1953 savage 340 questions(2)

[leadchucker62]

good day everyone:
i have an old(1953) savage m340 in .30-30 win with some absolutely fantastic factory wood on it.and its a great shooter to boot.
i'll see if i can find a pic or two.
anyways..
question 1....this gun is not drilled/tapped for a sidemount scope.is there or was there ever a scope mount that used the 2 peep sight mount holes ???

question 2...i have about 90 160gr non gascheck boolitz and half a pound of trailboss powder,i have other powders as well3031.imr4895,4350,h335,h4198,unique,
and bullseye, what i'm looking for is a snappy little load thats accurate,not to loud with non-existing recoil for my wife to shoot.

any input is greatly appreciated

thanks Z

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab266/leadchucker62/rempics116.jpg?t=1272512221
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab266/leadchucker62/rempics110.jpg?t=1272506872

dam foot !!

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab266/leadchucker62/rempics114.jpg?t=1272510211[/IMG[IMG]http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab266/leadchucker62/rempics113.jpg?t=1272509055
http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab266/leadchucker62/rempics112.jpg?t=1272507984

[Rocky Raab]

That is VERY nice wood for a 340! Good find.

I searched for a peep sight for mine. I use the rifle as my fun gun at the range, for something to do between the many test loads fired for group and speed. I've pretty much settled on the near-classic load of 16.0 2400 under a Lee GC 170-gr. Great load that meets all your requirements.

[Larry Gibson]

That is one sweet looking 340 Savage, about the prettiest one I've ever seen! Understandable why you don't want to D&T it. A good machinest/gunsimth with some design/imagination skills could probably make a base to fit the rear base holes and a key in the rear sight dovetail.

Try 5.5 or 6 gr Bullseye under that PB'd 160 cast.

Larry Gibson

[EMC45]

I run a 160gr. bullet under 10gr. Unique in my 340. Accurate and very little recoil.

[gnoahhh]

Ditto either the Bullseye or Unique loads above. I shoot virtually the same charges under a 311241 PB and quite honestly they are so much fun that they now comprise over half of my cast bullet shots.

That is indeed a nice 340. I too would rustle up a receiver sight and fore go the scope. At .30/30 distances a scope isn't that much of an improvement IMO. A receiver sight on it will increase its value accordingly, drilling scope mount holes will detract from its value, at least to a collector.

[atr]

very nice wood on that 340 !
I have one also and the wood is nowhere near as good. Mine was factory drilled and tapped for a side mount, which I installed and then scoped.
for loads you might try 8-10 gr unique,, a nice plinking load
for hunting deer, I use 4895

[koehlerrk]

Very nice wood on that 340. I've got one that looks similar that's chambered in 22 Hornet, it's one of my favorite rifles.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

18-19 gr h4895 makes a nice almost no recoil pinking round in 170 gr unchecked, it would probably do the same for a 160gr boolit

the book lists 18 gr at 1430fps and 19 at 1480fps

i tried all the way down to 14.7gr but it was dirty with incomplete combustion as soon as i got over 16 it clean up

18-19 are clean burning for me

you could probably get 20+ reloads on your brass with this load as you barley size them at all , and they seem to not grow either

[45-70 Chevroner]

Dito on Larry Gibsons load of 5.5 to 6.0 gr. of Bullseyeand the 160 PB boolit. That load is quite but not noiseless. The 10 gr. load of unique is a great load behind any cast boolit up to about 170 gr., gives a nice report but not ear shattering it will give a little push but a very comfortable load. Wear ear protection while target shooting, she won't notice the noise when hunting.

[DLCTEX]

That one makes the wood I have seen on others look like plow handles.

[rintinglen]

Mine looks like trash by comparison==what marvelous wood!!!!

[bgokk]

I don't have any pics.:evil:

I want to see it too!:popcorn:

bg

I don't know why but when I replied to this message I was at work and the pics did not show.
Now at home they are there. ????

Welcome to the best cast boolit on the web. I have a Sears version of the 340 in 30-30 and the wood is Pi$$ Elm with a light colored stain. Yours is beautiful!

[GooseGestapo]

The one I had was nowhere nearly as nice as that. An aquaintance back in the early '80s had one w/o drill and tap holes that had the spoon handle bolt that also had wood like that.
Couldn't talk him out of it.
I would like one in .222Rem or .22Hornet. All I've run across in recent years have been abused and not worth $$$.

I too have found that Unique at 7.5-10.0gr is wonderful in the .30/30. I've used this with both the Lee 150gr FNGC (casts to 160gr) and the 170gr FNGC (casts to 180gr). I've got a large coffee can in basement filled with .30/30 loaded with 7.5gr of Unique and the .30/30 is sighted for them at 50yds. Wonderful plinker and know of at least one deer that was killed DRT with them..... But I prefer 30.0gr of RL15 for that task....

Also, you can run these to 30.0gr of IMR3031. I've killed deer with the 150gr LEE sized to .311 and run over 30.0 of theIMR3031. It works wonderfully. Fully duplicates the performance of factory ammo.

My wife shot this gun with this and factory equivalent jacketed bullet reloads and never complained of noise or recoil. She did however defer on a second shot with the .30/06. Never cared to shoot it again. She too, likes the .257Roberts...... Killed her first deer with it. Now considers it "her" gun..... OK! Gave me a reason to "replace"it with a Remington Mod-7 in .260Rem........ Hmmmm, what else can I "give her!" ???

[Olevern]

You've got an early one, later ones were factory drilled and tapped for the side scope mount.
Very nice piece, I would keep it original and if you really have to have a scope, do as has been suggested and have a gunsmith make one which does not involve drilling and tapping the gun.

[Mk42gunner]

That wood looks better than the Bishop stock that was on the 340 in .222 that I had.

I would put a peep sight on it, mine shot as good with the peep as it did with the side mounted scope.

Robert

[leadchucker62]

good day all:
i tried trailboss from 6-8.5 gr and found that 6.5 gr to be the most accurate.
but i have another problem.......i installed a williams fp340 on it and now it shoots 3 1/2 " high at 25yds on its lowest setting.
it has a 2 screw ramp front with non changable bead.
can anyone tell me the bolt hole spacing and the correct front ramp to use to overcome this problem??

thanks Z

[Mk42gunner]

Z,

I don't remember what front sight I put on my 340, I scrounged one at a gun show that was way to tall and cut it down.

Here is a formula to get the right height, I don't remember where I found it, Brownell's maybe???

How can I determine the amount of sight correction needed to sight in my pistol or rifle?

A: You multiply the sight radius (in inches) by the amount of error (also in inches). You then divide this number by the range in inches. The result is the amount of correction in thousandths to adjust the sight to correct point of aim.

Example 1: Handgun shooting 4” low at 50 feet with a sight radius of 8 inches. 8x4=32 32 divided by 600 (50 feet times 12 inches per foot) =.0533. The front sight needs to be lowered by approximately .053” or rear sight raised approximately .053”.

Example 2: Rifleshooting 11" high at 100 yards with the rear sight all the way down. The rifle has a sight radius of 17 inches. 11x17=187 187 divided by 3600 (100 yards times 36 inches per yard) =.0519. The front sight needs to be raised by approximately .052" or the rear sight lowered by approximately .052".

If you have a Brownells catalog laying around, they used to have a chart thta gave the recommended ramp and sight when changing to a peep sight.

Hope this helps.

Robert

[frnkeore]

I used to have 340 in 30/30, too. I also have to say "very nice wood"!!! Mine was drilled for the side mount but, I also would suggest a rear aperiture sight on yours. Do a Ebay search for one. You'll find it at some point.

I'll suggest a load that has worked very well for me, it should run between 1350and 1400 in your 22" barrel.

14.0 gr of 4227 with F150 primers. It worked for me in my 340 and 219 Savage single shot.

Frank

[Hang Fire]

Beautiful wood.

Williams makes the FP 340 aperture sight to fit the two D&T holes. Don't think the early 340s were D&T for scope like later ones were. The design makes for an accurate and fun little cast boolit rifle. But always remember, the bolt only has one locking lug and action is no stronger than a Win 94.



I have a Stevens Model 325 in 30-30 with the butter knife bolt handle, only made for 3 years, the Savage 340 then replaced it. Not D&T for scope, I have the Williams FP 340 sight on it.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/TANSTAAFL-2/ASteven30-30model325-1.jpg

[madsenshooter]

If you could find an old Miller Kodiak Dreamount at a gunshow you could scope it without d&t. The front anchor for the mount was the rifle's rear sight dovetail. Another option might be a Stith, which used the peepsight holes for the rear ring mount and the rear sight dovetail for the front ring mount. Here's what the Miller Kodiak Mount looks like on a Krag.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_12364f192c1b165d3.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=3512)

[Janoosh]

Origional rear peep sight would have been a Savage no. 175. I think that guy , Gary Fellers would know better. He has lots of rear peep sights. There is a modern rear peep made, check with Brownell's.
Miller Kodiak mount....... Oh Man....... I got one and never saw it on a rifle before. Thanks for the photo. Oh.... Back on topic..... Apologies....... Trail Boss. For ALL my 30/30 plinking loads in my Stevens 325.

[quilbilly]

A 95% charge of the Trail Boss (full enough so you can just hear the powder shake when loaded but not touching the projectile) should give you an MV of about 1470. It should shoot very well.

[rr2241tx]

The most direct method of correcting the problem of POI being 3.5" high is to increase the speed of your load. Or you could use the formula for sight height and maybe find a front sight ramp and bead that will give you that height or a little extra. Point to remember is that sight heights are measured from the bottom of the dovetail.