View Full Version : Varmint/Target Project Savage 110
Was in my LGS this weekend buying a couple Henry Golden Boy youth models to put up for my 2 sons, when I stumbled across a mid-80s vintage Savage 110E in .30-06. Been wanting to build a varmint/target rifle so I was interested and couldn't walk away when they said they'd do $150 OTD. Figure with a base of $150, I can make a pretty decent budget rifle.
Currently thinking about re-barreling in 6.5CM or maybe 6.5x55. Leaning 6.5CM just because there's more ammo available off the shelf at my LGSs local Cabelas, etc etc. Only concern is operation of the SA cartridge in a LA.
Also going to restock if anyone could suggest any I might want to look at that won't cost the previously mentioned sons. Have already been looking at the Boyds, full bed Hogues and the Chaote. Not really thrilled with any of those though.
Top is the Savage, bottom is a Type 99 Arisaka with intact mum that was unfortunately sporterized. Couldn't leave it behind when the guy said $125 OTD though. Last 2 pics are the arisaka.
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Averageman
10-11-16, 16:13
Someone told me a lot of those Arisaka's were sporterized because they had to fit in a duffle bag/Sea bag to make it back. If any part of it was sticking out of the bag, it couldn't go.
I don't know how true that was, but I have one in my safe that had the same thing done to the stock. I've never shot it, but I hear the were considered "junk" at the time, but unless it was built in the latter war years, they are known to have a very strong action.
I hope you will keep us updated on your Savage project, I have a 111 in my safe that hasn't seen much range time, so if it works out for you I might pursue something like that with mine.
yeah I don't know. on my arisaka they didn't shorten the barrel any, they just cut off a lot of the forearm. wish someone would make a repro stock, originals are scarce and expensive.
coworker nearly has me convinced to mill out and bed the factory savage stock to accommodate a heavy barrel. have 90% of the stuff to do it so why not. might even make the pillars myself on the lathe
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Averageman
10-14-16, 15:24
yeah I don't know. on my arisaka they didn't shorten the barrel any, they just cut off a lot of the forearm. wish someone would make a repro stock, originals are scarce and expensive.
coworker nearly has me convinced to mill out and bed the factory savage stock to accommodate a heavy barrel. have 90% of the stuff to do it so why not. might even make the pillars myself on the lathe
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I think I paid like $16.00 for a set of pillars and a bedding kit. I ended up giving the to a friend before I could use them,..LOL.What can I say, he helped me out more than once.
They didn't need to cut the Arisaka barrels the Barrel and Action together were shorter than the entire stock. I did some research when I first got mine and there is some interesting stuff out there.
did decide to go that route. 6.5CM barrel is on the way along with bedding compound. got a small lathe and some aluminum stock so I'm gonna make my own pillars.
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figure if I screw it up I'm only out $30 for the devcon bedding compound and it's kinda like jb weld, good for lots of stuff
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cut wood tonight so I'm committed. dialed in the mill, located centerline of the stock and longitudinal center of rear hole. cut then dialed in the screw spacing and cut again. everything should be closely aligned once bonded.
hope to cut the pillars on the lathe tomorrow.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161018/3b1f85733f8d98a4eb8b682c1f45179f.jpg
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Was in my LGS this weekend buying a couple Henry Golden Boy youth models to put up for my 2 sons, when I stumbled across a mid-80s vintage Savage 110E in .30-06. Been wanting to build a varmint/target rifle so I was interested and couldn't walk away when they said they'd do $150 OTD. Figure with a base of $150, I can make a pretty decent budget rifle.
Currently thinking about re-barreling in 6.5CM or maybe 6.5x55. Leaning 6.5CM just because there's more ammo available off the shelf at my LGSs local Cabelas, etc etc. Only concern is operation of the SA cartridge in a LA.
Don't sweat running a SA cart in a LA. Every Tikka is a long action regardless of the cart it fires.
Go over to Savageshooters forum and there'll likely be info for you (good folks as well).
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
bigjohn1940
10-18-16, 10:00
How about a 260 Remington?
JM
Don't sweat running a SA cart in a LA. Every Tikka is a long action regardless of the cart it fires.
Go over to Savageshooters forum and there'll likely be info for you (good folks as well).
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
Thanks. Yeah that's what I've ascertained as well in my research.
Only issue I'm seeing is on the rear pillar, the relief inlet for the trigger was so big I've got nothing on the back side of the pillar. I may need to build that back up with some bedding material to make sure it's sufficiently secured and then machine a minimal inlet for the trigger.
How about a 260 Remington?
JM
I considered 260 along with 6.5x55 and a pile of other possibilities (6.5-06 was interesting since it was already a 30-06 rifle and that brass and 25-06 brass is everywhere) but the availability/price of factory 6.5CM ammo won out. I have reloading gear, but between work, the wife working more than full time and two small kids, reloading time eats into shooting and other projects.
When bedding a Savage, the rear tang should float. Any pressure there will result in very poor accuracy.
Not to try to make this a more expensive project, but you might think about replacing the barrel nut, and recoil lug as long as you have a whole thing in pieces.
Speaking of which, if you do not have an action vise and nut wrench, let me know. We can probably figure out a way for you to borrow mine.
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Jimmy
When bedding a Savage, the rear tang should float. Any pressure there will result in very poor accuracy.
Not to try to make this a more expensive project, but you might think about replacing the barrel nut, and recoil lug as long as you have a whole thing in pieces.
Speaking of which, if you do not have an action vise and nut wrench, let me know. We can probably figure out a way for you to borrow mine.
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Jimmy
roger that on the tang. didn't know that. thanks.
recoil lug should be here today. if you think the nut will make a difference they don't cost that much.
nut wrench should be coming with the recoil lug.
action wrench I was planning to use either a strap wrench or make something, although not sure exactly what on the latter. if you think I'm in for trouble I might shell out for a wrench. never turn down the opportunity to buy tools, especially since I might do this again later.
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roger that on the tang. didn't know that. thanks.
recoil lug should be here today. if you think the nut will make a difference they don't cost that much.
nut wrench should be coming with the recoil lug.
action wrench I was planning to use either a strap wrench or make something, although not sure exactly what on the latter. if you think I'm in for trouble I might shell out for a wrench. never turn down the opportunity to buy tools, especially since I might do this again later.
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If you're going all in, a paid membership to Savageshooters lets you into the classifieds and in-depth articles. Either would be worth the price of admission alone, but combined it's easily worth the $12.
My go to for almost everything else, is Jim Briggs at Northland Shooter Supply (http://northlandshooterssupply.com/tools/). It's a total mom-and-pop operation. As such, don't order piecemeal because shipping costs will kill you, and the only real way to get a hold of them is calling. Just have patience, because Jim is kind enough to walk anyone through their build piece-by-piece to make sure they have everything they need (his wife is no slouch either).
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
If you're going all in, a paid membership to Savageshooters lets you into the classifieds and in-depth articles. Either would be worth the price of admission alone, but combined it's easily worth the $12.
My go to for almost everything else, is Jim Briggs at Northland Shooter Supply (http://northlandshooterssupply.com/tools/). It's a total mom-and-pop operation. As such, don't order piecemeal because shipping costs will kill you, and the only real way to get a hold of them is calling. Just have patience, because Jim is kind enough to walk anyone through their build piece-by-piece to make sure they have everything they need (his wife is no slouch either).
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
Thanks. I'll have to look into both of those.
Action wrench, barrel vice, SSS barrel nut, scope rail and trigger guard on the way. On the last I figured why not, the old one is plastic so I snagged a metal one...
pillars I turned out on the lathe from 5/8 6061 round. not really complete since I didn't have the 1/2 countersink I thought I did. intentionally left the surface finish a bit rough to help the bedding epoxy adhere. kinda stalled out till the rest of the tools get here now.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161020/6eb1b3475ce79157b8c925d01f75c65f.jpg
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pillars I turned out on the lathe from 5/8 6061 round. not really complete since I didn't have the 1/2 countersink I thought I did. intentionally left the surface finish a bit rough to help the bedding epoxy adhere. kinda stalled out till the rest of the tools get here now.
Well done sir.
Welcome to your new addiction ;/
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
Well done sir.
Welcome to your new addiction ;/
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
yeah this is fun. won't be the last for sure. no telling how goofy I'll go if I ever get lathe thats true enough to do real precision work on. my old 1952 vintage south bend is just too worn for that...
I have an old Savage pre-accutrigger 110 tactical in 308. They put a longer spacer block behind the bolt head to shorten travel for the shorter cartridge, and the magazine spacer is at the rear as well. This makes it feed from the same distance away from the chamber, and you're not pulling the bolt all the way as far as it can go. You might want to check into the other bolt block, and a short cartridge mag box and follower. It works just fine that way.
I put mine in a composite bell and Carlson, I think it was pillar bedded, but I glassed it anyway. Now, they have a full aluminum bedding block.
Haven't tried northland, but got some stuff from sharpshootersupply.com. Pretty much all they do is Savage also.
I ended up doing a custom mag conversion.
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will check it out thanks
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got the new barrel installed tonight. stupid easy.
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tried fitting the old stock to the new barrel and action with no success. the stock was so untrue that I would have had nothing left on the right side by the time I got enough relief for the barrel.
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so, lesson learned, that old savage stocks aren't terribly straight. at least I'm not out much more than some shop therapy time.
now who knows of some good inexpensive stocks?
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since this is a project for fun, decided to try something different. milled off the barrel channel completely. that way as I set the action the barrel can truly go wherever. if it doesn't work then I'm no worse off than before, just get another stock.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161101/3499bbf24a84acb3b0c03ed7a780b592.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161101/7bacd05d629b41f24564fc4eaf7c9939.jpg
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since this is a project for fun, decided to try something different. milled off the barrel channel completely. that way as I set the action the barrel can truly go wherever. if it doesn't work then I'm no worse off than before, just get another stock.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161101/3499bbf24a84acb3b0c03ed7a780b592.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161101/7bacd05d629b41f24564fc4eaf7c9939.jpg
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Now we're talking! You can attach a flat piece to the front as a bag rider or put a bipod stud in.
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
Now we're talking! You can attach a flat piece to the front as a bag rider or put a bipod stud in.
Sent from 80ms in the future
Jimmy
had not considered the bag rider idea. that's an interesting one.
I'd only thought about the bipod. Probably with something like this to replace the single point lag screw sling stud that's already in thr stock
http://www.brownells.com/shooting-accessories/bipods-monopods-amp-accessories/bipod-accessories/handguard-bipod-adapter-prod41593.aspx
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Finally got around to bedding the pillars. Next step is to further relieve the stock and do a full bed job.
BTW anyone doing bedding jobs, Frekote is the way to go. None of that shoe Polish nonsense. We used Frekote building composite aircraft parts back in college. Those resin formulations were way stickier than any bedding compound.
Frekote 398489 770-NC Mold Release, 10.5 fl oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SJ7U0SS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Q3erybDRKKBF6
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That's coming along nicely!
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That's coming along nicely!
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Thanks. Just wish I had more time to work on it
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Worked on the stock profile and relief for the bedding and sear last night. Maybe get it bedded by the weekend.
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Actually had a chance to bed the action tonight. I hope I didn't screw it up. Guess I'll know tomorrow morning.
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It came apart. Doesn't look too bad for a first bedding job either. Have to put it in the mill and get rid of some overflow but that's not a problem.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161208/48d4769547b60fa4bce1379048e7e731.jpg
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All cleaned up and ready to start reassembly.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170105/085a05bb6a3dc686615f3943070f2776.jpg
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Really coming together now. Mechanical iWould be done all but relieving where the trigger guard is and a trigger adjustment if not for me losing the sear spring.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170105/7baa78702f0a88dee144ed1acc4a3c01.jpg
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Been a while but I've been busy. Metal trigger guard bedded and installed. Lapped the bolt to the receiver. Adjusted the trigger to 4lbs and as nice as you can get a stock savage trigger.
Rail installed and scope sitting in the rings but not secured. And my nifty B stock Swfa used special konus pro 6.5-25 with the nifty rattle can paint job lol. Not exactly a premium optic but for $125 it will do for a budget build.
Even some artwork on the stock where my son took the sharpee to it. Was going to refinish the stock but have half a mind to just satin clear over it to save my sons drawing lol.
Hope to shoot and get it dialed in after vacation.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170316/cc83b707eb9f4e2bc249f2a3f0ce869f.jpg
Nate
NAAH Tool Works
Naahtoolworks.com
Naahtoolworks@gmail.com
With this build, I'd be tempted to hand him a bucket of Sharpies and let him do the whole stock!
With this build, I'd be tempted to hand him a bucket of Sharpies and let him do the whole stock!
Not a bad idea. Strip it, coat it with something good for drawing, let him go to town then clear coat it.
Nate
NAAH Tool Works
Naahtoolworks.com
Naahtoolworks@gmail.com
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