Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Hunting and Trapping Fall/Winter 2010/2011

Nope I don't have one, I have 3. And I'm really thinking of buying one more. Savage discontinued making them for 2011. Get one while you still can! That gun is the reason why I'm shooting a muzzleloader - no mandatory daily cleaning.
I can load it down so a slight 10 year old can shoot it and kill a deer at 100 Yds or less without getting beat up by the recoil, or I can load it heavy and shove a bullet with more force than you can with a .458 Win Mag. I can see what I'm shooting at after the shot as well.

Most people buy it because you can shoot smokeless powder, but it works just as well with any of the other BP substitutes or BP itself. Guys are now buying a .45 cal barrel from Pac-Nor (you can swap the barrel yourself if you have a vise and a barrel wrench) and shooting either a saboted .40 cal 200 grain bullet, or resizing a .45 cal 275 grain bullet and shooting it with just a wool wad under it. They are shooting the .40 cal up to 3100 fps, and the .45 around 2750 or so.

My first one was a breeze to get a load dialed in. It took all of 12 shots to get it grouping right around 1" at 100 Yds. This one was a bit more fickle, but before I let Todd borrow it I shot a 3 shot 3/8" x 5/16" c-c group at 100 Yds.

The blued ones (in my opinion) tend to rust quicker than any other blued CF rifle that I own. I have both blued and stainless. Savage did some changes to the 2010 year model, (for the better) so if you can find one of those, get it.

To save you some legwork, if you do get one, use MMP short petal sabots, 250 grain .452" dia bullets (XTP's, Hornady SST's, T/C Shockwave's). I prefer using CCI 209M primers. Try IMR-4759 or Accurate 5744 powder for starters. A standard load has the 250g bullet moving right around 2200-2300 fps. While you can push it faster, and safely, they perform best right around that speed. I know guys that pushed the 250g bullet close to 3,000 fps, but they had terminal performance problems. (the bullets were pushed too fast and blew up on game, rather than penetrating thru)

Pure lead (i.e. soft) bullets don't work well if pushed over 2,000 fps.

If you're going to use smokeless, you really should weigh your powder charges before hitting the field. Volume measurements don't work for smokeless powder.

What did I miss??

Ask Todd how well it works for a person that hasn't had a lot of trigger time with one.