I finally picked up my Savage 12LRPV in .22-250 Rem. today. It seemed like it took forever to arrive. Now I can hold and admire it all I want. I have plenty of time to look it over, so here are some of my opinions and things I noticed.

The 12LRPV is extremely heavy, weighing in at 12 lbs. stripped, most of this weight is in the barrel. The barrel is 26", has a straight contour, and is a full 1" in diameter; most varmint guns have barrels that measure about .820" or less at the muzzle. Most .22-250s usually have a 1:14" twist in the barrel, this one has a 1:12" twist for better stabilization of slightly heavier bullets. The barrel is also fully free-floated, so none of it is in contact with the stock, eliminating pressure points. As you can guess, this is not a gun to carry around if you like to cover a lot of ground on your feet. Off of a bipod or sandbag, though, the barrel-heaviness of this gun should decrease the normal muzzle jump of a .22-250 substantially. The barrel of this gun is also extremely smooth, with no machining marks on the crown or rifling. The barrel looks like quality, and had better be, for $950.

The stock is an HS-Precision, hence the name "Long Range Precision", and is made off an extremely durable material. The action is bedded to a full-length aluminum bedding block in the stock with triple pillar bedding. The three screws run through the aluminum and pull the action down on top of it, so there is metal-on-metal contact, and no stress on the stock itself. The choice of composite is designed for performance, not for looks. Wood may warp or change with temperature or humidity changes, composite will not. Unlike most other composite stocks, the feel is not smooth, but lightly textured (not checkered) over the whole stock, giving your hands a relatively good grip. I took a Harris bipod off of my Remington 700 BDL varmint in .222 Rem. and installed on this gun. The bipod fits nicely on the beavertail forend. The only real peeve I have about this stock is the fact it only has one bipod/sling stud, whereas almost all of the other HS stocks have both a bipod and a sling stud. This really is not a big issue, due to the fact that most bipods have a place to mount sling swivels on them.

The action is beefy, with an extremely oversized bolt handle for fast acquisition. The action also makes the gun more of a bipod or benchrest gun, as the bolt handle is on the right and the ejection/loading port is on the left. The bolt can be worked with one hand, while the other hand inserts a cartridge (if the gun is on a bipod, etc.). The ejection/loading port is also only as large as it needs to be in order to accommodate the ammo, increasing the stiffness of the action. The stiffness of the action is also increased due to the fact that this gun is a single shot, with no detachable magazine. If you make the first shot count, you won't need a second, and this gun looks plenty capable.

I still need to buy a scope for this gun, so I haven't been able to evaluate performance yet. I'm going to get a Leupold VX-III 6.5-20x50mm with 30mm tube and the Varmint Hunter's Reticle. I'll update this review once I get the scope and shoot the 12LRPV.

The Talley one-piece scope rings finally came in and I mounted the scope on the gun almost immediately. The receiver of the rifle and the bottoms of the bases were cleaned with acetone, and Loc-Tite was applied to the mounting screws and the bottoms of the bases. We adjusted the scope for eye-relief, leveled the crosshairs, tightened everything down, and bore-sighted it. By 6:30pm we were ready for evaluation.

I had some cheap starter handloads given to me by my buddy Eric to break in the gun and get on paper with: Win 55gr SPs in Win cases loaded with 33.9gr of IMR 4895 and CCI 200 primers. The overall length of the cartridge was 2.355". If I can help it, this gun will never get factory loads fed through it.

It took me 3 shots to get on target at 25 yds., and then we moved the target out to 110yds. and 3-shot groups were fired. Scope adjustment were made throughout.

1st 3-shot group @ 110 yds: 0.844 "		2nd 3-shot group @ 110 yds: 0.875"

After 11 shots had been fired, I had made some deductions, I am going to need a pivoting Harris bipod instead of a fixed; and either I really need to fiddle around with loads to come up with a really accurate one, or the barrel hasn't broken in yet.

I also cleaned the gun very well after these shots had been fired as part of the break-in process.