The Savage Mark II is a single-shot bolt-action rifle chambered in .22 caliber. Ours are outfitted with a high power telescopic sights with a cross-hair reticle. JHSE founder Shepard Humphries uses them for rimfire competitions!
This Savage Mark II Review by Shepard Humphries:
I owned a Savage Mark I Youth model accidentally, but then I began competing in rimfire benchrest competitions. Some competitors had the high end Anschutz rifles with $1500 scopes, but one of my mentors used his Savage with a $400 Weaver Grand Slam scope and did really well. My wife bought a heavy barrel Savage Mark II BTVS for me as a birthday gift, and I have enjoyed it. I recently purchased another Mark II. In later years, we purchased many more!
Savage has a website that is difficult to use when comparing rifles unless you use it in a very particular way, so I would like to save you a few hours of research by sharing what my thoughts are. Much comes down to personal preference, and mine is for a specific purpose. If you want an accurate bolt action magazine fed .22 LR rimfire for target shooting, the following non-technical thoughts might be of interest.
My first way to narrow down the huge list of models is to insist upon a heavy barrel. Those purchasing a .22 for mobile varmint control might have different preferences, but generally a heavy barrel is preferable for accuracy. Secondly, I like the Mark II Model.
Next, I considered barrel length. We generally believe that we want longer barrels to improve accuracy, right? The primary reason longer barrels have better performance is that they allow all of the powder to burn, thus creating more thrust of the bullet. With a .22LR, the small amount of powder burns completely by the time the bullet reaches the ATF’s minimum barrel length requirements.
Having a longer barrel does not hurt, but unless intelligent comments below indicate otherwise, I suggest that a 16” will perform as well as a 22”.
This means that you are left with 7 options. All have the same actions, and all have the acutrigger, which is great for those that do not compete professionally. I will list them in my order of price, from high to low.
Mark II TR
The TR has my favorite stock and a 22” barrel. For the MSRP of $533, it is a great gun. The SRR version has side rails as well.
Mark II BRJ
This is a beautiful gun with a 21” twist fluted barrel. MSRP $519 The BSEV is similar and is a real eye grabber at $620 MSRV.
Mark II BTVS
This is another beautiful gun with a 21” barrel, and the thumbhole stock is fine unless you will be sharing your shooting joy with left-handed shooters.
Mark II FVT
This rifle has a 21” barrel and seems a great deal at MSRP $471. It comes with peep sights which is a waste if you do not plan to use them.
Mark II BV
This rifle has a 21” barrel, a beautiful stock and is $400.
Mark II FVSR
This is the short 16.5” barrel version that comes with a mounted rail for MSRP $284.
Mark II FV & FVXP
These rifles have cheap stocks, 21” barrels and differ only in that the XP comes with a cheap scope which costs $63 more than the MSRP $242 FV model. I say get the FV and put your own scope on.
I will narrow it down even further. I suggest that if your budget is bigger, you go for the best, the Mark II TR.
If your budget is smaller, go for the Mark II FV or the FV-SR.
