Another model 25 22 Hornet sob Story

About 5 years ago I bought a Savage 25 rifle in 22 Hornet. It is the model with the thumb hole stock and heavy Blue barrel and action. When I first received the rifle the bolt operation was very, and I do mean very, stiff to operate and I wound up sending it back to Savage and they replaced the rifle. Unfortunately by the time that it took to get that all straightened out I wound up in the hospital with a 10 level spinal fusion and needless to say shooting of any kind when out the window. Now it's five years later, and three other surgeries, and I am finally getting back to where I can stand the recoil and physical activity related to shooting.
As an avid reloader almost everything I shoot I roll myself, and the Hornet is no different. I have managed to get out to the range four five times this spring and I'm getting very frustrated. While the darn thing is a real tack driver, if you can get the bullets into the damn chamber, it is a pain to shoot because every other spent shell fails to extract! I don't know what Idjit engineer designed the feed/extraction system on this rifle but, to be polite about it, it truly sucks and they should fired for their efforts. To make matters worse the port on the riflr is so small and the chamber is so far away that it is almost impossible to load cartridges one at a time. How Savage let this abortion out of the design phase, much less out the door, is beyond me.

While I am at it here are a couple more gripes. First off the stock. I will have have to admit the stability of the plywood stock is a pluss the material that the stock was built out of is so soft that it deformed under the slightest pressure. That in conjunction with the massive amount of wood that was removed for inletting leaves the action very poorly supported and it sinks into the wood very badly and loosens up under Fire which affects the accuracy. That in conjunction with a plastic trigger guard floor plate, which will crack under anything resembling a tight screw, makes it very hard to keep the rifle barrel and action firmly in contact with the stock. Once I glass bedded the action and the trigger guard things improved considerably.
Finally, about that magazine! While I realize that most of the lazy magazine pundits only shoot three round groups anymore in the real world real accuracy buff's Shoot 5 rounds to establish a statistically valid accuracy group. I mean, come on folks, really! With this tiny cartridge what would it have taken to design a magazine that accepted five cartridges? And while we're at it why was the magazine designed to just barely except the minimum length cartridge? With the Advent of higher ballistic coefficient bullets especially those with Ballistic plastic tips cannot be shot in this short magazine length. Conversely short flat nose cast bullets can not be shot in this rifle either because they will not feed.

All the above are design flaws that should never have happened and detract from this rifles extreme accuracy potential.

Since so much time has passed I can not get my money back, though I wonder if the Lemon laws would apply, and I hate to sell it to some other poor smuck knowing that it will be a pain in his behind.

Mr. Hornet, First, my condolences for your health issues, and hope you're feeling much better by now. Thanks for your review on the model 25 Savage Walking Varminter. I have been considering one of these for a possible replacement to my old Savage 342 in .22 Hornet. I had wondered about things like feeding problems and being able to load the round for accuracy in the magazine.

Mr Hornet,
Yes! You said everything I have. The big issue is the magazine. It will not accept my loads with 40 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. When I wrote Savage, I got the answer that they build their rifles to SAAMI Specs and I should only use factory ammo in it. I have found the Hornet loaded with 40 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips, to be highly effective, with all one shot kills. But as the 40 gr will not fit. I loaded with Hornady 35gr V Max. The first coyote was knocked down flat....for about 2 secs, then he was up doing flips and spins. When I tried to cycle a fresh cartridge, the empty was not ejected and caused a jam. By the time I got a fresh cartridge loaded, the coyote was almost to the brush. A quick shot was a clean miss. I never recovered him, but fairly certain he is dead. Next set. 2 coyotes came running. The largest stopped looking straight at me. Center chest, squeeze. He dropped. I scanned for the other but no dice. Looked at the first one and he is up leaving. Another shot and he dropped. Rifle jammed again. Got another rounding the chamber and looked at the coyote. It was up again! 3rd shot dropped him again
Mind you. This yote was only 70 yards. Once I got the magazine deal straightened out, and walked out to check the coyote, I find the coyote must be dispatche. 4 rounds. Thus is the end of 35 grain V Max for me. I pulled the magazine apart and reamed out the front of the plastic magazine with a dremel tool, and now my Ballistic Tip ammo will work! Now, tou J get the ejection issue fixed.