Savage A17 17HMR barrel repair

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I got my self one of those savage A17 rifles that fires 17hmr.
While zeroing scope and I was having feeding problems with one of the mags.
I was pretty much done and just heating up the barrel to see how the point of aim changes. One of the times the gun didn't cycle turned out to be a squib load. So I chambered another round and of course pulled the trigger and bulged the barrel about 2 inchs down from the muzzle.
The muzzle blast is fairly mild so I wasn't even able to tell I had a squib load.

Now I have been trying to email savage for 2 days and no replies to send the rifle off for repair.
How is their customer service?
If you send something to them how long is it typically gone for?

I'm going to try and call them first thing this morning.

I would just buy a barrel and have a gun smith install it. The A17 appears to use the classic savage barrel nut design and I don't have a barrel wrench.
But I can't find any barrels for sale.

A 3rd option would be to have a gun smith cut down and recrown the barrel.
Don't worry the bulge is so far down the barrel it could be cut down and still be 50 state legal, at almost 19 inches long.
Then as a bonus of cutting down the barrel if I get another squib load like that, then the round should clear the barrel.

The ammo was CCI 17gr tnt hollow point.

EDIT: 4th option.
Cut the barrel down my self and do a home grown crown job.
Then if it spits out bullets like a smoth bore musket I'll spend $100 on a brownell's .177 Cal pellet rifle 45° muzzle crown chamfer tool and try it again.
So this post might turn into a diy gun salvage.

Also after reading around on the Internet some testing of a small sample of various 21, 19 and 18 inch barrels show the velocity difference between a 21 inch barrel and a 19 inch barrel is 40 to 60 fps.
 
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I was pretty mad and I'm pretty sure I threw the box away, there were only 4 or 5 rounds left out of that box and dropped them in the water bucket at the range.
I may have another box or 2 that I bought at the same day at the same place.
When I get home I will post the lot number and contact CCI if I have any.
 
I did buy 2 more boxes the lot number is L03X10

In other news the rifle is repaired.
New barrel length is about 18.2''. Over all length, 37.5''.

First i stripped down the reciver and barrel. I used my portable electric band saw, pipe cutter only to score a straight line around the barrel, dad's little harbor freight belt sander to smooth the muzzel flat and put a radius around the end, my Dewalt drill and counter sink, dermal with 8 gauge brass screw, dermal polishing compound.
I modified the brass screw head by running it against the belt sander.
I used the drill and counter sink to gouge out a chamfer then used the dermal, brass screw head and polishing compound to smooth it out. Then cleaned it and put it back together.
Total cost $0, besides the $600 or $700 worth of tools used.
 
I will have to check lot numbers when I get home, I know I have some of that ammo(although likely a different lot). Please go ahead and contact CCI to inform them of the issue, if it is an issue that affected the whole lot they should recall it and save others from having the same issue or worse.
 
My a17 was also failing to feed and eject.
First I found that I need to insert the mag only when the bolt is open. Jam it in there on a closed bolt it it fails to feed and eject constantly.
I took the rifle all apart and hosed it down with remington dry Teflon lube and took my dremal to the extractor where the shell was catching.
It was far from being a 10/22 as far as reliability but doing those 3 things got it a lot closer.
 
I've not been happy with my A17 either. The mag won't lock in without giving it a good rap with my fist and the trigger fails to reset about 50% of the time.

Accuracy is also sub par for a .17HMR

Out of all the firearms I have owned, this is the one that disappointed me. Having said that I can't bring myself to sell it. I keep thinking about how to make it better, like putting it in a Boyds stock and bedding it
 
As far as accuracy goes the one I have is great.
25 shots will eat the bullseye out of a target at 25m with no flyers, cold bore or scorching hot barrel it doesn't matter. Very tiny point of aim creep as the barrel heats up and it takes a good 10 rounds to even start to get the barrel warm.
I just don't know if i want to keep the light as a feather cheap plastic stock or put a much heavier solid one on there.
 
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