Chambering a barrel for a savage action

S

skeetlee

Active member
I have a good friend that wants me to chamber his new barrel in 30Br for his savage comp action. he wants to keep the barrel nut but i am not so sure we should? The barrel he bought is a Brux HV. I haven't ever messed with a sarge so i am doing a little homework before i do this job for him. Of course i am not charging my friend any money for this job, but i do want to give him the best job i can possibly provide. Here are some questions i have.
- Can i turn this 1.250 HV barrel down for the nut, or are we already heading in the wrong direction? I would prefer to chamber this barrel like any other normal barrel, and do away with the nut.
- What diameter do i turn the shank to?
- What thread pitch are we dealing with?
- I am assuming the tenon length will be the measurement from the action face to the bolt face? Minus a little clearance." depending how we do this barrel" If we do a barrel nut i can measure his 6Br barrel he already has for this action.
- Any other suggestions, or ideas i should know before we do this thing? I dont have an action to study or measure until the day of the job. I wish i had one here. I have no doubt i can do this and it properly, i just like to know what i am doing before i attempt it. thanks Lee
 
I think the barrel nut is retained and used mostly by rifle owners who buy a pre-fit barrel to install themselves.
 
I have chambered thousands of Savages with or without the nut. For 1.250" barrels I leave .020" of gap in front of the nut with the shoulder in front of the nut.
You may have to make a wrench that wraps around the nut as Factory or Fred Moreo standard wrench will not fit down over the larger barrel.

There is no gain or loss using the nut vs a shoulder. The gain is you can use the barrel on multiple rifles.

Many barrel testing machine use a nut with no ill effects.
Nat Lambeth
 
Learned a lesson the other day when it comes to rebarreling a 110 savage. I took off the old barrel not paying much attention to the fit an proceeded to thread and chamber the new barrel (1.062-20 tpi). Took my major dia. and pitch dia. out of the "machinist hand book". As I started to screw on the barrel it seemed really sloppy so I took the old barrel and sure enough the same thing! The reciever had been threaded by savage to about .025 over size, which left roughly .016 of thread engagement. The old barrel lasted about thirty years so I guess there was enough engagement but I sure as hell wouldn't want any less!
 
Can i turn the 1.250 HV barrel down to the proper savage barrel size, then thread for the nut? Or will that be simply to much barrel to remove? thanks Lee
 
I prefer a shouldered barrel. There really isn't any reason to keep the nut. You will still need a barrel vise and an action wrench to swap out barrels. Once you have a shouldered barrel installed correctly, you won't need a headspace gauge if you remove & reinstall that barrel as long as you witness mark both the barrel & receiver.
I don't think you'd have any issues if you turned & threaded the barrel for a nut other then you would have quite a long straight section ahead of the nut. Set your calipers to the major O.D. of thread & slide it up the barrel until it stops. The remaining section would be the straight section.
 
Like i say, i hope my buddy Rodney, will go for the standard shoulder and not the barrel nut. I think he may want to put this barrel on one of his other Savage actions at some point. I dont know how close each savage action is from another. Are the savage actions all the same as far as tenon length and head-space? Im guessing probably not?? Lee
 
Will the "nut less" (female) :) Savage barrel with the over sized shank fit back into the stock?

There are Large shank and a Small shank Savage actions. Other than that , the male barrels ( the ones with the nut) :) can be interchanged between actions if you have the tools.

Hal
 
Lou
Do you think there might be something with the vibrations or harmonics with a barrel nut?? Interesting to say the least. Lee
 
Lou,
Should we expect to see you show up at a match (at Visalia) with a barrel that has a nut? Let me know. I will be there with my camera. It would be especially helpful if you could manage to at least win a yardage. What a story that would be! Seriously, I know that you have a huge amount of experience with the barrel nut, and if you think that they have some special quality, that is certainly good enough for me. This should be very good for those who have rifle weight and/or balance issues, but it will make swapping barrels a little more involved. Good luck at Sacramento. I will see you at Visalia.
Boyd
 
skeetlee said:
Like i say, i hope my buddy Rodney, will go for the standard shoulder and not the barrel nut. I think he may want to put this barrel on one of his other Savage actions at some point. I dont know how close each savage action is from another. Are the savage actions all the same as far as tenon length and head-space? Im guessing probably not?? Lee
Click to expand...

No they are not, just like a rem, sometimes they work but I wouldn't count on it. Profile it down to 1.0625" like a factory barrel [actually they are around 1.055" major but the pitch diameter is correct] and forget it. You could do as Nat suggested but if the barrel was swapped to a factory stocked rifle, it won't fit the stock channel. Lots of prefit barrels shoot very well, suprisingly well in fact.
 
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I just have one question as "food for thought". How many full blown custom benchrest rifles have you seen that use the barrel nut method?
 
PEIRob
I guess i dont understand what the pitch diameter is. What do i contour this barrel down to? thanks Lee
 
The Savage is super easy to do. I chamber a little bit deep to a finish I like and never worry about the exact depth. I usually ream .472" bolt face Savages to depth by rough guess, say around .080" of the gauge sticking out. Then I face it so the gauge is protruding .125" and polish it up a touch and give it some chamfer on the chamber mouth. The tenon is 1.0625 x 20 tpi. I'll cut it to that diameter or a couple of thou smaller and after threading I'll run the file on the tops of the threads. This brings the major back down if it grew because the cutter of choice wasn't sharp enough. I think Savage starts with a 1.055 major diameter so the peaks won't grow since they are wider. Regardless, there is no practical difference in function between 1.0625 major and 1.055 major because the tops of the threads are weak and cannot do any real work except get in the way. I rarely use a barrel nut when I do them. When a nut is to be used, I'll stick the barrel in the lathe with the entire barrel shank [chamber area] sticking out of the chuck. Dialed in around half a thou is ok then I'll profile it down to 1.060". Then I take it out of the lathe and dial it in for chambering as normal. If a 1.250" barrel shank is used and it is not reduced to 1 and 1/16, it won't fit a regular stock without alteration.
 
One thing to watch out for is that on the small thread varmint barrels that I have measured, the taper starts at the back of the tenon, and is continuous down the whole barrel, so if you are looking at major diameter, you might want to measure at the back of the tenon, nearest the bolt face.
 
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