Gun Digest – August 2019

(^44) | GunDigest the magazine AUGUST 2019 gundigest.com
barrelshavealwaysfascinate
me, and CarbonSix’s Gen
Gordonis oneofthemostin
telligent, helpfuland accom
modating people in the gun
industry. He soon had a 24
inch,1:9twist,#5 contoure
carbon-fiber barrel create
froma McGowanbarrelcore
WHYCARBONFIBER?
According to CarbonSix, “Car
bon fiber-wrapped barrels can
provide a decrease in weight
addedrigidity,greatweatherdu
rabilityandimprovedharmoni
damping.”
Great.But,cantheybemor
accurate than their all-meta
barreled brothers? CarbonSi
hasthistosay:“Carbonfibe
wrapped barrels can be mor
accurateduetotheharmoni
dampeningandreducedbarrel
whip.We guarantee ½ MOA orbet-
terwithproperloaddevelopmentand
properbarrelinstallation.Themajor-
ityofourcustomerssee¼MOAonce
theyfindthebestloadfortheirsetup.
Our accuracy is due to our precise
machining, attention to detail, our
proprietarysteelcorethatlendsitself
to exceptional harmonicdampening
and our carbon-fiber process. Com-
bined,theseyield a verylight, rigid,
accurateandrepeatablebarrel.”
If carbonbarrelsare so great,why
doesn’t everyone use them? That’s
oneI cananswer:They’reexpensive.
CarbonSix says it much moreelo-
quently.“When shouldshooters not
choosea carbonbarrelfortheirneeds?
Whenthecost-to-benefit doesnotfit
theirneeds.Thereisn’tanysituation
[forwhich]our carbonfiber-wrapped
barrelswouldnotbea benefit ofsome
sort.Thatdoesnotmeanthatevery-
onefeelstheaddedcostis worththose
benefits.”
Meh;it’sonlymoney,right?
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BACK TO THE RIFLE
My small-shank Savage action and the super-light barrel went together eas-
ier than peanut butter and jelly; in other words, as if they were made for
each other. I head-spaced the barrel with a set of go/no-go gauges, torqued
the barrel nut and then reassembled the rifl e back in its original Hogue
pillar-bedded stock from the original .308 Norma Magnum build I did a
few years ago. It sounds pretty simple ... because it was.
Then, I added an in-house Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x42mm compact rifl e-
scope, thanks to a Picatinny rail I ran on the long-action Savage, and
headed to the gun range.
AT THE RANGE
Boom! Boom! Boom! The rifl e barked but was much tamer than the .308
Norma Magnum, despite it weighing a few pounds less and switching
from a heavy, varmint-contoured, 26-inch, .30-caliber barrel to a feath-
erlight, #5 contoured, carbon-fi ber, 24-inch barrel (which, by the way,
was threaded for a brake or suppressor by CarbonSix). The muzzle didn’t
jump.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Adjust the optic. Boom! Shoot for group. Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! The 140-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips averaged 3,158 fps
on my chronograph.
The fi rst fi ve-shot group was just a bit under an inch. The second group
was tighter, and the fourth group, which was shot a few days later, was
tight enough—about ½ inch—to give my ammo claustrophobia.
I then fed the .280 Ackley Improved a steady diet of Nebraska’s fi nest:
Hornady’s Precision Hunter 162-grain ELD-X. The Savage spit them out
at 2,866 fps on average across three sets of fi ve-shot groups. For whatever
reason, the rifl e that loved 140-grainers merely liked the 162-grain ELD-
X shooting well under an inch but never as tight as the lighter, Oregon-
born Noslers.
The 7mm Remington Magnum pushes
a 150-grain bullet at 3,050 fps,
while a .280 Ackley Improved can
bush a 140-grain bullet at 3,150 fps.
The .280 Ackley Improved doesn’t
duplicate 7mm Remington Magnum
velocities, but it’s close—and with
far less recoil.
It shot everything sub-MOA without breaking a load development “sweat.”
Things can, and will, get better for this rifl e. However, let’s not lose sight of the
fact that I just took a modern-day bolt-action rifl e, swapped out its barrel and
bolt face and then went and shot a sub-MOA group with two different factory
loads ... with about two hours of disassembly and reassembly work in my garage.
The Savage 110 Series rifl e is a simple, well-engineered tinkering man’s dream
come true. If you have rifl e cartridge “attention defi cit syndrome,” a Savage 110
Series rifl e is a great starter kit to introduce you to the education of rifl e self-
customization. Along the way, you’ll learn all about torque, headspace, bolt face
diameters, cartridge lengths, bullet twist rates, bedding stocks, mounting optics,
etc. In short: A Savage rifl e can be an excellent educational platform for shooters
who want to become intimately involved in making their rifl es personal, better
or just different. That’s valuable to quite a few of us. GDTM
One of the most
unique things
about a Savage
110 Series rifl e is
the fact that head
space is set with
the barrel nut.