AusVarmint

Thought I would finally post some info on the Savage I bought in 17 HH and how it is performing,


After the 8 month wait the rifle found it's way to me. Lucky I actually thought ahead for once and ordered 100 rounds and put them away well before the rifle arrived as when i picked it up there was no ammunition in the shop.

As most people who have had a look at the Model 25's would know they are by no means the nicest looking rifle around. Ill just give a quick run down of the basic rig for those that have not looked at it yet.
The very large and long rimfire style receiver is 237 mm long, Bolt is jeweled with the savage logo on it. When used to my other type of center fire rifles this one took a bit of getting used to but it work just fine for me. the bolt is a two pice "floating" bolt head that has three locking lugs, plunger type ejector and a claw type extractor. and a low angle bolt lift.
The trigger is Savages Accu Trigger and is quite good, it has the slightest bit of creep but dose not bother me that much. I have not adjusted it as it came out the box set well for me so no need to mess with it.
The barrel is a 24 inch satin blued finish and tapering from around 24.6mm to 18mm at the muzzle with a recessed crown.
Magazine is a 4 round detachable made of polymer that is easy to load and has given me no trouble to date.
The rifle that I ordered was the Walking varmint with the laminated regular styled stock it's fitted with 3 swivel studs and a rubber butt pad. The operation of the rifle is OK the bolt can hang up when chamberibng from time to time but that is more if your trying to be gentle if you gust close the bolt it all works fine. ejection is fine a bit on the light side but it's better than throwing the cases three miles or across the cab.
It is a little rugged but it gets the lob done.


OK enough of the half baked rundown.How dose it shoot!

Well I have been very impressed with the way it shoots.I'm not a bench rest shooter and most all of my shooting is done under the spot light off of a door rest. If I do my part ( which is the inconsistent bit) I can get 3 shots to touch at 100 meters, the bad groups are nearly always under and inch and it's not the rifle that's at fault for those. It shoots really well, the rifle has a nice bit of weight to it and fits me well. It has extremely light felt recoil and no muzzle jump to speak of. So under the spot light you can see every shot hit or miss which is rather helpful on the long shots. If you have never used one of the smaller centerfire 17 then i recon your missing out. I love my HMR but this cartridge and rifle are fast becoming my go to rig. The picture above shows the last group I shot a the range from a bag, It was shott there as no more targets. I just bracketed the crosshairs on the other dots to get point of impact. The rifle is more capable than me, that's for sure.

I have been lucky enough to be able to get out with it on the foxes twice, both times (the first i posted about before Christmas) I was able to take two foxes with it at relatively short range nothing over 100 meters. On my second outing I was able to take a much longer shot on a fox at about 190 meters that was just laying facing away from us occasionally looking over it's solder at us when we put the light on it. I placed the shot on the sholder a sent it. it sprung up to its feet and dropped on the spot. didn't even kick.One very small entry wound and no exit wound. The 20 grain factory ammo is really accurate in this rig and hits hard, much harder than the HMR. so far it is very effective. I plan to try some 25 Grn pills and I also have a heap of 20 grain Berger hollow point to work up a load for.

I am still in the process of working up some hand loads for it, but due to being so cautious with the process this will take a couple more trips to the range i would say. Also a big thanks to those that have helped me out with info and the like to getting started with the hand loads. I will keep on working on these to see if I am able to get it to shoot as tight with the hand loads as the factory.

All in all the rifle is exactly what i was after, i always wanted a 17 AH but the brass forming always put me off. It shoots really well, and fits my shooting style as i hoped it would, it will give me that extra reach out and touch some one ability on the small holdings I go to with minimal noise.

So look out Foxy!

Flip

I was looking at the thumbhole version in the LGS the other day.

Thanks for the report flip
How the report compared to a HMR im looking to trade up from a hmr soon
Keep the pics coming

it's got crack to it. A fair bit more than the pop of the HMR but still a fair bit than the 17 rem.

Flip

I passed by a chance to buy a thumbhole M25 yesterday, for $579, as I just can't like the thing. I'm waiting on a CZ, which I expect by May or June, here in the states. I have stockpiled some brass, ammo and bullets already, and am scrounging data, also. I've got everything except the rifle, and all those are sold out at present.

Apparently CZ sold the initial 800 within two weeks.

There are a few on Gunbroker, at suggested retail PLUS $200, which I think is shameful. I can wait it out for awhile.

I have yet to see a Ruger in .17H Hornet, but not for lack of trying to find one. Oh well, I like the CZs better than the Rugers, anyway.

They sure are a cute little cartridge, and full of promise.

Any more updates or field reports pics of bunnys would be great

I managed to get out on Saturday night for a couple of hours with my cousin. There were a lot of foxes about but super cagey. I missed a long shot at the first one that was spotted before we had even finished getting through the gate. He nailed the second one that came belting in the to whistle. We lost the next couple that moved in to the creek gully system that runs trough the paddock. Then once we got to the bottom fence line we had 4 of the buggers at variousness rangers around us. We started to whistle an before we knew it one popped up out the creek not 40 meters in front of us so the 17HH took him in the head, not the best result as the projectile surfaced splashed and did not give the empathic result that one would expect. So a quick follow up shot finished him. I have encounted this a few times with light ballistic tips in all our various 17's and close ranges, so neck and chest shots only particularly at closer ranges. That's one reason we only use hollows into in the 17rem.

We sat there with the bellows working for anther few minutes and called one of the others back who was dispatched by my cousin. The others that were about moved off. So we started to head back and picked up another in long grass that was mooching about. I had a shot and bloody missed, he took off but as usual stopped at about 150 ish. So he was taken through the neck. This was a much better result as the projectile did not splash on the surface and dropped hin on the spot.

I'll post pictures when I get back to my PC. Haven't worked out how to post pictures from my phone.

No rabbits though mate. We just keep to the foxes.

I'm still working on the hand loads for it, I'm getting close to acceptable groups with a couple of loads. I'm going to switch primers to cci's on the next lot. I've worked up to 10 grains of AR 2205 with out any pressure signs as yet so the testing continues. It was a it on the windy side on the last trip to the range so it made it a little difficult to tell if it was the wind or the load that was causing the groups to open up. Or the nut behind the but. All testing is being carried out at 100 meters

Flip

Went to abelas and had a play with a ruger m77 it so nice a gun I put my name on the waiting list for one in .17 hornady hornet they won't be in till the end of the year but I still grabbed a box of ammo lol cant wait to shoot it