Why dont you just go out and shoot it before you do all those modifications? If its like most of the 10 ML II's it will shoot 1" or less right out of the box. Enjoy your new gun, mike
Well Mike........I only own and shoot Savages pretty much 100% and always skim bed every Savage I own. It certainly will never hurt accuracy since it still sits the pillars but the action picks up a lot of increased support and the recoil lug not only makes 100% contact but remains in the same spot all the time. Smoothing and polishing the guard screw was necessary as I don't like bolts to feel like they are running in sandpaper. I'm cutting 2" from the barrel to improve balance and lighten it up some, has nothing to do with accuracy and a lot to do with making it a lighter,quicker handling, less likely to hang up in the thick stuff gun for my style of hunting. Stiffening the forend some on the factory synthetic stocks prevents the barrel/forend gap from closing up when in the bags or on a bipod and effecting accuracy with barrel pressure. If always shot freehand this would be a non-issue, also some stocks are stiffer than others in addition to warm weather causing an increase in the stocks movement.
The barrel lapping is what your statement must be addressing and my take there is it is quite rough inside and hangs a lot of patch material on sharp spots in the rifling. Using plastic sabots it my take years to wear these spots smooth, I have never seen simple fire lapping with something like JB bore paste hurt a bore and it certainly can use some smoothing out of some nature compared to any barrel I've ever owned ( I notice over on the Savage ML'er forum they lap as a matter of new gun get ready because of this same roughness, so it must be quite common ).My gunsmith has looked at it and agrees it should be smoothed up some.I'm more concerned with cleaning and bullet loading as the plastic sabot seals to even a rough bore quite well, and accuracy is not as much dependant on the bore finish as loading and cleaning ( two things I expect to be doing a lot of).
So as you can see, most of my mods are aimed at making the gun easy to load and clean, consistant for shooting, smooth operating, and well balanced and lightweight to carry. I expect an out of the box gun will shoot quite similar just not be tuned to my particular taste. Accuracy will come with careful weighing of loads, arriving at a load the gun likes and leaves the barrel in a realitive neutral state of whip(OCW), good scope and mounts, a good crisp light trigger pull, loading the sabot at the same spot on the barrel each time, the barrel and tang remaining floating at all times, and the recoil lug and action always being in the same spot for each shot.
I have no doubt it will shoot good, as all my Savage guns do, I don't own one that won't shoot 3/4" and most are 1/2" or better.I also plan to apply all the CF tricks and techniques I've learned getting sub 1/2MOA accuracy to this ML'er in the same ways and expect the same basic results. I expect MOA or better at the very least......and really want .750 or so to make me truly satisfied. Thanks....... and I do already enjoy this new one as much as any Savage I own and play with.
woods
