The savage 64 F are decent shooters in the realm of semi auto 22 rifles. Not as pretty and some others - but they need to be cared for from the onset of ownership to produce the best groups. In my experience it's important to clean the barrel regularly. Especially, when they are new. A lot of plinkers overlook the need to keep a new or used rifle clean. It's not necessary to totally dis-assemble the rifle to do a cleaning. So a plastic bore brush, and a one piece rod, and some bore cleaner, patches, oil, (brake cleaner) are in themselves important cleaning accessories that gives a gun a chance to reach and maintain it's accuracy potential, This begins - from the onset of ownership. I know this because I have owned the 64 F the 597 and the 10-22. They will all provide better accuracy and reliability if one establishes a regular cleaning regime with those rifles - and all rifles; from beginning to end.
I'll offer an explanation as to why this is a good practice to establish with all semi auto 22 rifles. First off a lot of rounds are likely to be put down the barrel because a lot of people like to shoot targets etc and take them out for small game. If the cleaning regime is not established early on the little black ring will appear and this gets baked on the lands and grooves - and over time. it will get longer. It's starts as something that resembles a "life saver" candy size ring and gets longer and longer down the barrel. eventually it creates problems and robs the barrel of producing accuracy. If the barrel is cleaned from the onset of ownership this is less likely to happen. And yea, it's involves some time - but not as much as one may think it would. A new shooter ought to be taught these things as an important part of gun use and ownership. It becomes a life long habit - for the better - in the long run.
Some may wonder how this happens when 22 loads are considered light when it is compared to rounds that carry higher powder loads. But keep in mind that there is the powder burning, the primer burning and small pieces of the primer, lead and brass that can stick to the throat of the barrel. If the cleaning is ignored - then the issues begin to arise and shooters feel a sense of disappointment because they have lost accuracy. So if the bore is kept clean it will stay in better shape over the long haul of ownership and use. Not too difficult to do and the cleaning aspect is as important as finding that "secret ammo combination" that makes the rifle fun to shoot - and keeps the shooter in the game.
