Two parts: 26 or 24?. Painting

[WhiteFeather93]

This is a two part question: 1. Income tax almost done waiting on state, and I have narrowed down the two contenders for "My Next Rifle". I have some questions that will tie up the loose ends. I am either going to buy a Savage 12VS or a 10FP. Now this is my delema. The 12 or 10 is going to be a .308, black syn stock. I am going to purchase the Choate stock sepreate for either. The 12 and 10 have a 1 in 10 twist. I have asked a lot of range jockeys and they all agree that it is the best twist. But what does it exactly mean. I thought it meant 1 complete 360' twist for every ten inches, is that right? And this is a major factor in my debate. The 12 comes with a 26 inch barrel, and the FP is only 24. Will I gain anything from the extra 2 inches? For the life of me no matter how hard I try I cannot find anything else different between the two. Is the FP more acurate? Is there anything more finely tuned on the FP? The VS is about $100 less, so should I get the 2 extra inches save the 100 for a scope or am I missing some advatage with the FP?

Part 2: Gonna end up painting my .22 for now and if it looks good then I will go ahead with the rest. I want to use Crylon, and twine to make my pattern. My only question is what do I do about the action. Do I take it out or leave it in. How do you cover the chamber to keep paint out? How do you cover the scope ends to keep paint off the lens? I would assume tape but are there any tricks to it? And at last sombody had posted a link to a website for Custom Savage parts, bolt handles, and ect. Could I get that link again? Thank you very much.

[Jim Watson]

I don't know all the alphabet soup of Savage model designations (mine is a 12 BVSS-S) but there is little mechanical difference from one to the next. Considering that you mean to replace the stock anyhow, get the less expensive version and put the money into a better scope as you mention.
Two inches on barrel length won't matter much. A bench rest shooter will tell you that shorter is stiffer is more accurate. A Long Range (the capital L & R mean a competitor at 600-1000 yards.) shooter will tell you that longer is faster is better. But two inches is not a lot either way, the benchrester wants 21, the Palma shooter wants 31.

Yes, a ten inch twist means the bullet makes one full rotation every ten inches of travel. It worked for the .30-40 Krag in 1892, it worked for the .30-06 in 1906, it will do just fine for .308 now. Actually Winchester and the Army started out the .308/7.62 with a 12 inch twist but Savage and some other makers use the same twist for all .30 calibers for manufacturing convenience. Don't worry about it.

[Wild Bill Bucks]

Look on page two for the thread CAMO PAINTING RIFLE QUESTIONS and it will tell you what you need to know about painting a rifle.

As for your .308 purchase, Mostly the longer the barrel gives your bullet more riflings to catch before leaving the barrel, giving it a little more time to stabalize which generally results in a better down range group.
If shots are held in closer ranges, the length won't matter much.
The twist rate is just that 1 turn in 10" (good Rate for .308)
Twist has more to do with the size of bullet you want to shoot than anything else. Bullets that shoot well with one twist, may not shoot well with a tighter twist.
I THINK (AND MAYBE THE OTHER GUYS CAN EDUCATE ME IF I'M WRONG)
The tighter the twist the bigger the bullet it will stabalize.

[WhiteFeather93]

Thanks all, My only questions are listed above. Should I paint the bolt handle? or should I take the action out? And are there any tricks to keeping paint out of the breach, and action area. Also are covers enough on a scope to keep paint off a lens?

[Wild Bill Bucks]

Whitefeather,
Take the bolt out and fill chamber with paper towel. Wrap bolt in paper towel and leave the bolt handle out for painting. You don't want paint down in the mechanism.
Stuff paper towel into scope ends and tape with masking tape to seal ends off.
Be sure to check magnification numbers on your scope and tape them off, otherwise you will paint over the numbers.

[WhiteFeather93]

Awesome thats what I had thought. I knew painting the bolt handle would be ok but its a stainless finish on the outside and I wasn't sure if I should risk painting it. Still am unsure about the FP vs VS deal but it'll all get figured out soon enough. Does anyone remember that link for the custom savage parts? For the life of me I can't find it.