Rebarrel savage 308 to 243?

jedicazador

jedicazador

New member
If I wanted to rebarrel my savage 10 .308 to a .243, what would I need besides a .243 barrel? I do understand a barrel nut wrench is needed but what else. Headspace guage? anything else? Are there any forseen problems with this?
Thanks in advance
Mike
 
Several gunsmiths I know have quit using the Go/No-go gauge. They use a brand new (never fired) piece of brass to headspace on. I did that when rebarreling my 22-250 and a friend did it on his 308. I will do it again on a .223 in a week or two.

Wheeler manufacturing sells the barrel wrench as does midway and some others. They are on Ebay at least once a month or so. Normal prices are around $36, but last week on Ebay one sold for $25 buy it now. Watch there for take off barrels as well (one is on now I think).

Below is a link to a site that has many articles on Savage customizing and shooting. The link is for the barrel swap. Good luck and with the money you save you can buy a better trigger or glass.


http://www.savageshooters.net/Articles/BarrelSwap.html
 
Quote:
Several gunsmiths I know have quit using the Go/No-go gauge. They use a brand new (never fired) piece of brass to headspace on. I did that when rebarreling my 22-250 and a friend did it on his 308. I will do it again on a .223 in a week or two.



I wouldn't do that!!
Most new brass is way shorter than minimum headspace. It also varies a lot from maker to maker and lot too lot. You could easily end up with a chamber too short for some new brass.

You can save money by just buying the GO gauge and then sticking a thin shim to it for a no-go gauge.

Jack
 
Thanks for the replys, I just got the Midway flyer and saw they had some barrels on sale. I was thinking of getting a .243 for my daughter, and rebarreling seems to be an inexpensive alternative to buying a new rifle, as cash is getting slim.
Do you think there are any problems with putting a Stainless steel barrel on a blued reciever? Cosmetics dont really bother me as it will be painted or covered with Brownells Aluma-Hyde II or Gun-Kote.
Mike
 
Savage made there Model 12 FV and possible some other models for a while with blue receivers and SS barrels. They are nice looking and with the right scope such as the weaver Grand slam in silver with black accents can be pretty sharp. Again, check out Ebay for barrels. There is a factory take-off, unfired with 4 days to go. Savage factory barrels shoot extremely well and easily hold their own with the mid grade barrels from after market suppliers. I have a .243 Model 110 that loves 55 gr sierras/ 58 gr V-max and has shot some very impressive groups with other bullets as well. I would not think of swapping that barrel unless I moved up to a Pacnor Super match.
 
I am in the process of switching barrels, on my .22-250
Savage Model 16, to a 6mm Remington barrel. For
headspacing, I use once fired brass, full length resized
with my Redding dies, to set the head space according to
these dies. The procedure, describing how this is done,
is on the Sharp Shooters Supply web site. And I believe
there is a discussion group on the Savage Shooters web site,
expressly for barrel swapping questions, and procedures.

As for a stainless barrel on a blued receiver, I know of no
issues with this. One sees many rebarreled rifles done
this way.

To add to the list of tools, with the barrel nut wrench,
and barrel vise blocks, a deadblow hammer, might be
necessary to lightly tap on the wrench, to loosen
the barrel nut, and either a action wrench, or a large
adjustable spanner wrench, with taped jaws, to hold the
action, if it starts to turn with the barrel nut.

One word of caution. Once you do your first swap of
barrels on Savage actions, one can easily become
addicted to swapping barrels /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I am not sure
which is a worse addiction, black rifles(AR-15s), or
Savage barrel swapping. I have them both.

Squeeze
 
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