Savage Palma Rifle

J

jim

Member
I'm considering purchasing a Savage Palma rifle in 308 caliber and was wondering if anyone has experience with them in regard to accuracy. Also would be interested from someone who has one what the width of the forearm is and what the diameter of the barrel is at the end.

Thanks a bunch!
 
I have two... one of the first few to come off the production line in 2008, and another one built early this year (they've improved a few small areas in the interim). I should probably mention I shoot on a sponsored team, so take the following for what its worth...

The barrel is a medium Palma contour, with the final muzzle tenon for the front sight measuring ~0.750" as that is probably the most common size for such devices. Before the tenon it's ~0.830". The fore-end is a fuzz under 2.25" wide. The newer ones have better machined bolt heads (no more dished bolt faces from the tumbling/polishing following hardening), but both stocks benefited from being bedded, in my opinion.

The first one gave me fits initially (being the first few of the line, there were some stock inletting issues). Later I had started to get it shooting pretty well, but put it aside to work on other projects. More recently, I've been shooting the second one primarily as... <gasp> a Palma rifle with sling-n-irons ;) and it has been shooting well enough that I think I may have to put the irons on the *other* one and save this one for F/TR! I'm not nearly as hard a holder as folks like German or Jerry, but when the first ten record shots on my last 600yd string were all Xs, even on the 'big' MR-1 target with my wobbly hold... I'd say it's got some serious potential. I'm kind of curious as to what it'd do with a NF BR scope bolted on top...

YMMV,

Monte
 
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Before I purchased a factory Palma rifle, I would look very hard at having Mr. Larry Racine build one for me. He has done a fair amount of work for me on Savages and the work has always been first rate and quick. He has rebarreld three guns for me and build a Palma rifle for me - all are great shooters!!!!

If Mr. Racine builds you a gun it will have a Krieger barrel which I believe should be much better than a factory Savage barrel.

http://www.lprgunsmith.com/lpr_palma_rifle.htm

George
 
I decided to go with the Savage Palma rifle and will be picking it up next week. I'll be using a Sightron SIII in 8x32 on it and am looking at Burris 2 piece base (rear windage adjustable) and Burris Signature extra high rings. I use Signature rings on most everything I have - won't mar scope and all the elevation I want.

What do you think?
 
I've used the Burris Signature Zee rings on most of my Savage target rifles - not my favorite ring design, but they work and give some added flexibility as you mentioned. I'm not a huge fan of the dove-tail front / rear-windage back type bases if I can at all avoid them. I'd suggest a 20 moa one piece rail from EGW or Farrell. If you are shooting long range (past 600yds) you'll probably need at least that much, and if you try shooting the gun as a Palma rifle, the rail should interfere with the rear sight mount less.

Good luck with your new rifle!

Monte
 
Monte - thanks for the advice. I do have a set of Badger high rings that would work with the Sightron scope and a one piece from EGW or Farrell. Do you think with a 20 moa rail I would have any issue with zeroing at 100 yards (too much elevation)?

Thanks
 
I don't know for sure how much windage/elevation adjustment that Sightron scope has, but generally I can get a NF 12-42x zeroed @ 100 without too much trouble and those have about 40-45 moa...

The kicker is whether the scope and barrel are pointing the same general direction. It may sound odd, but some of the more accurate samples I've had were ones that the barrel was pointing a bit off to one side and I either had to use Burris Signature rings to compensate or else burn a lot of windage to zero the scope. That is the one nice bit about the old Redfield-style dovetail mounts like you mentioned originally - you can take care of any problems by tweaking the rear base side screws a little. Either way will work fine. In an ideal world I'd say put the Badger rings you already have on a 20 moa rail and you should be good to go, but in the less-than-perfect real world...

Monte
 
Run the numbers using a ballistics program with the cartridge and load you'll be using and scope height over the bore you'll be using. There are still unknowns of whether the scope elevation range is symmetrical with the scope's tube centerline and if the zero reference for the base wedge is parallel with the bore, but those are usually close. As a rough rule of thumb the range of elevation adjustment of the scope needs to be more than twice the amount of wedge in the base, but that's not exact. Scopes with over 50 MOA of elevation range should be ok. I'd expect a Sightron with a 30mm tube would be OK. Some older benchrest scopes might not.
 
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