Savage 93R17 Overview

2007’s Rimfire Rifle of the Year, is still in strong demand and still getting the job done. I have owned a .17 Remington for several years, and certainly before the .17HMR hit the market. I’ll just admit here and now that I was skeptical, to say the least, when the .17HMR first hit the shelf. Trying to imagine all of the great things that I had heard about this necked down .22 Magnum round, was not hardly feasible. Finally, curiosity got the best of me, and I reluctantly trudged down to my local gun store and picked one up. To show my total ignorance, I thought that if I did not buy the most expensive model, that it probably wouldn’t stand a chance to shoot anything close to what had been heralded to me by my aficionado friends. I purchased a good Nikon scope and headed out to the range. What took place over the next 2 hours, was the things that dreams are made of. That Savage 93R17 BTVFBSS was everything that I had heard it was, grouping consistent “dime size groups” at 100 yards. Upon finishing, I saw a blackbird in a tree at a considerable distance (laser rangefinder later showed 227 yards). “Do you reckon that I can get close enough to scare him?” I said to my old hunting compadre’? With my Caldwell Lead Sled already put away, I steadied on the truck and squeezed the trigger. Through the scope, all I could see were feathers, as my friend exclaimed something that I cannot now repeat. I was a believer for life.



As is often the case, within a couple of years I had traded out of it. The spring varmint season was soon upon me again, and I went down to buy another. I was saddened to find that all that they had in stock was a 93R17FSS. The rifle price was over $200 less, and the scope I bought was a BSA Sweet 17. I packed up and went to the range. You can imagine my surprise when I was shooting “nickel sized groups” in just a few minutes. No, I didn’t murder any blackbirds that day, but boy was I impressed as I stretched the shots out to 200 yards with great accuracy.



The 93R17, comes standard with an Accu-trigger. The black synthetic stock kept the overall weight down to about 5 pounds. The little lightweight rifle is 39.5 inches in length, 21 inches of which is the 1:9 twist barrel. With accuracy such as this, the 5-shot detachable magazine was plenty. That little rifle has done some amazing shooting over the past 3 years, and caused several of my friends to go and buy one just like it. No more money than I have in it, it is safe to say that it will remain in my vault for years to come.





In the world of long guns, there’s plenty of “renegades”......but there’s only one Savage!