My New 25 in 22 Hornet

Hi all. I just bought a new Savage Model 25 Walking Varminter in 22 Hornet. So far, I have to say I'm really pleased. I mounted a cheap 3x9 40mm scope I had lying around and took it to the range with some Hornady 35gr Vmax ammo and some handloads. I was only sighting in at 50 yards but I was getting 3 shot groups under a half inch which is better than I can see with my 60 year old eyes. I hope to try it out at 100 yards tonight.

Some of my reloads had 40gr Vmax bullets loaded to an OAL of 1.850". These were too long for the magazine. I tried to single load them into the chamber but that port is too small and my fingers too fat. I ended up loading one round in the magazine, inserting the magazine, then chambering the round. That's not very convenient. Does anyone have a good technique for single loading the chamber?

By the way, all cartridges with the shorter 35gr Vmax bullets fed from the magazine without problems. Firing, extraction, and ejecting were flawless.

I have the single shot version, the Model 40, and while I'm extremely pleased with how it shoots, getting cartridges chambered is not exactly easy. Yes, the port is small and guiding rounds made with the ballistic tipped bullets are the worst. It's difficult to align them so they don't get hung up in the barrel recess surrounding the chamber, the conical cut made for extractor clearance. I have to make sure the round enters the chamber before I begin to close the bolt. I suspect the Model 25 has a similar barrel machining surrounding the chamber, so for a person with larger hands, inserting each cartridge into the chamber would really be a challenge. At least feeding from the magazine will aid alignment, but I suspect the shorter and somewhat blunter 35 gr. V-Max and round point "hornet bullets" are what the gun was designed to work with.

Yes, the model 25 in 22 Hornet also has what looks like a short chamber extension or collar that supports the cartridge just forward of the base. It's easy to get the tip of the bullet on the outside of that collar when loading one at a time. The only way I could consistently single load was by using a pair of tweezers. I guess I'll stick with the more blunt bullets and use the magazine!

I wanted to point out something I discovered about the scope bases which came with the rifle. The bases have an identification letter stamped into them. One base had the stamping on the right side of the rifle and the other was to the left. I know it shouldn't matter which way the bases are attached but there was enough asymmetry in the bases that the front base was slightly sloped to the left. That put the front scope ring far enough left of center that I ran out of horizontal adjustment on my scope. I had it dialed in so far to the left that each windage adjustment was changing the elevation.
I reversed the front base so that the tops of the bases ended up in one plane. I re-mounted the scope and bore sighted. Now the windage adjustment is more mid-range.
Time for another trip to the 100 yard range.

This rifle continues to make me happy. I've tried three different handloads using 2400 and Lil Gun powder and both 35 and 40 gr V-max bullets. Last night I got 5 shot groups under 1" at 100 yards with either weight bullet and Lil Gun powder. I had to seat the 40 gr V-max bullets pretty deep in order to fit in the magazine, but they fed without any problems. It won't be long before I see what these loads will do on the local ground hog population.