Classic old late 90's Savage model 110 (but in .308)
#1
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You all have seen my posts over the years about my classic "old school" Savage .308 rifle and the equally old, basic, common, Bushnell 3-9x40 scope (ain't nothing fancy...)
I took a drive up to the big family owned gun shop here in town called Green Top. They've been around for decades here, north of Richmond along Route 1 almost to Ashland, VA along I-95. They started out as a simple mom 'n pop store with a green roof (i.e. Green Top), but grew and grew, and exceeded fire capacity many times in their old building. It was asses & elbows almost every single day. Forget Saturdays, as you wouldn't be able to find a parking spot! They took over the old, abandoned Gander Mountain building, and grew and grew to rival Cabela's & Bass Pro.
Getting to the point: I stopped in there looking at new Vortex scopes, Leupold scopes, etc... to upgrade the old 20+ year old Bushnell. I showed this young kid a photo on my phone as seen below of my 1997 (as per serial# lookup from Savage) Model 110, and the old Bushnell scope. He looked at it, like (W)hiskey (T)ango (F)oxtrot? (Most likely my rifle was probably as old as he was! LOL..) I had to "educate him" on the sad history of Savage back in the 90's where they were faced with Chapter 11...
They took all their rifle stocks, and to save money, they made EVERYTHING long action. 30-06, .270, .308, .243, .25-06, 7mm-08, etc...
For the "short action" rounds, they installed a metal block, in behind the internal magazine, to fill the space. It works well for what it is!
Mine is kind of a hybrid, long action/short action style rifle. I keep my .308 sighted at 1" high at 100 yards. That's good enough for me.
Anyone remember these? If I was to swap out the scope... Vortex Diamondback or Leupold VX Freedom? Hmmm.....
I took a drive up to the big family owned gun shop here in town called Green Top. They've been around for decades here, north of Richmond along Route 1 almost to Ashland, VA along I-95. They started out as a simple mom 'n pop store with a green roof (i.e. Green Top), but grew and grew, and exceeded fire capacity many times in their old building. It was asses & elbows almost every single day. Forget Saturdays, as you wouldn't be able to find a parking spot! They took over the old, abandoned Gander Mountain building, and grew and grew to rival Cabela's & Bass Pro.
Getting to the point: I stopped in there looking at new Vortex scopes, Leupold scopes, etc... to upgrade the old 20+ year old Bushnell. I showed this young kid a photo on my phone as seen below of my 1997 (as per serial# lookup from Savage) Model 110, and the old Bushnell scope. He looked at it, like (W)hiskey (T)ango (F)oxtrot? (Most likely my rifle was probably as old as he was! LOL..) I had to "educate him" on the sad history of Savage back in the 90's where they were faced with Chapter 11...
They took all their rifle stocks, and to save money, they made EVERYTHING long action. 30-06, .270, .308, .243, .25-06, 7mm-08, etc...
For the "short action" rounds, they installed a metal block, in behind the internal magazine, to fill the space. It works well for what it is!
Mine is kind of a hybrid, long action/short action style rifle. I keep my .308 sighted at 1" high at 100 yards. That's good enough for me.
Anyone remember these? If I was to swap out the scope... Vortex Diamondback or Leupold VX Freedom? Hmmm.....
![](https://i.imgur.com/CmDv5zF.jpg)
Last edited by ButchA; 08-19-2024 at 05:53 PM. Reason: Fixed a typo...
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 1,308
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Like looking in the past. My dad had that same rifle. He was always a Savage fan even when they made stuff not so good as usual it was still better than several of the other guys at the time. I know that one of his was pretty strong with around 3/4" 5 shot groups at 100. His favorite Savage model was the old venerable 99. He had a few of them. One was a tack driver the rest were around 1-1.5" which for a lever gun wasn't all that bad. The tack driver was his little .243 which would drive nails at 100. That bugger was pretty close to his most accurate rifles! And he had quite a few one holers. He had smiths from all over asking him what he did to that rifle to make it so accurate. They never believed his answer which was found a load the damn thing liked and kept it clean! Anyway, as far as a scope for your 110, that leupy should be plenty of scope for it.
#4
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Thanks... Yeah, old Savage rifles ain't the prettiest thing out there, but they are TACK DRIVERS! ![S3](https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/images/smilies.orig/s3.gif)
I used to have an old, old, old, Marlin 336 in .30-30 with open sights. Hiked all up and down the Blue Ridge Mtns in Virginia with it. But then, my eyes just weren't what they used to be, so I traded it in for the Savage .308 w/Bushnell scope, and well... there you have it.
Oldtimr --- What do you think? With your expertise... keep on keepin' on with the Savage and old Bushnell scope (still going strong, never lost "zero"), or perhaps upgrade the scope to something more modern? Thinking back, it makes me wonder how many people still go out into the woods with an old .30-30 like I used to back in the day. But then, I love my Savage .308 and how I can get "almost" sub-MOA groupings at 100 yards with it -- and we're talking me here!
![S3](https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/images/smilies.orig/s3.gif)
I used to have an old, old, old, Marlin 336 in .30-30 with open sights. Hiked all up and down the Blue Ridge Mtns in Virginia with it. But then, my eyes just weren't what they used to be, so I traded it in for the Savage .308 w/Bushnell scope, and well... there you have it.
Oldtimr --- What do you think? With your expertise... keep on keepin' on with the Savage and old Bushnell scope (still going strong, never lost "zero"), or perhaps upgrade the scope to something more modern? Thinking back, it makes me wonder how many people still go out into the woods with an old .30-30 like I used to back in the day. But then, I love my Savage .308 and how I can get "almost" sub-MOA groupings at 100 yards with it -- and we're talking me here!
![Big Grin](https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Last edited by ButchA; 08-20-2024 at 12:06 PM.