.17 WSM – Anyone else going to jump on one?

Just exchanged messages with our iDoHunting friend Chris Winchester at Four Seasons Sport in Red Wing to see if the new Savage B-Mag rifles in the brand-spankin’-new .17 WSM chambering are out.

He said coming soon. Am I the only one who can’t wait? AS soon as I saw the ballistics chart on this cartridge, it’s been on my have-to-have list. For my shooting, the other .17 caliber offerings haven’t had the oomph that I need, but the Winchester should change that.

Anyone else going to jump on the band wagon?

Grouse

Uh, HERE!!! This new caliber will be so much fun out in SD. A true 200 yard rimfire. I can’t freakin’ wait.

Savage rep was in today. He mentioned they were starting to ship (for real) this week. I do not know how far down the list our orders are but we have several on order. Hope to see one soon, Chris

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Savage rep was in today. He mentioned they were starting to ship (for real) this week. I do not know how far down the list our orders are but we have several on order. Hope to see one soon, Chris

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Savage rep was in today. He mentioned they were starting to ship (for real) this week. I do not know how far down the list our orders are but we have several on order. Hope to see one soon, Chris

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I stopped at Cabelas in Mitchell on the way out to shoot prarie dogs. Gun counter manager there said they had recieved their first Savage shipment. And promptly sold them within a few hours. He said Cabelas expects them to be a huge seller and he had been told that many more will be on order.

I hope they come available soon.

Grouse

I was in Cabela’s (Rogers, MN) yesterday and they had the Savage in stock at $329.

Unfortunately, I must say that I was not impressed. I may still force myself to buy one, but the overall build quality and cosmetics were absolutely terrible. The plastic stock is the hollowest, cheapest feeling stock I’ve ever seen and I looked at 2 guns, both had warped stocks that touched the barrel on one side, but left a gap on the other. Hmmm. Not sure how this will play with barrel harmonics. I thought the Savage Axis was poor, but this sets a whole new low as far as cheap stocks.

The bolt travel on both guns was poor. One gun seemed to have a “catch” on the forward stroke that would stop the bolt about 25% of the way forward on the closing stoke. Obviously, these action issues can often be corrected and in many cases simply with time and use, but still…

The trigger is an AccuTrigger, but again the finishing details left much to be desired. The center “pre trigger” element on one rifle was sharp on the edges, as if it were stamped from steel and then not deburred. Ouch.

I certainly want a rifle in this chambering, but I’m having serious doubts about the Savage. So far, the early reports are that they shoot great, but I have a lingering bad taste in my mouth over the cosmetics. I can only hope that I was looking at “early build” rifes and that Savage will smooth off some rough edges in later production.

Grouse

Well, that’s rather disappointing to read. For me this will probably be a beater gun, take everywhere, do everything so ugly may be fine as long as it shoots/cycles well.

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Well, that’s rather disappointing to read. For me this will probably be a beater gun, take everywhere, do everything so ugly may be fine as long as it shoots/cycles well.

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All the reports I’ve read so far indicate that it’s a shooter, so from that regard I think it’ll be good.

My disappointment was mainly that at a similar price point to the Axis, I expected construction, fit, and finish would be similar. Instead, everything seemed to me to be a downgrade.

Wonder if CZ or the “new” Winchester will be doing a rifle in this chambering soon?

Grouse

I gotta believe several manufactures will latch on to this caliber. I mean, look at the ballistics. No way they can’t???

Winchester has a model 1885 lever action in this caliber on there site. MSRP almost $1500

I was just at the Brooklyn Park Fleet Farm. They had a good supply of the new .17 WSM ammo. Not sure if they had the actual firearms or not. (FW will not approve one for me)

4 1/2 month old post but I bought one in September and put close to 150 rounds through it and it didn’t group well at 100 yards at all, if I was lucky it would shoot 1 1/2 groups at 80 yards. After emailing Savage about it, they sent the UPS truck for the rifle and a month later I had a brand new one with a wider ejector. Some people on another website claimed that weight sorting the ammo was the secret to accuracy. So I weighed 15 and went out with the chrono and didn’t see anything to back up the weight sorting idea. The first 100yd group I shot was .80″

I will probably sell the wsm as I bought a CZ527 in 17 Hornady Hornet while waiting on Savage, the CZ groups are half the size and it has a nice wood stock. I can reload the hornet for the same price or less than the wsm.

I really wanted a .17 WSM when they were first announced as I loved the concept of a high-performance .17 rimfire.

But at best everything I have read from actual owners of the Savage has been a mixed bag. Issues with the rifle, issues with the accuracy, issues with the ammo supply.

I can’t see myself buying one anytime soon. I’d need to see much higher end rifles with much better performance before I jump in on this chambering.

Grouse

I’m disappointed in Savage’s initial roll out also. However, I’m hoping with some new financial backing at ATK they will fix the thing or at least make a nicer version the WSM.

The nice thing about the Savage is that I don’t care if I put a scratch in it. The ammo supply seems to be getting better, Madison Gander Mountain had 10 boxes of 25gr ammo and the local walmarts got some in about a month ago. When gander mountain has it available online, there doesn’t seem to be a limit on how many you can buy

There is supposed to be a Win 1885 in 17wsm released and Volquartsen is working on one of their own and expected to be at the SHOT show