Broke in my son's new rifle --- here's his group...

[CaptainMusky]

I bought my son a Savage Trophy Hunter XP .270 with a Nikon BDC scope. This is the first NEW rifle I had ever bought and I wanted to make sure to break it in correctly. Never done it, some guys never do, but I did some research and found a procedure referenced on the Savage page and we followed it pretty much to the T.

At first it was scattering them a lot. 5 shots would fit inside a tennis ball. Partly because I wasn't focused on hitting THE spot, just firing rounds. After about 15 rounds I adjusted the scope.

I fired another 5 rounds, adjusted the scope some more and then let my son shoot the last 4 rounds.

here is his group at 100 yards.

We took a spent cartridge and it would cover 3 of the holes and touch the 4th. After he shot the first couple rounds I asked him if he could see how it was? He said "Not very good". Fired two more shots and then we walked up and to my amazement they were awesome.

I adjusted the scope a bit more to move it over to the right, but dang, that kid can shoot. It was about 50% better than my group.

So, barring sleepiness taking hold of him in the stand, he has a dang good chance and executing a good shot.

This gun shoots very nice! I really like the trigger on this savage. Has my mind a bit more at ease with its inherent safety of the two stage trigger, etc.

 

[leechlake]

I was never a Savage fan frankly.  I bought my son a youth .243 a few years ago.  The accutrigger is very nice and the gun shoots like a dream.  He's outgrown it but I'm a short guy and I use it from time to time and have killed a few good bucks with it.  His first deer was a doe at 175 yards, I have the video of him shooting, the high fives etc.  Good luck to your son and like you my kid shoots a rifle better than I do...at least at the range.  Old age vs young age I'd guess.

[aanderud]

Looks awesome!  Congratulate your son on having such an accurate shot!  He must have learned it somewhere.  I'm sure that I couldn't shoot that accurately!  What a grouping. 

[CaptainMusky]

I asked him why he said "not very good" after we looked at the target. He said "well, I didn't hit the tape"! LOL

I had never owned a Savage before either, but I have met quite a few buddies that have them, or at least shot them over the years plus talked to a ton of others who have and they all assured me that it would be a great gun. So far I think its a perfect gun for him. I am sure I will get a chance to shoot it a bit over the years as well.

At first glance its hard to tell how impressive that group is, but when you look at my thumbnail, and no, I am not Andre the Giant, you can tell how tight it is.

Im just impressed that regardless of how well the gun would shoot, that my son was able to replicate it over the course of 4 shots. He hasn't shot a rifle or any gun that much in reality. He is 14 and up to this point I just had a Rossi 20 gauge/ .243 combo for him. You swap the barrels to determine which firearm you want. Decent youth/starter gun.

His little brothers have already laid claim on that one. LOL