Savage Model 11 Hog Hunter .223
Good Friday presented an opportunity to skip out of work a little early and head to the range. I was invited to visit the new COOP range that was recently opened in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex is a joint project between the US Army, El Paso County, the El Paso County Sheriff, and the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife.
Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex
Most of the other ranges in the area at least 30 to 45 minutes outside of town. The Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex is a quick 5 minutes south of Colorado Springs and right off the main highway making this range a welcome addition to the local options. In addition this range offers distances ranging from 25 to 1000 yards.
Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex
I was impressed with the friendliness and professionalism of the staff as well as the overall layout and condition of the complex. As they say, a bad day shooting beats a good day at the office.
And so as the invitation was extended to visit Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex, the Savage Hog Hunter was pulled from the safe and prepped for an informal range report.
Notice the black steel target @ 450 yds. Left of the furthest orange chevron
The Hog Hunter has been somewhat of an interesting build that has taken much longer than originally anticipated. When the rifle was originally dropped off it was new in the box. The initial inspection was, well, not too good. There was visible rust on the action as well as around the scope mount screw holes. After pulling the plugs out of the receiver it was noted that the rust had taken home under the plugs. The owner decided to return the Hog Hunter to Savage since it was brand new. After three-weeks the rifle was returned rust free with the scope mount holes re-threaded and an EGW scope rail mounted. Savage held true to the statement ‘it’s not the mistake that’s made but how the mistake is handled’. In this case Savage went above and beyond to right a wrong. Considering the political climate the turn around time was super fast and the gifting of an EGW scope rail was unexpected.
The next unfortunate mishap happened after the owner dropped off the scope that is to be mounted to this build. The scope was a Falcon Menace 6x18x56. The exterior of the scope looked like it had just been pulled from the box. However, a quick glance through the tube exposed a shattered internal lens. The owner was in shock stating that the scope had been in his safe unused for two-years. We spent a few minutes discussing other optic options and it was decided he would try to contact Falcon for a replacement. His first attempt was to go straight to Falcon. Unfortunately their response was to not send it to them but to send it back to the distributor where he originally purchased the scope. The scope was acquired via a group buy on a forum so he didn’t get his hopes up and figured he had a $400 paperweight at best. He contacted Annie’s Gun Shop in California who had initiated the group buy. Martin, one of the owners responded to his email suggesting he send the scope to him and he would engage with Falcon to fix the issue. Excited, but skeptical, he sent the scope to Martin. We again discussed other optic options and started to narrow down a nice replacement. Less than two weeks after the scope was sent to Martin, a new in the box Falcon Menace arrived at his house. Surprisingly, Martin replaced the 6x18x56 Menace with Falcon Optics new 4-14×44 Front Focal Plane (FFP) scope. “Hats off” to Martin, Annie’s Gun Shop, and Falcon Optics for standing behind the limited lifetime warranty.
Because the goal of this project is to document and test the upgrades specified by the owner we needed a base line to test against. To get an out-of-the box baseline for the Hog Hunter an EGW scope mount, Burris Xtreme Tactical scope rings, the Meanace 4-14×44 FFP scope, and a Harris 6″-9″ bipod were installed on the rifle.
Breaking in the barrel would be a great chance to get a baseline to see how the Hog Hunter will preform out of the box. A total of 20 rounds were shot which is less than planned only because the range closed and we ran out of time.
To break in the barrel “off the shelf” (pre-political climate statement) Remington 55 grain rounds were used. Because time was short, the Hog Hunter was shot using the bipod and a rear bag. The next range report will include a shooting rest to provide a stable and repeatable shooting platform.
Last three shots of the day. Group was getting much tighter at 100 yds.
As you can see from the target above the last three shots were pretty tightly grouped at 100 yards. With the help of a shooting rest and a better load, the Hog Hunter should be able to produce great out of the box groups.
The overall sentiment of the Savage Model 11 Hog Hunter at this point is, impressive! The trigger pull needs to be lightened a bit, the “tupperware” stock flexed terribly when simply moving the rifle to get on target, and the bolt handle is a little short and tight to the scope. The rifle could also benefit from a little higher comb and more of a “pistol grip” style stock/grip.
As seen in photos of the Hog Hunter the Harris bipod legs are fully extended. Just for fun we were engaging the steel target at 450 yds. as “cease fire” was called out by the RSO (range safety officer). With any luck our next range report will hopefully include a report of a few “pings” on steel.
