Savage Arms has long been known for offering excellent bolt-action rifles, and the new 110 Trail Blazer released for SHOT Show 2026 is certainly no exception. Savage bills the 110 Trail Blazer as “the next evolution in precision hunting rifles,” with a rugged, dark-gray 110 Trophy stock paired with a black Cerakote receiver and straight-fluted barrel bringing a great mix of light weight and weather resistance. A wide variety of chamberings are available for the 110 Trail Blazer, from 22 Creedmoor up to the new 7 mm Backcountry, and many rifles are also available for left-handed shooters.
With the entry-level price of $719, you might be tempted to think this is a no-frills rifle, but it certainly isn’t. Starting at the excellent AccuTrigger, which allows the end user to adjust the trigger pull weight from 2.5 to 6 pounds, the 110 Trail Blazer is packed with features. There’s the straight-fluted barrel that allows faster cooling with less weight and is topped with a threaded muzzle. For the recoil averse, an excellent LimbSaver recoil pad is at the end of a buttpad that can be adjusted with the push of a button for length-of-pull adjustments. Add in a removable box magazine and a one-piece, 0-MOA rail for mounting optics, and it’s clear this is no bare-bones rifle. Want more goodies? Savage is planning a Core series with more upgrades and a Pro series with even more extras in the future.
I had the opportunity to spend some time behind the trigger of the 110 Trail Blazer ahead of the launch, on a whitetail hunt in Glenrock, Wyo. We spent the better part of the week chasing whitetail with this new Savage rifle chambered in Hornady’s 22 Creedmoor. The first day was spent checking zero on the rifles at 100 yards, then engaging steel at 200 and 300 yards. This was about the farthest distance at which we would realistically expect to encounter and target a deer given the layout of the property. After confirming hits on a 12-inch steel gong at 300 yards, we proceeded to scout for whitetail deer on the ranch property.
The second day was spent hunting, by which I mean scouting locations and waiting for deer. It was extremely windy, so the whitetail were staying put in the covered areas. Day three, however, brought everything to fruition: We arrived at a bluff overlooking a fair amount of plains with a small creek running through it. A buck was spotted almost immediately, and as we waited for him to come into a clearing, a second, significantly larger buck came in from the right. The guide pointed him out, gave me the range estimation, and I set up in a seated position with the rifle in a tripod. It seemed like hours of patient waiting, but it was probably more like 15 or 20 minutes and the buck meandered into a clearing.
I’ve had a fair number of intermediate- and long-range instruction, from “Doc” Spears to FTW Ranch and many others. I’ve run bolt-action rifles against PRS competitors (I get my clock cleaned, but it’s quite instructive). Literally nothing is the same as seeing a buck turn broadside to you and present a perfect target. All I needed to do was remember the basics. Center the crosshairs, slow breathing, gently squeeze the trigger. Here, the 110 Trail Blazer has a decided advantage—it employs Savage’s excellent AccuTrigger, a bladed-safety style trigger with a light trigger pull and super clean break. The 110 Trail Blazer also continues Savage's renowned record for accuracy, with three-shot groups for zeroing giving sub-MOA performance even on a freezing-cold day.
All the greatest equipment in the world doesn’t fix poor form or mishandling of the basics. Fortunately, as the cliché goes, I did my part: the rifle barked, the buck jumped up, crashed into some willows about 40 yards away and went down. There’s a lot of talk on the internet about the 22 Creedmoor. Some question its very existence, as though “because it’s cool” isn’t reason enough for a new cartridge. Some scoff that it’s insufficient for medium-size game; that was clearly not the case in our group, where the three hunters using rifles in 22 Creedmoor all killed their deer with a single shot, at distances ranging from 75 yards to 240 yards. My shot, taken at a distance of 163 yards, hit the buck just behind the right front leg. Upon field dressing, it had proven to exhibit devastating effects on tissue, stopping the animal quickly.
Now, at this point I think I’d fired less than 10 rounds through the Savage 110 Trail Blazer, and while it certainly proved to be an effective hunting rifle, I wanted to test it further. Fortunately, Thursday afternoon, with my buck tag filled, we engaged in one of my favorite activities: prairie dog hunting. While scouting for the perfect whitetail, I couldn’t help but notice the numerous and active prairie dog towns throughout the property. Promising myself I’d wait until I took my deer to go after prairie dogs, it was with tremendous relish that I found myself with the two other hunters who had filled their tags setting foot on a long stretch of open field, scouting for prairie dogs.
We were not disappointed, not in the least. For several hours we engaged multiple prairie dog towns, splitting the vermin-eradication process between us (and the guide even joined in a few times as well). I easily burned through two to three boxes of Hornady's 69-grain ELD-VT varmint ammunition in my attempts to rid the world of plague-carrying rodents, with copious success and lots of shiny brass on the ground. Between prone, standing and offhand, the 110 Trailblazer performed admirably, with only minor hitches like snug magazines resulting from the pre-production samples encountered (we had very early prototypes on the hunt, but the production models work fine; we tested one in a different 110 Trail Blazer sent to American Hunter). Feeding, firing and ejecting spent brass exhibited no malfunctions in more than 60 rounds.
What’s the preliminary report on the Savage Trailblazer in 22 Creedmoor? It certainly works; there’s no question there. It’s accurate, light and has minimal recoil—after several hours of frenzied prairie dog action, my shoulder felt like I’d been shooting rimfire all day. And, the combination is certainly effective on varmints and even medium-size game. All this at an MSRP of $719? That’s a heckuva bargain, no question about it.
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