Alright, I bought a bunch of expensive ammo like Eley Match and Federal Gold Medal and headed to the range. I have a large stash of CCI Standard so I brought that too.

The expensive ammo was a waste and shot 2MOA or larger groups. CCI did pretty okay.


I'd like to get a heavier, more rigid stock, and improve the trigger. I know about Boyds Varmint and Shooters Specialties. Any other options?


Opinions on Rifle Basix RAT vs. the Apachee kit for trigger?


I definitely need a different scope as the Weaver would not focus properly for my eyes at 50 yards, I need parallax adjustment.


Also, I noticed that the bore had a decent amount of unburnt powder after firing a shot. I can't help but think the granules affect the accuracy of the next shot. Other than lceaning the bore each time I fire is there a way to avoid this? Will a silencer help? I can attach my Warlock.


Am I wasting my time with the FVSR? I have a Savage MKII BV a while back and it seemed to shoot the expensive ammo in much tighter groups, like .5-.8MOA average.

Here is a group from the Savage BV I had before. It was with Federal Gold Medal Match and a 4x scope at 50 yards. I'd love to get this kind of performance from the FVSR:




Here is a pic of the BV (not mine):



The new owner of the BV graciously offered to sell it back to me, and I will take him up on that, but can I get the FVSR to shoot like that somehow?

and you sold it? good luck finding ANY other rifle that will do that.

I'm buying it back, and the guy saw the picture of that group. He said he hasn't fired it since he bought it from me

 
You know what else? I still have three boxes of that lot of Federal Gold Medal.

For starters you need to carefully clean your bore using a bore guide. Then shoot 8-10 rounds to wax your bore, now it's ready for group testing.  When you try to shoot match ammo like eley after shooting non match ammo you create funky lead buggers in your bore.  That is why it shot is well to start with then accuracy fell off. Next I would at least glass bed the stock, even if you don't pillar, it will help.  Even custom rifles will shoot terrible changing ammo back and forth.   The plated bullets lead up the bore bad.   The dirty crap you see in the bore is just how rimfires are.  All that crap, unburned powder and priming compound is pushed out in front of the bullet every shot, and with good match ammo like eley or lapua every shot will lay down a new coat of wax behind it.  Some sort of wind flags are needed for one hole groups, a slight wind change will move a 22 bullet a lot at 50yds.  I have the same rifle and I shoot the cheap eley club through it.  I have custom built rimfires and I know the limits of my little savage. They are great little rifles but you are never going to get one to shoot consistent groups like the one you posted, like in ten 5 shot groups in a row.   They just are not made for that.   If anyone has one that does,  I strongly suggest you hit the ARA of PSL circuit with it and make some money.  I'd say a 4x16 or a 6x20 scope would fit the rifle well.

Good tips, thanks.

 



What cleaning procedure and tools do you recommend?






I've never glass bedded a stock and I kind of feel like the factory plastic stock isn't worth that effort, but maybe a Boyd's or similar.






My friend makes some pretty cool wind meters, and when I shot air rifle benchrest I would use flags. Here is his invention:









I would be happy if I could consistently get in the .4xx" range with CTC group measurements.






This is at 25 yards, all five shot groups. This is what I'm used to shooting using air rifle in .22 cal off front and rear bags(and the best I ever did was 3rd at a local match with about 40 shooters):







 
 

It's good that you're getting the BV back. Any time I dial in a new rimfire I like to use a known firearm as a test bed. I take both of them to the range at the same time and use the "known performing rifle" as a standard to go by.

A chronograph is your friend.I like to shoot a test group (20 shots) with the known rifle over a chronograph. The shoot 20-shots using the same ammo in the new rifle I'm dialing in. Not really looking for groups, I'm looking at the sd and extreme spread. If you're using/testing with a quality ammo the sd's should be extremely close in every firearm it's used in. Several years back (2008) I came across a lot of sk+ that had a sd in low 20's. It wasn't extremely accurate but it was very consistent for low grade match ammo. So I bought a case of that lot specifically for testing/dialing in rimfires.

I'd take a known performing rifle and whatever I was dialing in to the range and shoot that lot of sk+ over a chronograph with both rifles. More often than not the new rifle being dialed in would have a high sd. That told me I wasn't getting consistent firing pin hits which ='s no consistent ignition which ='s no accuracy. I'd do this with any rifle/pistol/rimfire firearm I wanted to dial in. If I wasn't getting consistent ignition everything else is meaningless.

Unburnt powder in a rimfire is a sign of inconsistent ignition. Having 2 rifles shooting the same ammo within minutes of each other is a huge help. Unburnt in 1 and not the other is a tell tail sign.

The other thing I always liked to do was use the Russian Vostok rimfire ammo as a test ammo when I worked on my fp hits. The Vostok amm is known for being extremely hard brass and tons of people that bought it had problems with it not going bang when they hit the loud button. I bought 3 cases of it to use in my Russian 25m sport pistol and 50m free pistol. Those russian pistols have no problem igniting the vostok ammo. Anyway after re-working a bolt on a firearm I'm dialing in I use the Vostok ammo to test the fp hits. Here's what a cz lux's fp hit looked like after re-working the bolt.



Re-worked the bolt & fp on a ruger 10/22



What fp hits look like after the 10-22's bolt and fp looked like on the Vostok ammo.



Once I know I have consistent ignition I then can start chasing my tail looking for accuracy. Typically I always start out @ 25yds and shoot 5-shot groups. Why 25yds???  I'm looking for round tight groups, wind doesn't come into play as much @25yds. Not only am I dialing the scope and trigger in when shooting @25yds, the chronograph is still giving me info. I also dial in the stock/receiver screw torque's @25yds. If I get vertacle stringing @25yds it's telling me my hold down screws are to tight. Horizontal strings ='s too loose. Dialing in a anschutz, that the hold down screws too tight.



If it doesn't matter what torque you use on your hold down screws then you need to put a piece of rubber or a thin strip (1/4") paper in the forend to put upward pressure on the bbl. You want the strip of rubber (I use a 1/4" wide rubber band) or 1/4" strip of paper to be long enough to go the width of the bbl channel. I doesn't matter if it hangs out both sides, it just has to cradle the bbl holding it in place. If your groups tighten up and are round after using a shim in the forend, that's telling you that the stock either needs bedded or replaced.

Anyway that's what I do.
Test for consistent ignition
Test for mechanical fit and hold down
Then test ammo for accuracy.

Typically I can shrink groups by 40% by doing what I described above. When I started out with that cz lux it was shooting right around .250", 1/4" average for 4 5-shot groups @ 25yds. After the re-work typical 25yd targets look like this.



Same ammo/cz lux combo @50yds. NOTE: the mm measurement on the taget has nothing to do with making anything different that what it is. A test target. They have a 50yd 13mm game on another website and I shot this target to enter it in that game. Hense, the inch to mm conversion.

Fantastic post. I'm going to re-read a few times to digest. Thanks a bunch!

 

I put a Boyd's tacticool on mine and went ahead and pillar bedded it while I was at it. It shoots great with wolf/Lapua/CCI Std. Having parallax control is key. I think I could shrink the groups a bit more with a slightly better trigger, but I'm pretty happy with it now.

I am getting minute of chipmunk from 10-50 yards with RWS subs out of the box.  I think that each rifle likes its own flavor and while I plan to get a Boyds stock, I tested a number of different ammo and cheap CCI Blazer HP actually bested some match ammo I've stocked up on.  Play around since it's fun to shoot stuff

My FV-SR shoots poorly with any low-velocity subsonic or "quiet" ammo.  Which is kind of funny considering it is marketed as suppressor ready.

I had mine out this week.  I resorted to shooting acorns off my stand at 50yds.  These are fun rifles.  Mine is suppressed 98% of the time.  Wolf gets the best groups but only slightly over CCI SV so, I shoot CCI a lot.  I have only cleaned it twice and found the groups open up right after cleaning.  100 rounds or so and it is good to go.  I did the bottom metal upgrade, bedded a Boyds rimfire hunter and did a pour of JB Weld in the bottom to strengthen it instead of pillars.  

I am interested in triggers people have upgraded to also.

Mine is stupid accurate with CCI and RWS subs.  If you've tried these I would contact Savage. Only thing it doesn't like is Aguila SSS 60 grain.  Which is disappointing but given the twist rate is expected.  I wish they did a 1:9 so you could go heavier.

My Ruger American Rimfire is ridiculously picky about subsonics.  It only likes a few of them.    I shot some Aquila Super-Colibri last week (not really a subsonic, more like a gallery round) and it strung them vertically over 6" at 25 yards.  ha


the CCI quiet, Remington subsonic and even an Eley subsonic were 1/2-1" at 25 yards.  

It liked the CCI green tag precision, not a labeled sub round but still flies subsonic.

I've got a FV-SR in a Rhineland Scorpion stock (not bedded) with the Apachee trigger kit and an Athlon Argos 6-24 scope. I took it out today to do a tracking test on the scope and it shot like crap with CCI Quiet. I switched to Eley Target and holy crap, the groups tightened up. I could only shoot 25yds today and was shooting off a bag and the scope had a bubble level on it. The best out of five 5-shot groups measured .35" edge to edge with calipers, which would be .13 center to center. I'm real happy with the setup and the Eley. Try random ammo and you should find something that makes yours shoot like a laser.

Attached File

Nice group! I've got an Apache trigger around somewhere I should install.

I really like it. The only problem is the Accutrigger blade spring is too heavy so if I have the trigger set too light it feels like a long double action pull. I can't? feel the breaking point. I need to try the Bic lighter spring trick on the blade. I'm also toying with the idea of taking a barrel bedding block/clamp and free floating the barrel and action. I have a spare 513t stock laying around that would work with some inletting. That's a idea for another thread I guess.