Foxshooter Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Yesterday afternoon I had a chance to play with the new Savage rifle in .17 Hornet when I attended the demo day run by Riflecraft and Edgar Bros. There were three rifles to have a play with shooting targets at 100m in return for a donation to the BDS. I've never shot a Savage rifle before so this was another first for me. I must admit that I like the accutrigger but it takes a lot of getting used to the safety mech built into the trigger. I kept taking up the slack and expecting a break point that wasnt there. However when it broke the trigger was a pleasure, very crisp. The fact that its easily adjustable by the owner using a supplied 'key' is a very nice idea. The rifles supplied were all fitted with Hardy stage 4 moderators which was something else I'd never had a chance to see before. They seem well made in hardened aluminium which is just as well as they are a one piece calibre specific design and not dismantleable. The downside seems to be the price at approx £300. Apparently they resist gas cutting very well with the internals being of the monobloc design. They did a very good job on the .17 hornet but personally I have a few reservations about the life vs price. The mod is light in the hand and pleasing on the eye. On to the bits you are actually interested in! The rifle. I believe these are going to price in the £700 region. The first rifle I shot was a synthetic stocked matte version. Christ what an awful stock I wouldnt buy one of these even for a discount. Its hollow and plasticy and while it doesnt look too bad that noise you get when you knock it puts me right off. The nearest I can compare it to is the cheapo Rem700 hollow plastic stocks that second hand you can hardly give away! Later I had a chance to shoot the Laminate stocked version which felt substantially better in the hand. This had a gloss finish to the metalwork which I didnt like as much as the flat finish. Maybe you can mix 'n' match! The rifles were fitted with Weaver scopes to showcase these. The two I used were 30/30 ret and I thought the crosshairs were a bit on the thick side. While shooting for groups I felt the ret obscured enough of the target to be an annoyance. I dont know what price range they are in (I'll look in the literature later) and perhaps I've been spoiled with good glass on my own toys but one of them looked a little milky. For bunny bashing though they would be more than adequate. The third rifle had a 'tactical' mildot type ret in. I didnt get a chance to look at this beyond a 2 second squint but it looked the best of the three shown. Now for the ammo. The range we used was in an old quarry with a nice indoor firing point shooting through metre square apertures. From outside noise was frankly minimal. The moderators are very effective, all you got was the sonic crack and even that seemed muted. The quarry gave every opportunity for sound to bounce back to us who were watching so we got a worst case scenario. From the firing point it was more noisey since we were indoors and three of us were shooting at a time but a pair of supplied foam ear plugs made it more than comfortable on the ears. Accuracy was very good. Most people were grouping around about the inch mark, there were a few fliers but I think with better optics these would have been reduced. Obviously there are good and bad shooters but groups in general were good. We were given 4 rounds each to shoot and lots of these groups had some nice cloverleafs going on. The case is a dinky little thing. I have some piccys in the camera I'll upload later. I'll try and put up a pic to show the spent brass against a few other calibres for scale. The fact that you can reload it will be an advantage to those of us that do as I think that a different projectile would make the round even better. Earlier the guys had put a round into some ballistic soap to get a visual wound channel and cavity. They had compared it to a HMR round. The Hornet uses a 20gr VMax pill. I have a couple of pics of this which I hope show up OK. Translucent soap might not take a good pic. The HMR had passed into the block, expanded slightly leaving a noticable wound channel but without any bone to hit had wandered off and exited the soap block. This backs up what us owners have known for a long time. The HMR either gives an explosive result where it strikes a solid obstruction or it appears the rabbit just falls asleep and often you can find no blood or evidence of the shot when the carcass is picked up. Now the Hornet is a whole different ketle of fish. Its travelling much faster than the HMR so the results are a lot more explosive. The round entered the soap and exploded just passed below the surface. There was no exit and the cavity was somewhere slightly smaller than a tennis ball! I wish I'd been able to include something for scale. The .17 Hornet is a destruction tool. It is no use if you want to sell what you are shooting! But here too lies what I feel may be a disadvantage. All looked superb until I saw the balistic soap results. The destruction to me looks too near the surface. I realise that the hydrostatic shock imparted to the quarry as that tiny pill destroys itself will do immense damage and seeing as the largest quarry it will probably see in the UK will be a fox all will no doubt end well as all those ft/lbs of energy will transfer to the quarry BUT personally I'd like to have seen more penetration before expansion. I wonder if an imperfect shot into the shoulder of a fox will remove the leg but allow the target to travel before death results. That is why I hope a heavier bullet of a slightly different construction will come along sooner rather than later, or owners will handload and experiment with different weights and constructions. Data from the ammo box. MV 3650fps Zeroed at 200yds. 100yds = +1.1" 300yds = -6.4" 400yds = -20.7" From the advertising blurb, "trajectory comparable to a traditional 55gr .223Rem..." My final regret is that I cant see plod allowing me to have one . I already have HM2, HMR and .223Rem so I dont feel it will offer any improvements to what I already have. If someone wants more than HMR but flatter than the old guard .22Hornet then this will be a little cracker. Piccys here https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=769875086F898BA3!370 If you have any questions ask and I'll do my best to help out. MArk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oly Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Interesting read. Pics say that they may have been moved or deleted though. Thanks, Oly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6mmBR Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Thanks for a very interesting report. It seems a bit of a white elephant this caliber, it will be interesting to see the up take on it. Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Interesting read. Pics say that they may have been moved or deleted though. Thanks, Oly + 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxshooter Posted September 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 + 1 Dunno what happenned there. Hopefully now fixed Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldon cooper Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 how much is ammo going to cost?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwood Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Nice review Mark. Photo's work for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oly Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Thanks for a very interesting report. It seems a bit of a white elephant this caliber, it will be interesting to see the up take on it. Cheers Dave Maybe it is simply a replacement for the hmr? There seems to be many similarities, but being able to reload it will mean that squibs (of which tales abound hmr enthusiasts these days) may be a thing of the past... Thanks for fixing the pics too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatzi Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 £89 per hundred is the figure I seem to remember from a few months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatzi Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Oh, and dont put your mug in the dishwasher, the print is gone in no time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tackb Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Cheers, great review! Nothing that is going to make me change my 223 in the new round though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxshooter Posted September 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Ammo price was £20ish for 25 when I asked Andrew. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Great review Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oaken Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Nice review that reflects my views too. We had the ballistic soap demo today but through a thin piece of ply to start the expansion. The Hornet damage was impressive against the Hmr but would like to see a 40gr .223 Vmax or similar added to the lineup for more informative comparison. Can't help feeling that the 17Hornet fills a niche that doesn't really need filling! That said, if you want a dedicated flat shooting 250yd fox rig this will fit the part but other established calibres can do so much more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swamp Donkey Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 If you are planning on reloading, look closely at the fired brass, it's already running quite hot going by the flat primers, and the cases have stretched at the web near the head, but only on one side, so I'm thinking the brass life is going to be pretty short, but if these cats don't stop bloody screeching, so is theirs ! Lol. And, check out the price of .17 bullets too !!! Ouch. If you can get dies to neck size, maybe not too bad, but I feel full length each time is going to be a killer for the brass. If I can work out how to post a pic, and get some decent ones to be worth posting, I will. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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