First introduced in 2024, the Savage Arms Revel is the company's first lever-action platform since the iconic Model 99, which was discontinued in 1997 after nearly a century of production. Offered as an affordable, rimfire, takedown design, the Savage Revel line has expanded to include several popular chamberings, as well as a deluxe version. Watch our "American Rifleman Television: Rifleman Review" segment above to see the details of the core Revel Classic design.
"The Revel has a pretty nice set of smooth walnut furniture on it. This is Turkish walnut. That's where most walnut comes from these days," American Rifleman Executive Editor Evan Brune said. "But it bears mentioning that this is not a Turkish-made firearm. This is just Turkish wood. These guns are actually made at the Savage facility in Canada."
One of the hallmarks of the Savage Revel design is its takedown configuration, which allows for easy transport and storage. The aluminum receiver, barrel and fore-end are secured to the trigger group and buttstock through two AR-style push pins. Simply push the captured pins out of position, and the two halves of the gun separate. The top of the receiver and barrel remain together in one half, ensuring that there's no loss of zero with any mounted optic.
"One of the things that Savage did with the Revel is, you know, they kind of, they wanted to pay homage to the classic Savage lever guns of yesteryear," Brune said. "So you got this textured butt pad at the end here. And if you actually look at it, there's the classic Savage Indian head roundel on the bottom just embossed into that, so that's a nice feature."
The Savage Arms Revel Classic features an 18-inch carbon steel barrel with eight-groove, 1:16-inch twist rifling. The under-barrel tube magazine provides space for 12 rounds of .22 Long Rifle, all of which are loaded through a cutout in the bottom of the magazine tube after twisting and removing the inner, spring-loaded brass sleeve. The single-stage trigger on our test sample measured in at a comfortable 2 pounds, 11 ounces. Unloaded, the rifle weighs just 6 pounds, 2 ounces.
"You know, Savage makes these available at a pretty affordable price. They are also available in .22 WMR and .17 HMR. You get a little bit reduction in magazine capacity with those two models, but it's a versatile little rifle," Brune said. "It's also worth mentioning that Savage makes a deluxe version of this available as well. But you know, for just a simple, clean-looking, reliable .22 lever-action, it's hard to beat the Revel Classic."
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/videos/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
