Savage Arms A22 Pro Varmint 22 Magnum / 22 WMR Semi Auto Rifle - Blue/Black, 22" Barrel, 10+1 Rounds, Wood Stock

After much research, I decided on Savage Arms' A22 Pro Varmint .22 WMR semi-auto for coon hunting with my Catahoula. We're fairly new to the sport. I was very pleasantly surprised upon the opening the box and getting my hands on this rifle. It is nearly a miniature carbon copy of my Savage Model 10 in .308, which is a fantastic, accurate rifle. The only real ergonomic difference is the pistol grip of the A22's stock. I like it better than the Model 10's. The Boyd's stock if very high quality and heavy - not like the cheaper, hollow plastic stocks on lesser models. This rifle has just the right heft to it. I wish the heavy profile barrel was threaded to accommodate a suppressor. I topped the rifle with a Bushnell Rimfire scope with illuminated reticle, mounted on Weaver steel rings. I suggest you check the torque of the Picatinny rail mounting bolts before attaching your scope. On my Model 10, I learned the hard way that these bolts were not tight from the factory as my shots started impacting all over the paper. I found one of these bolts was slightly loose on the A22 before mounting the scope. I'm hopeful it holds. I first bore-sighted the rifle using a Bushnell bore-sighter. I had mixed results with that, but it got me on paper at 25 yards. All sight-in firing was at 25 yards, as that is probably about the max distance I'll be using this rifle for hunting. For sight-in I tried 3 different flavors of .22 WMR ammo: CCI Maxi-Mag TNT in 30 grain (2200 FPS), CCI MaxiMag Hollow Point in 40 grain (1875 FPS), and Hornady Critical Defense .22 WMR in 45 gr. FTX (1700 FPS). The rifle failed to cycle the CCI Max-Mag TNTs in 30 grain. In fact, one of the cases got stuck in the chamber. I was fortunate to have a small, wooden pry tool in my range box to extract it. Needless to say, I quickly abandoned the CCI Maxi-Mag 30 grain bullets. The CCI MaxiMag in 40 grain and the Hornady Critical Defense in 45 grain both functioned flawlessly. I don't believe I experienced any failures to feed or extract from either of these rounds. When it came to accuracy, there were very minor differences between the CCI 40 grain and the Hornady 45 grain. The Hornady shot lower, and slightly left - without any adjustment to windage or elevation. The Hornady group was just very slightly looser than the CCI 40 grain. I seemed to always have 1 flyer with the Hornady's from a 5 shot group. This could be the fault of the shooter, but I saw it consistently. Ultimately, at 25 yards, this rifle regularly grouped 5 shots of the CCI 40 grain MaxiMag Hollow Points within the diameter of a dime, which I thought was pretty good. I think I could get them tighter. My gun club's 25 yard range does not have a great bench rest, and I was shooting off a sand bag and from an awkward position. I was not overly impressed with the Accu-Trigger on this Savage as compared to my Model 10. I love the Model 10's factory trigger pull. I would call it perfect. The Accu-Trigger on the A22 Pro Varmint is good, but different. I'm still getting used to it. It's not a bad trigger, it just feels different from my Model 10's. I did quickly jump over to the Club's 100 yard range and squeezed off a few rounds at 50 and 100 yards. The point of impact is way different at both of these distances. I think if properly zeroe'd at 50 or 100 yards, the rifle will shoot just as accurate, and I look forward to doing some target shooting with it at these distances. But for now, I think it is ready for the woods. Overall, I think the Savage A22 Pro Varmint in .22 WMR is a great platform, and a credit to Savage's reputation for building affordable, accurate rifles. I had a good, first-time experience using Bud's Gun Shop. It took about a week to get the rifle to my FFL, but also over a holiday. I'm not sure it would have gotten to my local retailer much faster. Very smooth transaction, and I will use Bud's Gun Shop again.