If you live in the Northeast, then taking a long shot also usually means taking a long trip. While ranges that reach out to and beyond 1,000 yards are rare in general, there are none more exceptionally rare than the Mifflin County Sportsmen’s Association. The perfect place to take a rifle like the Savage 110 Precision, in .300 PRC.
The Savage 110 Precision
Situated among 400 acres of prime hunting, fishing and shooting land is a 16-position rifle range that extends out to 1,040 yards. The club grounds permit camping, and at least one weekend a year I am proud to call the rifle range my home. I have lost many a day smoking cigars around a campfire with friends. Spending time retelling stories of shots we made and hoping no one remembers the ones we missed.
With good tobacco and the smell of meat slowly smoking behind the firing line, only one item can perfect the experience, a well-built rifle. With more than a half mile, I prefer it as my proving ground for rifles that claim long-range shooting builds. On this particular trip, my test rifle du jourwas a new Savage 110 Precision, this time chambered in none other than .300 PRC.
The .300 PRC (Precision Rifle Cartridge) is yet another modern cartridge that drew its inspiration from a classic, in this case, the .300 Winchester Magnum. While its predecessor was built on a belted case, this modern magnum is built without a belt and indexes on a 30-degree shoulder. This creates less runout and better aligns the bullet in the bore for improved consistency. All the while sending heavy .30-caliber bullets to places they usually don’t go.
Savage is one of the most recent companies to chamber a long-range rifle in this cartridge, and I think they hit it out of the park by expanding the Precision line with this option.
Chassis & More
Savage has dabbled in the chassis rifle realm in the past. With one of the first hits being the Stealth and later the Stealth Evolution. As chassis fever has only intensified, the Massachusetts rifle company continued along that trend and rolled out yet another. This time with the help of Modular Driven Technology, better known as MDT.
When Savage sets a precisely built barreled action into an MDT LSS XL chassis, you have yourself one helluva long-range bomber. And it’s relatively soft on the wallet. Yes, we are talking about a $1,499 MSRP. But don’t forget, you’re getting a rifle that can hit a mile right out of the box for that amount.
Custom Fitting
That money gets you far more than bragging rights, though. Your investment gets you quite a bit of custom fitting. Such as a factory blueprinted action and hand straightened barrel.
Naturally, Savage included its signature AccuTrigger for a crisp, light break that is user adjustable. In testing, we were able to get ours dialed down to just a hair over 1.5 pounds. For those who like to feel a little more interface, twisting the screw the other direction got our sample rifle to just over 4 pounds, which might speak better to hunters or new shooters.
Also adjustable is the comb via a simple set screw system. As well as the length of pull through a series of spacers. As the gun fit me very well straight from the factory, I wasn’t too ambitious to do more than add a scope before getting ready to take that trip. The scope in question was a Riton 4-20x that I had left over from previous work.
The optic was already set into a Warne 20 MOA X-Skel mount. When installed on the Savage included a 20-MOA EBR Rail, so we had an extra 40 MOA of come-up. The Riton still allowed for a 100-yard zero. With all of this adjustment we could reach distances that might challenge the effective range of the mighty .300 PRC.
Running The Hill
After about five hours on the road, we arrived at the range. We quickly set up camp before making our way to the firing line to crank out some group testing before “running the hill.”
Running the hill is a term that we use at Mifflin that refers to building a DOPE chart by engaging each target at their respective 100-yard intervals until we hit out to 1,000 and 1,040 yards. The target area is on a six-degree slope so we call it the hill. Because you will find yourself placing shots at an upward angle at some point during the day.
While shooting uphill presents some challenges, it also has some advantages. Such as being able to easily see a MagnetoSpeed T-1000 target hit indicator. As you are essentially sitting under it, we like to place ours at the 6 o’clock position. We find it produces the best visibility.
Conducting Group Testing
We conducted our group testing from a Bog Pod DeathGrip Tripod, which was a first for me. The short-for-caliber 24-inch barrel made the gun exceptionally easy to balance. Also, the BA brake handled its business regarding recoil as our point of aim barely shifted from shot to shot.
We tested Hornady’s original two offerings of this cartridge that day. The 212-grain Precision Hunter and 225-grain MATCH at 100 yards to find out just how tight this beast would group. For whatever reason, it just did not like the Precision Hunter ammo, as groups were around 3 minutes of angle. However, it certainly performed well with the match ammunition, which produced many three and four-shot one-hole groups.
Our tightest five-shot group measured just 0.76 inches and we saw consistent sub-MOA accuracy all the way out to and including 1,040 yards. Shooting off of the tripod was an absolute dream. It allowed me to occupy space on the range even when every shooting bench was full. And it made shooting uphill far easier than shooting off of a bipod or conventional rest.
Recap of the Day
Our day ended by watching the sun set off into the woods to our left, preparing a fire for dinner and our gear for an evening coyote hunt. But that’s a tale for another day.
Recapping our shooting experience, the consensus was that the Savage Precision is built to be the multi-purpose extended-range rifle of the 110 lineup. While the Long-Range Hunter is built to be superbly light at the cost of accuracy, the Elite is built to deliver 10 shots into the same hole at the expense of weight and another 6 inches of barrel. These qualities make each bookending rifle perfect for a given role, they don’t cross over very well.
I personally am getting to the point where I want fewer guns in my safe. Of course, I will never sacrifice functionality to save a slot or two in a steel box. The Savage 110 Precision delivers that happy medium and gets the job done further than most of us have access to shoot. But hey, that’s why we have cars, cigars and good company.
For more information, please visit SavageArms.com.
This article was originally published in the Tactical Life March 2021 issue. Subscription is available in print and digital editions at OutdoorGroupStore.com. Or call 1-800-284-5668, or email [email protected]
