Reply With QuoteI would have suggested a CZ, ruger precision , savage mk 11 or buy a 10/22 and go down that worm hole.
It’s fun
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I was at my private rifle/gun range Friday and they were having a make up session of 22lr competitive shooting, so I was unable to shoot at the outdoor range, so i decided to stick around and see what a match was like. There were 11 people with all levels of 22lr rifles and optics one could imagine. From plane Jane 100% factory stock 10/22's to rigs costing $1K's. I almost instantly knew I wanted to do this and decided to buy as accurate a 22lr rifle as I could afford given my current financial commitments with one son heading off to collage and needing to buy at least 3 vehicles in the next 6-18 months.
My price range was under $600 OTD. I asked the guys at the match and they said for that price range either a Savage or Tikka T1X would likely be my best bet. I found a Savage B22 in 22lr and based on the stellar accuracy reviews I found I ordered the ONLY one I found in stock on line or ANYWHERE for that matter. I chose the Savage because the Tikka and the Savage were within $5 of each other and I really liked the fact The savage came in a MDT chassis and was considerably heavier and felt the savage was an all around better bargain. I also own three Savage rifles and all are far more accurate than anyone has a rite to expect from a affordably priced 100% factory rifle.
I then began researching 22lr ammo and the B22 precision rifle in general.
Than I found enough videos and on line complaints about the B22 Precision rifle having issues with the bolt damaging rounds in the mag while chambering a new round, problems extracting fired cases and feeding issues with loading and or possibly feeding from their magazines that there could be an actual defect with (most likely) the mag or rifle itself and has cause me some concern. But none of the videos or postings I found were dated any later than 2018 so I am hoping IF there was an actual flaw with the rifle or mag that Savage addressed it and mine being a (hopefully) 2020/2021 production rifle it wont have any feeding or extraction issues.
The LAST thing I want to do is have to return a brand new rifle for repair of a factory defect.
So I am asking those who are far more knowledgeable than I and have considerable experience with the B22 Precision rifle how likely am I going to encounter the fallowing issues that have occurred at least to some degree of frequency that I have read about or seen detailed in videos:
#1-Bolt damaging rounds in the magazine as it chambers a round
#2-Failures to extract a fired casing
<>Issues #1 & #2 will mandate I return the rifle to savage to be fixed
#3-Magazines being extremely difficult to load. This issue i am less concerned about as based on what I have read as if I do have issues with the mags there are ways to overcome it.
So do the above issues with the B22 Precision rifle I listed still occur with any degree of frequency or has savage addressed them?
I would have suggested a CZ, ruger precision , savage mk 11 or buy a 10/22 and go down that worm hole.
It’s fun
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Thanks for your suggestions. I am currently considering this as an alternative if I can get it along with a Savage MKII:
https://www.keystonesportingarmsllc....uct/model-722/
The web seller I ordered the B22 Precision from advertised shipping of all firearm orders are at least 14 to 21 days behind. I will call them tomorrow when the open and attempt to cancel my order.
I have no interest currently or the funds available for the near to distant future to begin customizing a 22lr precision rifle. The reason I wished to buy the B22 Precision rifle was I felt it was as accurate and well equipped rifle as I could get for the cost and was prepared to accept it for it's accuracy potential as is.
As an update I began researching which CZ 457 variant to buy, but I hadn't done much when my experience from buying HGs kicked in and I checked for availability to buy extra magazines before I committed to buy. HOLLY C**P I found one and only ONE place with them in stock and no 10 rounders and my 22lr club shoots 60-65 rounds a match and the 5 round mags I found were $35 each. What ever rifle I bought I had planned on buying at least five if not more spare mags to limit my need to reload per match. Plenty on Ebay at $55 to over $80 each.
I did find some 25 round mags in stock but do not know if they will allow for me to shoot from the bench without creating clearance issues. Will have to do some experimenting to see with my H&K 416D's to see if the 25 round mags will allow me to shoot from the bench.
Another update.
Seeing at this rifle is being purchased for the sole purpose of competition I felt considering the T1X comes standard with 10 round mags, VS the CZ's basically useless for competition 5 round mags, and I can easily find 10 round T1X mags in stock and after also considering the T1X is less expensive, I have decided to call the place I ordered the B22 from cancel it take the 10% restocking penalty and order a Tikka T1X from my local Cabela's. The fact that ten round mags for the CZ were essentially unobtainable ANYWHERE but Ebay for insanely high prices and the Tikka 10 round mags readily availability was a big deciding factor for me. I have a considerable amount of cash in Cabela's bonus points (also a factor of considerable influence) I will put forth towards the purchase. Once I have successfully cancelled the B22 I will order the T1X, 5 extra 10 round mags and work on getting match grade 22lr.
I already have all other equipment items I will need to compete such as a high quality Bald eagle front rest, front and rear Protector bag and lots of other bench bags all filled with heavy sand. Only upgrades I possibly will opt for now are a cheek weld, grip and forearm all available from Tikka.
It is no small irony I was originally going to buy the T1X but talked myself out of it in favor of the B22 Precision. I own rifles both made by Tikka and Savage including a Savage 10ML-II smokeless ML and never had a single issue with any of them. So I made a mistake assuming the B22 would be no different. I now I am making my judgment of the B22 devoid of any first hand experiences, but I have seen to many "B22 bolt/ejector and mag fix videos and way to many posting about the same to ignore them.
It's no coincidence I found myself in this position only because I failed to research the B22 Precision as well as I usually research all my new model type firearm purchases.
I'm looking for a great affordable 22lr precision rifle that all I need to do is scope it and start competing and have no willingness to accept having to perform several modifications to a brand new firearm just to it make it work consistently and reliably. the T1X upgrades I spoke of I will consider after a range session or two to confirm if I need them or not.
DT: I have a Savage mark II BV (bull barrel), which I use for benchrest matches. It's a tack driver and I was very happy with it UNTIL I ran up against a Tikka T1X MTR. The RIFLEMAN magazine conducted a review of the Tikka, which I used as a bench mark to measure against my Savage. The Tikka results at 50 yards using CCI Mini Mags were the smallest = .54, largest = .76, average = .64. The best I could do with my Savage using CCI SV was smallest = .74, largest = .91, average = .82. For reference the 10 ring on a TQ3 NRA 50 yard small bore rifle target is .85 and the X ring is .38. In the benchrest matches I shoot a 10 is a 10 and the X's are nice but but they just decide ties. So I'm consistently in the 10 ring - most of the time!! In my opinion, my Savage does not compare with the Tikka. I had never heard of a Tikka when I bought my Savage. I wish I had!!
Additional ammo used in the Tikka review article was Lapua (average = .54) and Eley (average = .79). Since the Benchrest matches I shoot got out to 100 yards, I don't use HV ammo, which goes crazy after 50 yards. Referring to your last paragraph, the Tikka used in the article was "out of the box" so it would fit your criteria.
Don thank you a great deal for your reply and helpful ammo suggestions as acquiring good quality RF ammo the T1X will shoot well is my next step.
I just this morning ordered a T1X MTR from Cabela's and 5 spare 10 round mags from Buds GS.
I chose the Tikka T1X MTR over the CZ 457 Varmint because I could buy the T1X and not pay S&H, or a FFL XFR fee, I have over 1/2 the T1X's cost in Cabela's bonus bucks so it ended up being a quite a bit cheaper
I imagine a very fair question would be given the above factors why ever did I even consider buying any other rifle? Because I wanted a chassis type rifle and the B22 Precision was within my budget and had everything I wanted and I didn't wish to upgrade the rifle.
But the deal breaker for me on the CZ was the utter and total complete lack of availability of 10 round mags unless I wanted to pay $60 to $80 each at Ebay and yes the five round mags were available but are $30+ each and essentially useless for use in a match unless I bought 2x as many VS the T1X mags. Five spare T1X mags W/free S&H cost me pre tax $150, to get the same capacity for the CZ I would've spent over $300 or 60% the cost of the CZ rifle. I spent over three hours searching the web for new and even used spare CZ 457/455 10 round mags and only found them available at Ebay for a minimum of 2x normal cost more often it was 2.5x.
I could be wrong but I am going to interoperate the fact CZ mags are commanding that much greater a price at resale as an indicator they must be not only considerably difficult to come buy at this time but much more problematic is they will likely remain so for quite some time into the foreseeable future and I want to get up and competing ASAP and don't want to be handicapped by constantly reloading mags while competing.
I considered 25 round mags for the CZ but I had no way to confirm if they would be to long to use from the bench or not.
So Tikka T1X MTR it is.
I am both sad and excited as I own four savage CF/HP rifles, a 10ML-II and two model 64 Savage 22lr semiauto rifles as well and really wanted to own the B22 Precision as I love my Savage firearms, but the undeniably large amount of people having issues with the B22 Precisions magazines and bolt issues with failing to extract were just to much for me to be willing to risk buying one.
I fervently hope Savage fixes these issues for an otherwise killer great accurate platform.
DJ; A couple of points - I'm envious of your Tikka purchase!! I'm not sure what competitive matches you're shooting - I assume it benchrest. The strings at my matches are either 5 or 10 rounds. Each string is about 15 min so there's no rush. Most benchrest shooter in my group have single shot rifles. They take their time. I have 10 and 5 round mags but I purchased a "1 round" attachment. I take my time and "smell the roses" between shots - rushing your shots, which you'll tend to do with a 5 or 10 round mag, is the recipe to a low score.
I also shoot in a tactical match (steel targets from 35 to 125 yards). My Savage Mark II worked but transitioning between targets and racking the bolt I lost time and had trouble picking up the various targets in the scope SO I bought a Savage A22. Since most strings in each stage required a mag change myself and 2 other shooters bought 25 round mags. That lasted 2 matches when the match director felt we had a unfair advantage and didn't allow our 25 round mags.
I'd skip the 25 mag in benchrest - it will get in the way anyway.
Very wise advice, sounds to me you've been to a match or two or a hundred.
I always buy a considerable amount of spare mags for all of my mag fed firearms for a rather large and varied number of reasons, not the least of which is gun makers tend to give little to no warning they have stopped producing them and Tikka mags are among the most costly as it is. And mags can get lost or ruined as well and the Tikka T1X is not any where near as common a 22lr rifle as say a CZ or Savage is and mags for it and this is strictly my opinion, would likely become rare very quickly if ever it goes out of production leaving those in need of one at the mercy of action sights like Ebay that currently are demanding 2-2.5x the original price for 10 round CZ 455/457 magazines. Also the fact I could only find mags for the T1X in two places besides Tikka's WS gave me the impression (possibly wrong but possibly not) Tikka T1X mags aren't all that easy to come buy at least not right now they aren't so I erred on the side of caution. I can not imagine owning a magazine fed rifle and having only 1 or 2 mags and unable to find any more to buy.
I also saw absolutely all of the shooters at the 22lr shoot I was at held at my rifle club who had magazine fed 22 rifles had at least 5 loaded mags on the bench with them, so I figured couldn't hurt to do the same. Also when I go to my range if at all possible I go all day long. It is the norm for me to shoot at least 3 or 4 different CF/HP rifles including my AR's and bolt guns and even if the days temps will stay below 60* will bring along my inline ML's including my Savage 10ML-II and launch a bunch of 245-250 grain all copper ML bullets at a MV of 2850fps and 15-20 290-325grain ML bullets at a MV of 2450-2500fps. And rare is a range visit where i don't burn through 200-300 rounds out of my P320's and Shield as well as 500 22lr out of my H&K 416D's. So yeah mags see heavy heavy use by me.
Again thanks for sharing your experienced based knowledge with a novice such as myself.
[QUOTE=DTJager;490347]Very wise advice, sounds to me you've been to a match or two or a hundred.
DJ: I have been to a few matches. The most difficult for me to get a info handle on was BENCHREST. These guys were reluctant to share any info with a beginner. They had all the high grade equipment - jackets, wind flags, VERY expensive rifles, high price ammo and front rests that cost more than my rifle. My front rest was a scissor jack - I now have a grizzly!! It went down hill from there. The shooter next to me came in 1st most of the time and I put 4 rounds into his target and you'd have thought I shot holes in the Mona Lisa. Then I did it again with 2 more rounds!! My squad had about 7 shooters - me with a Savage, a shooter with a 10/22 and another with a Henry lever action. From a competitive standpoint the 3 of us were just wasting ammo. At another match I shot a 1175 out of 1200 and came in 6th out of 7 shooters. It just wasn't any fun and the match was 1 hours drive form my home - my range is 10 minutes from my home.
Your group sound like a great group to shoot with. - I'm envious.
When I'm preparing for a match I only practice with the weapon I'm going to use. Even when I'm just fooling around at the range, I might shoot another weapon but most times I don't. Preparing for a benchrest, I wouldn't even consider a 2nd rifle. I'm retired and probably a lot older than you so I have to stick with one thing at a time so I don't get confused.
Again, I have five 10 round mags, one 5 round mag that I use to warm up the barrel and a one round adapter. At the match I use the one round adapter. With 5 & 10 round mags I'd have a tendency to rush the shots. The benchrest matches I shoot in are not speed events - they're accuracy events.
Again thanks for your advice. Using only two mags is a great idea to help slow me down while shooting thanks for the suggestion. Also I can turn a 10 round mag into a 5 rounder cant do the reverse.
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