Buckshot
03-23-2013, 06:03 AM
...........I bought one of these several months ago, on sale at Big 5 for $149. Disassembling the rifle and scanning the instruction manual, come to find out the barrel is easily removable. I had a Green Mountain match barrel on hand I'd bought on clearance at Midway a few years back. Intended for the Ruger 10/22, but I didn't have one, and having had one before that shot like a shotgun, I didn't intend to buy another :-)! I did have the idea of fitting the barrel to a Savage M84 bolt action. Never got around to it, so there the barrel sat.
Since I had the new Savage autoloader apart I went ahead and pulled the barrel. SHAZAM! The barrel shank OD of the GM barrel is a slight press fit into the receiver of the Savage! The only problem is that the shank is just a RCH short of .250" of fitting the Savage:!: Indicate it in the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe and take care of that. The Savage bbl is retained via a heavy sectioned, shallow 'U' clamp. One end of which fits in a transverse slot on the underside of the barrel, so the slot would need to be added to the new barrel. One other small issue is that the ejector is fitted into a slot on the side of the factory barrel. Therefore it remains with the barrel when removed. The flat side of the receiver is too thin to D&T, so making a replacement to mount to the side of the receiver is a non starter. I could cut a slot in the shank of the GM barrel to mimic the Savage design, but really don't want to go that route.
My other thought is to mill a side saddle bracket that CAN be D&T'd to the top of the receiver. It would hug the left side of the receiver. I'd then need to cut/mill a slot into the side of the receiver for the ejector to project through. The issue ejector is a stamping and I don't recall micing it, but in my mind's eye (just to say) it's probably 1/16" thick. In addition to being the ejector, I'm also sure it does double duty to help guide the bolt. Ah well. It's been a couple months since I checked it out and haven't done a thing to it yet ;) This Savage shoots better then that *** Ruger 10/22 I had. First thing the new owner did was to put an aftermarket heavy bbl on it! The Ruger DOES have a bunch of aftermarket 'toys' you can add to it, and I do like the magazine. But the Savage was $149 vs the Ruger on sale at $229. And I'm sure you'd STILL have to replace the barrel on the current production Rugers.
............Buckshot
Since I had the new Savage autoloader apart I went ahead and pulled the barrel. SHAZAM! The barrel shank OD of the GM barrel is a slight press fit into the receiver of the Savage! The only problem is that the shank is just a RCH short of .250" of fitting the Savage:!: Indicate it in the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe and take care of that. The Savage bbl is retained via a heavy sectioned, shallow 'U' clamp. One end of which fits in a transverse slot on the underside of the barrel, so the slot would need to be added to the new barrel. One other small issue is that the ejector is fitted into a slot on the side of the factory barrel. Therefore it remains with the barrel when removed. The flat side of the receiver is too thin to D&T, so making a replacement to mount to the side of the receiver is a non starter. I could cut a slot in the shank of the GM barrel to mimic the Savage design, but really don't want to go that route.
My other thought is to mill a side saddle bracket that CAN be D&T'd to the top of the receiver. It would hug the left side of the receiver. I'd then need to cut/mill a slot into the side of the receiver for the ejector to project through. The issue ejector is a stamping and I don't recall micing it, but in my mind's eye (just to say) it's probably 1/16" thick. In addition to being the ejector, I'm also sure it does double duty to help guide the bolt. Ah well. It's been a couple months since I checked it out and haven't done a thing to it yet ;) This Savage shoots better then that *** Ruger 10/22 I had. First thing the new owner did was to put an aftermarket heavy bbl on it! The Ruger DOES have a bunch of aftermarket 'toys' you can add to it, and I do like the magazine. But the Savage was $149 vs the Ruger on sale at $229. And I'm sure you'd STILL have to replace the barrel on the current production Rugers.
............Buckshot