(Photo courtesy of Savage Arms)
October 31, 2024
By Lynn Burkhead
It might be a stretch to say that legendary gun writer Jack O’Connor liked every rifle he ever picked up and put to his shoulder.
But it’s also a safe bet that O'Connor met far more rifles that he did like versus any he had some sort of disdain for.
Long considered the dean of American gun writing before his death in January 1972, O’Connor expressed his love for rifles often in print, including in 1964 when his well-read volume, "The Rifle Book ," was published.
“I like a handgun,” noted O’Connor in the pages of that volume. “I hold a shotgun in high regard; but rifles—well, I love the darn things.”
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Deer hunters all across America understand that sentiment, often feeling especially fond of their own hunting rifles. Some hunters might carry a wooden stock version of a time-honored classic caliber like O’Connor’s beloved .270 Win. into the deer woods this fall while many others might carry something newer and more modern looking, willing to embrace recent trends in rifle design and capabilities.
If you’re in the market for a new deer hunting rifle this fall, consider the Savage Impulse KLYM , a sleek, modern-looking design complete with a thumbhole stock.
In building this rifle, the engineers at Savage ensured that the Impulse KLYM offers light-weight accuracy, doing so with an unbelievably strong and durable buttstock and forend along with a lightning-fast straight-pull action that truly raises the bar and creates a rifle unmatched for big-game hunting endeavors. And that includes a big old, barrel-chested whitetail buck looking for love in the rut-crazed deer woods.
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With calibers ranging from 6.5 Creedmoor to .300 WSM, there are six Impulse KLYM options available for hunters looking to pursue a wide variety of big game, white-tailed deer included. The promise from Savage is big—an innovative new rifle that takes accuracy to new heights—but this gun delivers in almost any high adrenaline moment a hunter will encounter this hunting season, including when a big record book buck cruises into view.
Available in both right and left-handed versions, the Impulse KLYM offers top-shelf construction features, including its exclusive carbon-fiber wrapped, steel cut and 5/8x24 threaded barrel from PROOF Research. When combined with the FBT (Fine Ballistic Tools) custom carbon-fiber stock from the Austrian-based company, these new Savage rifles will allow hunters to go further and hunt harder with less weight.
Debuting just before the 2024 SHOT Show , this new Savage design rides to market on the back of decades of company innovation, including the user-adjustable AccuTrigger system with trigger pulls on this rifle of anywhere between 1.5 and 4 pounds.
(Photo courtesy of Savage Arms) Astute observers might also note that the top portion of the KLYM rifle resembles the Savage Impulse Mountain Hunter , and that's by design—pun intended—becasue the number one thing the Westfield, Massachusetts, company heard in customer feedback a few years ago when the original Impulse model originally debuted was that it tended to be a little heavier than some hunters wanted.
Responding to that feedback, Savage engineers shaved a full pound of weight out of the Impulse design, which debuted with the introduction of the Savage Impulse Mountain Hunter a while back. Now, the Savage engineers have trimmed even more weight from the original Impulse design with weights of the new Impulse KLYM model ranging between 6.6 and 6.7 pounds, depending upon the caliber selected.
Speaking of calibers available, the Impulse KLYM's caliber offerings—a rifle that was field tested by Game & Fish Magazine's regional editor Drew Warden while on a New Mexico pronghorn antelope hunt —the current offerings for the new rifle include 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win., 6.5 PRC, 7mm PRC, .300 Win. Mag., and .300 WSM.
While the lightweight design will make hunters hoping for a double-duty rifle—one that can take down Western big game like a mule deer, elk or pronghorn antelope but is also quite at home in the whitetail woods too—smile on the carry into the morning deer stand, the Savage Impulse KLYM also won't cause any shoulder-level grimacing when the trigger is pulled.
How is that accomplished? For starters, the rifle successfully walks the fine line of a rifle being light enough to carry throughout the day on a Western backpack hunt, while still offering enough weight to blunt recoil when a shot is unleashed towards a big buck's boiler room in top trophy whitetail states like the Midwest, parts of the Deep South or the fabled Brush Country of South Texas. And with the Omniport muzzle brake installed into the threaded barrel, recoil and muzzle rise are countered in the shot process, regardless of which caliber you’re carrying.
A stylish rifle design features a custom FBT carbon-fiber stock, PROOF Research carbon-fiber wrapped stainless steel cut barrel, carbon-fiber forend and buttstock (with the additive manufactured center section constructed utilizing 3D printing technology), a one-button adjustable comb height, a multi-positional threaded bolt handle (5/16x24), a carbon-fiber bolt knob, and an aluminum receiver with an integral one-piece 20 MOA rail. There is plenty to like about this new Savage design.
Would O'Connor like this particular rifle and choose it for everything from a high country Rocky Mountain sheep hunt to a bottleneck where a big whitetail might roam in November or December? While I can’t answer that question or speak definitely for the legendary gun writer, I think that he just might like it.
I also feel sure that many other hunters out there not named Jack O'Connor will love this rifle without question. The Savage Impulse KLYM rifle design delivers accuracy, enhanced safety and the ability to quickly provide any necessary follow-up shots.
The bottom line guess here as the heart of the whitetail rut approaches—and you can follow along weekly this fall with Game & Fish Magazine’s 2024 Regional Rut Update —is that the Savage Impulse KLYM is a very worthy deer rifle design that deserves a hard-won spot in a hunter’s gun safe.
