Savage Rimfires

Picked these two up recently. Top one is a 17 HMR, bottom one a 22lr. Both have DNZ Gamereaper low mounts. 17HMR wears a Bushnell Elite 3-9x40 with Firefly reticle, the .22 a Weaver rimfire 2.5-7x28 with standard crosshair.

5-shot group at 25yds with SK subsonics, 40gr @ 1040 fps


5-shot group with same at 50 yds, roughly 5/8".   I moved the POI left and shot several more groups that were centered, all 3/8-5/8".


I tried a group at 100 yds which turned out to be for entertainment purposes only and a picture of it will not be posted on a public forum. It was close to 3" vertically by about a 1/4" wide and 7-8" low.

This load's final zero was at 43 yds, which theoretically gives a POI of slightly less than 1/4" above or below POA from about 15-50 yds. I think that's pretty practical for a .22lr.

For the 17, this is a 5-shot group at 100 yds with Hornady 17gr V-max at about 2525 fps. The 5 black pasties you see are covering the holes from the first magazine as I walked them singly from left to right and up, then started shooting groups.


As you can see from the tape, the rifle/round combo is capable of good accuracy.


Final zero was at 93 yards, for a theoretical POI of within 1/4" above or below POA from about 35-105 yds. Sounds about right for what I might see in Texas that a 17 can handle and picks up where the .22 left off. Of course, if you open that MPBR up a little, you can get out quite a bit further, but I'm going to stick at about 100 yds or so for now. Groups at 100 yds averaged an inch or less, except when the guy on the indoor range fired at the same time I did and sent one round AWOL.

POI at 25, 50, 75, and 100.





The impacts at 50 and 75 should theoretically be a little higher, but being off on some numbers, the exact zero, or (of course) the actual shooting can throw a wrench into the theoretical works. I'll recheck it in another range session and police things up a little.

Bottom line: pleased with the rifles, mounts, scopes, and ammo. And since last indoor range day was with the 375 Ruger shaking the walls, I'm happy to have had a pleasant, relaxing day with no one yelling, "What the @"?* are you shooting??!!!"

Comments and suggestions for how to get the most out of these rifles?

Keep shooting.

It makes sense to me for what I'm doing with some of my rifles.

What scope are you using?

Suggestions for care/maintenance other than clean when dirty?

For that rifle I use the cheapest scope in my collection a tasco varmint scope i think it is a 4-14 mil-dot and it is just wonderful for that rifle in the 93vbss blah blah blah stainless non accutrigger 5 shot bull barrel.

i have been eyeing up these savages for some time now an it keeps getting put on the backburner! Only bad thing about them is the magazines suck.

we have 3 of the 17HMR.. all a bit different and all are shooters.  I have a Redfield Golden 5-Star 4-12x40AO on mine... works great.  I can aim at the head of a tree rat from 10-100 yds and its pretty much toast!

speaking of tree rats... season closed last Thursday 

jselsor wrote: i have been eyeing up these savages for some time now an it keeps getting put on the backburner! Only bad thing about them is the magazines suck.   i am intrigued by the 17hmr, very neat caliber and very accurate.   nice shooting

The older Savages use the same magazine the Anschutz. To bad they had to change a good thing.

jselsor-- thanks.

I hadn't planned on getting one yet, either, and I'd read the same thing about the magazines. Problem was the rifles were disappearing. When I went to pick up a 25-06 I'd ordered, the dealer was saying he couldn't get .22s or .17s anywhere, and I saw Davidson's inventory had drastically decreased. I would think supply will catch up sometime soon, but you never know.

The .17 came with a 5-rd mag, the .22 with a 10. Both feel solid, not like I'd read them described, and the feed lips were not flimsy. I had no problems with either.

Tip69-- Have you had a chance to use the Redfield in low light? I'm looking for another scope for a friend's rimfire, and I haven't looked at the Redfields. Any further info/ review would be appreciated. Do you remember your initial sight-in distance?

338LS-- was that an Accutrigger you reworked? The pulls on mine feel pretty good, but a little lighter on the .17 would be even better. My left-handed brain is not very mechanically-inclined; was it pretty simple, or is that something I should leave to a smith?

Thanks, guys. The feedback was very helpful.