Savage Model 25 LV-T in the .223

[walleyered85]

Anyone shooting a Savage 25 in the .223 cal. Thinking of buying one but I'm concerned about the 1:9 twist. Because it likes a heavier bullet for accuracy. I will be shooting Hornadys 55gr SP bullets. Savage recommends 69 gr sierras for best accuracy, but the heaviest I can find are the 55's. I don't reload right now so I'm stuck buy my ammunition. Anyways, anybody like or dislike their Savage model 25.

 

[winmag]

Welcome to L/R/H. I know little to nothing about Savage rifles, but the twist should be fine. You can shoot lighter bullets with a faster twist,to a point, but not the other way around. A larger(longer) bullett requires a faster twist to stabilize it. So if its set up with a fast twist already you should be fine shooting a bit lighter bullet now and upgrade to heavier ones when(if)you ever take up handloading.

 

[mphstigerfan]

midwayusa.com
you will find plenty of heavier .223 ammo there

 

[walleyered85]

Thanks for the info. I will be shooting my first Savage Centerfire Rifle, I hope it's a straight shooter. I've had Savage .22 rifles that were accurate. I've always had Rugers in the past but kind of wanted one with the thumb hole stock which Savage has.

 

[mphstigerfan]

havent shot many of either but i have shot a couple. my experience has been that the savage will be more accurate. and the huge bonus of the savage is the fact that if its not shooting like you want they have screw on barrels that you could actually change yourself so the cost of a smith could be avoided. the idea of a $250 target grade barrel is attractive. I'm seriously considering one in 7mm-08 with a lighter barrel myself.

 

[Breeze67]

Walleye

All I own are Savage Rifles because they are so accurate out of the box. I shoot long range steel matches and do as good and better than some custom rigs. About the 25, I shoot it in a match yesterday for the first time, it did great. The close target was 210yds and was 4"X5" no problem. The farthest was 800yds ISPC torso target hit it 2 out of 3. I hand load 69gr hornady's and it just loves them. The only down side to the rifle is the plastic magazines, hopefully someone will make a replacement.

Hope this helps
Breeze

Side note I own 6 Savage Rifles

 

[walleyered85]

Yeah, I didn't care for the plastic clip either and when I went to look at the gun for the first time I was not impressed with the Model 25. They consider that a varmint gun but the barrel was a high gloss blue. It shined so much that I decided not to buy it, and the bolt on this thing was cheap. I'm going back to Ruger and never ever considering a Savage again. The M77 Hawkeye is far better than the Savage IMO.

 

[winmag]

Im with Mphstigerfan on this one. I own loads of Winchesters, and never liked Savage in the past. But as he said if you get a crapper, just screw on another barrel. Theres gotta be a reason so many guys on L/R/H buy Savages. Maybe they want an inexpensive strong action thats easily customisable. Buy the rifle, throw away everything but the action and build your own for alot less $. But I dont see too many folks shooting factory rifles(of any manufacturer) at extreme distance. I squeeze all the performance I can out of what I have with hand loading, and live with the results untill the day I can afford to build a dedicated Long Range rig. As far as cost goes, a Savage does look tempting as a ''donor'' action.
Side note: This is just like the old Chevy vs. Ford debate. Many people love thier Savages and the rifles shoot clover leafs for them, As do Rem. Wby. Win. etc. To each thier own. Its a personal preferance and ALL of the above mentioned brands are quality actions if nothing else. even if you dont care for the ''brand name'' a good action is a good action period. Shoot what you like and shoot it often and confidence as well as personal ability will soar at ever increasing distance

 

[walleyered85]

I didn't mean that it was not a straight shooter or that it was not well built. It's just that it is suppose to be a Varmint gun and the barrel was a high gloss blue. Any sun light reflecting of this would blind you so to speak. Varmint rifles are suppose to have matte finishes. And the bolt on it was tiny with alot of slop in it. With the clip being plastic made me feel like they scrimped on quality on those three points. I ordered a Ruger M77 Hawkeye Sporter in the .223 which was only $60 more and had better quality in those three areas I was concerned about.

 

[William52]

That's a good recommendation for the Ruger M77. I would like to know how that turns out for you. Maybe a new thread for Ruger. I have a Savage Model 25 and bought it because it was on sale and had the heavier barrel and a nice stock. It's called the light varmint barrel because its lighter than a real varmint rifle. I shoot the Federal 69gr match ammo and hand load the Hornady 68 gr match and just started with the Hornady Amax 75 gr. At 100 yds and a COL of 2.37" the Amax bullets gave me about 0.3" vertical spread and shot significantly lower and tighter than a COL of 2.35". I will load them up a bit hotter and try at 200 yds then 300 to see if they are still stable at those distances. The 69 gr bullets can give me 1/2 MOA groups. The Model 25 has a 1/9" twist. I have read that 75 gr bullets should stabalize but the bullet mfgs will not support that on the boxes, they recommend 1/8"twist. Results later.