Savage Arms Mk II BVSS

[Dakk]

Recently I worked my arse off and built up some OT. As a treat to myself, I decide to blow a bit of $ on myself and shop for a .22 rifle locally. Originally I was thinking .22 Mag. Maybe a Marlin or Ruger. It was slim pickins. But while I was checking the wares at one local shop I was shown a Savage Arms Mark II BVSS in LR. A friend of mine is a bit down on Savage accuracy and I wasn't looking for an LR, so I took a quick look and moved on. Later as I was driving to another town, I found myself thinking about that Savage MkII. It was a pretty nice rifle. In the other town I found very little to get exicted about. But one of the shops also had that exact same Savage Arms Mk II BVSS. The salesman had some personal experience with the Mk II rifles, and recommended the LR 'mini-mag' ammo (1260fps). Even a few customers had some positive comments about them. Looking it over for a second time, there was no denying that I was feeling a bit excited about that rifle. For me, being excited about a rifle is important. I hummed and hawwed... but in the end I couldn't resist. I took it home, along with an extra mag and a 100 x round box of 'mini-mag' ammo.

I haven't had a chance to shoot her yet. I mounted a Bushnell 6-24 x 50mm scope on it. But I'd like to hear from other people who have some experience with these rifles. What do you think about them?

 

[little_airwolf]

I have the btvs, all you have to do is youtube btvs!
Omg you wouldnt guess the distances people are shooting them!
Great buy. Love the barrel!

 

[Dakk]

Thanks. One of the things that really struck me about this rifle was the weight & feel of it. It feels like a smaller centerfire rifle, and has a very nice distribution of weight. It feels comfortable, while most .22s I've tried feel like toys in comparison. I can't imagine it having any recoil at all, and theoretically, the heavy barrel should stay steadier during firing.

 

[little_airwolf]

Don't even go there about weight! I have a tripod and 10x40 52mm scope on mine and If I remember correctly, it's 12.5 lbs. Sorta sucks carring it around shooting gophers, but the darn thing is so accurate, I only need one shot with each gopher.
I'm now trying the su-22 because of weight and testing it to see just how far I can shoot it. It's 7lbs loaded.

 

[WestIslandRifle]

you will be very happy with the gun and if ever things go south you can contact
SAVAGE ARMS CANADA
ATTN DAN MCKENZIE
248 WATER STREET P.O BOX 1240
LAKEFIELD,ONTARIO
K0L 2H0
they're the repair center for savage rimfire only and btw cci mini mags are one of the best 22 ammo's out there its the only thing that made my mosguito work okay

 

[Dakk]

Thanks for the info.

I'll be getting her out to the range this Saturday I hope. My buddy wants to see how it performs against his semi-auto Marlin with target barrel.

 

[.22LRGUY]

Make sure you give it a bit of a clean-out before you shoot it. Especially the bore. As for how it performs against the Marlin~have fun. With an experienced shooter, and good ammo...your Savage will give that Marlin a run for it's money! (and I'm a big Marlin fan) If his trigger is stock/un-modified...your trigger is better for sure. Also, bring a few different types of .22lr ammo~most guns shoot one better than the other. I'm having good luck with CCI Standard Velocity, but I also like CCI Sub-Sonic HP.

 

[Skyllz]

My BVTLSS loves CCI ammo also.

Matter of fact... I love my Savage rimfire too. So much fun to shot.

 

[mgerski]

Congratulations you'll love it I currently have 4 different savage rimfires one 17hmr one 17 mach 2 and 2 22lr . I have had 2 others in the past. If I could find at Maaco with a stainless barrel in 17 hmr i would have another one and trade my 17 hmr for a 22 mag so i had them all. All of them are great shooting rifles. The best ammo that I have had in mine is lapua standard and believe it or not remington subsonic.

 

[ShootingNewbie]

I can vouch for the Remington SubSonic as being very good ammo for the BTVS - it's solid up to about 75 yards. Any distance longer than that and I go to RWS Championship Edition.

 

[Dakk]

Took the Savage Mk II BVSS out for its first test drive on Saturday. Between shooting other guns, and the time it took to fiddle with sighting in the scope, I didn't get much of a chance to focus on my shooting. I also tried a bit of a break in procedure, but in the end I decided to abandon it as I didn't have all of the proper supplies on hand to follow it precisely anyways. We did get some decent groups at 50 yrds just before sunset. Can't wait to get it out again. Next time I'll also try 100 yrds.

Some nice quarter sized 5 shot groups @ 50 yrds. A couple shots landed square on existing holes. Note that although a couple of groups in the various images look very similar to each other, they are separate groups; four different groupings are pictured. My buddy had done a bit of smithing on one of my scope's brackets, so I let him fire off the last bunch of test shots. Most of the shots were taken with Federal Champion Value Pack (HV - 1260fps, 36 grain); approx like the mini-mags with less consistency and half the cost. There were a few CCI mini-mags used as well. It was past sunset when he got shooting, and caretaker of the range was on his way over to shut us down for the night.

One other cool thing... there was a silhouette shooting champ on the range, so my friend & I took the opportunity to try to learn a bit from him. He let me unload my 5 round clip on his silhouettes. Of course, you have to do it from a standing position with no rest. I managed to knock 3 down. I could see myself getting into silhouette shooting. Very fun.