PDA

View Full Version : Is it easy to rebarrel a Savage 110?


Full-choke
July 30, 2007, 12:59 PM
How easy would it be to rebarrel a Savage 110 in 30-06 to a larger varmint round such as 22-250 or 308? Looking on the gunbroker and such you can pick up a good used Savage 110 for under $300, which is cheaper then most receivers. So is it feasable to buy the gun, sell the original barrel and stock off cheap and rebarrel and restock it to make a good shooting gun?

tINY
July 30, 2007, 01:05 PM
Yes. You will need a few, specialized tools and a headspace gauge.

Start with a rifle chambered for a round with the same sized rim and you won't have to replace teh bolt head.




-tINY

Scorch
July 30, 2007, 01:21 PM
It is relatively easy to do, but you might be better off to let a smith do it since he already owns most of the tools required. You can buy short-chambered or long-chambered pre-threaded barrels for Savage rifles. Many match the factory barrel contours, so you won't have to replace the stock unless you want to.

If you rebarrel a long action with a short-action round, you may have some feeding issues.

Full-choke
July 30, 2007, 01:28 PM
Which rounds fall into their respective categories? Obviously 30-06 is a long action, where do 308, 22-250, and 17 Rem fall in? 204 Ruger and 223 Rem are definitely short action, I know that. And, if I'm not mistaken, with Savage 110 denotes Long Action and 10 is Short; correct?

Scorch
July 30, 2007, 02:36 PM
308, 22-250, 17 Rem, 204, 223, etc are short action.

Full-choke
July 30, 2007, 02:57 PM
Okay, so essentially I would need to hunt for a model 10 then. Or, is there a Long Action style round that qualifies for varminting?

MeekAndMild
July 31, 2007, 09:59 PM
I've had a Savage .35 whelen barrel sitting in the safe from about a week before I posted the .35 whelen versus 338-06 poll here, waiting on the free time to drill out and polish up a wooden barrel vise.

At this point another logical question is how do you go about proof firing a newly rebarreled rifle? :eek:

Back your last question, one way of dealing with the feeding problem for a 110 long action and a shorter 22-250 or 308 round would be to just make a sled out of high impact plastic or wood to fill up the magazine well and convert it to a single shot. Another way would be to fill in the back part of the magazine well so you could mount a short spring and follower. (Some years ago I bought a long action Savage .243 and the only modification they made was they didn't bore out the back part of the magazine well. The bolt goes back a good bit more than the mag well. I'll see if I can post a picture of it.)

Bigfatts
July 31, 2007, 10:25 PM
It's the easiest rebarrel you are likely to ever do. You need a barrel vise and a barrel nut wrench as well as the gauges for the caliber you're switching to. I started with a plain Jane Savage in .243 and ended with a nice sporter in .358 Winchester. I love it. Here are the steps:

1: Loosen bbl nut with nut wrench while bbl is locked in vise.
2: Remove bbl and remove nut from bbl.
3: Put nut on new bbl and screw bbl in until it headspaces properly.
4: Tighten bbl nut.
5: Re-check headspace

That's it, done. I got $75 for my factory .243 bbl. Granted it was unfired but still. I got $35 for the factory stock. My only mistake was using Richard's for a new stock. Now I need another new stock...

If you went with a short action round in a long action you could use a benchrest style single shot follower to get around feeding problems. You could also get a mag spring and follower from a short action and block off the rear of the mag well behind the short spring and follower. No big deal really.

MeekAndMild
July 31, 2007, 10:39 PM
Here is the photo of the long action which holds .243. Savage did modify the bolt so it wouldn't move back the last half inch or so, but I removed it and put in a cartridge so you can see how the magazine sits in the longer action...kind of weird come to think of it.

Full-choke
August 1, 2007, 07:59 AM
Well, that helps guys. Thanks for the pointers. I don't know what I'm doing yet but I will probably figure something out when I decide to upgrade.

oldcars
August 1, 2007, 05:58 PM
You might think of 25-06, I have heard its a good varmint round and its a long action.

MeekAndMild
August 1, 2007, 06:21 PM
This link (http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=288765) goes to the needed barrel wrench on sale at Midway. From there is a link to a PDF instruction file. I don't know why I'm posting this as I'm a little bit ticked off they'd put in on sale AFTER I bought one for the full price! :rolleyes:

Full-choke
August 1, 2007, 06:34 PM
You post it because you don't want someone else to get screwed as bad as you did, lol!;)

FirstFreedom
August 1, 2007, 09:42 PM
Well you can have a 'smith slap a .308 bbl on your long action, but it might have nosedise jams when feeding, or other types of jams. Ideally, you'd use a short action for a short cartridge, but you don't have to.

Ifishsum
August 2, 2007, 09:12 PM
Many of the new short action Savages produced are actually long actions with a short action magazine and an extended bolt stop - so you can really build whatever you want on a long action, you just have to buy a couple extra parts.

MeekAndMild
August 7, 2007, 09:19 PM
You post it because you don't want someone else to get screwed as bad as you did, lol!
Well not really. I posted it because I'm a great fan of Midway and I was just a little bit ticked off, not a lot. They are about the best place on the internet I've found to get hard to come by tools and gadgets. I'm also a fan of EABCO and several other places but each store has its own list of merchandise and the lists don't necessarily overlap.

Here is the reply to my email with my question about the process. It is quite enlightening. As you will see it was not a screw job, but rather poor timing on my part. You can see the guy is trying to do what is right for his customers. (Moderator-I'm posting this under the assumption that email becomes the property of the recipient but if there is a problem I'll delete the post.)

The way most of our promotions work is that we get a price break from
the manufacturer in exchange for featuring their products in our flyer.
That means the number of units we sell in that month reflect a
discounted price from the manufacturer which we then pass on to the
consumer. This also means that I don't get a price break on units we
have previously sold, which is why we don't go back to give the sale
price. I appreciate you taking the time to drop me a line so I could
explain this.

Aim Straight,

Larry Potterfield
President/CEO
MidwayUSA
NRA Benefactor Member

Fal 4 Me
August 8, 2007, 06:09 PM
Interesting that this question should come up. Earlier today while reading a gun/hunting magazine I saw a company that just released a "Savage Rebarrel Kit" with everything you need all in one package, including head space gauges. Don't recall the company name or the exact magazine, but it's a new product package and you'll probably see advertisements for it if you keep an eye out for it.

zoldaman
August 9, 2007, 12:08 AM
Is this the rebarrel kit you were referring to?

http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/136532


zold

Fal 4 Me
August 9, 2007, 06:22 PM
Looks similar, but Midway says it's discontinued, and the magazine said new product, so I'm not sure if it's the same.

MeekAndMild
August 9, 2007, 09:41 PM
OK, Full-choke, I have the experience of one completed rebarrel job now so can tell you in my experience the hardest part is relieving the stock to fit the bigger barrel contour. That would just be a problem going from a sporter barrel to a heavier barrel. All the rest of it seems to fall into place just like the instructions say and takes less than an hour.

I chose to do the headspacing without removing the extractor nor ejector. I looked at the bolt diagrams and to tell the truth tearing it down looked harder than brain surgery so I just tried it with an intact bolt and it all worked out...

Now to get up the nerve to proof fire the gun for the first shot. :eek: