Savage FV M12 & Berger HP's

[brooksb]

Just thought I'd pass this on, I bought 35gr Berger HP's for my Savage FV and found they will not load either from a loaded magazine or as singles, the HP catches on the bottom of the chamber ramp every time.

[randyman]

Bummer! I just bought a box of the same bullets but haven't loaded them up yet. Hope they work in my Tikka.

[shocker]

My Savage does the same thing with all HPs! So I ended up removing the blind magazine and converted it into a single shot with a piece of wood. Now I can just throw in any bullet and it will feed it just fine.

[brooksb]

Good idea, since I fire singles mostly.

[skipper]

Check the internet for single shot followers. They may help if you're not so handy with fabricating one of your own.

[Rick in Oregon]

An excellent source for single shot followers:

http://www.scorehi.com/information.htm

I wanted an oddball follower for a Sako M75 Varmint with detachable magazine.....he made me a custom one-off unit with no additional charge. Imagine that!

[shocker]

I did buy the Score-High Bench Rest Single Shot Follower for my savage but it does NOT fit since my blind magazine is center feed. So I had to create my own with a piece of 2x4.







Full Album here: http://imgur.com/a/WQEXf

Not the prettiest thing to look at but it WORKS! lol

[Silverfox]

brooksb--The 35 gr. FBHP Berger bullets are a GREAT bullet for coyotes. The BC is a bit low, but at reasonable distances they work just fine. I'd hate to see you have to use your rifle as a single shot when a simple fix will get you up and running in repeater mode. Check out the information I have added below here.

I had that same problem back in August of 2004 and bent the forward magazine feed lips up just a tiny bit. Here's the information I shared on this Website way back then. I searched for it, but couldn't find it here.

35 grain FBHP Berger Feeding Issues.

Here’s a copy of the information I sent to someone on this board back in 2011.

I had problems getting the 35 gr. FBHP Bergers to feed in my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. The 32 gr. V-Max, 39 gr. Sierras, 40 gr. HP Berger target bullets, 40 gr. Nosler BT bullets all fed perfect, but not the 35 gr. Bergers. I took the stock off, removed the magazine and bent the breech end of the feed lips up just a bit. I had no special tools and used a needle nose pliers and regular pliers to do the job. That left the feed lips rather rough, so I had to use a fine-tooth file and emery cloth to get things smoothed off again. It took me several tries to get things adjusted properly. If you don’t feel confident in doing this yourself, have your gunsmith do it.

Here’s a specialized tool gunsmiths use to bend the feed lips:





Some folks have their gunsmith put a bevel on the breech face to keep the nose of the bullets from hitting below the opening of the chamber. That could be a bit of a safety problem because you lose some support for the web of your casing doing this:

[brooksb]

Thanks to all, I'm liking bending the feed lips a little, but we'll see.