I've owned the Savage 25 Lightweight Varminter for almost 5 years now. This is the model the OP was talking about. I really, really like it a lot. Like someone else said, it won't win any beauty contests, but this is largely because of Savage's utilitarian approach to design and manufacturing. However, holy cow, is this rig accurate! I have shot numerous .25" groups at 100 yards with Hornady factory loads, and close to that with my home-rolled stuff. I live in Southern Ontario, so we don't have prairie dog towns, and the ground hog population here has been pretty much decimated, so I haven't killed anything with it yet, but I have put close to 1000 rounds through it at my club, probably 50/50 handloads and factory.
I have learned a fair bit about the cartridge, and one of the most important things that handloaders need to understand is that the loads published by Hornady, especially with Lil' Gun, are way, way too hot. I blew primers, stretched primer pockets and had flyers and velocities of 3850 with the 20gr VMAX until I figured out that the 10 grains of Lil' Gun that Hornady showed as max was actually .5gr over max. 9.5 grains yields velocities that pretty much duplicate Hornady's extremely accurate factory load, and the accuracy of my 20gr loads almost duplicate theirs. My Savage also shoots the Hornady 25gr VMAX and HP bullets and the Rem 25gr plated HP just as well.
The other important thing to remember is that those tiny little bullets are really susceptible to cross winds, even slight ones. The "flyers" that someone above mentioned that his friend experienced may very well have been attributable to this. My Savage 25 is extremely consistent and I plan on keeping it. It sports a Bushnell Legend Ultra HD in 4.5-14 X 44 for glass, BTW.
Don't dismiss the Savage; it's a fine, fine rifle.
Last edited by HarpBoy; 01/30/21.
