After some nagging from my dad and carving some time out away from work and family, I finally got around to writing this article…..
I’ve long since been bitten by the long range target and hunting bug and now own 2 savage 10/110 FCP rifles chambered in .308 Winchester and .300 Winchester Magnum cartridges. Upon seeing the accuracy potential of the .308 at the Sig Sauer Academy “Reach for a thousand” 1000 yd course a while back, with bone stock, I decided to purchase some upgrades to convert it to a long range rig.
The initial upgrade was the JP rifles AMCS chassis system, and then mounted some new glass (Vortex Viper 6-24x FFP). See photo below by author.
With the added weight it was not suitable for hunting, but if I wanted to lug it around the woods, I could always return it to the OEM HS Precision stock and head out into the woods.
Since the stock upgrade, I’ve been looking out for any precision rifle series matches in the northeast, and haven’t found one yet, so I’ve taken to NRA F class target shooting. Following the stock upgrade I entered into my first F-TR match and didn’t do half bad. So after that, I committed to myself to enter into every match I could. I set out to research a bit more about barrel upgrades I could do to make it more suitable for F-TR. I was drawn to the inherent versatility of the savage barrel nut system, and dreamed about match grade barrels, but never had the courage to pick up a new one until I skimmed through a favorite website (Northland Shooters Supplies (NSS) website: http://northlandshooterssupply.com/). I looked over their offerings with respect to target barrels and gave them a call, 15 minutes later I purchased my first 28″ button rifled match grade barrel made by Criterion Barrels . http://www.criterionbarrels.com Five days of ground shipping later, I had that handsome barrel in my itchy hands. While I was waiting for its arrival, I decided to clean the original barrel, oil it and prepare for it’s removal. I purchased all of the re-barreling tools some time ago anticipating this activity happening at some point.
- Savage action wrench from NSS
- Savage barrel nut wrench from NSS
- Savage stainless barrel nut and recoil lug.
- Chamber GO/NO GO gauges from Pacific Tool and Gauge. (absolute must for setting headspace properly)
- 1/2″ Torque wrench (make sure you calculate torque correctly accounting for extensions from the torque wrench head that increase lever length.)
- Never-seize (not seen in picture)
With this kit, I can re-barrel my action with barrels chambered for .243 Win, 308 Win, .358 Win, .260 Rem, 7mm-08, and the .338 Federal cartridges. Not bad for versatility, I’d say!
After installing my action into the action wrench and putting the wrench into the vise, I slid on the barrel nut wrench and with deep breath and a breaker bar easily loosened the barrel nut. I was surprised at the ease of barrel removal reading of all of the horror stories from the web forums.
The critical part of re-barreling is setting the headspace correctly. As I learned while reading about this swap, and thankfully not by experience, it is imperative that you remove the ejector plunger before you insert the headspace gauge, unless you fancy large gouges in your pretty chamber; not me. Step by step instructions recommending the same can be found throughout the net as well as the fine folks at NSS. One point to note, you don’t want the barrel to rotate as you torque the barrel nut and jam the go gauge in the chamber, you may end up with something slightly shorter than SAAMI Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute specification, or at least a chamber that may not accept previously made loaded rounds due to headspace differences. I had a rubber strap wrench hanging around and put it to good use to counter the twisting of the barrel. One last torque and the rifle was re-assembled into the stock.
Overall the process was painless as well as exciting as long as you take it slow. I took three shots below following zero and some break-in combined with some load work-ups. Below is the 3 shot group of my current load.
The point of this article on swapping barrels on a Savage with a threaded barrel is that you don’t necessarily need a gunsmith to swap a barrel on Savage rifles. That makes Savage actions and rifles a versatile indeed!
Editor’s Note: This tight 0.28 inch 3 shot group that Jason shot is the result of experimentation with many variables such as the new barrel, bullet, powder, cartridge case prep, primer, overall length and many other details. In addition we compute standard deviation and extreme spread to maximize long range potential.
© 2016 Jason Hale for New Hampshire Rifleman Magazine