Against the Grain
The prevailing notion for years was that American hunters and shooters don’t like straight-pull rifles. Savage went against the grain and changed that narrative with the release of the Impulse.
By Brad Fitzpatrick
Straight-pull rifles have been popular worldwide for some time, specifically in Europe where rifles like the Merkel Helix, Blaser R93/R8, and Heym’s SR 30 are popular choices for big-game hunting. Affection for straight-pulls never made it to this side of the pond, though. Ever since I was a boy and marveled at the first straight-pull rifle I saw in a magazine, the messaging has been the same: the straight-pull design was never going to make it in America, the land of hot dogs, baseball, and the Remington 700.
Like so many other things, that all changed in 2020. Rumors were circulating that Savage was working on a top-secret project that was a major departure from anything the company had previously offered. Many suspected a semi-auto pistol (the Stance pistol did indeed arrive shortly afterward), and some thought the classified project might be a new lever gun. I haven’t met anyone except those with inside knowledge who expected a straight-pull, but that’s what Savage launched. It was called the Impulse, and it sent shock waves through the industry.
“Savage saw an opportunity, and we felt we could bring an unmatched solution to the market,” says Beth Shimanski, Savage’s director of marketing. “As with any of our products, we focused on bringing a high-performance, innovative, but most importantly, an accurate rifle to consumers.”
To be fair, the Savage is not the first or only straight-pull in production by an American company (the Browning T-Bolt predates it by over 50 years), but the Impulse was the first modern centerfire straight-pull centerfire hunting rifle to come to pass. One reason that straight-pulls are not as popular as bolt-actions in the States is that straight-pulls are more complex and costly to build. Bolt guns feature rotating lugs that are manually locked into place by rotating the bolt handle. This solid steel-to-steel lockup makes properly built bolt guns extremely strong because the sturdy lugs at the front of the bolt are locked in position and cannot release until the bolt is cycled.
Building a safe, reliable straight-pull requires a bolt that does not rotate yet is strong enough to be safe and prevent the bolt blowing backward into the shooter’s face in the event that safe pressure limits are somehow exceeded. Different straight-pull rifle manufacturers have their own recipes for building safe straight-pull rifles, but innovations and outside-the-box engineering and design has been one of Savage’s strong suits over the past couple of decades (think AccuTrigger, AccuStock, et al). To make their straight-pull safe and fast-operating, Savage developed something called Hexlock, and it’s the heart of the Impulse rifle.
When the Impulse’s bolt is closed and the bolt handle is rotated forward, a plunger within the bolt drives six ball bearings outward and into recesses within the barrel extension. At this point the bolt is locked into position, and the bearings actually tighten relative to pressure increases. When the bolt handle is rotated rearward, the plunger moves out of position and the bearings retreat into the bolt body, allowing the bolt to cycle.
The system is safe, but it’s also extremely fast compared to a bolt action. Cycling a traditional bolt gun requires four steps. First, the bolt handle must be elevated to unlock the lugs; second the bolt must be retracted to extract and eject the spent round; third, the bolt must be run forward to chamber a round; fourth, the bolt handle must be rotated to lock the lugs. A straight-pull eliminates bolt lift and lowering, so with practice you can cycle these guns very quickly. What’s more, you don’t have to lift your head and break your sight picture when firing.
“Confidence in your follow-up shots is crucial for hunters. It doesn’t matter if it is a grizzly bear in Alaska or a pig in Texas, I can say follow-up shots are quicker with the Impulse rifle,” says Rob Gates, Savage’s vice president of sales and marketing. “In both situations, I never lost sight of my target. My cheek never left the stock, and my eyes stayed focused on the animal.”
The Hexlock system is safe and fast, and it’s certainly one of the most substantial developments from a company with a well-deserved reputation for innovative firearm design. At the same time, Hexlock is hardly the only innovative feature found on Impulse rifles. The bolt handle is removable and reversible, which means in a few easy steps you can swap this rifle to accommodate right- and left-handed shooters. The bolt head is actually free-floating and interchangeable, and the quick bolt-release button on the rear shroud of the bolt allows you to release the ball bearings and cycle the bolt even with the safety engaged (which is also why the traditional three-position Savage safety has been replaced with a two-position tang-mounted safety). The aluminum receiver has a 20 MOA rail machined to it, so there’s no need to purchase and mount scope bases. Existing features, such as the adjustable (and extremely safe) Savage AccuTrigger and the AccuFit stock, have found their way onto this gun as well. The AccuFit allows the shooter to adjust comb height and length of pull, and since this rifle also comes with a reversible bolt handle you truly can customize the Impulse to fit just about any shooter. Several models are equipped with Savage’s clever AccuStock, which comes with a rigid aluminum chassis for maximum accuracy.
Models and Features
There are currently four different Savage Impulse models available. The Impulse Hog Hunter ($1,379) is available in 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win., .30-06, and .300 Win. Mag. and comes with a detachable box magazine, OD green polymer AccuStock, and 5/8x24 threaded carbon-steel barrels measuring from 18 to 24 inches. As the name implies, the Hog Hunter is indeed a perfect pig rifle because it allows the shooter to fire very quickly when a sounder approaches.
The Impulse Predator ($1,379) is designed with the dedicated coyote, cat, and varmint hunter in mind and comes with a detachable 10-round AICS-pattern magazine and a 20-inch medium-contour threaded barrel. The Mossy Oak Terra Gila camo AccuStock looks good and blends into a variety of habitats. Like the Hog Hunter, the Impulse Predator’s stock has soft-touch inserts and the oversized trigger guard offers plenty of room for shooting while wearing gloves. The Predator version is chambered in .22-250 Rem., .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor, and .308 Win.
Though it was primarily designed with hunters in mind, long-range target and competition shooters will appreciate the Impulse Elite Precision rifle ($2,499 to $2,799). The Impulse Elite Precision shares many of the same features and design elements you’ll find on Savage’s bolt-action 110 Elite Precision: an MDT 1-piece ACC aluminum chassis and full-length ARCA rail and M-Lok slots, 1.5 to 4-pound AccuTrigger, and a Palma contour stainless-steel barrel with brake. The Impulse Elite Precision is available in popular target chamberings from 6mm Creedmoor to .338 Lapua.
The Hog Hunter and Predator rifles, both of which weigh just under 9 pounds, aren’t particularly light rifles. That’s not an issue for stand hunting, but Savage recognized the need for a lighter gun for high-country hunters. That led to the 2022 release of the Impulse Mountain Hunter ($2,437) which, with its carbon fiber-wrapped PROOF Research barrel weighs in at as little as 7.2 pounds.
Range Time with The Impulse
I’ve tested several models of Impulse rifles, most recently the trimmed-down Mountain hunter version, and there are a few takeaways from those experiences that are worth noting. First and foremost, even though the Impulse can crank off very fast follow-up shots there is a learning curve for those of us who have spent the vast majority of our hunting careers behind a traditional turn-bolt rifle. The Impulse takes practice. It takes finesse. With time, however, you can learn to shoot this gun very quickly.
The secret, it seems, is to learn not to do too much of the work when cycling the rifle. My experience (and I’ve heard this from other shooters as well) is that the natural reaction of a bolt-action shooter is to try to apply more pressure to the bolt handle than is required. It’s a simple flick of the wrist, straight forward and back. Bolt gun shooters must resist the impulse (pun intended) to rotate the bolt during manipulation. With practice, however, you can indeed learn to shoot this gun faster than a traditional bolt-action.
I had no feeding, extraction, or ejection issues with the Impulse Mountain Hunter during testing, though for a brief moment I could not get the bolt back into the rifle during routine cleaning. The trick is to rotate the handle back and release the internal plunger so the bolt can slide into place. My failure to thoroughly read the manual notwithstanding, this gun performs well.
And boy, is it accurate. With good loads, a quality optic, and a competent shooter, the Impulse Mountain Hunter is a three-quarter-minute rifle. Not occasionally, but consistently. That’s not surprising, though, as Savage has built their reputation by producing accurate rifles.
It’s a new day for Savage, and a new day for American shooters. The first domestic straight-pull has arrived with the release of the Impulse, and against all odds it seems to be convincing American hunters to give straight-pulls a shot.