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Jun 11, 2023

Greg Frey: The Savage 125th anniversary model 110: A rifle worth reloading

Greg Frey When reloading becomes too complicated, just let your daughter’s cat do it for you. In 1894, Arthur Savage produced his first commercial rifle in Utica, New York. The Savage Firearms Company

Greg Frey

When reloading becomes too complicated, just let your daughter’s cat do it for you.

In 1894, Arthur Savage produced his first commercial rifle in Utica, New York. The Savage Firearms Company celebrated that fact in 2019 by creating a piece of rifle artwork known as the 125th Anniversary Model 110. There were only 1,894 of these rifles produced. In form and function, it was, and still is, as close to perfection as you’ll ever get in a factory-made rifle.

I have always loved the Savage company because my first deer rifle was a Model 110, and I hated it. Purchased in 1983 at the Holiday Gas Station in Alpena after perusing through their annual newspaper circular of rifles and shotguns, the 110 had a lightweight birch stock with no checkering and a finish that resembled beef stroganoff spilled on linoleum. It kicked like David Beckham and managed to throw bullets somewhere within a 4-foot radius of wherever the last one fell. None of that was helped by the fact I put $12 see-through Weaver scope mount on it (you never know when your scope will fail and you’ll have to use the open sights beneath it) that caused the shooter to hold their cheek an inch above the stock. Nor was it helped by the fact that as a scrawny 14-year-old, I purchased a .30-06 and quickly became recoil-shy. A local gun shop adjusted the trigger, which allowed the gun to fire when the safety was on, so they adjusted it again to stop that minor inconvenience. By some miracle, I killed my first two deer with the rifle before selling it and buying a Winchester Model 70 in .25-06 and later a Remington Model 7 in 7mm-08.

But everyone loves a comeback story, and as a teacher, I always root for the underdog. That’s Savage. In 1988, as I graduated from Alpena High, Savage dropped to a company low and filed for bankruptcy. In 2002, Savage introduced the first (as far as I know) factory-installed adjustable trigger. It was called the AccuTrigger and if you didn’t mind the look and feel of the little flipper-do that sits in the middle of the trigger, it worked flawlessly. Mind you, this was back in the days when production rifle triggers were inconsistent and awful. You were lucky if through word of mouth you knew a gunsmith who worked out of his garage and who, after signing seven or eight liability waivers, would polish your trigger so that it broke in a crisp, clean manner without putting 8-12 pounds of pressure on it. As far as I’m concerned, that was the beginning of Savage’s climb back into the light. They began producing good-looking, super-accurate, affordable rifles, and I began buying them with great joy and satisfaction.

Which leads us back to the 125th Anniversary Edition Collector’s Model. Balking at the price and afraid to pull the trigger for fear that my wife would leave me, I wisely waited two years to buy one until Savage stopped production, demand increased and the price went up $200. The rifle was chambered in five calibers, including the ever-popular, affordable, readily-available, man-bun hipster cartridge known as the 6.5 Creedmore. But if you own a flagship model Savage, there are really only two choices for caliber — the .250/3000 which, created in 1915, was the first rifle bullet to break the 3,000 feet per second barrier, quickly became known as the .250 Savage and then fell into obscurity when it was out marketed by the .243 Winchester OR the .300 Savage which was invented in 1920 and also overshadowed by Winchester’s creation of the .308 in 1952.

I chose the .300 Savage, which seemed like a good choice until I realized .300 Savage ammunition costs $60 a box. This caused me to take a left turn into the rabbit hole and pull out the RCBS Rock Chucker reloading press I had bought from a friend about 15 years ago on the off-chance I would someday decide to reload my own rifle cartridges. I used to reload shotgun shells when I shot skeet weekly at the Elk Rapids Sportsman’s Club. It was pretty easy with my single stage MEC reloader. Crank the handle down and pop out the primer, slide the bar to the left and dump in a charge of powder, insert a plastic wad and crank the bar down again to seat it, slide the bar to the right and dump in a load of shot, crank the handle down once last time to crimp the shotgun shell closed and voila! You had a ready-made shotgun shell. How hard could it be to reload a rifle cartridge? I already had $75 into my press. I figured I’d put $60 into a tumbler to shine the brass, $40 into a set of dies (those are the two parts that go into the press to fit and shape the specific cartridge you’re reloading) buy some basic powder, bullets and primers, and I’d be off to the races.

Turns out, reloading rifle cartridges is a bit more complicated than reloading shotgun shells. There is no such thing as an all-around powder. There are different powders for different cartridges as well as enough bullet choices to confuse an accountant. There are books with all this data. As in thick, hard-covered ones that cost $50. You have to decide whether you want to tumble your brass in corncob media or walnut shell media. You’ll need to buy case lube, which is different than bullet lube, as well as a pad to spread it on, unless, of course you’d rather buy the spray on version. You can punch out your primers on your press or buy a different, faster tool to do it separately. And you need a scale to measure your powder as well as a powder trickler because each little grain of powder (think grains of coarse-ground pepper) can make a difference. Setting up your scale requires levels and reloading weight check sets that you can’t touch with your fingers because the chemical reaction can contaminate the weights so you use tweezers. Once you’ve watched an hour worth of videos showing you different ways to zero and check your scale, you’ll basically never trust it again.

My friend, Drew Oliver, who also owns a .300 Savage, encouraged me as this would be a joint venture and my other friend (I only have two), Ward Gutknecht, who knows what he’s doing offered a tutorial and helped me select the right powder. But the day before Drew came over to reload with me, I realized I didn’t have a $5 part called a shell holder without which your entire press is useless. I drove out to Cedar Swamp Sporting Goods in Conway, which I had always been afraid to go into because it’s just down the road from a custom motorcycle repair shop that has skeletons sitting on motorcycles. That kind of thing can give you nightmares for weeks. Fortunately, Pat Kline, owner of Cedar Swamp, took mercy on me. He saved me from buying the wrong shell holder and spent over 30 minutes rummaging through his own personal stock of reloading components, setting me up with little items that he would have to reorder and replace for himself. I was touched by his kindness and impressed by the nifty coffee bar in the Cedar Swamp along with all the cool fish and game mounts for sale, which is helpful for those of us who can’t actually catch a mountable trout or walleye on our own.

Long story short, reloading is fun, in the same way solving a Rubik’s Cube or rebuilding a carburetor is fun. At 11 cents for a primer, 75 cents for a raw brass cartridge (better to reuse one you already shot), 44 cents for a basic bullet and 29 cents for powder, you can reload a .300 Savage for $1.59 per round, which makes it about $32 per box, which is much better than $60.

I’ll need to reload at least 10 boxes to break even, and since I only shoot about four rounds a year (three to verify sight in and maybe one on a deer), I’ll never break even. And I’m good with that. Just figuring out how to reload rifle cartridges and reloading an iconic cartridge like a .300 Savage for my 125th Anniversary Collector’s Edition made me feel like I’ve invested in a lifelong mental workout that may hold dementia at bay and is way more satisfying than Sudoku.

With 27 years experience teaching all subjects to fourth and sixth grade students, Greg Frey is a jack of all trades and a master of none. With 52 years experience wandering around in the outdoors, his hunting and fishing skills follow a similar path.

Greg Frey

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