Savage Ultralite Elite

W

William Suter

Well-known member
I looked at one of these today. They are sweet if your looking for a light weight rifle. Without a scope they are right around 5 pounds. Lots of carbon fiber makes for a nice light rifle and if you like chassis rifles it fills the bill. Not cheap but looks like a lot of gun for the money. I thought one might build one cheaper than the asking price.......you can't. If you made the exact copy your money ahead just buying the rifle from Savage. The one I looked at was a 308 and was $2600+tax.
 
I just can't imagine having $3k in a savage rifle. I own a closet full of rifles that are double or triple that cost, so it's not about the cost, its about that level of quality for that $$. I've owned a handful of savage rifles, going back 4 decades, and they shoot, they always shoot, but cycling those actions are like kicking a washing machine down a hill. Fit and finish are what you'd expect for a $500 rifle. I haven't tried this straight pull action yet, haven't handled one, but for $3k, you can buy a nice, slick custom action, (<$1k), a cf barrel (<$1k), the best trigger money can buy (<$300), and spend whatever you want on your stock or chasis, (the hnt26 is around $1,300). If you do it right, wait for sales, buy used parts, etc, you can buy this for the same or less, and if you ever decide to sell those parts, they will hold their value. Will a $3k savage rifle hold it's value? I just don't think so, but time will tell. I am not trying to knock savage, I think they are great, but getting into this class of rifles just doesn't make much sense to me, but I wish them all the luck in the world..
 
Just figure, the chassis and action bought separately would cost that much. Youre getting a free proof barrel thrown in. I built 3 rifles almost exactly like the ultralite elite before these were released, but mine have 16" carbon6 barrels. Lotta money into those guns. And dont care about the savage hate. The guns shoot, and shoot well. Hell ive had 600 dollar savages that could shoot circles around 5k customs my friends bought, with far cheaper / lower mag scopes on my savages. Do my builds shoot any tighter groups than an off the shelf savage? Probably not, at least not enough to matter. But theyre exactly how i want them, so worth the money to me. Nobody makes a factory rifle that is exactly what i want. So i bought savage actions and put my own together.
 
I have had a bunch of Savages through the years and only one had an ejection issue. Granted the actions weren't smooth but they worked and most all shot very good. But up until the last few years a Savage could be bought pretty reasonable. And...you usually got a pretty decent rifle. When the carbon fiber barrels and the tactical stock and fast twist barrels became the craze is when we started seeing considerably higher prices. Hate to say it but its kind of a self inflicted wound. If I could change anything about a Savage it would be to smooth up the action and go back to building a nice accurate rifle with a smoother action. The Ultralite Elite has all the things mention to raise the cost. It is a very nice rifle and what few reviews I watched it has the Savage accuracy. As to the smoother bolt I don't know.
 
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