New Savage "Trail Hunter Lite" rifles... specifically in .223/5.56mm

[WDR]

Bit late, but to update this, I ended up calling Savage Monday, and they immediately offered to send a call tag to send the whole rifle back for them to have a look at it. The person I spoke with also offered to send a magazine out, to see if that fixes the feeding issues. I told them lets try the magazine first, see if we can get the rifle feeding correctly, and go from there. I may be able to deal with the stock, if I can at least get the gun functional. Hopefully the magazine will arrive before the weekend. If it does, I may go pop a few rounds of Hornady 73gr ELD, and a few 75gr Gold Dots and see what happens.

Following up, the new magazine showed up today. It seems to feed various ammo types just fine. The feed lips on the new mag are a lot closer together than the one that came with the gun, and it seems to fit a bit tighter, and possibly hold the front of the magazine upwards just a slight amount more. Interestingly, the new mag is a matte finish on the metal, whereas the old one is a shiny blued finish.

I put an old Nikon 3-9x40 Prostaff on the rifle with some Burris Signature rings I had laying around, and added a YHM QD mount so I can stick my Turbo K on there. I'm giving the bore a good cleaning right now. I've packed a few things, and I may brave the heat to head out to some high desert peaks tomorrow morning, early, to beat the 100 degree heat and put a few rounds through the gun, and do some scouting of the area I'll hunt deer this fall.

I tried to tweak the fee lips on the old magazine, but so far, it still will always jam on the second to last round, jamming the nose of the bullet into the bottom of the barrel breech face while the rear part of the brass has not quite cleared the feed lips enough to pop free yet. I've also had rounds pop free of the mag and then get caught sideways in the ejection port. Its almost like some rounds escape the feed lips early and get flung sideways, and others get stuck, like the feed lips are not releasing soon enough. Strange issue for sure.

[WDR]

I took a drive up to about 9200' in the mountains this morning, and put a few rounds through the rifle. I was shooting off my tail gate, using a Harris bipod, and a makeshift rear bag. No chair, so I was leaning into the gun. Not he best way to test accuracy, but my intent was to just get the gun on paper, and see if it shot anything "okay" to start with. Being on top of the ridge, there was a fair breeze, but I could watch the grass, and try to shoot in the lulls between the swirls of wind. You can just make out the USPA no-shoot in the distance (102 yards, laser checked).



I had done an old school manual bore site at home out my back door, using a distant point to line things up. First two rounds of 55gr LC M193 were about 6" high, and 2" left. I dialed the adjustments to make POA=POA into the old 3-9x40 Nikon Prostaff, and the last 3 rounds of FMJ went into a 3/4" or so group right where they should. After that, I switched to some factory Hornady 73gr ELDm, and shot this decent group:



Then I shot some 75gr Speer Gold Dot:



I also shot a 5 round string of my 70gr TSX handloads with results similar to the Gold Dot.

I figure I could tighten those groups up another 1/2 MOA if I was shooting off a real solid bench, or from prone. But even with the soft cheese stock, it looks like the gun wants to shoot pretty well. I think it's probably worth investing in some good glass, and a better stock in the future.

After I shot the TSX, I put a few more ELD's through the gun to get a better zero, about 2" high at 100 yards, and proceeded to roam the ridges looking for some rockchucks. I can post pictures if folks are not squeamish, but suffice to say that the ELD's work pretty well on varmints out to 250 yards or so. They are not quite as explosive as V-Max or other dedicated varmint bullets, but they put the chucks down. I'll probably be buying some 73gr ELD's as components and working up a load of my own.

ETA: I forgot to mention, the new magazine Savage sent me ran 100% all day... zero hiccups. So I consider that issue solved, for now.

[Spectre3]

I'm all for using 223/5.56 for deer and predator hunting. I've had good results using my old duty load 62 gr gold dot. Fusion is nearly identical and is usually cheaper and more available. That said, I don't take this rifle to places I could reasonably see shots over 150 yds and I live in eastern NC so the deer aren't as big as northern whitetail.

I have a 16" AR that weighs just over 7 lbs with a 1-6 Swampfox Arrowhead (left over from some testing to validate claims of it being a duty grade LPVO. Summary: buy a Viper PST) a sling and loaded with 5 rounds.

As to this rifle, given the mentioned issues in this thread and the regular reports of issues with Savage rifles, I'd pick the Ruger American over this. It's lighter, feeds from AR mags that are a known quantity, generally has a reputation for being reliable and accurate, and has plenty of aftermarket support without having to constantly be checking to see if your specific action is compatible like you have to do when upgrading Savage rifles.