Savage is no stranger to lever actions. Arthur Savage’s Model 1895/1899/99 was produced for a century, with nearly a million made. Throughout most of the 20th century, the Savage 99 was a nasty thorn in the side of Winchester’s lever-action business. The 99’s internal box magazine housed spitzer bullets, and its strong action could handle higher pressures than competing tubular-magazine lever actions. As scopes came into common use, the Savage — with its side ejection and solid-top receiver — was readily adaptable to conventional scope mounting. In the early 1950s, the lever-action Savage 99 became the first American production rifle drilled and tapped for scope mounts across the line.
Lever actions eventually became costlier to produce, and therefore more expensive to buy than bolt actions. Also, bolt actions are more easily engineered to handle a wider range of cartridges and are generally more accurate. Savage started as a lever-action company but was out of the lever-gun business for 25 years. In 2025, it returned with a new rimfire lever-action, traditionally styled yet thoroughly modern — and amazingly affordable.
Mixing Old & New
The Revel (that’s “lever” spelled backwards) was initially released in .22 LR, the chambering of Guns & Ammo’s test rifles, with .22 WMR and .17 HMR soon to follow. All are tubular-magazine rifles with the tube under the barrel. With rimfire cartridges, there is little downside to tubular magazines since the nose of one cartridge bears on the center of the case ahead of it, not on the rim where the priming is.
One thing I loved about the Savage 99 was its internal rotary magazine. At the end of production, they lost me when Savage switched to a detachable magazine. It’s just one more thing to keep track of. That’s a fundamental problem I have with many modern rifles of various action types: A detachable magazine is an extra piece that can be dropped or forgotten. Yes, there’s a trade-off; it takes extra seconds to unload a tubular magazine, unlike popping a mag in and out. Whether the tube is in the stock or under the barrel, I like tubular-magazine rimfires, and the tubular magazine is the most traditional in lever-actions.
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.The Revel is manufactured in Savage’s Ontario, Canada, factory, so it’s a North American product. It’s stocked in Turkish walnut, too. The wood on G&A’s two test rifles wasn’t fancy, just good, straight-grained walnut. Turkey is one of the last and best sources on Earth for good gunstock walnut. Even there, it’s getting scarcer and pricier.
The .22 LR-chambered Revel is offered in two grades: Classic and DLX, with respective retail prices of $439 and $539. At either price, it’s an excellent value for a lever-action stocked in nice walnut. Factory iron sights are traditional lever-action style: Blade front, buckhorn rear. The rear sight has a typical wedge for elevation and is drift-adjustable for windage. The top of the receiver is flat and level, drilled and tapped for four-screw bases or a rail strip.
Operation is lever-gun simple. As one might expect, the exposed hammer is two-stage, with a crossbolt safety low and rear on the receiver, above and just behind the trigger. The action is wonderfully smooth and fast. One of the lever-action’s historic problems is creepy, heavy triggers, so endemic as to seem a function of design — not on the Revel! I’m not sure how Savage broke the code, but the Revel trigger is light and crisp. The factory suggested it was a 21/2-pound trigger pull, but our test rifles measured just more than advertised.
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Takedown Takeaway
Another pleasant surprise is that all Revels are takedown models, with the operation as simple and goof-proof as I’ve seen on a takedown lever-action. Start with the action open, lever extended all the way, safety engaged. The two takedown pins are at the bottom of the receiver. Start them from left side to right with a punch or pen, then pull them out as far as they go; they’re captive and can’t get away from you. The upper and lower receiver groups then separate smoothly and easily. Reassembly is the reverse. Being less than a mechanical genius, I admit I had to hold my mouth just right to get it back together. After a couple of times it got easier.
Classic Or DLX?
The Classic is, well, classic. Unadorned, straight-grained satin-finished walnut stock and forend, straight pistol grip with oversized lever loop. The Revel Classic is a plain, simple rifle that looks like a traditional saddle gun, complete with a black buttplate bearing the Savage logo.
Since I had both the Classic and DLX in .22 LR for testing, a comparison seemed essential. The $100 price difference between the two is not dramatic, but it is nearly a 25 percent upgrade. The Revel DLX is not fancy. However, instead of unadorned wood, the pistol grip is stippled, with matching relief carving and through-and-through ventilated cutouts on both the forend and stock, sort of a modern touch.
After my wife, Donna, and I had returned from a range session shooting these rifles, I laid them on my desk to discuss the differences between them. She looked at the DLX stock and instantly said, “Wow, that looks cool.” Funny, to me, it’s just cosmetics. Unabashed Western fan that I am, I’m happy with the traditional style of the Classic.
Beyond aesthetics, there are differences between the two, both subtle and significant. The DLX has a curved pistol grip. The lever loop is also oversized, large enough for gloves but not as big as the Classic’s lever. It has a thick, black rubber buttpad. Whether .22 LR, WMR, or .17 HMR, we don’t need it for recoil. However, this little touch can be significant. Operating a lever-action from the shoulder starts with the downward motion of the lever. A hard buttplate can slip; a rubber buttpad will not.
The rear sights are identical; the front sights are not. The Classic has an exposed bead-on-blade foresight, while the DLX has a square-topped blade-on-ramp with a front sight hood. Both are visible and functional. Since my days of head-shooting squirrels with open sights are over, I don’t have a preference, although the hooded front sight on the DLX is superior. The ferrules securing the magazine tube to the barrel are also different. On the DLX, it’s a Figure 8, encircling both barrel and tube. On the Classic, the ferrule is dovetailed to the bottom of barrel, encircling only the magazine tube. Again, I don’t have a preference.
At the muzzle, there is a distinctive difference. The DLX has a threaded muzzle, ½-28 threads with a knurled thread protector. For those who shoot rimfires with suppressors, this is obviously an important difference. The cost of having a Revel Classic threaded should factor into one’s choice.
There’s another contrast that seems subtle, but may be the most important of all. The Classic comes up just perfect with iron sights on target, as a good saddle gun should. The DLX has a slightly higher comb; it’s okay with iron sights, but the DLX allows for a better cheekweld when used with a scope.
At The Range
I did some plinking with the Classic; it was fast and fun. Out of the box, the windage was perfect, but elevation was a bit high at 25 yards, fixed by dropping the rear sight wedge a couple notches. To see how a rifle groups, these days I need an optic. Using a rail strip and Weaver rings, I mounted a Riton Primal 3-9X scope.
Before shooting, I needed to make sure I knew how to operate it. If you’re new to lever-actions, or like me, more familiar with lever-actions made a century ago, read the instruction manual. Thr Revel has a three-position hammer: Fired or rebound, half-cocked and fully cocked. Normal and standard for exposed hammer lever-guns. Now, we introduce a two-position crossbolt safety. Present in some current lever-actions, absent in millions of older guns. In the Revel, the half-cock hammer position is not considered an alternate safety.
With the magazine loaded, drop the lever to release a cartridge onto the loading ramp, then bring the lever back up to bring the bolt forward and feed the cartridge into the chamber to start shooting. The crossbolt safety must be fully moved into the “ready to fire” position to work the lever and feed a cartridge. With the chamber loaded, you now have three choices.: (1) You can fire, work the lever, and continue to fire until the tube is empty. (2) You can re-engage the safety (left to right) and choose not to fire. (3) Controlling the hammer with your thumb, you can manually move the hammer to half-cock and re-engage the safety. The trigger will not function with the hammer at half-cock. However, to move the hammer from half-cock to full, the safety must be in the ready to fire position.
Absent an exposed hammer, the old Savage 99 always had a bolt-locking manual safety, initially in the triggerguard, later on the tang. Since the specter of product liability loomed large in our society, many exposed hammer lever-actions were redesigned with a manual safety, some with a crossbolt, others with a tang safety. It’s important to understand they don’t all operate like the Revel, whereby the safety must be in “ready to fire” in order to feed. Even veteran lever-gun guys like me need to do the unmanly thing and read the instructions, plus spend time on the range acquiring muscle memory. With all that figured out, shooting groups was simple and fun, greatly aided by the Revel’s excellent trigger and smooth action.
The three loads I had on hand in adequate quantity were Federal’s 40-grain Auto-Match, Remington’s 36-grain Golden Bullet and Winchester 36-grain ammo. The latter two, both high-velocity loads, are loaded with copper-plated hollowpoints. The Riton scope came into zero in three or four shots. Accuracy exceeded expectations, easily in line with what one might get from a good .22 sporter in any action type.
Federal 40-grain Auto-Match averaged just a hair less than an inch for five five-shot groups at 50 yards. The Winchester 36-grain hollowpoint, a favorite tree squirrel and varmint load, ran just behind at a 1.264-inch average. It’s worth noting that the Winchester load produced the single best five-shot group of .665 inch. For whatever reason on this day, the Remington Hi-Speed hollowpoints lagged a bit behind, yet still delivered a 11/2-inch average. Basically, the Revel shot “minute-of-squirrel’s head” to 50 yards with all three loads, which is the way I judge .22 accuracy. In my thick Kansas woods, I usually can’t see a squirrel much farther.
It’s worth noting that all three loads were bulk-packaged and inexpensive, the kind of .22 ammo I suspect most of us shoot. Not necessarily because we’re cheap, but because that’s what we can most easily find and purchase. Extreme spreads (ES) were significant and resultant standard deviations (SD) unimpressively high, which made the Revel’s accuracy even more impressive.
Between grouping, plinking and playing, I put about 400 rounds through the rifles — probably a two-thirds/one-third split between the scoped DLX and the Classic. The actions were slick, smooth, positive and fast. In total, I experienced maybe four jams. Some were my fault. While shooting off sticks with the Classic, the hard buttplate slid off my shoulder a couple of times, so I stuttered while working the lever. With lever-actions, it’s important to work the lever fully and completely. One consistent motion all the way down, followed by a second motion all the way back up. With practice, this becomes one smooth, continuous motion. Stutter-feed a lever-action and misfeeds will happen.
A couple of jams were probably caused by bad cartridges. Bulk-packaged ammo is inexpensive for a reason — it’s not the best any manufacturer produces. Cartridges rattle around in packaging, leading to dented cases or partially unseated, skewed bullets.
Regardless of the cause, with any .22 repeater, one misfeed per 100 rounds is a great performance. However, when it happens, the Revel’s small ejection port doesn’t offer much room for clearing. With a fired case stuck in the chamber, and a fresh round trying to double-feed, I needed a small tool to get in there and push the live round down on the follower, and either the same small tool or a cleaning rod to clear the fired case over it. I had both in my range bag; maybe check yours.
At 6.1 pounds unscoped, neither Revel is light. The walnut stock adds weight, and the barrel is mostly steel. It has good heft and feel, and I was delighted to find the balance point just behind where the forend joins the receiver. At this juncture, the bottom of the receiver has an inch of rounded surface. That’s where the balance point is, offering a comfortable grip to carry the Revel in one hand. The mounts and scope I put on the Revel DLX added weight but didn’t change the balance.
Last Round
I can conclude by saying that Savage’s Revels are accurate. They are smooth functioning, sweet shooting, and a joy to carry. At its price point, it’s hard to ask for more.
Build Specifications
- Type: Lever action
- Cartridge: .22 LR
- Capacity: 12 rds.
- Barrel: 18 in., 1:16-in. twist
- Length: 36.3 in.
- Weight: 6 lbs., 2 oz.
- Stock: Turkish walnut
- Finish: Cerakote, black
- Trigger: 2 lbs., 10 oz.
- Sights: Bead on blade (front), adjustable notch (rear), drilled and tapped
- MSRP: $439
- Manufacturer: Savage Arms, 800-370-0708, savagearms.com
Savage Arms Revel DLX
- Type: Lever action
- Cartridge: .22 LR
- Capacity: 12 rds.
- Barrel: 18 in., 1:16-in. twist, threaded 1/2-28
- Length: 36.3 in.
- Weight: 6 lbs., 1 oz.
- Stock: Turkish walnut
- Finish: Cerakote, black
- Trigger: 2 lbs., 10 oz.
- Sights: Bead on blade (front), adjustable notch (rear), drilled and tapped
- MSRP: $539
- Manufacturer: Savage Arms, 800-370-0708, savagearms.com
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