Savage Model 25 Walking Varminter - my review

[tramblygoat]

I recently bought a Savage 25 walking varminter in 204 Ruger. Here are my first thoughts.

The rifle was well boxed and correctly presented with a gunlock and decent paperwork plus a small target and trigger tool.
Opening the box I thought the metalwork was well finished. A darker tough finish rather than a deep blue - I thought it suited the rifle. The stock sort of feels cheaper but comes well in the hands when aiming. I think the rifle looks good - my opinion.

I undid the stock screws to adjust the Accu-trigger. Doing so a small threaded hex screw fell out. I checked everywhere and found no missing screw. The rifle was dry-functon tested and worked fine. I can only assume that this screw fell in at the factory. Poor factory QC but no real problem. The trigger is adjusted by a small tool provided - or you can use a small slotted screwdriver.
The polymer magazine is really poor quality. Loaded up with 4 rounds it sometimes is difficult to engange into the rifle - it doesn't insprire confidence. I have run about 40 rounds through and this magazine remains a problem. Cheap and nasty and needs an immediate rethink Savage. The magazine holds 4 rounds.
Shooting the rifle I sometimes found one round to difficult to chamber - usually the 3rd of 4 rounds. I think this is related to the poor quality magazine. I need to come back slightly on the bolt and then try again to chamber the round.

The bolt action was generally smooth and easy when the chamber issue didn't occur.

I put on a Leupold VX3 4.5-14x40 AO scope. This is a lovely scope by the way. The scope is held by Leupold QRW mounts to the supplied Savage Picatinny rails. These by the way do not offer much adjustment so perhaps think about a longer custom rail.

Accuracy is very good with 0.5 MOA possible. I fired '32gr Hornady VMax' I think with a 1/12 twist that 40gr would also be okay. I will be reloading later as the 204 Ruger is an expensive round. The trigger is very good and for me requires no further modification. My best group benchrested was three rounds at 0.9cm centre to centre at 100m - that is 0.35 inches at 109 yds so well under 0.5 MOA. I can't complain there. This was with a barrel (medium heavy diameter) that was getting warm. If I had spent more time I could have done better - who needs better than 0.5 MOA in the real world?
204 Ruger has a lovely flat trajectory to about 300 yds. Recoil is so light and it makes a great beginner's rifle. I zeroed for 200 yds so that makes it about 0.6 inch high at 100 yds and makes the round almost bang on at 50 yds and just over 4 inches low at 300 yds.
Unloading a spent round from the chamber was sometimes stiff.

I have no other issues after running 2 boxes through it. I cleaned it twice during those first 2 boxes - should have done it more often!
Overall I like the rifle and the caliber. I feel Savage should have spent $10 more on better magazines with metal feed-lips (say add 2 magazines with the rifle and charge $50 more shop price).

Plus points: good value, handles well, light, shoots great. Low recoil and fun to shoot. I think it looks good.....

Negative points: terrible, terrible cheap magazine that does not function well (and only one magazine supplied). Stock feels a bit nasty but comes well to the shoulder - a soft touch stock would be nice. Scope rails offer limited scope mounting options. Some chambering and case extracton issues.

Hope that helps the readers

[Willy]

I just did something I said I was never gonna do: buy another Savage, (because of the ultra cheap, flimsy toy stocks). I got a good deal on a thumbhole M25 in 222 caliber; hopefully it will shoot 0.5 MOA. BTW, I have a M25 in laminate stock but I've only shot the 40 grain. I'm surprised the 32g does so well.