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Much to the chagrin of fine gunsmiths everywhere people figured out they could “savage” barrel their Remingtons or Remage them… I have several and if you are medium handy it’s a quick way to play with different chamberings….
Purist will poo poo the entire set up but there are plenty of them in every form of competition so the same as a shouldered barrel, the precision in components and assembly make most of the difference.
You’ll need some tools and there are plenty of You tube videos on how to do it… several people do it a bit different but this is how I do it.
First, if you don’t have a stripped action, you’ll need to spin that shouldered barrel off. If you want to keep the barrel, you’ll need a barrel vise, if you’re throwing it away, you can use just a regular vise because you’re obviously not going to worry about marring it. (Goes without saying that the action should be stripped, you should have just the bare receiver with a barrel screwed through a recoil lug into it. Nothing else hanging off it.
You’ll need a good action wrench to break the action off the barrel. I HIGHLY recommend the rear entry style that applies torque to the ways. The large flats apply the most torque over a large area.
With the barrel in the vise, it’s righty tighty, lefty loosey… Some barrel just pop off… some are so stubborn that gunsmiths have to chuck them up in the lathe and machine the shoulder off to get them off the receiver. If the barrel has been replaced before, it should come off with little to medium effort.
Once the barrel is off the receiver, clean and inspect the threads inside the receiver, get all the gunk out of the lug recesses and generally clean everything. The receiver face and lug should show signs that everything was making contact all the way around. If you want the receiver trued, now is the time to carry it to your favorite smith.
The barrel you have selected will be either steel or stainless. The barrel I have in the pictures is steel so I am using a blued nut (happens to be machined to fit a Savage wrench), most stainless nuts are hex. Lightly oil the threads and the nut should screw easily all the way up the barrel, the barrel should screw fairly easily into the receiver by hand. If either won’t, stop. You have an issue that needs to be resolved.
If you’re good so far, install the recoil lug locator tool onto the receiver. Screw the nut onto the barrel in the correct direction, slide the recoil lug onto the barrel then screw the barrel in about half way. Now you’re ready for the headspace gauge.
I won’t get into go/nogo gauge or just go or a factory round… read up and let your conscience be your guide. I use a go then put a piece of cellophane tape on the back for no go. Some will strip the bolt, some just take the ejector out, some just run it all together. I pull the ejector, catch the go gauge in the extractor, close the bolt and then lightly screw the barrel down till it touches down on the gauge. Screw the nut down till it lightly tightens up against the recoil lug/receiver. Once it’s all “together” I will put the wrench on the nut and just tighten everything down hand tight to make sure nothing is going to move while I get ready to torque it.
Open the bolt, remove the go gauge and find something to hold the barrel. With the nut wrench on the nut and torque wrench installed, rear entry action wrench with a large wrench/ratchet installed, torque the nut to what ever the barrel manufacture recommends. Most are somewhere between 30-50 foot pounds.
Pull the wrenches off, remove the lug centering tool. You should be able to close the bolt on your go gauge, not close it on your no-go gauge or go gauge with a piece of cellophane tape on the back (.004-.006”). If you can’t close on your go or can close on your nogo, you need to pull it apart and reassemble again with a tiny bit of favor to rectify what ever direction you were off.
If it passes the gauges, you’re done. Reassemble your barreled action and break in the barrel/work up a load as you see fit. Easy peasy.
(If you don’t like the way I do it, remember it’s worth exactly what you paid for it…)
Purist will poo poo the entire set up but there are plenty of them in every form of competition so the same as a shouldered barrel, the precision in components and assembly make most of the difference.
You’ll need some tools and there are plenty of You tube videos on how to do it… several people do it a bit different but this is how I do it.
First, if you don’t have a stripped action, you’ll need to spin that shouldered barrel off. If you want to keep the barrel, you’ll need a barrel vise, if you’re throwing it away, you can use just a regular vise because you’re obviously not going to worry about marring it. (Goes without saying that the action should be stripped, you should have just the bare receiver with a barrel screwed through a recoil lug into it. Nothing else hanging off it.
You’ll need a good action wrench to break the action off the barrel. I HIGHLY recommend the rear entry style that applies torque to the ways. The large flats apply the most torque over a large area.
With the barrel in the vise, it’s righty tighty, lefty loosey… Some barrel just pop off… some are so stubborn that gunsmiths have to chuck them up in the lathe and machine the shoulder off to get them off the receiver. If the barrel has been replaced before, it should come off with little to medium effort.
Once the barrel is off the receiver, clean and inspect the threads inside the receiver, get all the gunk out of the lug recesses and generally clean everything. The receiver face and lug should show signs that everything was making contact all the way around. If you want the receiver trued, now is the time to carry it to your favorite smith.
The barrel you have selected will be either steel or stainless. The barrel I have in the pictures is steel so I am using a blued nut (happens to be machined to fit a Savage wrench), most stainless nuts are hex. Lightly oil the threads and the nut should screw easily all the way up the barrel, the barrel should screw fairly easily into the receiver by hand. If either won’t, stop. You have an issue that needs to be resolved.
If you’re good so far, install the recoil lug locator tool onto the receiver. Screw the nut onto the barrel in the correct direction, slide the recoil lug onto the barrel then screw the barrel in about half way. Now you’re ready for the headspace gauge.
I won’t get into go/nogo gauge or just go or a factory round… read up and let your conscience be your guide. I use a go then put a piece of cellophane tape on the back for no go. Some will strip the bolt, some just take the ejector out, some just run it all together. I pull the ejector, catch the go gauge in the extractor, close the bolt and then lightly screw the barrel down till it touches down on the gauge. Screw the nut down till it lightly tightens up against the recoil lug/receiver. Once it’s all “together” I will put the wrench on the nut and just tighten everything down hand tight to make sure nothing is going to move while I get ready to torque it.
Open the bolt, remove the go gauge and find something to hold the barrel. With the nut wrench on the nut and torque wrench installed, rear entry action wrench with a large wrench/ratchet installed, torque the nut to what ever the barrel manufacture recommends. Most are somewhere between 30-50 foot pounds.
Pull the wrenches off, remove the lug centering tool. You should be able to close the bolt on your go gauge, not close it on your no-go gauge or go gauge with a piece of cellophane tape on the back (.004-.006”). If you can’t close on your go or can close on your nogo, you need to pull it apart and reassemble again with a tiny bit of favor to rectify what ever direction you were off.
If it passes the gauges, you’re done. Reassemble your barreled action and break in the barrel/work up a load as you see fit. Easy peasy.
(If you don’t like the way I do it, remember it’s worth exactly what you paid for it…)
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