Until relatively recently, chassis rifles were mostly the expensive playthings of competitive precision shooters. The advantages of chassis over traditional stocks include the ability to adjust weight and balance, fully customize fit, achieve better trigger finger alignment using pistol grips, and attach guns to shooting rests, like tripods, using dovetail Arca rails. The net result is improved long-range performance.

TESTED: Savage Arms 110 Ultralite Elite

Chassis rifles have been gaining popularity with hunters – especially those hunting in the West, where shots can be long – but many chassis guns are simply too heavy for toting into the remote high country.

That’s changing quickly. Manufacturers recognized a shift in attitude by hunters in favor of chassis guns, especially among younger shooters who are more apt to embrace newer technologies. Now the race is on to produce lighter go-anywhere, do-anything chassis guns.

Hornady Precision Hunter ammo produced serious accuracy.

Getting the Weight Out

A case in point is the new Savage 110 Ultralite Elite rifle, which weighs six pounds or less, depending on chambering. The rifle is still built around a strong, time-proven Savage 110 stainless steel action, but that’s where all similarity to previous Savage rifles ends.

Savage cut this rifle’s weight down by lightening the factory-blueprinted action and teaming with industry partners to build the gun with lightweight components. For starters, that includes a stainless steel, carbon fiber-wrapped barrel from Proof Research. The muzzle is threaded (5/8×24) to accept suppressors or muzzle brakes, and comes with an Omniport muzzle brake that helps mitigate recoil.

The folding MDT stock makes the 110 Ultralite Elite highly portable.

Purpose-Built Chassis

The Proof Research barrel is a good start, but what really sets this gun apart is its advanced MDT HNT26 Chassis, which is designed specifically for hunting. It’s made of a magnesium alloy, protected with a gun metal grey Cerakote protective finish, and sports a carbon fiber forend, pistol grip and buttstock. Even the round, replaceable bolt knob is made of carbon fiber.

The carbon fiber forend gives you lots of options for setting the gun up however you wish. M-Lok slots on the top, sides and bottom of the forend make it easy to attach accessories like thermal vision devices, lights and bipods. Happily, the bottom of the forend has a full-length, integral Arca rail for attaching the rifle to a tripod. You also have the option of using provided sling swivel studs or integral QD cups.

I initially thought the smooth surface of the carbon fiber forend might be slippery when wet, but that wasn’t the case. I actually had a slightly better grip on the forend with wet hands. The carbon fiber pistol grip filled my average-sized hand nicely and afforded a consistent trigger pull in a variety of shooting positions. It even has a bit of a rest near the top that’s perfect for resting the thumb of your shooting hand on.

A detachable magazine provides more utility.

Folding, Adjustable Carbon-Fiber Buttstock

The carbon fiber buttstock also sets this rifle apart. It is foam-filled to reduce noise, and is adjustable for length of pull using four provided polymer spacers. You can also adjust the height of the carbon fiber comb, using two set screws, to achieve optimal eye-scope alignment. With the push of a button, you can fold the buttock against the side of the receiver. On my test rifle, equipped with an 18-inch barrel, that reduced overall length from 38.5 inches to about 29 inches. That makes the gun considerably easier to transport and stow.

The action on this rifle is a little different from standard 110 actions. Savage trimmed material from the action to lighten it, and equipped it with a diamond-fluted bolt protected with a black Cerakote finish. The fluting does shave a minimal amount of weight, but it’s primarily a cosmetic upgrade. The rifles uses AICS-style magazines, and comes with a flush-fitting three-round magazine. Others have reported using 10-round magazines with no issues. Functionally, the rifle fed, extracted and ejected without hiccup. Initial bolt cocking is a little stiff, but I did not find that to be a fatal flaw.

M-LOK slots provide accessory attachment points.

Adjustable Trigger

The rifle is, of course, equipped with the bladed Savage AccuTrigger, which is adjustable within a range of 1.5-4 pounds. I measured the factory-set pull weight on my test rifle at 2 pounds, 5 ounces, which is just about perfect for a hunting rifle and a refreshing departure from many factory rifles that seem to have trigger pull weights dictated by lawyers. The trigger broke crisply, with no hint of creep. The gun is equipped with a two-position, tang-mounted safety that locks the bolt down when engaged. I prefer that on hunting rifles to prevent inadvertent opening of the action if the bolt is snagged by brush.

The Ultralite Elite is initially chambered in six popular cartridges. These include 6.5 Creedmoor with 18- or 22-inch barrels, and 308 Win with an 18-inch barrel. Rifles chambered in 6.5 PRC, 7mm PRC, 300 Win Mag and 300 WSM have 20-inch barrels. The rifle sent to me for testing was chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and had an 18-inch barrel. Claimed weight for this gun is approximately 5.8 pounds. I measured the gun’s weight at 5 pounds, 15 ounces, with a factory-installed 20 MOA rail attached to the top of the receiver.

To test the rifle, I mounted one of my favorite scopes for range testing, the Trijicon Credo HX 2.5-15×42 mm. This bulletproof scope is a bit hefty, and brought the rifle’s full-up weight to 7 pounds, 13 ounces. That’s still light enough for most hunting situations, but if I were to use the rifle strictly as a mountain gun, I would likely use a lighter scope.

The Savage 110 Ultralite Elite produced sub-MOA accuracy.

Savage Arms 110 Ultralite Elite: A Sub-MOA Shooter

In accuracy testing, which consisted of shooting three, three-shot groups with five different factory hunting loads, the rifle shot much better than I expected such a light rifle to shoot. The rifle clearly preferred heavier bullets, and all three tested loads using 140- to 143-grain bullets turned in sub-MOA average groups. The star performer was Hornady’s Precision Hunter 143-grain ELD-X load, which printed 0.59-inch average groups and a 0.31-inch best group. Even the two worst-performing loads, using lighter 127-grain and 130-grain bullets, produced average groups measuring less than an inch and half.

In 6.5 Creedmoor chambering, the Hornady load would be my go-to choice for shooting at longer distances, but I would happily hunt with any of the five tested loads in most hunting situations.

Velocities for all five loads, measured over a Garmin Xero C1 Pro chronograph, were a bit slower than factory-stated numbers out of the rifle’s 18-inch barrel. Variations from factory numbers ranged from 77 fps to 131 fps slower, but that was expected from the shorter barrel. Several loads, including the Hornady Precision Hunter load, Federal’s 130-grain Terminal Ascent load and Winchester’s 142-grain AccuBond Long Range load, demonstrated very low numbers for standard deviation and extreme spread.

Competitively Priced

Those numbers are a testament to both the inherent accuracy of the 6.5 Creedmoor and the quality of top factory ammunition, which helped this rifle be all it can be. As it turns out, that’s quite a bit. Savage has upped its game with this rifle and its cutting-edge components, but it doesn’t come cheap. MSRP for the Ultralite Elite is $3,299. That’s a bargain compared to many high-end chassis guns. You can find a few for less, but I have yet to find one of the lower-priced chassis guns that shoots as well as the Savage Arms 110 Ultralite Elite.

For more info, visit savagearms.com.