The New Savage Revel Makes One Lovely Lever Gun

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 here was a time when mentioning the name Savage to big-game hunters across America brought to mind lever-action rifles of the highest quality chambered for a number of powerful cartridges. Sad to say, the last Model 99 was built in 1998. About two decades later, a member of Savage management stated that a lever-action rifle was in the company’s long-term plans, but due to the projected high production cost it would not be a Model 99.

That rifle has arrived, it is called the Revel, and it is being built at a new Savage factory in Ontario, Canada. I shot the Classic version with a straight-grip walnut stock for this report, and it is a nice little rifle at a very affordable price. It’s currently offered in .22 LR in two configurations, and .17 HMR and .22 WMR will eventually join them. The more costly DLX version has a recoil pad on its curved-grip stock, a smaller finger lever loop, and a threaded muzzle at 1/2-28, and it is slated for production sometime in the near future.

Mechanicals

The Revel consists of what the company describes as upper and lower assemblies held together by two 0.246-inch-diameter steel push pins with the receiver enclosed by an aluminum cover. The barrel and tubular magazine are attached to the upper assembly, which also contains steel rails on which the breechbolt rides. The lower assembly contains the trigger, hammer, and hammerspring, and it also serves as an attachment point for the operating lever with its extremely large finger loop. The ends of a transverse safety positioned just above the trigger rest in small recesses in the sides of the lower assembly, and that along with a strong ball detent discourages the safety from being accidentally moved from either of its two positions. The trigger of the rifle I shot had some creep, and it pulled 3.5 pounds on my Lyman digital scale.

The 18-inch carbon-steel barrel has the usual 1:16 rifling twist for the .22 LR cartridge. It measures 0.690 inch at the muzzle where it is nicely crowned. The rear sight is elevator-adjusted for elevation and drifted in its dovetail slot in the barrel for windage. The front sight, also dovetailed to the barrel, is a simple black blade. The tubular magazine is the familiar steel outer tube with a rustproof brass inner tube and spring-loaded cartridge follower. Turning the knurled cap releases the inner tube to slide forward to allow cartridges to be dropped into a slot in the side of the outer tube. While the rated capacity is 12 cartridges, the magazine of my test rifle easily held an additional round. Two brackets dovetailed to the bottom of the barrel hold the magazine in place, with a screw into the rear bracket securing the forearm. Unlike lever-action rifles of yesteryear, the Revel is not designed to cycle with the .22 Short.

The walnut buttstock and forearm are nicely shaped, and both have just enough contrasting figure to catch the eye of a shooter who is browsing his favorite gunshop for a new .22 rimfire rifle. While not perfect, wood-to-metal fit is good enough on a rifle in its price range. The stock’s length of pull measured 141/8 inches and felt good to me, but combined with the oversized finger loop, it will be too long for shooters with a shorter reach. The stock has no sling-swivel studs, but it does have a hard synthetic buttplate that’s held in place by two Phillips-head screws. All other screws in the rifle have hex heads with various sizes of drive recesses. Cartridge feed from magazine to chamber is the same as for Marlin and Henry rimfire lever guns, in that closing the lever causes the elevator to present a cartridge at a slight angle to the chamber, where it is pushed home by the bolt.

Overall length of the Revel is a tad over 36 inches, and it can be disassembled into two sections for carrying in a compact case or in a backpack while traipsing through the high country. With the rifle unloaded, push the safety to its disengaged position, push the finger lever to its full-­forward position, and then engage the safety. Then push the exposed ends of the two steel takedown pins at the lower left side of the receiver to the limit of their travel. (I used a nylon dowel from Brownells to do that.) The pins are captive, so even though most of their lengths will protrude from the opposite side of the receiver, they will not drop out. Takedown is completed by pulling the upper and lower assemblies in opposite directions.

If the Revel is disassembled for cleaning its bore from the chamber end, the aluminum receiver cover will have to be removed by turning out its four retention screws. Due to an extremely tight fit, I placed the end of a large nylon dowel against the bottom edge of the cover and used a small hammer to tap it free of the upper assembly. With the cover removed, the bolt is free for removal. When replacing the cover, I discovered with dismay that the tiny 5/64-inch hex drive recesses in the heads of the four screws are easily wallowed out. They really should be considerably larger, and increasing the hardness of the screws would not hurt.

Owners of lever-action .22s with tubular magazines unload and make them safe in more than one way. Pointing the muzzle in a safe direction and cycling the action until the rifle is empty is one of them. The manual safety on the Revel makes it quite safe to unload in that manner. With the safety engaged, the hammer cannot be cocked, and that prevents the finger lever from being moved all the way forward. With the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, disengage the safety, cock the hammer, engage the safety, and the lever can be pushed all the way forward. The hammer is now locked in its cocked position, but the action can be cycled to completely unload the rifle.

Other owners unload by keeping their hand away from the muzzle of the barrel while removing the inner magazine tube, pointing the muzzle down, and allowing cartridges to slide from the outer tube. It is important to know that when this is done with the Revel, the first round loaded in the magazine will remain in the magazine. In other words, if five rounds are loaded in the outer tube and the inner tube is installed, locked into place, and then removed, only four cartridges will exit when the muzzle of the rifle is pointed downward. That round is removed from the magazine by installing the inner tube, locking it in place, pointing the muzzle in a safe direction, disengaging the safety, and operating the lever to cycle the bolt twice to first chamber and then eject the round. I will point out that this first-round hangup is not at all unusual in the tubular magazines of .22 rimfire rifles.

Companies that I contacted were in no hurry to produce a scope mount for the Revel, and with the deadline for this report looming just around the corner, I thought I would have to use the open sights of the rifle to fire groups with several .22 LR loads. A dot of red fingernail polish applied to the front sight greatly improved the sight picture, and drops in the stock at comb and heel of 2.0 inches and 2.5 inches, respectively, proved to be perfect. Then at the very last minute, a Picatinny rail arrived from Savage, and in addition to solving one issue, it revealed another.

The rail, along with the lowest Weaver one-inch rings I had on hand, elevated the Bushnell 3-9X Rimfire scope far enough to prevent my cheek from making contact with the stock. A towel folded several times solved that issue at the bench, but it would not be a practical solution in the field. I chose that scope rather than one designed for use on a big-game rifle because it is parallax-adjustable down to 50 yards, which is the distance I would be shooting from the bench. Shortly prior to punching the send button for this report, I was informed that by the time it is published, Talley Manufacturing will be offering a pair of lightweight aluminum rings in low height that use the four holes drilled and tapped at the factory to attach directly to the receiver. That’s welcome news.

Rangetime

It was an extremely windy day at the range, but time had run out, so I had no choice but to shoot the Revel for accuracy in less than favorable conditions. With the assistance of a couple of Graham wind flags, I managed to carve a number of small groups with five of the 11 loads averaging less than an inch, and one load snuggling inside a half-inch. That’s Marlin 39A and Winchester 9422 accuracy from an economy-priced rifle. (The Revel Classic’s MSRP is $439.)

At a weight of 6 pounds and a balance point an inch behind the front of a very trim receiver, the little rifle carries nicely, and it has a solid feel. Cycling proved to be extremely smooth and effortless with not a single hitch. Plus, no break-in period is required for this rifle. After being out of the lever-action rifle business for 26 hunting seasons, Savage has returned in a big way.

REVEL CLASSIC SPECS

• MANUFACTURER: Savage Arms, savagearms.com
• TYPE: Lever-action repeater
• CALIBER: .22 LR
• MAGAZINE CAPACITY: 12 rounds
• BARREL: 18 in., 1:16 twist
• OVERALL LENGTH: 36.25 in.
• WEIGHT, EMPTY: 6 lbs.
• STOCK: Walnut
• LENGTH OF PULL: 14.125 in.
• FINISH: Black coating on metal, satin wood
• SIGHTS: Fully adjustable rear, plain blade front
• TRIGGER: 3.5-lb. pull (as tested)
• SAFETY: Two position
• MSRP: $439

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