I ordered a new in box Savage 25 in 22 Hornet June 2024. After a lot of range time, I gave up on trying to get anything under a 2.5" group at 100 yards. A quick borescope showed a barrel so rough the rifling was actually torn and missing in places. Absolutely unbelievable. Extraction was an occasional issue. The mags are the same external size as the 223 Rem mags, so savage thick walled them to house the 22 hornet. These mags will only house cartridges that are the same length as what was designed in 1930, nothing longer. That means that a lot of new high ballistic coefficient bullets from Nosler, Hornady, and others will not fit in these short welled mags if you follow the reloading listed COLs.
After winter was over, I called Savage and was given permission to send it back to Savage. Of course I had to pay for the shipping so there's another $75 into this rifle. I haven't been charged for shipping a problem gun since Remington in the 1980s. After a couple of months of no contact my rifle showed via FedEx. The receipt listed "small items replaced. Deburred. Test fired. etc". A quick borescope showed this barrel was in much better condition but not without chatter marks. Not awful, but a whole lot better than before. I put my "Proofing Scope" back on it and headed out the door for some testing.
The accuracy is much better than before, with some 4 round groups staying at 1". Not great, but workable for the ranges this rifle will be used for. It's not like I'm going to shoot coyotes at 600 yards with this! It seemed all just might be well, but the extracting function is worse than before! What the heck Savage? Repeating bolt rifles is not exactly unproven cutting edge technology. Sometimes the case never leaves the chamber, sometimes it just drops free and lays on top of the ammo in the mag, sometimes it works like it's supposed to. Pulling the trigger on this is like a "Box of Chocolates". You never know what you're going to get.
Perhaps a clue to this whole mess is my primers. After firing the primers are all slightly backed out, as if the distance between the bolt face and barrel is too wide a gap. It's possible the bolt sets too far off the barrel face to allow the extractor to properly grab the case rim. That should have showed up with fitting a new barrel and checking headspacing. I'll have to ponder that a bit.
Well, what now? I can spend another $75 and ship it back with no guarantee of success, dink around with springs and extractors myself, mount a cleaning rod holder under the barrel like a muzzle loader to extract the rounds, or sell it. I get it. It's an entry level rifle, but even an entry level rifle should still function.
If anyone has a proven way to fix this, or knows of a good gunsmith that addresses the Model 25, I'm all ears!
What you are describing is excessive headspace.
My first question is, Are these handloads?
If so, you are oversizing your brass?
This is what causes the primers to back out.
Handloaders tune their loads with very closely measured powder charges for accuracy. How are you measuring your powder charges?
I am sorry, I may have mispoke.
I found some real cause and effect regarding extracting. See video link:
https://youtu.be/v5qLvBXNb_s
The extractor snapping back into position shows how much it was moved out of position by the barrel rim.
Most of us have never really had issues with the barrel rim. Headspace yes, barrel rim no.
I am sorry, I may have mispoke.
If you've had issues with extraction, odd are it's because the rim or cone of the barrel pushes the extractor off the rim of the case when you close the bolt. Savage doesn't machine out a notch to clear the extractor, they machine the cone off center in hopes there will be enough exposed case rim for the extractor to snag. You can't help but move the extractor off the case rim when the bolt is closed.
Last edited by Goss; 03-17-2025 at 02:21 PM. Reason: Spelling
I sent a request to Savage and asked:
Greetings,
Can you tell me if the barrel nut on the Savage 25 is threaded? If so what’s the barrel size? It looks to be a 7/8-20.
Do you sell a replacement barrel nut for the 25?
I got the official response today:
"We do not sell the barrel nut and I do not have the thread information on it, that is not information we would have.
•Caitlin
Technical Services"
Savage has no idea what their barrel nut size is? WOW!
You were speaking to a desk jockey. They are just trained to answer simple questions which require no thought. They are not supplied with hi tech information.
"As long as there's lead in the air....there's still hope.."
Then Savage should put someone else in charge of answering technical emails.Originally Posted by sharpshooter
If they posses those type of skills they work in engineering....
"As long as there's lead in the air....there's still hope.."
I now have a fully functional Savage 25! I set the headspace up on the rifle. Then i marked the point of contact where the extractor contacts the barrel rim. Disassembled, and milled off .040" in order to allow the extractor to fully latch over the cartridge rim. Deburred, reassembled, checked headspace and test fired. The spent cases come out just like any other bolt gun since Paul Mauser's first rifle. So, bottom line is, Savage has a bad design. They don't care enough to fix it. If you want your 22 Hornet to function like a repeating rifle, this is how I fixed mine.
Last edited by Goss; 03-26-2025 at 09:02 PM. Reason: Added Photos
Like I mentioned in another post, engineers do make mistakes.
"As long as there's lead in the air....there's still hope.."
I resemble that remark!
Absolutely, who doesn't? But, when I did I FIXED IT, not just let it slide so some other sucker had to deal with it!
Big question....how does it shoot now?
"As long as there's lead in the air....there's still hope.."
Extraction is very reliable.
Accuracy with the new fully rifled barrel from Savage is very good staying well under MOA at 100 yards. I'm still doing some fine tuning with the Barnes 30gr bullets.
Primers are no longer backing out after I set up the headspace with newly purchased Go/No-Go gauges.
I guess the old adage if you want something done right, do it yourself comes into play here. As a tool and die grade machinist that works for me, but what about the next guy who buys one of these things?
And some magazine adjusting so higher ballistic coefficient bullets can be used:
This channel is .135" wide and buys .100" in bullet length. It still seems to feed well, and doesn't affect functionality. I stopped at the locking block. That's all the further 4 rounds seat down to anyways. The aluminum block is just there for supporting the mag in the mill vise.
Last edited by Goss; 04-14-2025 at 08:10 PM. Reason: added pictures
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