If Savage Made A Tube-Fed MK-II...

[Fiddler]

That handled short, longs, and long rifle ammo, would you buy it?
For 35 years my only .22 rifle was a Marlin 39A. The tube magazine fed everything from CB Shorts to Stingers with no problems for all those years. This rifle would fire, extract, and eject everything flawlessly.
I guess I got kinda spoiled.
Then, about a year ago I saw a left-handed .22 Savage Mark II-GL bolt gun in a store and bought it because it was the only left-handed .22 bolt gun I'd ever seen.
Immediately, the worst case of "buyer's remorse" I've ever experienced set in.
While this particular rifles certainly is a tackdriver, whether or not it would feed, extract, or eject mostly depended upon whatever mood this gun happened to be in at the moment.
After all kinds of attempts at a solution, the problem was finally solved by slipping a second C-clamp extractor spring over the existing one. This apparently gave the extractor claw more "bite."
Now, I'm utterly thrilled with this rifle and wouldn't part with it.
The 3 five-round magazines I have seem to be working okay, although I've heard other people have had problems with these mags over the years.
It seems to me that a tube magazine would be a big improvement for this rifle.
What do you think?

[Oregonboy]

I have several tube fed firearms and I love'em. I'd buy one in a minute. I've always felt the loading issues were a little over done, but each to their own. As good as most Savages shoot, quality of the trigger, etc I think it'd be awsome.:thumb:

[fartsinpublic]

All they need to do is create a polymer magazine and receiving well, not the "insert tab a in slot b" tin mag currently in use.

[Cycler]

I've had several tube fed .22LRs including a Marlin 39A and find them a nuisance. They are slow to load and a real pain to unload, particularly when hunting and you have to frequently empty the gun to drive somewhere.

I'm a big fan of box magazines in general and have had no problems with several mags for my two different MkII's in both 5 and 10-round form.

[fartsinpublic]

A tube fed Mark II would be a big step backwards, and Arthur Savage would roll in his grave after holding the DBM patent, which the firearms manufacturing world eagerly waited for its expiration.

[ShawneeB]

I love tubes.

[ejk24]

I own some tube fed Marlins and they are great guns and function flawlessly . Savage just needs to address the current magazine design with a more reliable setup as already mentioned . I like my MKII's but both required work to feed properly and still act up once in a while . A detachable magazine is more convenient to use for loading and unloading plus it allows a full free floating independent barrel vs a tube attached to a barrel .

[Fiddler]

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me about free-floating the barrel!
I did this immediately after purchasing this gun, and I think this is one of the reasons it's such a tackdriver.
One of my fantasies is winning a lottery and hiring a custom gunmaker to create a "one of a kind" .22 rifle for me.
This rifle would be a left-handed bolt gun with a tube magazine coming up through the buttstock, like the old Nylon 66 and Browning SA. This would allow for free-floating the barrel.
While this tube arrangement was popular with some semi-autos back in the day, I've never heard of a bolt gun like this.
Oh well, like I said, it's just a fantasy.
Oh edit!
It just occurred to me that my outrageously expensive, one-of-a-kind, lottery-financed, custom-built, left-handed rifle would also possess a tang safety.
Is that even possible on a bolt-action rifle?
Well, a pile of lottery money would find out, wouldn't it?

[owegoscott]

I have a marlin model 60 and am looking at Remington 552. Both are tube fed. I would buy a savage in a minute if they had one. I have 5 savages in different models and would like another one. All my savages are left handed bolts with clip magazines except me 110 with a internal magazine. I just like the looks of the tube mags.

[lonestardiver]

There is also tube feed via the buttstock like some mossbergs, old browning/reminigton/norinco clone takedowns.

btw, my remington 581s detachable magazine feeds shorts, longs, and long rifle cartridges with no problem.

[J.Baker]

Plenty of vintage tube-fed Savage and Stevens rimfire's out there if you really want one. I don't see why Savage would ever go backwards and start offering a model with one again. The only benefit that the tubular magazine offers is the ability to easily shoot short, long and long rifle rounds, but I can't even remember the last time I saw a box of shorts or longs for sale anywhere so it's kind of a mute point. Yes they're out there if you look hard enough, but the vast majority - your average plinker 22 users - aren't going to bother looking for it, they're just going to buy the bulk boxes of 22LR at Wally World. Investing the time and money to develop such a gun to cater to what would amount to maybe 3% of their overall rimfire market wouldn't be considered a productive or worthwhile use of their resources.

[lonestardiver]

I still buy cb shorts, shorts, longs, cb longs, etc.
They work great in my 581 and my NEF crack barrel. Longs will feed in my 10-22 if I load them all the way back in the magazine.

I don't have a Savage in 22lr yet. Looking at a fv-sr in the near future.