Why so much hate on the savage 64!

Beware. Some of the Marlins (can't remember the model but it was new gun that I worked on has a plastic magazine well with roll pins. The magazine well breaks into pieces eventually and it's a pain in the @$$. Every cooey/Savage 64 i had was a tack driver. Maybe I was lucky but...i keep my guns clean and use quality ammo. No remington or winchester as I believe that they are junk. Cci and federal only.
 
I had the target barrel version with the Hogue stock for a while. It was one of the most accurate rimfire rifles I have owned, but it jammed constantly and the magazines are horrible. You are limited to 10round mags and they are garbage.
 
I'd be happy to be given one, but other than that...can't see ever buying one myself. I'm more of a bolt gun lover anyway, but between what it takes to clean one...and the homely looks of the thing, I'll take a pass. Kudos to Savage for keeping this model alive (even a "tactical" looking version) but I have to wonder how it survives. Price?
 
I had a newer 64 stainless synthetic it was very accurate. I liked the gun very much but needed to move it in order to get a crossbow to put meat on the table.

The fit and finish of the gun was great, and it came with really nice fiber optic williams sights. I remember the accuracy being about 4" circle at 75 yards (open sights)... Fine for me.

I did have problems with jamming when I first got the gun but I remember solving the problem by doing some light filing of the feed ramp of the magazines. I cannot recall exactly but it had something to do with the mag being full and the first few rounds wanting to nosedive straight into the ramp edge instead of sliding up and out on the ramp as it should. Smoothing the ramp edge with a round file solved it, and it never jammed again on 1000's of federal bulk except a few duds, but that is not the guns fault.

Bottom line I thought it was fine, and a good choice since it was made just down the road from where I live...
 
To add more to the above, I did completely strip the gun when I bought it, cleaned up everything, and lightly oiled. After that I made sure to regularly clean the barrel. I bought a bore snake to quickly wipe the barrel after shooting, and when I stripped it down I used a brush and solvent.

They are not that hard to strip down I watched a youtube vid before diving in. I would not want to do it in the field because you need to remove some bolts and take care not to loose all the pieces.
 
I just took my new to me savage 64 out last Friday. Very accurate little rifle. I debured,polished all the parts, mcarbo springs and it was wicked fun to shoot. Just have to find the ammo it likes. Federal bulk 525 box it loves as well as Yellowjackets. 60 yards free hand and all 10 rds into a steel plate the size of an iPhone 6! That's good enough for me!!

I've always found with this rifle, the key is field stripping after use. Must keep them super clean.





 
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my buddy has one, it's very accurate. but he does have issue with it jamming from time to time. I think for what it is it's an accurate and cheap rifle. great for anyone starting out or wanting to hunt small game. (he's taken rabbits with it)
 
I am a little Nervous to strip my 64. I've watched YouTube vids but still worried I'm gonna f something up . :s
I've never been mechanical inclined :(
 
Tjv787 said:
That's good to know. If u twist what can happen?
Click to expand...

Bend the ejector that attached to the barrel. I had to buy a screw driver wide enough to remove 1 screw.

I hatted amount of tools you needed to strip. A 12mm wrench, a wide flat head, a phillips head, and allen key.

blasted_saber said:
Youll bend the extractor (or ejector, always confuse the two).
Click to expand...

Extractor holds, ejectors flicks.
 
Wheeler has it right. I bought one of the first Mod 64 Cooey rifles offered for sale in Canada back in the day. At first I thought I had found the perfect gopher, raccoon, squirrel, grouse annihilator. All was well until that ridiculous plastic magazine started to wear, which was only after a brick of ammo. New mags were unobtainable and Cooey (Winchester) wouldn't honor their no fault guarantee. The company was in financial trouble and this policy didn't help. Later, some entrepreneur made up a replacement mag out of pot metal which wasn't any better than the plastic mags.

Cooey/Winchester dropped what was actually a very good design. The original rifles were very well made and finished. They even functioned well after a brick of rounds unless the mag started falling apart.

Well, along came another adaptation that we called the "Key mag." Why, because it loosely resembled a key. Again, the problem was that it was made from pot metal.

That crazy mag keeps plaguing what is actually a good design. Not only that but different corporations, like Savage, later picked up the patents or rented them, then jobbed the manufacture of parts out to different bidders. Quality control went to hell. Today we have a semi auto rimfire that with some fine tuning, like polishing contact surfaces etc.

Savage, for some unknown reason, stuck with crappy cast pot metal mags. They will give trouble.

I recently picked up one of these rifles with the intention of modifying or making up a new mag. Modifying an existing sheet metal mag is much easier. Mind you, Maybe something with feed lips similar to the Ruger 10-22 mags may just be doable.

IMHO the only real problem with all of the 64s, no matter who made them is the poor magazine system. As far as jamming goes, the vast majority can be blamed on that poor system. Another thing, the return springs in these rifles was designed to handle even the hottest ammo available and as such doesn't do well with standard velocity or inconsistent velocity ammo. The one I have now was greatly aided by removing a coil from that spring.
 
i tried the savage 64 and didn't like the trigger. The mags were also sensitive to pressure and caused frequent misfeeds. My recommendation for an affordable accurate semi-auto rimfire is the marlin 795. Amazingly accurate and affordable. Next up from there is the Ruger 10/22 or the DLASK DAR-22 variant if you have the budget. The DLASK is accurate and reliable out of the box and needs no upgrades unless you need to adjust the stock for cheekweld (add a tac-pro cheekrest for $50).
 
I had 2 of these 64s with the Cooey Winchester brands. Accurate and reliable if kept clean and very lightly lubed. Easy to clean after you get the hang of it. My only issue is the pot metal magazine and is the only reason I sold one and gave the other to a buddy. I wonder why Savage did not mod the 64 to use the reliable MKII bolt action 10 round mags.
 
I use a shotgun bore brush in the receiver to give it a real scrubbing. Can't remember if it was a 12 or 20 gauge brush chucked into a hand drill
 
I had one almost twenty years ago. Not a bad .22, but the one that I bought from the guy was full of cat hair and it was gunked up in the action. After cleaning it, it functioned alright, but I still parted with it.
 
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