Savage MKII-FV in Boyd's Evolution stock

Savage MKII-FV is my favorite plinker rifle. It's inexpensive (street price $220-$240), very compact, and a lot of fun to shoot. Because of its compactness, it unobtrusively fits anywhere, and so is a nice rifle to have along on a trip, just in case a target shooting opportunity presents itself.

Its accuracy is reasonable enough so Savage fits it with good quality peep sights, and sells it as a competition rifle for $400.

If you haven't seen my review of it, take a look here.

On the other hand, and the other end of the price spectrum, Savage makes this insanely expensive (and I have to admit it, insanely cool looking rifle), MKII-BSEV.

I liked the looks, but I did not want to pay $250 premium for what, other than the material and the barrel fluting, is exactly the same action in a very fancy stock.

Then I found out that Boyd's sells their stock for $99 on their web site. (You also have to purchase the trigger guard, as the one on MKII-FV is simply molded out of stock). So for under $140, including shipping, I converted my unassuming and cheap FV to this:

I did not bed the stock, just screwed it in. There are no pillars, just wood, so it has to be done carefully, because inletting had made the bearing parts of the stock rather thin. In the future I am going to reinforce this area by bedding.

The scope here is a Bushnell Banner 6-24x44. The rings are Burris Signature Zee rings, with 20MOA compensating insert, ensuring that the the scope is in the middle of its adjustment range at 100 yards.

Then I took it to the range. These are 5-shot groups at 100 yards using Lapua Center-X, a brand that shot the best in the original MKII-FV (1.2" average group). The very first one was quite wide as the barrel was fouling, so I excluded it (it is unmeasured on the target). The rest of the groups were quite good:

So, a new cool-looking rifle and a marginal improvement in accuracy for a low low price of $140 - I say it was a successful project!