First off let me apologize if this is not in the correct subforum. I did not see a .17 page, so just figured since it's a rim fire it was gonna land here.

My Dad is wanting a .17 HMR rifle with iron sights. He has looked at the Henry but did not like the stock, so I am seeing what else is out there for him when I came across the American. (He wants either lever or bolt action.) Is it a good rifle or not so good? Your opinions are much appreciated.

Thanks.

The Rugers are good little rifles but look at the Savage too.  I have the savage and it is an AWESOME rifle for the money. Absolutely love it.

http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/93R17FXP


Eta: Nvm skimmed over the iron sights requirement. My apologies. The Rugers are GTG for sure.

Thanks! We/he is open to other options. The American looks to me what he would like, especially the price. That is another thing he was not to crazy about on the Henry. It will just be an occasional shooter so he isn't wanting to spend a lot of money.

He absolutely wants iron sights on the rifle he buys though. I did not see any on the Savage rifles.

ETA: Was looking at the Savage rifles while you were editing. Thanks for your positive reply on the Ruger though.

OP I bought a Ruger American for the same reason

So far I'm more than impressed with mine.

At 50yds it groups inside 1in using 17gr Hornady's. At 100yds it is about 1.25in using the same ammo.

I dialed the rifle 1in high at 50yds, while shooting at 100yds its actually still a little high. So I'm thinking at 150yds I'm dead on---which is nuts for a little 17gr bullet

Currently I have a Redfield Revolution 3-9x40 on it.


The only thing to look for is that some of the Americans in .17 tend to split cases. Mine doesn't but I've seen some pics of this on rimfirecentral.com

Awesome! That is what I am hoping for in replies, real user facts about the rifle. Thank you.

Is the case splitting known to a certain time frame of manufacture (ie year) or just random rifles? Do you know?

ETA: Forgot about rimfirecentral.com. Gonna head over there & do some reading.

no prob,

it sounds like the split case issue happened around early/ mid 2014

I had both the Savage and Ruger. Kept the Ruger because the Savage mags never fed right and the Ruger mags fed without fail. In the end, I sold both and picked up a Savage A17 Semi auto .17hmr. This little rifle is kick in the pants. 9 Fast little rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger and all without a fail to feed and highly accurate. Also comes with the Savage accutrigger. Love it. OP, sorry if I hijacked your thread.

Have you looked at the Cz's?