Savage model 112 BVSS .300WSM

Guns Magazine, August, 2004 by Charles E. Petty

I'm really fortunate to be able to work with a great variety of guns. Many of the rifles are tricked out or customized somehow. I have a leaning toward varmint or tactical rifles and many that pass through my hands fall into those categories. When the .300 Winchester Short Magnum cartridge came along I thought it might very well serve in the long range segment of both categories.

Recently as I browsed through the Savage catalog a big rifle caught my eye. It was their model 112 BVSS in the Varmint series. It's a big, heavy (10 pound) rifle with a laminated stock and stainless steel 26-inch fluted barrel and, of course, it was chambered for the .300 WSM. The icing on the cake was that it came with the excellent new Savage AccuTrigger[TM].

Projects like this never happen fast because there is much ordering to do but in due time I had the rifle, a superb Zeiss 3.5-10x scope, an assortment of factory ammo and a set of Redding loading dies. Savage rifles have a well-deserved reputation for accuracy so this one got a careful barrel break-in that took 20 rounds and involved lots of cleaning. Of course this also serves to establish a zero and provide a hint about accuracy.

To conserve a limited amount of factory amino I used a handload with a Nosler 165-grain Ballistic Tip at 2,900 fps. This is a little below maximum, but not much. As this went along it was pretty clear that the rifle really wanted to shoot.

Best Factory Rifle Trigger?

I don't normally think of shooting magnum anythings as great fun but this one is different. The weight moderates recoil a bunch and the AccuTrigger eliminates one of the greatest barriers to rifle accuracy--heavy, creepy triggers. It would be tempting to describe Savage's invention as a two stage trigger where there is considerable take-up or preliminary sear movement before the real event begins, but that would be incorrect. It would be more accurate to say that it is a two-part trigger. The gun cannot fire unless both parts work properly and in concert.

When you look at the trigger you will see what appears to be a lever sticking out of the face of the trigger. Glock fans would be tempted to compare it to the thingy that sticks out of the Glock trigger that they call a trigger safety. That's not right either. Savage calls it the "AccuRelease." What it does is block movement of the sear until it is moved out of the way. As you touch the trigger the AccuRelease moves away from the sear and then the actual trigger pull begins.

Every single or double-action trigger has a sear that serves to engage the hammer or cocking piece to hold everything in the cocked position. The sear is the part you move when you pull the trigger. The thing that keeps a gun cocked is the engagement of those two parts. Lawyers love lots of engagement and that's what gives us the heavy trigger pulls standard on almost every gun. With the AccuTrigger we have the best of both worlds--just the right sear engagement for a crisp light trigger pull and also absolute security against the sear "jarring off" if the rifle were dropped or mishandled.

As it came from the factory the rifle's trigger was just a tad under two pounds. Savage includes directions for trigger adjustment and a little tool but since it came at exactly the weight I like for a field rifle no change was needed.

MOA Capable

These tests always focus on how a gun does with factory amino since that is a constant everyone can have. In all we were able to test with five factory loads with 150- and 180-grain bullets and the rifle averaged the golden minute of angle everyone wants in hunting rifles.

One load, the Federal 150 grain Ballistic Tip managed a tidy .72". There will always be debate over how many rounds should be in a group. For me it is usually five with rifles and 10 in handguns, but with magnum rifles three-shot groups are probably enough and helps avoid overheating the rifle.

It is always hard to characterize cartridges based on the experience of only one gun but it sure seems as if the .300 WSM lives up to the promise of duplicating the .300 Win. Mag. in a short, fat case with a little less powder.

The rifle simply doesn't need anything. It is already well bedded and with handloads 1/2 MOA is not hard to get. This makes it a heck of a good value at the MSRP of $696. But perhaps best of all is that you don't have to fight the trigger.

ACCURACY TEST RESULTS

                 LOAD                     VELOCITY     1       2

Winchester 150-gr. Ballisitic Silvertip    3,249      .24"   1.22"
    Winchester 180-gr. Power Point         2,995      .86"   1.16"
     Winchester 180 gr. Fail Safe          2,934      .76"   1.22"
  Federal 150-gr Nolser Ballistic Tip      3,246      .93"    .76"
      Federal 180-gr. Power Shok           3,009     1.64"   1.70"

                 LOAD                       3     AVG.

Winchester 150-gr. Ballisitic Silvertip   1.09"    .85"
    Winchester 180-gr. Power Point         .70"    .91"
     Winchester 180 gr. Fail Safe         1.26"   1.08"
  Federal 150-gr Nolser Ballistic Tip      .48"    .72"
      Federal 180-gr. Power Shok          1.49"   1.61"