savage customer service/warranty?

[smyrna]

I recently purchased a .243 Win youth bolt action rifle to put back for my son until he's ready to hunt. I bought it through an online dealer and did the FFL transfer thing, so I basically bought it sight unseen except for pictures on the web which I think were "stock" photos anyway. This thing is brand new in the box except I think it's probably "new, old stock" since it is not an accutrigger model.

Anyway, I've had it for about 3 days now and have yet to fire it, so I take it out today and decide to clean it and oil it up. I give it a good going over and that's when I notice that the fit and finish on the fore end of the stock is not the best. "OK, so it's a birch stock, I didn't pay for walnut, so no big deal," I'm thinking. Just for curiosity, I check the free float on the barrel using a piece of paper and my fears are confirmed. Not only does it look bad, the fore end is touching the barrel on one side at the very end of the stock. Aaaaaggggghhhh!

Savage arms is getting a call from me tomorrow and I am just curious if anybody has had any experience dealing with them. Just wanting to know what kind of response to expect.

[gmckinl]

[quote="smyrna"]I recently purchased a .243 Win youth bolt action rifle to put back for my son until he's ready to hunt. quote]

All the following is my opinion, so take it for what it's worth... good on ya mate. that's fantastic, you're a great Dad. But while you are asking about Savage fit/finish issues, remember you get what you pay for. Nice rifle, but it is NOT a M70, M700, or M77. Savage actions are stout though; a good friend proved that out. Fit and finish are, well, what you paid for.

Embrace what you have, a son with a great gift of a rifle from his dad. He'll love it. He should. You did good. Here's my cheers for a great hunting experience over the coming years for you both.

[smyrna]

I recently purchased a .243 Win youth bolt action rifle to put back for my son until he's ready to hunt. quote]

All the following is my opinion, so take it for what it's worth... good on ya mate. that's fantastic, you're a great Dad. But while you are asking about Savage fit/finish issues, remember you get what you pay for. Nice rifle, but it is NOT a M70, M700, or M77. Savage actions are stout though; a good friend proved that out. Fit and finish are, well, what you paid for.

Embrace what you have, a son with a great gift of a rifle from his dad. He'll love it. He should. You did good. Here's my cheers for a great hunting experience over the coming years for you both.

Ouch...I would tend to agree with you but Savage advertises free floated barrels as a standard feature. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to at least swap the stocks. Heck, I even thought about taking sand paper to it and free floating it myself, but I won't do that to a NIB gun. I can't see doing that until they at least have a chance to make it right. I didn't expect the fit and finish of a Remmy BDL, trust me, but this thing is putting some serious pressure on the side of that barrel and I only see it getting worse with temp and humidity changes.

Worst case, they say, "Deal with it" and I look for another stock. Dunno, maybe I expect to much, but I don't think so...

[gmckinl]

I think my post didn’t come across as I intended. I think you did great!

I was trying to say (poorly I guess) that a less-expensive rifle may well not have the fit of pricier ones. For example, my Marlin XL7 has a magazine that blows chow – for me it’s somewhat hard to load as I tend to try to put the cartridges in too far rearwards; on my 2x-3x more expensive Model 70’s there is no issue, they just simply plop into place as they are constrained in both directions by a fitted magazine well. The XL7 has probably a half inch of slop in the magazine area. I’m ok with it, I just deal with it.

I agree/hope that Savage will fix it to comply with the “fully floating” advertisements. If for some reason they don’t, it is easy to fix yourself before resorting to the expense of replacing the stock; I’ve tweaked the barrel fit on a few rifles. As you mentioned, sandpaper will get the job done.

Best of luck to you.

[smyrna]

I think my post didn’t come across as I intended. I think you did great!

No offense taken...Here's the rest of the story. I called Savage this morning and they suggested I fire it and see if the accuracy suffers, or take the action out of the stock and re torque the screws. If that didn't work or improve things, they agreed to look at it on my dime for shipping and assess whether or not there was an issue.

Now in my mind, I'm thinking, "I know what the issue is, and if I send it back on my dime for them to assess the situation, I may very well spend half what a replacement stock would cost only to get the rifle back and them to say that there is no issue." So, I threw carelessness to the wind, went to my shop, got an assortment of sockets that would fit the various round contours of the stock, some 100 grit, and went to town. With some careful eyeballing and measuring, I determined that the half round in the stock where the breech end of the action sat, was left a little high and ever so slightly off center to the right. A little careful re-contouring with sandpaper wrapped around a socket, followed by another sandpaper wrapped socket down the barrel channel trued it right up.

No harm, no foul I guess...