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Well. I already own 3 Savage MZ's. One is still a stock 50 cal, SS, Laminate. The other 2 I purchased custom made 45 cal barrels and converted them.
I originally purchased the Savage for 4 reasons, safety, no cleaning (almost), cost per shot of smokeless versus T7, 209, Pyrodex and performance that you just can't get from a MZ shooting the traditional black powder substitutes. The savages I purchased met all of those needs just fine. I love those guns and if I had never found out about some custom barrels I would have been a happy camper for a long time.
Fast forward a couple of years and a bunch of very dead deer. I was shooting a 300 gr bullet around 2400 FPS, that equals a lot of recoil. The factory barrel left a little to be desired and meant you needed to work a little bit to find and maintain the accuracy I demanded. It was under 3" at 200 yds but the POI seemed to shift just a little with 20 deg temp swings. This is not unusual for any MZ, smokeless or not.
While there are a lot of bullet choices to shoot from a 50 with a sabot, most of them are NOT suitable at velocities that smokeless pushed them. SST,s, Shockwaves, some XTP's just blow up on impact with any shot under 100 yds. The bullet choice, something with a decent BC, really left me a 300 Gr Barnes Original. These were fairly expensive, not always available from Barnes and the expansion was not as good as I want in a bullet. These were more suited to killing grizzly bears or moose than deer, although they did kill many a deer, never lost one.
Along came the custom barrels that could be made for the Savage both 45 and 50. These are match grade barrels that are extremely smooth and accurate. I converted one of my 50's to a 45. This provided me with a gun that shoots around 2700 FPS ( I could go faster if I wanted), with MUCH less recoil, is sub MOA out to 300 yds, shoots a 195 gr Barnes all copper bullet that is fantastic on deer, even at those velocities it holds together and penetrates very well. Call me silly but I really want to know where my bullet is going if and when I pull the trigger.
The 45 cal also gives me the option of shooting a full bore diameter bullet sabotless. A sabotless load is normally even more accurate than those with sabots. They are not effected by temp swings as much or barrel heat. This is what I will be building with the new build on the 700 ML action
Why do I want to build another one instead of just buying another Savage? Because even as good as the factory Savage is it doesn't give me the performance that I know I can have, Not the Savage or any other factory offered MZ can provide what I know is possible. I can however build the performance I seek with a rather easy build. It just costs money. I could literally sell my Savages, all of them, today by 6 PM if I wanted and not loose a dime on my investment
If you ever get a chance to shoot a custom smokeless MZ, like mine, at the range, I think you would understand.
For the record Savage is continuing production on a limited offering basis this year. Only blued models no stainless for now.
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