Savage B.Mag 17 Winchester Super Mag Teardown

[Nimrodmar10]

I didn't want to hi-jack the other thread on the Rimfire Forum so I'm creating this thread instead.
I bought a Savage B.Mag last week and thought folks might be interested in this new rifle. I mounted a Leupold 3-9 scope using the factory supplied bases and a set of steel Weaver rings. I had read several Gun Writer reviews and watched the YouTube videos so I was expecting good things out of the new rifle. If you read my posts in the Varmint Hunting Forum, you know I wasn't overly impressed with the Micky Mouse plastic stock but decided to reserve overall judgement until I fired the gun. I can forgive a lot of production shortcuts as long as the accuracy is there.

After I sighted the rifle in, I fired four 100 yard groups from a shooting bench using sand bag rests. The first two were with the Winchester 25 grain silver polymer tipped bullets and two groups with the Winchester 20 grain red polymer tipped bullets. I wasn't really impressed. I had been reading all these reports of sub-MOA 1/2" or 1/3" groups at 100 yards. I didn't get that kind of accuracy out of this rifle. Here are photos of the groups I got:

I made elevation adjustments, but otherwise, made no changes to the rifle. I let the gun cool between groups. I didn't bother measuring any groups; I didn't see the need. The target dots I used are about 3/4" in diameter, so you can estimate the size of the groups. Not as good as I had hoped. I think it will do better with a little tuning.

Looking at the four groups and how they strung from low left to high right, and not in any sequence, I figured I had a bedding problem. In the next post I'll show the breakdown and guts of the rifle.

 

[Nimrodmar10]

I checked to see if the barrel was floated and found that a piece of paper would only slide halfway down to the receiver. That seemed like a odd way to bed a barrel.

I removed the rotary magazine and then removed the trigger guard/lower receiver cover by inserting a flat blade screwdriver into the slot in the front of the magazine well.

I then checked the torque of the two action screws. They were torqed to over 50 inch pounds each so were not loose. I then removed them and removed the barrel/action from the stock.

When I checked the area of the for end under the barrel, I saw the problem. The fore end of the stock was bows up in the middle. This causes the barrel to move around freely on the small plastic webbing that was supposed to stiffen the stock.

I've ground/sanded the ribs down to where the barrel is now floated. Before I put the gun back together, I intend to fill the for end corregations with epoxy resin to try and stiffen the stock enough to keep it from flexing up and touching the barrel when I rest the barrel on a sand bag or rest. When this is finished, I'll fire the rifle again and let you know how it shoots.
The last picture is a close up of the trigger assembly. In the top-down photo of the trigger, you can also see a picture of the Accutrigger adjustment wheel.

Hope this helps. I'll post more as it becomes available.

 

[midwesthunter]

Nice write up, my bmag came in this last week, but have no ammo yet

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Nice write up. When you took the rifle apart are the majority of the pieces plastic? Even the accutrigger housing looks plastic (I am not familiar with the accutrigger since my savages are a little older). I still can't bring myself to buy one since my savage 93GV 17hmr is so much nicer. What do you think as far as for your first impression? I am anxious to see if your solution fixed the accuracy issue.

 

[fireman1069]

Nice!! It would appear our guns were made from the same mold. My groups were exactly like yours and this is the first time I've seen anyone else have the same issue. Everyone else is claiming tight groups. I was thinking it was ammo since I was also having problems with cartridges not firing. After cycling it again it would fire but it was so inaccurate. Some of the casings had two dents from the firing pin. I sent my gun back to savage so we'll see what happens from there. Maybe they'll figure it out and fix it for me. I'll follow up in about 4 weeks when I get it back.

 

[tuck2]

There are times when I don't feel like reloading the center fire 17 Cal rifles. So I m interested in getting a 17 WSM rifle. Maybe CZ or Ruger will make one of steel and wood. I ll pass on the Savage but should I get one I,d put the barreled action into a wood laminated varmint glass bedded stock.

 

[outback andy]

It seems like savage is going down hill, with the new owners now...

 

[Mike 338]

Nice write-up and thanks for taking the time to do it. Once again, all the hype from Gun Writers doesn't compare to a real person buying an off-the-shelf rifle. I'd be very curious to hear your experiences either fixing your own problem or sending it in and seeing what comes back.

 

[codyjoe1128]

H3ll send me one of your problem b mags...ill shoot it!

 

[calebryandarnell]

I was having the same results with my B Mag. I took action out of stock and used some 100 grit sandpaper wrapped around a deep well socket. Barrel is now truly free-floating. I know the B Mag is cheap, but I thought Savage would have done a little better. I am now getting better groups @ 100yds. This was my first 5-shot group. Barrel was getting warm on shot 5.

 

[oregonreloader]

I purchased the B.MAG in mid-September and mounted a Leupold Vari-X III on it. Firing the 20gn round from a Lead Sled rest, I could not shoot groups smaller than 2"-3" at 100 yards. I have returned the rifle to Savage for service.

After I returned the rifle to Savage, my FFL called me to say that someone had come into his shop, saw the 17WSM cartridge I'd left there as a show-and-tell and told the FFL that he'd returned his to Savage because he couldn't get it to group, either. The FFL called another shop and they told him that they'd had three customers return their B.MAG to Savage for the same reason.

It would seem that Savage has a bit of a problem. I hope it is fixable.

 

[fireman1069]

I just received from savage a replacement B-Mag. I will set it up and do some shooting this week hopefully. I'll post the results when I do.

 

[jamesppp]

Hopefully they will straighten things outMy store just received the shipment they have had on order for several months. They are priced at 320$. The one we found in August was 289$ but has not been fired because we have no ammo yet( my buddy has this one)
I have received 3 stock alert emails so far for ammo but all stock has been gone in the time it took for me to enter an order
I REALLY want a .17 rimfire that can handle a little breeze.
I was really fired up or this little rf after reading the article in American Rifleman and I act compulsively on new stuff a lot. I'm thinking I should sit back and hope for good news
Please let us know how everything works out
Everything I read I thought that scope bases and rings were included but only bases on the 2 I have had my hands on

 

[oregonreloader]

Has anyone had recent experience? I received my B.MAG back from Savage yesterday and mounted the scope today. I took the stock off and noticed the same curvature as shown in the photos above. I will try to shoot in the next few days but the weather is getting ugly and may get too cold to go out. Any recent reports of good experiences or how to tune this rifle would be comforting.