Savage B-mag

[tackdriver101]

Savage B-mag 17 Winchester Super Mag (17WSM)

The savage B- mag moving a 17-grain bullet 3000fps, out of a rim fire, intrigued my interests. However, do NOT ever by one of these rifles. Now, people are going to say well you need to take a toothbrush and scrub here and I did. It still never worked proving to be a cause of poor quality controls, craftsmanship and just being a savage. All I have to say is that it is the 21st century and in my opinion when getting something new from the store and spending hard earned cash it better work flawlessly, for the first few days at least. From day one (I should have took it back but I read reports everyone was having troubles) the extractor never extracted, never fed very well and took away from the shooting experience because it is such a poor gun. I cannot tell you what savage was thinking when they put this rifle out for purchase but don’t get one.

Enough about the rifle, the caliber itself is to die for. Due to the poor extracting and performance of the rifle I have not shot the 17 WSM as much as I would like to. Between tapping out each shell with a cleaning rod because in my opinion the ammo was a little hot (Winchester factory ammo) and was expanding to much in the chamber, causing the poor extractor to not extracted and leave the shell in the chamber. I managed to shoot off a few good groups measuring 2 @ 3/8 of an inch and 1 @ half of an inch at 50 yards. These groups were nothing to die for but proved that the caliber may prove to be a keeper. The only game I have got in my cross hairs with it was a jackrabbit at 75 yards and it turned the jackrabbit inside out and lifted him half foot off the ground.

I hear a lot of talk of people holding off to get the savage B-mag when it comes out in a heavy barrel. Why? All it is going to be is the B- mag with a heavy barrel and unless savage reworked their actions and even as far as their chambers, it is going to be the same gun. If someone was to wait it would be best to hold out for a CZ or Winchester

[Pudelpointer]

The Bmag is definitely a POS.

At this time ammo availability is but a pipe dream.

[FreeLantz]

I dunno. I like mine. Smacks down coyotes with authority and mutilates gophers, and not have I once had a misfire or a jamming issue. Never. Fail to feed, yes sometimes. I filed the mag well down to fit the mag a little nicer and as a result it feeds better as well.
Shoots totally different in a Boyds stock too.
But I agree, Savage could have spent a lot more time on this rifle then they did. Garbage factory stock and the bolt is pretty terrible too.

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[bobalong]

Volquartsen is about to release a new .17 Bmag, pricey at about 2K, and Hornady just announced they are making ammo for the .17 Bmag so I am thinking that other gun manufactures are probably going to start making the .17 Bmag as well.

https://www.volquartsen.com/products...emi-auto-rifle

http://www.hornady.com/store/17-WSM-20-gr-V-MAX

[Yycadm]

I'm with you; I've had rifles that were a good bit worse than this one. Mine was a really early sample too...I had it almost two months before I could get any ammo for it.
There are a bunch of areas that could have been improved before it left the factory, but there hasn't been anything that wasn't pretty easy to fix, either. I agree you shouldn't need to be taking tools to a new rifle, and normally I wouldn't have, but I was really interested in the round's performance.

For me it was worth the little bit of work. This thing is accurate and shoots really flat. I broke it in living in Saskatchewan, so it blew up a lot of gophers & at final count before we moved back to Calgary a month ago, 17 coyotes. With gophers, "blew them up" is the only accurate description; I have not hit one that's stayed in a single piece, they all came apart from the round. I took most of the coyotes over the course of about three weeks on a friends land, and the B-mag was just as effective on them as a .223 was. I'll eventually put a different stock on it, or buy something else in the same calibre, but until then, I get to enjoy the round and the gun has turned out to be not bad at all. I think it's very dependant on the individual gun

[FreeLantz]

Winchester has one in its low wall lineup too.

[bucknaked333]

I think millions of people are on the fence still, were waiting for better quality gun and ammo.. Its a sweet little bullet.

[cody c]

I picked up a used B mag, the rifle probably has a couple boxes of ammo through it and I have yet to have any problems with feeding, extraction or a misfire, the ammo was fairly consistent so far, chrono'd half a dozen rounds between 3145 and 3160 fps.

As far as accuracy it seems to deliver, I won't say exactly what size group this one is capable from, I'm getting, wait till I have time to get the new scope setup and put it in a lead sled to say wether exactly what it is capable of, but so far I think it's capable of 1 MOA, it did seem to widen up the groups a bit bit once that little barrel got warm, I think that may be the reason for the heavier barrel coming to production, if you plan on shooting 50 or 100 rounds with it in a sitting, then reconsider the heavy barrel.

It's nice to have hornady now producing ammo for the store shelves too, should make it a bit easier to stock up.

[xxclaro]

Was kind of hoping to try this new.17, but until someone introduces a decent rifle at a decent price and ammo becomes available, I'll wait. The Bmag looks awful to me, and I've heard for more negative than positive reviews. Savage could have had a winner here, being almost the only option for this cartridge, but they really dropped the ball.

[bushnell]

I won't complain about mine have not had any major complaints about it. Put a Boyd's stock on it helped on the balance and accuracy.

[Flight01]

I'd be right on board with a lever action . Henry golden boy in 17wsm would be great.

[dogslayer403]

Have no good words for the one I had. Terrible quality even at the low price point and the one I had was terrible in the accuracy department with either weight of ammo and much time tinkering could not get it to group. I do look forward to a better quality bolt rifle in this chambering I feel the cartridge itself has much potential but the accuracy limitations I encountered made it hard to judge. That being said a friend had one that shoots pretty good I only got a chance to shoot it at 75yds though but just cant get past the poor design and quality.

[ForwardBias]

Originally Posted by Flight01

I'd be right on board with a lever action . Henry golden boy in 17wsm would be great.

X2!

[duster243]

The 17wsm intrigued me for a bit then I realized I can reload my .223 for way cheaper and have much better performance then it so I didn't bother buying the Bmag. Also I heard the bolt is weird and sticks a lot.

[colroggal]

From the start I questioned the justification for another 17 caliber cartridge. The 17 hornet is five hundred feet per second faster with the same bullets and can be loaded down if noise is a concern.

The 17 wsm might be a great round but savage rushed to release without the r&d and testing being complete. Seems to me they borrowed that trick from Bill Gates for the B mag.

Not saying there isn't a place for a 3000fps rimfire, I'm just not sure where that place is.

Colin

[cody c]

Originally Posted by colroggal

From the start I questioned the justification for another 17 caliber cartridge. The 17 hornet is five hundred feet per second faster with the same bullets and can be loaded down if noise is a concern.

The 17 wsm might be a great round but savage rushed to release without the r&d and testing being complete. Seems to me they borrowed that trick from Bill Gates for the B mag.

Not saying there isn't a place for a 3000fps rimfire, I'm just not sure where that place is.

Colin

What do you mean?

Calgary is surrounded by flat country, fields, coyotes and gophers for 100's of miles, as is most of the rest of the province. And your asking where is a good place for it? The hornet can shoot 500 fps faster so the 17 WSM is obsolete and won't take a gopher or coyote down? What does a box of 20 17 hornet ammo cost?

I'm not sure why you would have a hard time figuring out what do to with a 17 WSM.