B17 A17 HMR Rotary Magazine

Good grief! I have problems loading ammo without slamming them into the magazine with some force to get the cylinder to rotate enough. I widedend the slot where you'd lay the bullet before shoving it in to see if that would help. It did a little, but I may also need to widen the opening in front of that just a bit to see if I can get the rim to push the cylinder around. I decided to take the magazine apart to check out the mechanism and if there was anything I could do internally. Wow, that was a big mistake! Took me forever to figure out how to get it back together, and I only had a few tools (Phillips head, Seagram's VO)! It was tricky, but figured out a way to do it. Savage must have some special tool for this. If anyone has the secret, please let me know! I used a rubber band to hold the spring and cylinder in place and partially inserted the two back plate screws, then cut the rubber band on the outside and reached in with tiny needle nosed pliers and yanked pieces of rubber band out. It worked. If I had any sense I would have just ordered another magazine! LOL

I also ordered an extra Savage mag off Ebay and it's different than the one that came with the B17 FVSS. I think. They kind of look alike but I just noticed that one has a spring loaded retainer, while the other is just a plastic clip as part of the mold. Neither has a logo or other identification. I mean...if you're going to steal Ruger's idea, at least copy the whole danged design.

So that's it. I can go into a bit more detail on how to re-assemble the magazine, but I'm not taking it apart again for pictures. :o

The hell of it is that I haven't even been to the range yet. Maybe tomorrow. Yes!

I think you'll find Savage used a rotary magazine LONG before Ruger ever did, but then again you're right - they should have just used the Ruger mag design as-is (especially considering the corporation that owns Savage also owns Butler Creek which has been making 10/22 mags for decades).

That said, a lot of folks seem to have trouble loading these mags for some reason. There's definitely a trick to it, but it's nothing too difficult. Basically you have to make sure to get the rim back in under the little lip on the rotor before trying to push the round fully into the magazine. Been well over a year since I last played with one, but IIRC I was starting the round in at about 45-degrees to the slot to get the rim in then straightened it out as I pushed it fully in.

I have an A22 Magnum coming for review in another month or so so I'll try to remember to shoot a quick video of how I load them.

Finally got to the range, and headed back this weekend with my Lead Sled. Groups at 50 yds were kinda decent, but spread out a bit at 100 meters. Not 'awesome' enough, like 22Plinkster. :p Maybe the Caldwell rest will tighten things up. Also ordered some various brands/types of ammo. All I had was the A17 stuff. Love my new scope, the Bushnell Engage. Clear glass, great eye relief, and no edge ghosting, even at max power. As far as the mag loading goes, I quit trying and used a tiny Phillips head. It was quick that way. I'll see if I can link some pics.



http://commonbullets.com/uploads/sav...210_140612.jpg

http://commonbullets.com/uploads/sav...210_140600.jpg

I wouldn't be unhappy with groups like that - especially with how inconsistent most rimfire ammunition is these days. Even Eley Club has an extreme spread of around 30-40fps.

Here's the vid I promised on the technique I use to load these magazines.

https://youtu.be/A94bmvgFhP0