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Thread: Any one familiar with the Savage 170 ?

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
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    365

    Any one familiar with the Savage 170 ?

    I was listening to our local radio station's Swap & Swap morning show, and a guy advertised a Savage 170 30-30 pump for $300. I don't know the value, but I have 30-30 brass,and bullets,so I went and looked at it. This guy lives in town, and has never shot it,and has no ammo. He traded his neighbor a lawn mower for it. I would have bought it, but the lifter,or carrier assembly has no tension on it,and will flop up,or down by gravity when you turn the gun over. I don't think the guy was trying to con me,but I could tell he was not very bright,and I feel the neighbor may have lied to him..I offered him $250 the way it is,and told him that I thought it must have a missing,or broken spring. I think he thought I was trying to trick him,and he said that he would keep my number,and let me know. I told him I may bring a shell ,and see if it will pick it up,and chamber it ,the next time I go to town. I have never had a 170, but don't see how it could function with the carrier just hanging loose in the receiver, but I may be wrong. Can any of you fill me in ?

  2. #2
    Boolit Grand Master pietro's Avatar
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    Mar 2008
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    New England
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    .

    Here's a good repair article on the Savage 170, and it's store-branded brothers:

    https://www.gun-tests.com/schematics...action-rifles/



    One thing that does cause feeding problems here is when the lifter paw pin becomes loose and lets the lifter paw move around.
    This can be solved by tightening the lifter pin.
    The lifter spring should have enough snap to smartly push the lifter into place but if it is set too tight, the lifter will move too far and create a jam when feeding the shell into the barrel.

    Always check that the shells are coming out of the magazine freely when you are having a feeding problem.
    When this action is pumped fast, it sometimes jams simply because the cartridges are not coming out of the magazine as quickly as the lifter is trying to raise them.
    This leaves the tip of the bullet still in the magazine as the cartridge is being lifted and a jam occurs.



    .
    Now I lay me down to sleep
    A gun beside me is what I keep
    If I awake, and you're inside
    The coroner's van is your next ride

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
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    Thanks Pietro. It sounds to me that these rifles have issues, and while I think they would be fine,and dandy if working well they could also be a pain in the neck, kinda like women. LOL

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Maryland
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    FYI:

    A buddy of mine picked up one for a very good price about a year ago. He experienced the lifter issue not long after and took it to gunsmith we have used for nearly 20 years (not a parts replacer, but a genuine machinist-type fellow in his early 70's). He fixed the gun and suggest my buddy sell it before it broke again. He commented that the 170 was a poor design and prone to continuing problems.

    Thanks,
    Isaac

  5. #5
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    365
    Thanks Isaac.. I have not heard him advertise it anymore,and he had never called me back about it, so I figure someone bought it. I am glad now that he didn't accept my offer of $250.

  6. #6
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    34
    The 170 is based on the .410 model 67/77 shotgun design. The lifter issues with the entire series of these can be a nightmare. I've worked on about 4 of the 5 or more variations and the action lock and lifter systems seem like they were constantly undergoing continuous evolution. It's kind of like the Stevens 520 pumps, constant evolution of parts, and the most likely to wear and break are now out of stock. While it's a neat rifle, the 170 has kind of past it's prime.

  7. #7
    Banned



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    The one I had would not release the action when you fired it, you had to manually push the slide release to open it every time. It was very accurate with cast bullets which was all I shot through it.

    The .30-30 is one of those calibers that there's always room for one more. Every man needs at least a few.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    Apr 2008
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    I have worked on a few in my 36+ year of gunsmithing, 3or 4. All had problems in the trigger group, was able to fix them. Also found out that them not wanting to let the bolt come back after firing, as mentioned above, was caused by the one pump arm binding. I found that if you grasped the pump handle in your left hand and rotated it and torqued it in a clockwise manner, it would release and function fine. Every one of them acted like this, due to having a single pump arm.

  9. #9
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Location
    Meadville, PA
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    1
    Ok, I have been searching for months on information about my 170 and this is the first forum where the conversation is current and not from 2009. The lifter on mine seems fine, but the cartridge stop doesn’t come up the whole way. So when I try to load shells into the feed tube, they just fly right back out. Does anybody know how to fix this? The cartridge stop is brand new because the original one did the same thing. I’m a machinist, so I can alter the stop if need be, but I don’t want to go milling on it and messing it up because it was extremely hard to find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know this thread is for the lifter issue but I wasn’t sure how to start my own thread. Thanks guys

  10. #10
    Moderator
    Texas by God's Avatar
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    On the similar Savage .410 pump in our family, the lifter must be released as you insert each shell. Almost like the lifter itself is the shell stop. If this is done and you pump it in exactly the same cadence EVERY TIME, it works ok. Ive had to un- jam it dozens of times. I'd rather have a Remington 870 or even a Mossberg. 410 pump. The idea of a .30-30 (or 45-70) tube fed pump gun has always interested me, but not that Savage design.

    Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check