Savage B.MAG & 17WSM going on 2 years???

C

Cheapshooter

New member
Introduced at the 2013 SHOT Show, and now almost two years later, what is your take? Anybody have one? Ammo availability? What's your opinion?
I am getting the bug for one, but really don't know why. But that's a common thread with a lot of guns I buy. I have a Savage 93 17HMR (pre AccuTrigger), and really don't see a lot of advantage of the WSM for my mostly paper punching.
I really don't want to buy what could easily become another 5MM Remington, so do you think the 17WSM will last? Considering I haven't heard of any other major gun maker building a rifle chambered for it I have serious reservations about it's future.
 
Dont really know about the future all i can say is the Bmag is the cheapest POS gun i have ever handled! It feels like a fisher price toy and likely is made up of the same parts and materials. Makes a 770 look like a pre64 Mdl. 70 winchester!
 
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Go over to Savage Shooters forums and there are quite a few people who've tried it. Seems there have been accuracy issues with both the rifle or the ammunition, sometimes both. I think if I wanted a .17 caliber I'd stick with the HMR or step up to the Hornady Hornet. It just seems a little odd that you only have two choices in rifles chambered in this cartridge a B-Mag or a Low Wall, you'd think if it was going to take off there would be more rifle offerings.
 
I thought about it for about 5 minutes then went with a .17 Hornady Hornet instead. It's the standardized .17 Ackley Hornet and has been around for many years. Mine is a custom rifle but there are good choices around for a factory mad rifle...

Tony
 
Bought a savage 93 in .22 win mag rim fire, and I am very impressed. Just the other day at my local range I shot 15 rounds at 50 yards and all the shots were within 1 inch of eachother. My best five shot group was under .25 inches, so I think the savage is a very good gun. I do have a nice scope on it though, and have the bull barrel stainless model, but I do think all savages are solidly built. One small problem I had though was a weak firing pin, which caused constant misfires. It turned out to just be some greasy gunk inside the bolt, and now the problem is all fixed. Other than that, great gun.

John
 
Yeah, but a M93 Savage rimfire is a whole different animal than the B-mag rifle. If you ever get the chance to handle a B-mag you'll change your tune on solidly built Savage rifles. I'm not knocking Savage as I own several, but this rifle isn't anything to praise about.
 
If someone would chamber .17 WSM in a GOOD rifle at a reasonable price, it would sell well enough to stay in production. If someone would chamber .17 WSM in a cheap rifle that's better than the stupid B.Mag, it might take off and do very well.

As is... Savage will always be known as the company that ruined what could have been a great cartridge. Such a stupid rifle....

I was handling another B.Mag a couple of weeks ago, and my opinion of that cost-cutting consumer-grade lump of crap just gets worse every time I touch one. It is a complete joke of a rifle, and a perfect example of guns going from 'durable goods' to 'consumer goods', and gun makers caring only about profits.


My opinion from February hasn't really changed:
FrankenMauser said:
The .17 WSM's launch was about like announcing a giveaway of free canoes to anyone that wanted one ...but the winners could only use their canoes at the sewage treatment plant (the Savage B-Mag). And, as it turned out, there were only two canoes, anyway....
Click to expand...
 
From the local Savage rep:
The 17wsm was a neat idea, and the B-Mag was a neat idea. Only problem was they were not great ideas, and no one was really dedicated to the issue from the start. Savage made a so-so rifle chambered for ammo that was only available from one manufacturer. The ammo had accuracy problems, and the rifle had handling problems, and as soon as the issues started coming out, both companies started pointing fingers at the other and saying it wasn't their fault, and both stopped doing what they had been doing. For consumers, that meant that once the available ammo was sold, no more was coming, while the rifles were still coming and being marketed heavily.

The whole launch was flubbed from the get-go. If they had followed the Hornady/Marlin/Ruger model, they would have flooded the market with ammo and then brought out rifles, instead of entering the market with a few rifles and then not making enough ammo for the rifles.
 
I handled one recently,......... It was incredibly light weight. And I don't mean that in a good way. It feels lighter than any toy rifle, like it would float away on the lightest breeze. They should have offered it in a more substantial rifle. Such a poor initial offering may well doom thecartridge to failure no matter how good the caliber. Like the 6mm Remington; what a great cartridge, playing second fiddle to the almost-as-good-as 243 Winchester. You'd be better of with a nice 22 Hornet. Maybe, over the course of time, if they offer seriously good rifles for it, and ammo availability, quality, and price are favorable, it might have a future. I think the 5mm Remington could also make a better go of it. But they were ahead of their time and didn't make a strong enough commitment to it and ultimately abandoned it. Remington should have stayed the course and lowered the price of ammo until it got mainstream acceptance. With today's bullets, the 5mm Remington would be better than ever. One thing they are all up against is the 22 Long Rifle. It's cheap and performs well enough to 100 yards for a lot of purposes.
 
Bought a savage 93 in .22 win mag rim fire, and I am very impressed.
Click to expand...
I have had a 93R17 synthetic stocked 17HMR for quite a while. Actually before the AccuTrigger was added. Even with the crappy original trigger I came very impressed with it.
However, from the replies here, I think the B Mag is a whole different story. I haven't actually held one, but in the display case at Wally World it didn't look all that bad.
But I think just the fact that no other company has built guns for the 17WSM it is not going to be around much longer.
 
I think the fact that other companys haven't made a rifle for this round speaks to the doom of the round. I don't think Savage has anything to do with the failure of the round. It just didn't peak enough interest for other manufacturers to jump on the band wagon. Market demand will dictate what manufacturers offer.

I've never handled one, never shot one, don't really care if it stays or goes. I've got a HMR and didn't see the need for another 17 rimfire for me. That's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions. :D

YMMV
 
Absolutely love mine. Bought the pencil barreled model. No problems, extremely accurate, touching holes at 100 yards, no misfires, magazine is smooth, bolt is average, stock is plastic and lightweight -not an accustock, accu trigger is AwesomE, follow up shots can be performed very fast in the field, hell of a crack when firing, easy to keep your eye on the target when shooting moving game, well balanced. Mounted a budget nikko stirling 4.12x40. Holds consistently. Fogs a little easy. Performs 100% with the rifle. Ammo is easy to get. Called 10 guns shops locally, 10 minutes later, one called me back and had a brick of freshly arrived 20 grain for 225. Liked it so much I bought the silver bull barreled version. Stock is considerably worse than the pencil version, touches the barrel. Incredibly unbalanced. Didnt care, already planned on a boyds stock before I ever laid hands on it. But definitely a must. I wont even shoot it until I replace the stock, adjust the trigger and scope. Point is, im so happy with the pencil, I want another one....just different. C'mon Ruger, Browning and CZ, I'm waiting. Would I recommend it.....absolutely. and if you want to walk around the woods for 2 or 3 hours dropping moving squirrels with ease at a long distance, get the pencil version.
 
Another interesting note, the other 9 gun shops all said the same thing. "Cant get it, havent had it in a long time". But the place I bought my ammo, gets it in every week. I have a feeling there might be some prejudice amongst some private dealers. I can say this much, when......if....someone produces a Nice high quality 17wsm, heads will turn. I dont like high gloss walnut and deep dark bluing, said nobody ever!
 
Shot a b-mag today. What a flimsy built, ill designed, piece. Would not group as though the scope was loose. Shot 24 round through it initially, and held about an eight inch pattern. Upon removing the magazine about the third time the trigger guard broke and the mag would not stay in place. Checked all of the scope screws, base, rings and none where loose. Broken trigger guard exposed action mounting screws so action was removed from stock cleaned and remounted and torqued, as well as some material removed from end of stock where it was contacting barrel. This tightened patterning up to about 6 inches. Pulled a dollar bill from my wallet and folded it about 3 times and tucked it tightly between end of forearm and barrel and shot a dime sized eight shot group at about 80 yards. This was with a different box of ammo but of the same lot. Ordered a Boyds stock which comes with a new trigger guard and will not shoot again until new stock arrives.
 
Hornady is coming out with a line of 17 WSM ammo.


For them to waste time/money on tooling up to produce the cartridge, must be something going for it. Hopefully someone else will bring a rifle to market in 2015 and breath some life into the cartridge.
 
So long as the considered cartridge has the Winchester logo engraved on its cartridge base. I doubt you have to worry about obsolescence. Seems like these new little trendy calibers. Their ammo (is) almost cost prohibited. I squirm a little when I have to buy 22 Mag and because of that predicament. I now prefer to shoot my 223 as a substitute for the 22 Mag.
 
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