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I picked this up a couple of weeks ago, along with a JC Higgins 103.18, for what I thought was a really good price ($150 for the Savage and $120 for the Higgins). The first pic is the Savage and the second is the JC Higgins. I bought these with the intention of giving them to my children when they're ready to learn to shoot. I don't feel they have the self-control yet to learn, but maybe by the end of the year they'll be ready.
Both seem to be pretty accurate at 50 feet. The single shot Higgins is, so far, the more accurate of the two. The single shot really slows you down and makes you think a little more than a magazine fed rifle does. I haven't had any issues with this rifle. Just field stripped it and ran a boresnake down the barrel, added some CLP to the moving parts and it shoots really nicely.
As to the Savage - it had some issues when I brought it home. On the first trip to the range I discovered that it didn't want to feed the next round consistently. It would kick the back of the round up but the nose wouldn't load into the correct position. Had at least one round get stuck and come apart while trying to remove it. When the rounds did cycle correctly, everything went boom.
Thinking it might be the magazine spring, I replaced that. I also replaced the lifter spring, just in case. While trying it out with snapcaps, I found that the lifter was hanging on the base of the next round and not lifting the current round fully into position. So, I took the lifter back out of that action and used a dremel and wire brush to buff all the carbon off. Now it looks nice and clean.
Took it to the range today and it cycled every round perfectly. Not a single fail to feed. I figure the fail to feed issue might have been one of the reasons the previous owner decided to part with it.
Now I have two issues I still need to correct on this. The stock is cracked for a good bit and needs to either be glued or replaced. Numrich has replacement stocks, but this has the original trigger guard and not the inletted trigger guard.
The other issue is that the bolt will slide right out if you operate it with too much authority. It doesn't take a lot to operate, but too much force and it will slide right out. I'm thinking the problem is in the bolt, but I haven't found any manuals or videos on how to disassemble this bolt. I don't want to attempt this until I can figure out how to get it back together once it's apart. The diagram seems pretty straightforward and I can get another bolt from Numrich.
Overall, I'm really happy with these two vintage .22LR bolts. Looking forward to teaching my boys how to use them.
Both seem to be pretty accurate at 50 feet. The single shot Higgins is, so far, the more accurate of the two. The single shot really slows you down and makes you think a little more than a magazine fed rifle does. I haven't had any issues with this rifle. Just field stripped it and ran a boresnake down the barrel, added some CLP to the moving parts and it shoots really nicely.
As to the Savage - it had some issues when I brought it home. On the first trip to the range I discovered that it didn't want to feed the next round consistently. It would kick the back of the round up but the nose wouldn't load into the correct position. Had at least one round get stuck and come apart while trying to remove it. When the rounds did cycle correctly, everything went boom.
Thinking it might be the magazine spring, I replaced that. I also replaced the lifter spring, just in case. While trying it out with snapcaps, I found that the lifter was hanging on the base of the next round and not lifting the current round fully into position. So, I took the lifter back out of that action and used a dremel and wire brush to buff all the carbon off. Now it looks nice and clean.
Took it to the range today and it cycled every round perfectly. Not a single fail to feed. I figure the fail to feed issue might have been one of the reasons the previous owner decided to part with it.
Now I have two issues I still need to correct on this. The stock is cracked for a good bit and needs to either be glued or replaced. Numrich has replacement stocks, but this has the original trigger guard and not the inletted trigger guard.
The other issue is that the bolt will slide right out if you operate it with too much authority. It doesn't take a lot to operate, but too much force and it will slide right out. I'm thinking the problem is in the bolt, but I haven't found any manuals or videos on how to disassemble this bolt. I don't want to attempt this until I can figure out how to get it back together once it's apart. The diagram seems pretty straightforward and I can get another bolt from Numrich.
Overall, I'm really happy with these two vintage .22LR bolts. Looking forward to teaching my boys how to use them.
