Gun Tests magazine tested 308 Win. bolt rifles in the January 2013 issue. Here’s an excerpt of that report, used with permission:
The 308 cartridge lends itself to being chambered in light rifles. The cartridge performs quite well on deer-size animals, and also it’s lots of fun to plink with, given the easy accessibility to inexpensive ammo. For this test we looked at three light 308s. These were a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight Compact ($880), a Savage 11/111 Lightweight Hunter ($899), and a Mossberg 4X4 No. 27656, $471). We were unable to obtain a walnut-stocked Mossberg for a better comparison, but they are offered at $624, quite a jump from the black-plastic-stocked test rifle. We tested with Remington Core-Lokt 150-grain, Winchester Super X 180-grain, and with Remington Core-Lokt 180-grain loads. Here’s what we found with one of the rifles:
Savage 11/111 Lightweight Hunter No. 19209 308 Winchester, $899
We’ve never seen quite as light a 308 rifle as the Savage, though the Kimber might come close. This one was easy to hold with one hand at arm’s length, though we didn’t try shooting it that way. The rifle came full of holes for lightness, and with a twisty-looking bolt, which also cut weight. The rifle had an empty weight, unscoped, of 5.8 pounds. The wood stock was a lesson in how to cut a rifle’s weight, as was the very slim barrel. The wood had vent holes in the bottom of the forend, and it was easy to see lots of the wood inside had been removed. It had two crosspins to avoid splitting.
The 20-inch barrel tapered to 0.564-inch diameter at the muzzle. The bottom metal was matte-black aluminum, as was the base of the magazine. The stock had a good Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad, nicely fitted. The walnut was well checkered in four panels, and there were sling studs fore and aft. There were no provisions for iron sights.
The action also had cuts in it to lose weight. The cuts, which didn’t compromise the integrity of the lockup, were along the left rail, and around the rear bridge. The forward bridge had dual opposing gas ports. The rifle had a detachable magazine that held three rounds. The bolt fluting was stunning, to say the least. The exterior surface of the bolt body was milled with eight grooves 1⁄8-inch wide, cut in a spiral pattern. This took off weight, gave a place for oil to stick, and looked great because the bottoms of the grooves were blued while the bolt body was polished white.
Removing the bolt from the rifle required opening the bolt, pressing the trigger, and then pressing a button in front of the trigger guard to let the bolt out. Reinserting the bolt required pressing the trigger again. The rifle had a three-position tang safety, all the way back to lock, midway to work the bolt, and forward to fire. We liked that safety, its position and quiet operation. The rifle’s trigger was Savage’s AccuTrigger, the best in the business. It was set at just under 3 pounds. The bolt had a recessed face, sliding extractor, and a plunger ejector. Bolt travel was slick and smooth.
The Savage 11/111 also came with Weaver bases attached, which we thought was a mighty nice touch because we like them and use them all the time for testing rifles. This simplified our scope mounting. We had two scopes set up to drop onto this rifle, one a 36-power Lyman target scope, and the other the little 2.5 Weaver we tried on the 375 H&H Winchester Model 70 in a recent test. The little Weaver was our pick, and on it went. We can’t recall a rifle that we were more eager to shoot than this one.
On the range, we found the rifle to be easy to shoot and slick to handle, though the heavier bullets did give us some felt recoil. The good recoil pad made sure the rifle never hurt us. While the dedicated bench experimenter or fun shooter might want a heavier rifle, we thought that for a shot or two at game, this rifle is plenty heavy enough for its power. We found we could load the magazine with it in place, as we could the Mossberg’s magazine, but both were far easier to load when removed from the rifle. The Savage held three in the magazine, and we could load one in the chamber on top of that.
Our Team Said: We found the Savage 11/111 to be a mighty pleasant rifle in all ways. It was necessary to make sure the mag was securely seated and latched into the rifle. Feeding was slick and smooth, as was ejection. The fine trigger made testing this little 308 a happy experience. The rifle gave plenty of accuracy with even the heaviest bullets we tried, so we found the test target that came with the rifle, showing a small group with match ammo, was justified. Although the Winchester was prettier, this one was half a pound lighter. We’d buy this one.
