Savage A17 17 HMR Semi Auto Rifle Review

The Savage a17 let's check it [Music] [Applause] out [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh Savage Arms has been releasing a number of Rimfire bolt action and semi-automatic rifles over the past few years and putting some really cool designs out on the market U starting out with this a17 and now the a22 Magnum and the a22 it's a semi-automatic Rimfire rifle and these guns are just very reliable one of the problems with 17 HMR is because the velocity is so high I mean the the pressures of this round a lot of gun companies have not been able to come up with a rifle that could be reliable and that's one of the things the a17 has done um I did a review a while back on the B17 which is the bolt action rifle and it was just a tack driver and it was just amazing what this 17 HMR can do especially hunting varint and small game uh but we're going to take a look at the A7 from Savage Arms and I think that you'll find this is a really great little 17 HMR rifle and in semi-automatic Savage has been in the firearm's business for over 100 years and during that time they've had a few ups and downs of course the original Savage rifles uh were pretty legendary and really built the company but back in about the ' 80s they kind of took a downturn but since then uh they've really upped their game one of the big things that Savage offers is accurate just accurate guns uh their barrels they do make their barrels this is a button pulled Barrel it's 22 in in length um it's kind of a medium Contour Barrel it's not a heavy barrel but it's not a thin Barrel a lot of things that they do in house make these barrels accurate one is that the way they're designed they are very cylindrical uh the boore the center of the board to the outside or the exterior of the barrel they're also actually hand straightened each one which makes it pretty fascinating what I love about Savage in particular is that they have put out a large number of rimfire typ rifles now one of the things about the Savage though that kind of separates it from most of your stock rifles is the ACU trigger and we're going to talk a little bit more about it but you're getting a really excellent adjustable trigger system uh in a stock rifle and that really leads to get [Applause] accuracy [Applause] and before we get into too much let's go ahead and remove our box magazine this is a rotary 10 round box magazine which is excellent for reliability and we'll check the bolt and the gun is empty one of the big things that Savage did that no other company has really been able to do consistently is to put a 17 HMR into a semi-automatic platform uh there are a number of reasons why but the the caliber itself was invented in 2002 it's actually a it's Hornady Magnum Rimfire they they designed the the cartridge and it originally it was advised not to fire it in a semi-automatic rifle uh Savage went from the ground up and they designed the rifle around the cartridge um now one of the things about that when you're firing a standard 22 it just has a blowback design and the bolt as soon as the gun's fired the bolt will just push back and it gives it enough time to where the pressures in the in the cartridge are expanded and down through the barrel and so you're not getting any kind of blowback it's the right timing uh 22 magnum has had some issues in the past but one of the things about the 17 HMR is that it's moving 2650 ft per second which is incredibly fast for a Rimfire and what happens is with the regular blowback the bolt comes back too Qui quickly and the brass actually comes before all the pressures are expanded out of the barrel and you can have case ruptures you can have pressurized gas coming out and it's it is very dangerous now there are a couple of ways to fix that one is to make a heavier bolt to make it a little slower coming back but that causes problems for reliability uh and so what they did they've got a unique design we'll look at it more when we break the rifle down and I'll show you the inside but there's a small interruptor lug in there that makes this a delay blowback action so it gives it just enough time to leave this in the chamber and so as it hesitates just that millisecond uh and then it comes back and then allows you to safely fire the 17 HMR and this gun was really reliable now CCI actually offered the a17 which is a 17 HMR that runs about 100 ft per second faster than your standard HMR rounds it's 2650 ft per second this is optimal for for your 17 HMR in the a17 but one of the funny things is now is all the different type 17 hmrs that I fire in here still function so while this is really optimal your other rounds should fire without any trouble but if you're having any trouble go back to the a17 these are 10 round polymer magazines with metal at the back uh to brace up into the action uh you have your red followers here that as you place the rounds in it just swings down of course Ruger had that technology but then actually Savage used this technology many years ago one of the things about this magazine too and you'll notice that this is a polymer uh little catch here which you know seems like that's a little bit flimsy it does work fine in the action the reason though for this is if you do have a case rupture you're going to blow the magazine out before you come through the bolt itself and so this is really part of a safety feature uh but as far as durability with the polymer Technologies now these are holding up very well and you'll also notice over here I have a couple of Butler Creek 25 round 17 HMR magazines uh and so there's a lot that they're doing this has metal at the top and it's configured a little differently but it still has that polymer catch and again this is for safety now again the barrel is 22 in it's carbon steel and it has a really nice luster blue luster finish on here so it's blue instead of the standard what you're seeing a lot of matte finishes which makes this really nice it goes all the way back into the receiver it's a one in N twist and again there's a lot of things that are done at the factory to make these barrels very consistent and a big plus is the crown barrel uh this recessed Crown it just helps to retain your accuracy you don't hit the little edges and Nick it and it keeps the accuracy going another thing that I'm very impressed with this rifle is that it has a case hardened steel receiver uh if you'll notice most of your 22 Rimfire guns are have a polymer or an aluminum receiver uh and this is a really nice in fact it's 8620 steel case hardened uh it does have a polymer dust cover on the back and this is made for disassembly which makes this really easy to get into you don't have to break the rifle totally down to be able to clean your rifle uh from the breach side and we'll look at that when we break this down pre-drilled for scope mounts but the mounts themselves or the little Weaver bases are already attached and then of course I attached this bush nail Rimfire optic on here which really worked fine the safety is right in front of the trigger guard and of course red means fire and then right here is the bolt hold open feature pull your bolt back depress that little lever and it locks it in uh because it is a delayed blowback you will not have the bolt open on the last round when the Magazine's empty of course having the a 17 laser etched right here is a nice touch of course we have sling swivel mounts up front and here at the rear and it has a really nice butt pad on the back and of course recoil is not a problem but it does give you a secure fit to your shoulder as far as the stock difference goes this is one of the a22s I've already done a review on this rifle and this is with the new stock which I love much better than the original Savage Rimfire stocks very modular nice strong polymer but then of course you've got the laminated stock that is just beautiful of course again it raises at about $100 but it is a boid stock so it's very high quality so you know it's according to what you want to go with as far as your stock the polymer stock is really nice but the voy stock is just superb now the ACU trigger is definitely one of the things about this rifle that not only help with accuracy but also safety uh if you reduce your trigger pull considerably especially if you're hunting uh you can have an accidental discharge just by dropping the rifle and that's one of the things about this blade it actually blocks the hammer sear engagement until it's depressed so if you drop this Hammer this is not going to fire the the rifle but yet you can get the trigger pull way down just to show you how the trigger works and a little bit of the feel we're going to bring it in and then we have a nice crisp snap now that's factory setting and that's what I shot the rifle in then we have reset right there now Savage provides this small tool to be able to adjust your ACU trigger and you don't have to pull it out to get to it which is really a beautiful thing there's a small hole right here in the trigger guard and it comes down all the way through like this and you can just place it in until you find it you go clockwise to increase the trigger pull counterclockwise to decrease the trigger pull and that's with the rifle laid flat like this so if we want to bring that trigger pull down down now that's as low as it'll go so we're going to check it but that's how simple it is Charge It 2 lb 14.8 o and that's pretty much what I was getting consistently I believe before it was around the 4 lb range now we're going to briefly talk about the three most popular Rimfire calibers uh we have the 22 long rifle 22 magnum uh 17 HMR 17 HMR parent case is the 22 magnum uh it's been necked down with a 25° shoulder and that's where they got the 17 HMR back in 2002 but one of the things about this cartridge is because of modern propellants they're able to really get the velocities they can out of this you have a 17 grain bullet versus a 30 grain bullet versus a 36 grain bullet now this is a CCI Mini mag so you're going to get a little more velocity than out of some of your standard 22 long rifles um as far as the velocity itself you have 1260 ft per second at the muzzle 2,50 ft per second at the muzzle and 2650 ft per second at the muzzle so you got considerable amount of added velocity up to 600 ft per second more than even your 22 magnum now at energy and we're going to skip on to 100 yards 80 ft-lb of energy for 22 116 lb for the 22 Magnum and 151 lb of energy at 100 yards and that's foot-pounds now range is a definite big difference with the 22 you're really looking at 75 to 100 yards with the 22 magnum we're looking at 125 to 150 with the 17 HMR we're looking at 150 up to 200 yards so this is definitely a big Advantage with the distance as far as ammo prices go the CCI Mini Mags run about 9 9 Cent per round 22 magnum which has been fairly difficult to come by is about 30 Cent per round and your 17 HMR is running about 22 Cent per round and of course that varies bullet weights vary and a lot of other things but this kind of gives you just a ballpark idea of the differences with these calibers I want to thank Federal Premium for supplying the CCI 17 HMR these are varment tipped and uh got some 25 round magazines here as well with from Butler Creek these magazines are pretty easy to load once you get a little hang of it I get on the side here and just pop them in of course I've got 10 in there now but pretty positive feeding magazines let's try these Butler Creeks there's a little button here on the side so I can just pull it down oh that makes it much easier the one thing about the 17 HMR is that it's very light in Recoil um it's just smooth shooting and yet you know there's power behind it uh even with a 17 caliber uh it just really is moving really [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] fast [Applause] here's the result of the 17 HMR these cans have not been touched just picked up off the ground the one that was lined up with three it has a pin hole and it's just shooting everywhere but it didn't penetrate it it penetrated the two in front of it you know it just decimated the arm oranges or the tomatoes or the cans of soda that I had I mean it just blew right through it much more dramatic than a 22 long rifle and yet you're still getting that really soft recoil makes it a real pleasure to shoot the recoil is actually just phenomenal I mean you can just put them all in a hole um as long as you just you know do your part um in fact like I've said before with the 17hmr the acury is so good it's almost boring because you just almost can't miss long effective range of course you know is not there I mean you're talking about maximum of you know 175 to 200 yards the smoothness of the action I mean it just feeds so well uh the stock is just a beautiful you know laminated stock and It just fits to your your body very well I mean when you're sitting at the bench it just naturally rest in the right spot now your typical a7s will come in a just a polymer stock and I found that those are actually very comfortable but with the wood I really like the traditional feel of the laminated stock of course with the acue trigger uh just the trigger pull is just smooth as butter and that's really become you know pretty legendary with the Savage rifles uh it beats really anything else on the market just because of the trigger but also because Savage does such a great job on the barrels so the accuracy is pretty much assured the uh receiver being all steel really goes beyond what you're finding a lot of the aluminum receivers on the rimfires and of course that bluing is just gorgeous I mean all the way down the barrel uh so this rifle itself is just a beautiful rifle it has a nice rubber butt Pad but obviously with the mild recoil of the 17hmr you don't need it but it keeps it a non-slip surface so when you bring it up on your shoulder it gives you a lot of confidence but otherwise you know you could go with just a plastic piece here but I like the feel of this and it does give you some traction the 10 round rotary magazine are nice they don't they kind of stay flush with the gun uh the only thing is is being able to get that in just right you've really got to just kind of hold your mouth right to be honest and I didn't really have that trouble with the B17 bolt action or the a22 that has the similar magazines and it may just be uh this particular um action but you know as you can see it does go in pretty simply I think the big thing is is not injecting them too far in the back first cuz you kind of pop them in the back and then push them up front and then they lock into Place uh coming out they come out very fast and very easy but I like that just smoothness on the 10 round magazine much better than the original Savage rifles with the Box magazine sticking out of the bottom now I was using one of the Bush nail Rimfire Optics uh this is a 6x8 so I can really get good pinpoint accuracy with it um it's just an excellent scope for Rimfire rifles what I really like is the turrets you can change them out from the 22 turret or the 17 HMR turret uh so you can really get precise with your accuracy uh and there's also on the other side a focus ring especially when you get different distances and you can bring that in and it helps for some range estimation and gets that Focus right but these are very reasonably priced Optics and really a good choice for me for Rimfire to disassemble the rifle of course we want to make sure the gun is unloaded we're checking it there's no magazine down here uh first off you want to make sure the gun has been cocked do not pull the trigger and place the gun on safety uh if you do pull the trigger uh with the gun unassembled you have to actually disassemble part of it uh to get it get the hammer set back now the great thing is we can leave the scope mounted and still be able to remove the dust cover take a 1/8 in punch and depress then when you do just lift up on that dust cover there we go and then it just pulls right off you'll notice this little lip and this fits under this part of the receiver now here with the recoil spring and guide rod you want to depress it and lift it up and then it'll come out and just pull it straight out and that's your firing pin next remove your charging handle uh the firing pin goes through the charging handle and retains it so once you remove your firing pin you can pull this loose then we're going to take our bolt we're just going to bring it back here we have a Chrome plated bolt which really helps uh with Luc and just durability and guys that's pretty much all you need to do to field strip the gun you can now put your cleaning Rod through the breach and be able to clean to keep it from having to go through the bore now Savage says that the a17 will work dirty but it will not work without good lubrication you want to make sure that you have this area these contact surfaces lubricated uh and that really helps uh keep this moving back and forth in the action right here is your interruptor block and when this goes into battery this little black piece will stand up and lock the bolt and what that does it goes into the top of the receiver and then when the gun is fired it just locks it down enough to where it makes it come back a little bit slower and delays that action so that's really where your timing is here inside the mag well you can see the little cavity that the interruptor lug goes into it's a pretty ingenious design now we're going to reassemble just slide your bolt right right in typically it'll kind of hesitate on the hammer but obviously it goes right in take the charging handle slide it into place we're going to take our firing pin get it started we want to turn it though to a 9:00 position until we get it in and then we turn it back to a 6:00 position and that's what locks it down next we're going to turn our dust cover you want to kind of put it at a little bit of an angle as you get that lip under and then push down and click it then look right here for that little uh gray pin coming through and you're good to go and of course we're going to check to make sure it's functioning and it is now the price on the a17 starts out with the polymer stock at $473 and that's retail uh when you move to the laminated stock it goes up to5 71 of course that is manufacturer suggested retail you can usually at different gun shops get it for considerably less than that so you know just check your different sources and while this is Rimfire this is not an economy Rimfire like your 22 long rifle there's a lot more going on uh with the action and with the bolt and of course with the barrel and the setup uh so that's one of the things that kind of brings the price up a little bit but I'll tell you what guys you put 17 HMR on your shoulder and fire some rounds and you will be a believer it is a incredible low recoil High Velocity great varment round small game it's just fantastic Savage Arms has really done a great job with their accuracy because of the way they they produce their barrels and then with this ACU trigger it's just a great combination really makes these rifles a lot of fun to take to the range and to really get on target now I want to thank Savage Arms for sending the rifle for this review um again it makes it really great when you can have companies that will send rifles out for us to test and to get this information back to you and a lot of times I know I get into a lot of details but this this is really for those who are seriously looking at buying a rifle but one of the things that I want to say and I try to say with all my videos is to look at other reviews don't just take one review and base your decision on it look at two or three four or as many reviews good quality reviews that are out there it'll help you to make a very well-rounded decision a lot of times they're bringing out points that I might not bring out and you know or different preferences that they have that might match your own so it's one of the great things about the YouTube gun Community is there's a lot of options out there and we need to keep it that way be strong be of good courage God Bless America long live the [Music] republic [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's just superb Savage Arms is pretty the barrel is again carbon the barrel is carbon okay let me do that again but uh it just goes in as you can see you just okay and it is one of the kind of a okay this is with the uh Target Spar okay uh really this caliber is just I don't know what it is [Music]

Channel: sootch00

Views: 1,099,081

Keywords: Sootch00, Sootch, Review, Savage Arms, Savage, A17, 17 HMR, rimfire, 22LR, 22 WMR, Hornady Magnum Rimfire, Savage A17 17 HMR Semi Auto Rifle Review, rifle, hunting, shooting, varmint, small game, high velocity, 17 WSM, Target, accurate

Id: 0GibXeespS8

Length: 25min 10sec (1510 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2017