Savage 220 First Impressions

[electric10162]

I hunted Illinois last season with @tcook8296, and @Zipper, and Zip's brother Todd. One night over dinner I asked Zip what the 20 gauge attraction was. He responded with "it's ballistically superior to the 12 gauge and it doesn't beat the crap out of you". Hmmm. Maybe I should try this.

Forward to January. @bowguideposted a Savage 220 here in the classifieds. I jumped at it. A 2020 model, thumbhole, gray laminate, with a Vortex 4-12 on it. Never in the woods with very few rounds through it. 

I removed the Vortex and replaced it with a Leupold VX-6 CDS Z with the fire-dot duplex. Leveled and boresighted myself. A first for me.

I shot the gun this past Friday for the first time. I started with 3" Accutips at 50 yards. One shot bullseye was all I needed. Back out to 100. Nine shots, a few adjustments and perfect. Hearing of the Accutip blood trailing issues I really wanted to use the 3" Remington Barnes Expanders. 5 shots. First was a bit low, adjust, threw one, and last three were right on the money.

Needless to say I'm impressed.

Edited May 31, 2021 by electric10162

[archer36]

Congrats on the new weapon. A beautiful setup!  As far as "ballistically superior" to the 12 ga, I would need some hard evidence to that because I can't find any.  I hear this quite often though. Yes, it will beat you up less in a bolt action gun than a 12 ga. But that's at the range when you are wearing a t-shirt and shooting multiple rounds. You won't notice the difference when you shoot one round at a deer. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by archer36

[bushden]

It is a good shooter and I have tried a lot of different rounds out of it and 2 3/4 Accu Tips gave me the best groups out to 150 yards. I do not have a shot further than that where I hunt. The blood trail is like most said very little but deer are never far from the shot when found. This one was 2020 at about 125yrds, he ran about 80 yards.

Edited May 31, 2021 by bushden

[BHC]

Love mine

As soon as those Barnes are available I'm buying at least a case if not two

[bowguide]

Glad it worked out the way you wanted.....Best of luck with it

[OldMenRule]

Nice setup. I love 20ga. Not sure of it's superiority in regards to 12 but it's plenty accurate for me and it's kept me from shoulder surgery.  

[thefirstndsecond]

So I definitely see and feel a difference from shooting a 12ga. 

I have 3inch and 2 3/4 acutips 

 

Never tried barns. 

 

I use it and have it sighted in for 150.

Edited June 1, 2021 by thefirstndsecond

[3Blade]

Nice setup. Good luck with it!

[Buck154]

Nice. Good luck with it

[tpr1921]

Love my Savage 20!

[electric10162]

On 5/31/2021 at 10:10 AM, archer36 said:

Congrats on the new weapon. A beautiful setup!  As far as "ballistically superior" to the 12 ga, I would need some hard evidence to that because I can't find any.  I hear this quite often though. Yes, it will beat you up less in a bolt action gun than a 12 ga. But that's at the range when you are wearing a t-shirt and shooting multiple rounds. You won't notice the difference when you shoot one round at a deer. 

Thank you. I guess we were brought up on a slug-gun being a 100 yard weapon. Plenty of videos out there showing 20 gauge 300 yard shots being made. I recently put a 3x9 Leupold on my 870 12 gauge slug-gun so I think I'm going to put some long range rounds through it for comparison.

[nmc02]

NO doubt the 220 is a longer range slug gun than any 12 gauge. I own a Savage 220 and it is very accurate and would not hesitate to shoot at a deer at 200 yards (I witnessed a buddy drop a doe at 178 yds w his 220). However, my 1100 12 gauge is an amazing shooter from 0-125 yds. That being said, as long as slug is placed in vitals.....both will do the job. 

[BowhunterNJ]

Beauty!

 

[electric10162]

22 minutes ago, nmc02 said:

NO doubt the 220 is a longer range slug gun than any 12 gauge. I own a Savage 220 and it is very accurate and would not hesitate to shoot at a deer at 200 yards (I witnessed a buddy drop a doe at 178 yds w his 220). However, my 1100 12 gauge is an amazing shooter from 0-125 yds. That being said, as long as slug is placed in vitals.....both will do the job. 

Exactly my thoughts. I was grouping 1 1/4oz Lightfields nicely with the 12 gauge 870 with a 1-5 Redfield scope. The 12 gauge Lightfield drops almost ten inches between 100 and 150 yards.

[BillCarson]

great! I love that scope with the Barnes Expander 20g dial, cool!