Building off a Savage action

[wisconsinteacher]

Last night I was reading about building off a Savage action and when my wife asked I told her it would be fun. She didn't give me the usual look of crazyness. (she is a great woman) To me that is a sign saying go ahead and start looking and learning.

From what I read, I need a short or long action depending on what cal I go with. I also see that if I go Stevens 200, I would need to upgrade the trigger where the Savages can be upgraded but have the Accu-Trigger. I also see what a recoil lug upgrade would help when putting it together. Lastly, I see that I need a barrel vise, and some tools. (barrel wrench and a few others) With that, where does a guy find an action? Is there a list of short action and long action cals? What about a list of bolt face sizes?

What else is there to know about doing this?

 

[Bowknutt]

I had some of the same ??? contact Jim Briggs he can answer all you got.
New Contact Information for Northland Shooters Supply:
E-mail - briggs.j-b@q.com ,that is Q.com not G.com)
Phone - 763/682-4296
Fax - 763/682-6098
Mailing address:
PO Box 333
Buffalo, MN 55313

Hope it helps..
BTW I'm going the stevens 200 route

David

 

[bluealtered]

A completely stock savage package rifle will shoot clover leafs from the bench if you just want to join the swap barrel addiction go to savageshooters.com join there and find really good bargins.

 

[Mr. Outdoors]

Jim is a great guy. He is my source of everything savage. I just got done with a 243 wssm and 22-250 1:8 twist builds and Im starting on a 300wsm as of last weekend. Another great resource is Savage Gunsmithing. Scott is a great individual and will answer all of your questions http://www.savagegunsmithing.com/

 

[2muchgun]

I'm sorry, you lost me at "building off a Savage".........

 

[Kingzero]

Go with a long action.

Back in the day, all Savages were long actions. The only differences were the holes machined in the bottom for the mags. Smaller holes for smaller mags for short action cartridges.

If you get a long action, you have the opportunity to shoot whatever caliber you want. Short action cartridges feed great from long action mags.

I am building a 260 on a 110 action that was formerly a 7mm. The 260's feed good from the original 7mm mag box, but if it gives me trouble I will get a 30-06 mag box.

Pacific Tool and Gauge sells replacement bolt heads, but are behind in production.(No Surprise) I have been waiting 3 weeks for mine, but I'm not really in a hurry since my barrel and stock wont be here till June....ish.

Jim at Northland sells actions, but deals can be found if you look. I got my donor rifle off Gunbroker for 200 bucks.

 

[csam]

I have done a few, and it boils down to the fact that there is not other option that gives you close to combination of low cost, accuracy and flexibility in the package as building a rifle and customizing a Savage Action.

It is really a matter of personal tastes, but I do like the functionality of the SharpShooters bolt handle. they also make a lug, and if you the barrel off, it won't hurt to replace. Personally I think the benefit is a little overblown, but for full disclosure, I have one out of my three Savage rifles, and if I get the barrel off anytime soon, I do have a second ready to go on.

You will need a barrel nut wrench (the Wheeler from Midway will work, but there are better made ones) and you can do it with a barrel vise or an action wrench. i went with a action wrench, as I have marred my barrel before with a vise. probably operator error, not the vise.

What are you leaning towards in the way of use and calibre?

 

[Rich44]

Jim is a great source for Savage parts and I have bought a few actions from him but I have also bought used Savage rifles for the cost of a new action, if you look around there out there but Jim is hard to beat for prefit barrels and he has a very good selection.
Trigger wise I'm not a big fan of the accutrigger I like the Rifle Basix SAV 2 JMO I also think there are more stock choices available for the short action.
They are really very easy to work on and alot of aftermarket parts now available

[beeep] bolt handle and fluted bolt on 20br

 

[5spd]

I have build 4 so far off new/used guns I bought.
You can get a complete stock gun for a little more than buying just an action. Actions run from $300 to $600. A new gun starts at $450.
Savage shooters site, midwayusa, brownells are your go to places for parts.
If you have a bench vise in your garage & some chunks of wood you already have a barrel vice. You will need the barrel wrench for sure.

 

[5spd]

Originally Posted By: 2muchgunI'm sorry, you lost me at "building off a Savage".
Thats only because you are still in the dark....

 

[Tnslim]

I highly recommend the action vise. No chance of marring a good barrel plus works much better than a barrel vise. One good swat with a deadblow hammer and the barrel nut is loose. Get the proper go-gauge and you're ready to swap barrels. I also recommend the heavier recoil lug as they are machined absolutely flat as opposed to a stamping which might not be perfectly flat. The best part of building from a Savage action is you don't have to pay a gunsmith the big bucks or wait 6 months for your job to be complete. Added bonus is you learn a lot about your rifle. There are also several mods you can do cheaply on the bolt to ease bolt lift. All in all Savage actions are a great starting point to building an extremely accurate rifle.

 

[chefpierre]

So......I went the way of the savage and built one off of a long action with the flat back in 6mm rem with an 8 twist. It shoots 107 gr. smk in 3/4 groups at 200 yards. Nice rifle. Have fun with that. I purchased most of my stuff from sharp shooter supply.

 

[NdIndy]

Pretty much any rifle will give you an action even the axis uses the same barrel and can be fairly cheap. There was a 7-08 in the classifieds yesterday for 225 shipped. Id buy it if I hadn't just bought another house and am a little strapped for cash.

I traded a pm member one of my 25-06 savages for a stevens 243 a little while ago, ordered a package from midway for $200, comes with barrel, go and no goes, action wrench already chambered for the build.

Assuming it ever comes off backorder I'll have my new elk rifle done.

 

[Stirling XD]

I've been wanting to do the same thing you're talking about for while as well. I got the idea from an article on LongRageHunting.com written by a guy named Jerry Teo. He has some good information on parts and methods. The article was called "Long Range Rifle on a Budget". Read the article and the forum thread that follows it. He usually starts with a Stevens 200 for the action and then sells the rest of the parts to keep his cost low. (However, I have often wondered what the market is for used Stevens 200 barrels, stocks and triggers might be.) Look it up and good luck.

 

[Jabey9210]

The only problem with doing a build on an axis action is that nobody makes an aftermarket stock for them. As far as the trigger on the stevens there are plenty of things you can do to them to lighten them up without buying a new one. In my opinion savage is the only way to start a build. Cheap, easy as pie, no reamer needed and haven't seen one yet that won't shoot singe hole groups with the right load!!!

 

[NdIndy]

Ya, odds are pretty slim there will ever be an aftermarket stock for them so not the way to go for a full custom. But if youre more the functional/hunting/truck gun type, cheap way to go.

My edge shoots like a dream and weighs less than some of my pistols (well probably not), its been a nice hiking rifle to chase deer and goats. Im hoping the new build comes in fairly light as well, elk terrain is a pita with a heavy rifle.

 

[Matt K]

Here's mine. It's a savage axis originally a 22-250 and then rebarreld into .20-250, bedded into a Boyd's thumbhole, Timney trigger and DNZ mount. My final load shoots 1/2"-3/8" groups at 100 and 1" at 200. This picture is 3 shots. May not be a bughole but still 1/2"