Junk Savage barrel, sort of. Pic heavy

[jrainw]

I got tired of my Savage 12fcp 308's 26" barrel so I decided to cut it down. I cut it to 18" and put a Gemtech bilock suppressor mount on it so I could use my TPRS can on it.
Here it is now, scope is an SWFA 10x42HD mil/mil.

What surprised me was how far from perfect this rifles bore was, I measure it at .035 from centered. It had always had large windage changes between different loads but shot easy quarter sized groups.

I indexed the barrel to put the thinnest part of the barrel at 12 o'clock in hopes that between loads I will only have to deal with elevation changes instead of extreme windage changes.(like 20" to the left for my subsonic loads). I ran out of daylight tonight but shot 2, 5 shot groups and one subsonic round tonight.

I cant wait to spend some more time working up loads with it, one more observation, it doesn't ring like a tuning fork every time I shoot it now. The 26" barrel with the offset bore probably whipped like crazy.
Oh, and the subsonic round shot low(of course) and 3" to the left. Alot better than before, just gotta work on the load, it was way slow and didn't go through the target perfectly straight.

 

[DaKruiser]

Very nice!

Can't wait to see how it shoots with a load it likes!

 

[ruger1800]

Did you have to ream the chamber deeper, since you screwed the barrel in a quarter turn?

 

[jrainw]

The headspace was actually pretty generous from the factory so screwing the barrel in the quarter turn didn't get it too tight. It will actually still chamber my neck sized reloads from before, the bolt doesn't need forced it is just a little stiff. On factory ammo it closes with no resistance.

 

[fireball168]

Turning a 20 pitch thread a 1/4 a turn will change your headspace by .0125".

Roughly double the difference between the GO and NO GO.

I'd suggest you think about this a bit more.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Turning a 20 pitch thread a 1/4 a turn will change your headspace by .0125".

Roughly double the difference between the GO and NO GO.

I'd suggest you think about this a bit more.

Well, he did specify that factory ammo chambers fine with no resistance and that his neck-size only loads from before he did the modifications also chamber with little resistance.

Double the difference between Go and NO GO may not matter if his chamber was long before, which is not uncommon for many factory rifles. I believe the GO NO-GO difference is .008". If his chamber was .001-.003 long before, its now only a bit short. If it wasn't in-fact long before, the most it could be "short" is .0125" which is still a rather small difference if he is using his own loads and neck sizing. If it was .004+" long before it is now within spec.

Realistically speaking, he has nothing to worry about in my opinion. Factory ammo is loaded pretty conservatively, and if he is reloading he should be working up loads anyways. So that negates most pressure concerns.

Brass and/or case-seperation concerns aren't realistic either because the chamber is shorter than before.

So the only real concern should be over-pressure in a round loaded to the max for a different gun (he shouldn't be doing this anyway). Or the fact of whether or not the rounds will chamber and that one is already answered in the OP.

What concerns did you have?

 

[jrainw]

I shoot only my own reloads and have absolutely no pressure signs from the 40 I have shot since cutting it down. I would guess the chamber was pretty loose before.