Savage A17 vertical stringing

[TwoEyedJack]

One of my friends asked me to sight in a Savage A17 today. Conditions were perfect, no wind and not too cold. I was shooting at 100 yards off a lead sled (I was also trying out some full-house loads for my .338 win mag) and shot several 5-shot groups similar to this one.



The ammo was CCI A17, which they claim is optimized for this rifle. This is about twice as large a group as I have gotten with the other 17s in the family, all Savage heavy barrel bolt actions.

One thing I noticed is that the barrel does not sit in the middle of the fore end channel. It is not touching, but much closer on the right side than the left. If my friend were to glass bed the thing, do you think it would tighten up the vertical dispersion?

I shot 25 rounds in total, and there were no malfunctions at all. The rotary clip is a little harder to load than the Ruger 10-22's. Trigger was nice. Bolt doesn't stay open on the last round.

 

[d2wing]

On some rifles you need plenty of clearances. Looks like the channel needs to be sanded out on the right side.

 

[Art Eatman]

No such thing as always in this guessing game of "why", but it's common that vertical stringing comes from an upward forearm's-tip pressure on the barrel. Differential heating of steel and wood changes the pressure and harmonics.

 

[TwoEyedJack]

I don't think it needs more clearance. There is plenty of clearance on both sides, but it is not symmetrical. I could easily get several sheets of paper between the barrel and the stock.

 

[murf]

try it without the leadsled.

murf

 

[TwoEyedJack]

I have never seen a decrease in accuracy using the lead sled. I happened to shoot this target with a Tikka T3 Lite .223 on the same day using the same rest and technique.



This is pretty much what I get off shooting off bags with this rifle. Have you seen a lead sled effect accuracy negatively?

 

[Nature Boy]

I shoot more accurate groups from bags than I do from the sled

 

[gamestalker]

I've had some strange things happen when shooting off a sled, stringing being one of those effects. I'm not real sure why, but some rifles when shot free floating in the cradle, rather than strapped down across the recoil lug, have shot far better.

Sleds aren't always the best platform to shoot off of, IMO.

GS

 

[TwoEyedJack]

OK, I'll take it out and shoot off bags and see if that makes a big difference. Probably have to wait until next weekend.

 

[RainDodger]

Whether the gap is symmetrical or not, doesn't matter. It ONLY matters if the barrel touches the forend anywhere, when cold OR hot. That said, maybe the slightest tension of resting the forend on a bag or in the sled (I don't know much about sleds) is pressing the stock into the barrel. Just a thought. Good luck.

I've been wrestling with a .17HMR for a while and would love to have the group you've got even now! I'll get there though.

 

[Nature Boy]

I have the A17. It was an impulse buy I picked up prior to making a prairie dog hunt. I've not been real happy with it. The trigger is crap and the magazine is crap x2. Been procrastinating in sending it back to savage to get both fixed. As soon as there's an aftermarket solution for the crap x3 stock I'll fix that too.

Maybe I can make it shoot. As it is, it's a 1.5 MOA/POS

 

[RainDodger]

I wonder what Savage is thinking with magazines.... I have a 93R17 Savage (.17HMR bolt rifle) that uses magazines... and they're really crap magazines. Plus, they mount in the rifle along a "rail" for lack of a better word. I don't get it. I've had continuing problems with this rifle and the crap magazines have always been one of them. I wonder if it's just another case of, "you get what you pay for"... I've spent a lot of money on this relatively inexpensive rifle, getting it to shoot as well as it should. <rant over> Sorry. Didn't mean to steal your thread. Let us know what you find out with the vertical stringing.