Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Savage 25 Varminter

Thinking of buying one of these in 17 Hornet for back porch pest control. Little bored with my 17 HMR and looking for a new and different project. I like the laminated stock model but not stuck on it and would consider the black syn stock.
How reliable are these rifles? Do they feed well. Easy to load for?
Appreciate any and all advice.

I had one in 22 Hornet and it would not feed reliably. I sent it back to Savage and it still would not work after they fixed it. I sold it and never looked back.

Evenin, I had one for a spell & it was unbelievably accurate. I'm a lefty & let it go, dang another mistake. It was 17 hornet, fed perfect too. Nice trigger for a accu trigger. Wanted something else so........ oh well. GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Been trying to get one, but have heard bad things about their feeding problems. Seems to be quite a few NIB out there, even though I don’t think they are chambering them in hornets anymore

Plenty of the model 25 tupperware stock models around but I am hoping to find the laminated stock model.
Starting to second guess myself now. Might look for a Remington 700 in .223 and have it rebarreled to 17 Remington.

for a back porch type of gun, I'd look at maybe a 17 Fireball, or upgrade to a 20 Practical...

not hard to load for, or neck down plentiful 223 brass... bullets in 24 grain, 32 V Max is what I use in mine...

Just some real world info on the M25 walking Varminter from an owner. I have one and it fails to eject like A LOT of them do. I got one in 17 Hornet a few years ago. It is an awesome rifle, the ergos are great, it is an absolute tack driver with tons of different powder/bullet combos as well as factory Hornady 20grn Vmax. That being said the brass extracts fine but falls off the bolt face on top of the mag. Savage sent me both an ejector and extractor which I switched out to no joy.

Since we just use it for jack rabbits, shooting groups and blowing up water bottles I have just learned to live with it and just roll the rifle 45 to 90 degrees to the right when working the bolt and they fall out fine. I don't really want to lose any of my brass so it doesn't bother me a whole lot. I think it was 539 bucks when I ordered it.

I’m going to pass on the Savage 25. Research reveals many own rifles that will not eject properly as well as sticky triggers. Think I will find a Remington 700 Varmint in .223 and rebarrel to either 17 Fireball or 17 Remington.

I called Savage customer service this morning. Asked them if they would cover shipping to them and back to me in case of an issue with a 25 Varminter.
Their answer was I would have to pay to ship it to them, they would pay to ship it back.
That is a $40-50 bill to send it to them. Not worth the risk

I've got the Fireball in 17 cal, and a lot of 223s in bolt actions ( all bought when they were on sale and cheap!)

If you hand load, and can live with 22 caliber, you can make a 223 into whatever you want., plus brass is available and cheap. I'haven't bought 223 brass in 20 plus years.. its all range pick up. Last month, I picked up over a 1000 pieces of brass off the ground.. people shoot their AR and then just leave it laying around. See two guys who leave and then shot 5 boxes of 20 rounds each and then don't don't pick it up.. it isn't hard to get 1000 rounds in just a month.

Throw it in the tumbler overnight and next morning it looks brand new. I give away thousands of pieces of brass a year to friends who are reloaders or just starting out.

a handloader can make a 223 be anything from a 22 LR equivalent to a hot loaded 223.. that covers a lot of ground...
versatility and cheap to shoot, and there are a million good bolt 223 actions on the market.

Just a suggestion. I have relatives who live in east Tennessee, and the ones that shoot, do 223 for setting at the back door.
and they choose that, not for any reason , but they are cheap SOBs.. probably worse than me, on economizing

The gentlemen above me knows what he is talking about. His data helped me turn my Ruger American ranch into an absolute tack driving, easy on the ears 22 Hornet clone. I punch out 40grn Nosler ballistic tip lead free's around 2800fps. You do need Bluedot powder though.

I already own three, .223’s. One that is sighted in with a reduced load of Bluedot. Has nothing to do with why I want a 17.

Well I can buy into that.. I wanted a 17 Fireball since they came out in like 2007. I finally put a full size 26 inch bull barrel on a Savage Action It was $250 from E.A Brown in Minnesota. Then ordered another barrel, from Douglas, not as heavy of a contour and also 20 inches in length, copy of the barrel profile that came on the Rifle when I bought it at Walmart on Close Out, for $250, since they are getting out of the rifle business. It was chambered in 350 Legend, so the barrel is the contour and length that the Legend came from the factory.

it was the last rifle I was working with, before I got the 6 x 45 barrel for another Savage Action I had in the safe. A 223 barrel was taken off of it. So I've scratched that itch, that I have for the last 15 years. I get it, and you won't be disappointed.

I tested all sorts of reloads on the 17 Fireball, to include Alliant Steel, Unique and Blue Dot., and some other fast powders., then on the other spectrum of max load capability. I settled on 20 grain V Max and 15.5 grain NTXs.

As a last note, Kudoes on your signature line. It is my FAVORITE of all the sig lines on the campfire.