will correlate them forever. Burris states the top and bottom are matched to each other. I put one dot on the top and bottom of the front set and two dots top/bottom for the rear. I use a small center punch.

[GAJoe]

Welcome to the forum. I also have the 12 VLP in .204. I shoot the 40gr Nosler BT's in front of H-4895 @ 3880fps for coyote and get sub 1/2 MOA groups when I do my part in calm wind. The 40gr bullets have a slower muzzle velocity but with their superior B.C. they hold their energy better down range and less drift in wind. The 40gr V-MAX has a better B.C. than the Nosler and should perform well on ground-hogs. If your gun groups them well I'd go with the V-MAX 40's.
GAJoe

[stevecrea]

I had a Savage VLP in .204 for a short while several years ago. It was new, and I broke it in carefully. I did not work up a load, but used a wide variety of Custom Nosler ammo, HSM, Federal, Hornady, Remington, and Winchester. I also used 32s, 39s, and 40s. However, I could not persuade this rifle to shoot better than about 1.0 or so MOA. While this is not horrible, my little Browning A-bolt in .223, weighs about half of the Savage and would shoot circles around it with factory ammo.

Well, perhaps I just got a lemon. But, it went down the road.

[cshooter]

My Savage VLP really likes the 39 gr Sierra's. I use 25 gr of RE-10x, WSR primers and Win brass. I have Weaver two piece mounts on a one piece Leopold base. If I clean the rifle every 15 - 20 rnds or so, I can keep 5 shots in an inch at 200 yrd. My COL is 2.955" at the ogive of the bullet. Every gun is different but maybe this combination will work for your gun too. I can generally smash pigeons at 4 & 500 yards on a calm day, most every shot useing a range finder. I don't have any goundhogs around here, but I'd think it's kinda like shooting pigeons. Great fun shooting rifle.