Savage lightweight hunter -thoughts?

[Desk Jockey]

A friend asked me about one and I don’t have any first hand experience.

I have shot a tactical version and it was a laser. I have a generally favorable impression of savage but don’t own or shoot them enough. It seems like they are a good value for the out of the box shooter.

So who is using the light weight Hunter and how is it performing?

 

[Tod osier]

I got my son one - .308. He is a young shooter and we have it braked and he is shooting reduced loads and I cut the stock down. It has shot everything I have put through it well (hornady reduced recoil, regular barnes 150s and my handloads all shoot at or under an inch for 3 shots) and it seems like a nice enough rifle. Function has been good and trigger was easy to adjust down to about 3 pounds and it is good enough. It is a savage for better (accuracy) or worse (aesthetics). Bucks pretty good being so light with regular loads, but it is great for him to shoot with brake and reduced loads. I read that people complained about the roughness working the bolt thought that was kinda a picky complaint for a cheap rifle, but it is amazingly rough and annoying. His is stainless and synthetic - I don't know if I'd get one again for a regular hunting rifle, but it fit my needs of having a very light stainless rifle that I could cut down for a kid. Much nicer than my first rifle .

 

[hflier]

I bought a .308 this year in KUIU camo. I love this rifle, Light, stainless and accurate!


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[Hornseeker]

I've been shooting the 243 a fair bit, admittedly haven't put it through the ringer for accuracy, but its minute of deer for sure! A friend has the 6.5 and is loving it and shooting under an inch quite often off the bench, and he's not a shooter per say.
I really like the handling and feel of the gun. The bolt doesn't bother me and has got smoothed over time. I think working it with some polishing compound would make it nice and smooth. My old rifle had a sticky bolt so this one is actually an improvement.

For the money (get them right now for $640ish with a hundred dollar rebate in December for $540 total, nothing else this light for that price range I don't think.

Good luck!

 

[Hornseeker]

I should add, search this forum for that rifle and there's many pages of opinions. Most are favorable.

 

[Tod osier]

For the money (get them right now for $640ish with a hundred dollar rebate in December for $540 total, nothing else this light for that price range I don't think.

Good luck!

Agree on this - they are a good option when on sale (which happens frequently). Makes sense as a rifle for the 499.99 I paid.

 

[black dawg]

we picked one up at cabelas in 243 a few weeks ago (499 on sale + 10% off that day + 100 savage rebate). Plan on sighting it in this weekend. The rifle will be for my little girls as they each turn 10. The main selling point (besides the deal that I got) was that the rifle is very barrel light.....much easier for smallish girls to be able to shoot off hand.

 

[JeffRaines]

I have one in .270 that is crazy accurate. I'll admit I didn't have high expectations for the pencil barrel but I'll say its one of the most accurate guns I own.

Group size was somewhere under .300.

 

[rileybassman]

I have on in 6.5 - and it is a shooter for sure! Really happy with it.
Agree - when on sale, best value for sure!

 

[mmw194287]

I have one in .270 that is crazy accurate. I'll admit I didn't have high expectations for the pencil barrel but I'll say its one of the most accurate guns I own.

Group size was somewhere under .300.

I just picked up one in .270 at Cabelas on the big discount--this is great to hear. Curious what you're shooting out of it? And what kind of velocities you're getting out of the 20" barrel?

 

[motts]

I've been happy with the accuracy that I've gotten out of mine in .308, but I definitely agree with what others have said about the bolt feeling rough - I attributed it to the edges on the fluting "catching," for lack of a better term, as it's cycled, and it feels like it has gotten a little better with use. Cabela's has a sale plus rebate going on them right now, but they only had the .243 listed - I think it worked out to $400 after the rebate.

 

[FreeRange]

I got one a month ago in 6.5 CM. Read a lot of peoples' thoughts on here and it swayed me to pick one up. Sure the barrel is pretty thin but it's also 20" which really mitigates the issues with the pencil profile "whipping" to a large degree. What you'll give up is velocity but there's some good reading online about how little you're actually giving up.

The gun I previously hunted with most was a T3 7mm Rem Mag with a brake, a somewhat light gun and in that configuration basically zero recoil. The LW Hunter feels like carrying a BB gun after the Tikka and I don't have that light of a scope on it. It still feels balanced and natural to carry which I was worried about with such a light gun. The savage is clunky for sure, I've not had feeding issues thankfully but some have. For what it is, I love it. It shoots 1 MOA with factory ammo (a big advantage of the 6.5 CM that I see is most all factory ammo is pretty quality and shoots decent). Recoil on the 6.5 CM is very minimal and I am recoil sensitive to be sure. This off season I'll be working up some loads for mine to shoot the Barnes LRX 127's, looking forward to getting this rifle dialed I think I can reasonably expect it to be a 5-600yd gun with some work. Out of the box I felt very comfortable out to 400 with factory ammo.

 

[SEtoNWHunter]

Here is my previous review of my LWH: http://www.rokslide.com/forums/firearms/61740-light-cheap-savage-16-lwh-review.html

To add to my previous post, mine ( a.308) shoots anything in 150gr pretty well. The rifle and I especially like 150 gr. Barnes ttsx for hunting and 150 fed blue box for practice. These will shoot right at MOA. I haven't killed anything with it yet but it accompanied me on a week long deer and a portion of an elk hunt this year. My tikka 30-06 happened to be in my hands when I killed my elk but I'm sure the savage LWH would have done the job equally well. It is a joy to carry. I currently have a Leupold 2-7 on mine and the whole package is just over 6lbs

 

[SEtoNWHunter]

Oh, and I mentioned how rough cycling the bolt was out of the box. This has greatly improved. It is now very smooth and runs great

 

[brushape]

I have mine setup with some stock mods and a 2-7 vx2 and it’s barely a hair over 6 pounds. Feels like a toy to carry and accuracy isn’t bad gy


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[brushape]

I have mine setup with some stock mods and a 2-7 vx2 and it’s barely a hair over 6 pounds. Feels like a toy to carry and accuracy isn’t bad. Overall fit and finish isn’t pretty at all and I hate the way the mag snaps in but I got a great deal on it and it’s mainly my atv beat around gun and works great for that


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[Back Country Hunter 2]

I've had no issues with mine. Have a 30-06 and it shoots 165 accubonds great. Done the job on 5 animals so far.

 

[JeffRaines]

I just picked up one in .270 at Cabelas on the big discount--this is great to hear. Curious what you're shooting out of it? And what kind of velocities you're getting out of the 20" barrel?

For some reason I didn't write down the velocities however if I recall it was somewhere around 3k with 130s. Box calls for ~3100 so I wasn't upset with the velocity loss.

As for ammo, its the Swift High Grade with 130 sciroccos.

After I shot those groups I ended up calling Swift and getting the load data for it.

 

[H82miss]

This is a Savage stainless LWH 7mm-08 in a lady hunter stock. Bought it from my friend for my daughter. Shot a few shots at 50 to get it on the paper, then this group at 200 yards. It's a keeper.

 

[peddler]

I bought my wife the Savage Lady Hunter ( Lightweight series ) the first year they offered it which I think was 5 or 6 years ago. I got her the 6.5 Creedmoor, it’s a tack driver and she loves it.