New savage a17 in wsm ?’s suggestions

[Schandler]

I have a couple a17’s - an hm2 and 17 hmr. Since both were very accurate and knowing the 17 wsm is inherently an accurate caliber - i had to order one in 17wsm. It’s a Boyd thumbhole version and i know savage is always a crap shoot when ordering a rifle in rimfire but was willing to take a chance. Have sent several bmags back to savage with poor results. Will keep the bmags but probably will not go through the headache again of sending back to savage if rifle won’t shoot and will not buy anymore bmags. I do sort ammo and am pleased with results with rifles i have butthe new wsm a17 is not fulfilling my expectations. I have not bedded stock just cleaned barrel and shot. Asking for suggestions on how to improve accuracy on the new a17. Anyone ever bedded an a 17 ? Plan is to bed stock and I’m confident it has a good set of mounts and proven leupold scope using bags with no wind so going to go from there and see what happens. Read mixed reviews on bedding. I want this rifle to shoot but if a bad barrel or crown then i am not above letting it ride to someone that’s happy with a 2 moa rimfire rifle. All suggestions appreciated

 

[Loudenboomer]

Might want to try chronograph your 17 WSM ammo. I'm told some ammo lots are very inconsistent.

 

[RegionRat]

Agree with Loudenboomer. I don't have stats on recent 17 WMR ammo, but a few instances where club mates have asked for help, I found some of it to be horrible and to blame for their issues.

Stocks can certainly contribute to the overall performance in both good and bad ways, so I would tend to want to test some of that same ammo in a known good gun first. If it shoots well in the good gun, then taking the risks on putting work into this rifle has a chance.

If you can bench mount the gun while indicating the end of the barrel while playing the game with mounting bolt tension/torque, you will have a better idea of any low hanging fruit for the effort. After all, you can't fix a bad barrel by bedding the action.

Slugging the barrel is also about the same level of effort, and worth a look too. YMMV

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

 

[Schandler]

Loud i have all Hornady 17 gr same lot # for the wsm as well as hmr and mach2 ammo - bought several bricks at one time after trying different brands and i have weighed each round putting heavy light and mid in separate containers for all the 17 rimfire to help prevent fliers. Worked well for the all rifles except this new wsm in a17. It’s all over the place. I have two other rifles in wsm and they shoot great with the Hornady ammo. I do still have leftovers of various including several 20 gr but have not tried it. Will do that before bedding. Would savage rake me over if i bedded stock and then wanted to send back ? That’s what I’m afraid of - bad barrel no fix for that !

 

[TheCZKid]

I was not aware Savage came out with a semi-auto in 17 WSM, that's cool! I have the B-mag bolt version, and it's a .5 MOA rifle with most ammo. but most likely variable in accuracy might be the ammo.

I purchased the A17 in HRM a few years ago. I first bedded the synthetic stock, and saw an improvement in accuracy. Then, I went from the synthetic stock to a nice looking Boyd's thumbhole, bedded the action, and didn't notice an improvement, might have actually gotten a little worse accuracy than the synthetic.

My 17 WSM B-mag I noticed a huge improvement from before / after bedding. I think the semi-auto might be inherently less accurate than a bolt gun, but that's a guess. But 2 MOA is not acceptable in my perspective. You might try different ammo, if you can find it, and see if it likes one a lot more than the others. The ones I know of are Federal in 20 or 25 grain, and Winchester, Hornady and now Browning makes it too.

 

[B23]

Savage introduced the 17 WSM version of their A17 rifle a couple years ago but they never really did anything with bringing it to the market until about ten months ago. The fact that there was no 17 WSM ammo being made by Winchester which regardless of the label on the box makes ALL of the 17 WSM ammo for a few years likely had something to do with it since it'd probably be rather difficult to sell a new rifle when there isn't any ammo being made to shoot in it.

I have a Sav. A17 in 17 HMR mine is the Target Sporter Laminate model. It's certainly no target rifle but it easily shoots as well as my Sav 93/17HMR.

I don't know what the trigger is like in this newest 17 WSM A17 but Savage has gone through multiple different versions of the trigger for their A17's with each version being a variance of the previous. I bought my A17 fairly early and mine is slightly different then the earlier ones and I've seen some that were bought after I got mine that are slightly different then mine. Hopefully, the trigger in the newest ones are MUCH better because the trigger in the earlier A17's was positively horrible. No exaggeration, mine was easily the worst trigger I've ever had in anything I've ever owned. It was not only extremely heavy but had about ten miles of pretravel as well as that very long creep/pretravel was notchy and crunchy. Pulling the trigger literally felt like you were dragging a logging chain across a boulders. The pull weight adjuster was a total joke and you could spin it one way or the other until it stopped and it did nothing to change anything. I could see there was no way any amount of accuracy was going to be possible with a trigger that bad so I spent half a day messaging on it and working over the parts and pieces as well as shortening springs until I finally got it to a point where it was useable. It took some doing but I got the pull weight down to 2lbs with zero creep/pretravel.

Unless there's an obvious problem there isn't a great deal you can do to help these things. If the trigger sucks that would be an area that can be improved on. The basics like a good disassembly and cleaning then look at free floating the barrel if you want. If you do pull it out of the stock to do any work be mindful not to over tighten the action screws. Any of the rimfire rifles I've had shot better with the action screws around 20 +/- in. lbs then they did gorilla tight like they came from the factory. I'm assuming the 17 WSM A17 uses Savage delayed blowback design and unless something has changed my 17HMR version runs flawlessly if I keep that little locking lug on top of the bolt lubed.

As for bedding the actual action rimfires especially some of these Savage models just don't make it very easy to bed the actual action. Due to their design and big open voids in the stock where the magazine goes it leaves very little area to bed the action. I know lots of people like to claim they bedded their action but then when you see a pic of their so called bedding job all they did was bed the first inch of so of the barrel and zero actual action bedding has been done. Bedding the first inch or two of the barrel isn't remotely the same as bedding the actual action itself.

 

[Bill K]

suggestion. Sell it and live very happy with the other two 17's you have. They just seem to be the best of the bunch in the rimfire version and ammo is available easier than the 17WSM.

 

[RegionRat]

Would savage rake me over if i bedded stock and then wanted to send back ? That’s what I’m afraid of - bad barrel no fix for that !

My guess is if you think you will send it back, you will not want to alter the gun in any permanent way while expecting them to accept it.
My words are worth nothing and you would want to discuss it with their Customer Service folks.

 

[Schandler]

Fellas i appreciate all the suggestions. I can actually live with the trigger and b23 you are so right on how tight the action screws were ! There’s actually a little stock area at rear and front of action to bed to but i will talk or email savage before doing anything. I actually sent a bmag back and it was returned with pieces of trigger box broken and laying in bottom of box ! Does shoot fine but i know tabs on one side are broke. With holidays i haven’t shot anymore since doing anything with action screws or tried different ammo. I don’t have a lot of anything other than Hornady ammo so i hope it doesnt shoot something else better ! Such a pain to have to ship back so that will be last resort AND im not above selling but i prefer to improve accuracy and keep. I really like the wsm and If i do sell it - it will be to a friend and im not much on selling trading a gun in my name but i also have bad dreams owning a rifle that shoots this bad and just take up safe space ! I will post back on progress thanks

 

[Tommie]

the 17 wsm is inherently an accurate caliber

That’s news to me

 

[Schandler]

I think the ammo gave the 17wsm a bad rap when they first started producing but have read it’s improved. I was hooked after shooting a buddies on a prairie dog trip out west. Accuracy was surprising even with the Wyoming wind ! I know that the rifles i have in wsm shoot lights out except for this new one.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

Probably be a lot easier and faster to sell it for a loss and just buy another one.

 

[searcher]

As I understand your post - you are considering buying the semi-auto - and haven't yet done so. If you want the semi-auto, I say go ahead and buy it. More Savages shoot than not. If it shot terribly, then you do have that decision as to whether to send it back or improve the bedding and do what you can to get to shoot. That is always the possibility with any rimfire, as you know.

Regarding the bedding, if the rifle really shot terribly - I'd either get rid of it or send back to Savage. If it shot acceptably, then I'd definitely bed it. As some noted, there isn't as much surface area to work on as compared to a target action, etc., but can still be performed satisfactorily. It should eliminate bedding issues if properly done. I have the HMR and my buddies all have the WSM's. They are all quite accurate. I think the odds of getting a "dog" are rather low.

 

[Schandler]

I guess my odds are not in my favor !! It shoots like shotgun. To be fair i have only shot 25 rounds through it and cleaned a dozen times. I will shoot a couple boxes through it and continue to clean and see where it ends up. Not above removing scope and sending back but it is a pain ! Won’t be the first I’ve sent back to savage

 

[txgs]

Anyone having issue of sheering the roll pin in half that holds in the firing pin?