Savage Mark II - Regular or Bull Barrel

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BigBL87

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I'm looking at getting a 22lr rifle and trying to decide between the heavy barrel version or the regular barrel. I can get them for exactly the same price, so price isn't a factor. I've held and shot my brother-in-law's Marlin XT-22 with a heavy barrel and really liked the balance and feel of it. I won't be able to buy a scope and rings right away, so a regular barrel would be nice for the open sights so I could shoot it right away, but I'm not sure if the accuracy difference with a bull barrel would be worth the wait to get a scope and rings before I shoot it. I really liked the fact that the gun was heavier, made it feel solid.

It'll mainly just be used for plinking and punching paper for fun, as ammo is cheaper than my 9mm or shotgun so I can afford to shoot it more even at gouger prices on 22lr. I guess when it comes down to it my question is if the bull barrel will make enough of an accuracy difference to warrant the wait.
 
Bench rest, primarily target. The heavyweight.

Hunting involving carrying the rifle. The lightweight.
 
I'd say it all depends on what you really want to do with it. If you just want to shoot soda cans but also be able to sling it and walk for a distance go with a lighter weight. If you're going to put a big scope on it and shoot one hole groups get a heavy.

If you look at any of my older posts you'll see I post about the Savage Mk II an awful lot. That because I love it! I have the FV-SR (16.5") w/ an AAC Pilot 2. It used to wear a Bushnell 8.5-24x44, but now is borrowing an Aimpoint CompM2. I like the heavy barrel in the short package, it's good for shooting groups yet light enough to carry around a bit.

I had the standard FV for about a week before I sold it off to my father-in-law. He HAD to have it. He was hitting cans at 100 yards and offered me $100 on the spot. That's what I paid for it and he needed a good .22lr.

If I were buying it as an all-around rifle I'd get the lighter profile. Add a $10 sling and call it good. Either way you won't be disappointed.
 
Don't hunt, and all of my shooting will be under 100 yards at my in-laws property or on an indoor range, so not much hiking either.
 
I'd say heavy as well.

Perhaps look around and pick up a cheap old rimfire scope for now until you can afford a proper scope?

Also a really good bang for the buck in rimfire scopes is the Simmons 3-9x40 Protarget model. I think I only paid something like $140 for mine. And that's up here in Canada where stuff like this always costs more. In the US you should be able to find it for around $100. In terms of clarity and performance it's easily working as well as something twice the cost.
 
I'll probably be getting a cheap scope initially, don't know when I'd update it. Was thinking probably a cheap scope and a bipod eventually in that order.
 
If price isn't a factor as you say, you may want to look into the CZ line. The CZ 455 Varmint is an excellent choice for shooting paper, plus you have the option of changing barrels from 22lr to .17 and also 22 mag. The accuracy is as good or better than the Savage, for a few dollars you can have a trigger less than a pound, and the fit and finish is heads above. A little more expensive, but well worth it.
 
Thanks. By price not being a factor I meant between those 2, not as a whole. My budget is a little over $200 including transfer fees, so the CZ's are out of my range.
 
Also, got the wife to agree to spending the extra $$ for a Nikon ProStaff instead of a cheap Wal-Mart scope.
 
If price isn't a factor as you say, you may want to look into the CZ line.

Come on guys. The answer to every question is not "CZ". I love my CZ too. But my MkII is more accurate. I'd do what BigBL87 says and get a Nikon scope though. Very nice for the money and something you can always find a use for. Cheap Walmart scopes tend to become trash eventually. Not so with a Nikon.
 
Come on guys. The answer to every question is not "CZ". I love my CZ too. But my MkII is more accurate.

If yours is as accurate as mine, CZ IS the only answer.:) A friend that I shoot with frequently, has 2 Savages but won't shoot either of them against my 455.
 
I got a fvsr with a nikon prostaff scope and a gemtech suppressor its one of my favorite set ups.
 
I have the heavy barrel and I've been nothing but impressed with it dime size groups at 50 yards sitting on top is a Bushnell 3.5x10x32 that does a fine job .I haven't shot it past that with these optics but plan on upgrading the scope to a 6x18x40 for longer shots great plinker its a keeper
 
If yours is as accurate as mine, CZ IS the only answer.

I've seen lots of posts where people say they have a MkII that is more accurate than a CZ 452/453/455. It gets down to the individual rifle most of the time. Savage makes some very accurate rimfires. There are better rifles of course and in many ways the CZ is superior. But for just plain accuracy the race is pretty close.

I've shot some groups with my Savage that couldn't be bested by "any" rimfire. That's not to say it's the most accurate rifle on earth. But it will put together a really nice string here and there and on average it shoots pretty well too. I like to drag out my "4 shots and a flyer" group that I shot with my MkII in situations like this. This is 5 shots at 50 yards. The first 4 are together. The last one was from another box of ammo that I had to go inside and get. It wasn't even the same brand. But for 4 shots I was in rimfire Nirvana that day. Obviously I don't shoot groups like this all the time or even often. But I've shot lots and lots of 1/8th groups with that rifle. My best 5 shot group was .111 with it. But I came very close to having a much smaller number to throw in to a discussion like this. I'm talking a group too small to measure accurately IMO. Here is that group with the last shot, again, being from a different box of ammo. BTW my best measured group with the CZ is .108" but it doesn't quite keep up with this group IMO. Still they are very close in accuracy.

4%20good%20shots%20from%20the%20Savage%20with%20a%20flyer.jpg


Yes the first 4 shots went through that one hole. I haven't been able to measure it to my satisfaction though. It's too small for my caliper and for my computer scanner to really measure accurately.

Too bad that I've had to pretty much give up practicing daily like I was doing. There just isn't enough ammo to do it. Even the top shooters are cutting way back or at least some of them are.
 
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