New Savage .17 Hornet ...FAIL!

Originally Posted By: In2b8u
Its a new round, in a new gun consider yourselves pioneers for the moment.......


Nothing "NEW" about the round. It's been around under another name for 50+ years.
It is indeed a new (unproven) rifle though.
Doing Savages' product research and QC on your dime hardly qualifies as "pioneering" IMO.
Bottom line is, they were several months late getting this platform to the public and in their haste, released a rifle that still needed allot of R&D. You can spin it any way you like but the reports of problems with this rifle/cartridge combo are just to numerous to ignore or excuse.
Ruger and CZ on the other hand, are reported to be working fine with this "new" round..
JMO YMMV etc etc
 
UPDATE!

I called Savage this morning and explained the problem. Without even asking, they arranged for UPS to pick the rifle up at my house and have it shipped back at their expense. The lady I spoke to on the phone was polite and concerned. She stated it would have to be evaluated by one of the gunsmiths but that with so much damage I may just be getting a brand nib rifle.

This level of customer service really put me at ease, as I had been sweating it all weekend. Hopefully will be back out there soon!
 
I'll hopefully pick my new rifle up tomorrow night. I'll try and get a review put up under this post if that's alright.(Later this week)I might need some help posting up pictures since I'll probably be posting from my phone.
 
Hornady has also asked that I return all my ammo for evaluation and replacement. If they find something wrong with it, I will post the lot #
 
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Alright gang, please bear with me because I'm posting from my phone. This is my unbiased review of Savage's model 25 rifle in 17 hornet. As I had previously posted, I had already requested the walking varminter kodel from my ffl and he finally got one in. Upon initial inspection of the rifle I was extremely disappointed with the sloppy action. I then looked down the barrel channel and the stock literally looked like a "squiggly line." Having owned several savages in the past, this is by far the worst stock I've ever seen on any production rifle. All together for around $500, this was the poorest rifle I've seen at that price point. At this point I was hoping I could somehow work a different deal with my ffl; which he was happy to do (whew!).
I had already purchased 250 rounds of 17 hornet ammo last November and so I was in a bit of a pickle. Luckily my ffl/lgs happened to have a model 25 lightweight varmint (not light at all). Upon examination I found the action on this rifle featured a nice jeweled bolt and seemed far more refined. It also has a nice solid laminate stock. I figured this rifle was worth a shot and my dealer gave me a great price on this rifle.
Once I got my new 25 varmint home I ran a patch down the bore to remove any machining residue and stepped outdoors, loaded up the mag and cycled/fired the mag.(Love living in the country) It cycled and fired satisfactorily.
I then treated the bore with wipeout while mounting a scope, a sightron sii 3.5-10x42 big sky. I ran into my first complaint about this rifle at this point. The supplied bases(weaver) were almost too far apart to mount the scope comfortably for eye relief. I prefer a scope far forward, nose to charging handle if you will,and the distance between base spacing was approximately 1/2" to long (at the scope bell). Obviously this is fixed by a one piece base, but was annoying given the circumstance. Btw, the scope was mounted in warn rings.
After patching the bore out, I removed the stock and lightened the accu-trigger, reinstalled the stock, and I was off to my range.
I fired 3 fouling/ getting on paper shots and fired my first 3 shot group at 100 yards. I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking (hopefully they work) but needless to say I was blown away. I don't know that I've fired a more accurate rifle.
Gun on bench
http://m1330.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/glodowskikj/20130512_163223_zps309ae48e.jpg.html?o=5
Pic of range with gun

http://m1330.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/glodowskikj/20130512_165822_zpsca3db48a.jpg.html?o=1

Through scope pic

http://m1330.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/glodowskikj/20130512_163252_zps064e81f2.jpg.html?o=4

First group

http://m1330.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/glodowskikj/20130512_164156_zps854da890.jpg.html?o=3

Second group (Holy sheet!)

http://m1330.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/glodowskikj/20130512_165448_zps7a18974a.jpg.html?o=2
 
I called it good at that point, I was aiming at that orange 1" square and was off to the prarie dog town because I couldn't wait to wring this gun out. I didn't keep exact numbers on my hit ratio but I believe I only missed once in approximately 13-15 rounds. I have pics of the carnage but due to the graphic nature, am declining to share. As I was gathering my brass accidentally touched this guy and he tried to touch me back. One more for the hornet.


http://m1330.photobucket.com/albumview/a...g.html?newest=1

In summary, I only had one partial failure to eject which could have been my fault in the 29 rounds I ran through the rifle. One other complaint I have is that it is almost impossible to singularly load cartridges into the chamber. They literally have to be loaded in the magazine and cycled. Draw your own conclusions from my review and I'll try to answers any questions.
 
Couple things I realized I omitted;was shooting factory 20 grain hornady superformance. Range conditions were spectacular for the first time in forever; roughly 80 degrees and winds at 2-3 mph. Also, the high hit from my first group was my first shot, I may have been a little ancy since I haven't been to the range for awhile due to weather.
 
I'm brand new to the forum and glad to see others have an interest in the .17 Hornet. I wanted to share my experience with my Savage Model 25 in .22 Hornet. Both hornet configurations share the same bolt and action and the only difference is the barrel chambering. So, presumably, the issues I have had with my .22 hornet should be the same as with your .17

I will start by saying about three years ago I almost totally converted my hunting rifles to Savage. I have a Savage .22lr, .22 magnum, and .223 all of which are superb rifles. I needed something more than a .22 magnum, but less than a .223, for all the raccoons we have at the family ranch. I settled on a .22 Hornet and after all the terrible Ruger reviews, I decided to go with the Savage model 25.

Immediately I had problems. Most notably were severe extractions and feeding issues. Both the .17 and the .22 have a "lip" that extends beyond the crown and every third round would get stuck outside the lip and not enter the barrel. The other issue was failure to extract AFTER firing; the empty case would just "fall" off the bolt face and land on top of the next round. I would literally have to turn the rifle 90 degrees to dump the round out. I had to send it to Savage TWICE to resolve the issue and STILL have the same problems. They told me they revised the bullet ramp and replaced the extractor spring from the original one, but neither did anything to help. They did change the angle of the bullet ramp on the magazine, which has helped some, but not that much. I've just decided that my hornet is an incredible single shot rifle.

After hearing all your issues, I've decided to go with Ruger's setup. I'd rather risk accuracy issues that can be fixed versus a gun that jams all the time. Savage's engineers really screwed the pooch on designing the 25.
 
Went to the range yesterday and ran my hand loads and factory threw the rifle....not one hick up or problem. I posted in the reloading section my results. I like the rifle. When I bought it I didn't think it would run like a 3000 dollar custom or even a really nice factory. I could tell how it would feel at the counter of the gun shop shot fine at the range and my money is well spent.
 
Update!

Got a call from Savage this morning and the new rifle is shipping back to the house today. Not bad seeing that they received it on May 15, 2013. They stated that they could not find evidence of the rifle failing and stated it was the Hornady ammo. Now if only I can get replacement ammo from Hornady I would be good to go.
 
Update on my rifle too...lol. The big brown truck showed up yesterday with a package from Savage. Oh boy... range day tomorrow. Well today is tomorrow so off to the range I went. The problem I was having was an ejection problem...actually a complete failure to eject. I loaded her up to give it a test... flawless feeding and ejection...whoohoo! So far so good. So I loaded up a magazine and fired my first group... Hornady ammo.. and it printed a solid Half inch at 100 with 4 rounds touching... Very happy! All the brass extracted and ejected perfectly. Im a very happy camper. THEN... I notice the crack...yup CRACK. 5 rounds in and after only 30 rounds fired my brand new ...been back to the factory savage 25 has a distinct crack in the stock. Its splitting offset on the left side towards the butt of the rifle directly behind the rearmost part of the action. Yeah... Im pissed. I fired 20 more rounds to see the groups... and they are all .5 with rounds touching so Im happy bout that. But seriously... a splitting stock in a brand new rifle... chambered in .17 Hornet? I'll keep it... it wasn't pretty anyway...but I'm done with savage.
As far as what savage actually did to the rifle... They checked it... including headspace.. disassembled the bolt and I suspect replaced the ejector though they didn't specify that and polished the chamber.
 
Originally Posted By: EJ ReichenbachThis really makes me wonder what the new 17wsm is going to be like. Hmmmm

It's not the cartridge, it is the gun maker... Savage - yuck!
 
If it's shooting like that, glue that stock up and kill stuff. They are "ugly" though, if ya can call an inanimate object that. Hate to hear that Savage is having quality issues after their more recent success stories. Your's isn't the only one in the little guns. May actually affect the success of the new little 17 rounds if they don't get it together, and the masses aren't gonna be buying more expensive CZ's and Ruger's as a rule despite the quality diff. I still think a key to the 17HMR's success was accuracy, utility, price of ammo, and available in inexpensive, but good shooting platform - ie, Marlin and Savage in the that case. If the 17 fireball had industry-wide chamberings, it may have been much more successful. But it pretty much needed a new action length, or revisions of existing ones to work well, which is costly - what new 17 does this sound like????

Sorry to hear of your troubles - glue it up and hunt is my vote.
 
Duct tape and bailing wire! Good to go!
ohmy.gif
 
Thanks for the advice guys.... Yup... it's glue...duct tape and bailing wire for me...lol. I'll keep an eye out for a .17 Hornet CZ or maybe a Ruger but keep this TOOL till I can pick up a quality rifle.

A couple of observations regarding the model 25 in general. You must feed from the magazine. Single loading is possible but in order to do so, you must fiddle the cartridge in blind, tilt the rifle around and sometimes rattle and shake it. There simply isn't any space to work a cartridge into the chamber. Dropping a round in the action wont work because it doesn't sit at the the needed angle to feed. The opening in the action is very small and the opening of the chamber is very deep in there so the only way to see it is basically to remove the bolt and look thru the action.

The magazine is plastic... not a gig in and of itself but it screams cheap. To be fair, I've not had feeding issues.

Fit and finish is shoddy. Like cabinets built out of 2x4's, they may be strong but they certainly aren't refined... you can get them to work but they'll never be pretty... heavy and rough... all the paint in the hardware store can't hide the fact that they are 2x4"s.

The machine work is poor. The crown is sharp... I mean sharp enough to cut a roast up for supper. It seems like hurried work... production speed being the issue here. The rifle is very accurate so its not a deal breaker... but 10 seconds of finish work would have turned out a quality crown.

Because of the length of the action, the spacing on the scope base is long. The spacing did affect the way I mounted my scope.... it worked out ok.. but you may have a problem especially if you plan on using a compact scope design. I suppose this can be corrected by using a different scope base.

The long action makes the rifle feel kinda cramped when you get behind it. This is a personal thing to me... it's not a deal breaker but is annoying.

Plastic used where is can be. The usual suspects here... trigger guard... bottom "metal".... all plastic.

The bolt is rough. A little difficult to lift the bolt. Its working its way smoother.... I flitzed it and worked it 1000 times and it helped. Not perfect though... but I can live with it. When I compare it with a CZ or Remington... there is no comparison... It feels like metal on metal binding that's overcome by force. Not smooth.

OK... I feel better now. I wouldn't necessarily not recommend this rifle but I would certainly not recommend this rifle if you have a CZ or ruger available as a choice. If you do decide on the savage 25 in .17 hornet... I would recommend the lightweight plastic stocked version... It's cheaper... lighter... and after all... ugly is ugly.
 
Reminds me of My Remmi SPS .243 that I traded away. The new owner now lives with the quirks. Feeding problems are the most trouble. I still think that a rifle sould function properly from the get go. Good luck.
 
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