TargetTalk

I had a young 4-H shooter come up from the south to practice with us and he brought his Savage FVT rifle. First, I acknowledge it's a beginner rifle.

The issue we had with this rifle is that at 50 yards we could not get the shots to go any lower than the 7 ring on an A-51. We totally bottomed out the rear sight. We moved the target closer and could get it to hit the point of Aim at about 40 feet. This was with several types of ammo ...

I removed both the front and rear sight and checked them out & re-installed to no avail. The rear sight is a Williams peep ... I think standard with this rifle. It appears that the front sight should be shimmed up at least 3/8" to get the rear sight even near the middle of it's movement.

Anyone else have this issue, and what did you do to fix it ... is there a "riser" for the front sight that may correct this?

Right now my fix is to let him borrow one of our CM-2s at the state match next weekend.

To my knowledge Williams makes two dovetail attaching bases (for front globe). A low (.220) which is what is on the 5 mark IIs that I have and a high (.465) base that may be what you are looking for. The rifles I have at 50 meters zero very close to the bottom of the rear sight adjustment (6 to 10 clicks). Also mine are cub models with a 28 inch sight radius and a click is roughly ¼ MOA. When they were new they would not group very well and I was very disappointed but after a few bricks they group just fine with SK+ and make great starter rifles.

If I may, let me introduce myself. I met you out at the women’s JOs. I would like to thank you for your helpful way you conducted yourself as a RO. I was the guy that took the belt sander to the pistol grip of the girl in smallbore shooting a 2213 that was “real close”. We advised her about it before but she didn’t want us to mess up her pretty gun but now that it has its “first dent” we have a green light to take a rasp to it and make it fit her hand better. Also please congratulate Rachel for us, it was great to see her hard work pay off and be recognized.

I remember her! Working the JOs is such a kick. Meeting all the kids and (hopefully) getting them calm and adjusted if their gear is a bit out of whack is one of the things we try and do.

I remember the first time I had to whack on a stock ... my eldest daughters gun ... it was brand new ... almost had a heart attack! Marcus had to remind me "It's a tool, make it fit". Now, it's not even an issue.

Thanks for the advice on the front ramp ... I'll do a quick search at Midway or Brownells to see if I can find the higher one. I'm guessing the factory just installed the lower, but it's pretty poor QC if your rifle cannot get below the 7 out of the box. This was a 4-H County club gun that they got from an NRA grant ... I'll bet the whole group of them are like that.

I can do some checking on ours, as we have run three of them down at the OTC for PTOs and other events. All 3 came from the Friends of the NRA. They seemed to be close to bottoming out if I recall correctly. The biggest mod I would like to do is remove the sling pin location and add a rail for adjustable hand position. Both William and another of my seniors have pushed 50m prone scores into the 550/600 range with that gun shooting SK or a dirivitive of SK. I think that's about the breaking point but realistically if they are shooting that its time to move into something more.

We had the NM 4-H State contests this weekend and I worked the checkin of the rifles ... every single FVT was bottomed out or near it. Pretty poor design/quality check of that front dovetail holder. it could easily be 3/16 - 1/4 inch higher to get those rear sights in the center of movement

USA Midway has this that may do the trick.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/682122 ... inum-matte

I like that it has locking screws to keep it in place.

I had good luck getting small replacement parts for my seven Mk I FVT direct from Williams with a phone call. They provided a bag of screws at no charge. Might give that a try. They provide all the Savage Mk I and II FVT sights, front and rear.

Also I drifted out the post sights on four Stevens Cubs, with a little thin oil and a rubber hammer and plastic drift and a 2x4 support to the barrel. The posts were replaced with the Lyman 17AUG which was a perfect fit for 50-feet 3-P targets. Voila, front and rear diopter/globes for about $37 each for the Lyman 17AUG units.

17AUG available here http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/980340.htm for less.

Mike

ooooh my lack of google sense failed me that day, and it cost me a some bucks... thanks for the info since I will be needing similar parts in the future.

The Numrich sight only comes with 1 insert however.

Mike

We had the same problem. Ours were sooting with a post front sight insert. Switched to the ring front sight insert, which they should have been using any way, and all was good.

A couple of years ago we were using this rifle. We put a Lyman 90 sight on it and it worked fine. Unfortunately these are $100 new....