Hello all I have just ordered from ER Shaw a New Barrel for my Savage Model 110
6.5x284 Norma and I am wanting to take the factory barrel off so my question is this what items are needed to accomplish this task I’m assuming a barrel vice go and no go gauges but I’m not sure all/any help is greatly appreciated
@Varminterror you seem to know a great deal about the savage action so I’m hoping you can help here
If you want more help on this or other topics, then please shoot me a PM so I'll get a notification for it. I don't log in here anymore except for when I get an external email notifying me that I have a new PM - I only saw this notification on the forum today because I logged in to answer a message from another member.
It's been asked and answered, but since you tagged me and I logged in today, I'll give my input:
For Savages, you have 2 tasks to accomplish: 1) loosen the old barrel and tighten the new, and 2) setting the headspace of the new barrel.
1) You need a means of loosening the old barrel and retightening the new. In the case of the Savage action, with the barrel nut, you need an action wrench, either rear entry or external, and a barrel nut wrench - if you have a slotted nut, you obviously need the slotted nut wrench, if you have a smooth, you need a clamping nut wrench. I personally use a rear entry wrench from Defiance Machine, but an external action wrench like the Wheeler works fine also. My nut wrenches are Wheeler, and they also work fine. I do layer tape on my nut and external action wrenches and nut wrench to prevent galling of the finish. But I do prefer the rear entry action wrench rather than the external action wrench - I clamp the nut wrench in the vise and spin the action off of the barrel. I do OCCASIONALLY mount the barrel in a vise to hold the barreled action, but I use the action wrench and the nut wrench to do the action separation.
*Don't use a barrel vise with the nut wrench. It does work for some folks, but it's pretty common that the nut and action will stick together and remain tight, and guys end up damaging their actions because the interference fit between the nut and action doesn't actually loosen as they try to spin out the barrel. Think about the action and nut like two jam nuts locked on a common bolt shank - if you hold one nut and turn the bolt, the two nuts don't actually have to turn relative to one another, and things stay tight, and it can gall the hell out of your action threads, and supposedly some folks can tweak their action in doing so. Better is to hold both nuts and turn one away from the other to relieve the tension on the bolt - aka, barrel tenon. So yes, 100%, hold the action and the barrel nut, and do NOT use a barrel vise for anything more than supporting the barreled action from being dropped.
**This is probably already handled in this particular case, but for others doing the same - to order the proper replacement barrel, you also need to know if you have a large shank or small shank action, easily determined by observing the length of your barrel nut - the large shank nuts are shorter, visible by the taper in front of the straight sides being only ~1/2 the length of the straight nut sides. Small shank nuts have tapers about the same length as the straight sides. If memory serves, small shank nuts are 7/8" long, and large shank barrel nuts are 5/8" long. The barrel will also typically have a step in the contour in front of the tenon threads. I'd generally assume you have a small shank barrel, but since it's 6.5-284, if it's a LRP Action, it could be large shank.
2) You need a means of setting headspace for the new barrel. You have a few options here:
A) Go/No-Go gauge set is by far the best method. Screw the barrel in until it hits the go gauge, tighten the nut, check with the no-go gauge to confirm. Best method.
B) Factory ammo - we assume factory ammo will be set to minimum headspace tolerance, so setting your barrel to factory ammo does work... Until it doesn't. I've done this for my own rifles, but I rent gauges for any customer rifle I've done in the past.
C) Size a piece of brass to the minimum capability of your dies, add a 1 or 2 thou thick shim to the case head, and set the barrel to that. This means your chamber will be as small as it really can be for the set of dies you own. By sizing the case with your die all the way down on your shell holder, your minimum dimension you can produce, then adding 1-2 thou MORE length, you're effectively setting your shoulder clearance to 1-2 thou when you have your brass at your minimum possible dimension you can make. Again, I've done this for my own rifles, and it's not necessarily great, but wouldn't necessarily do this for a customer rifle.
By far the best method is to spend the extra time to rent the gauges.
*I'm not a proponent of using a fired case to set my headspace. It's kind of like measuring with a cloud - you don't know your fired case is actually the same size as your old chamber, either long or short, and don't really know your old chamber was a particularly desirable dimension. In some instances, fired cases will be quite a bit smaller than the chamber, if the brass springs back, so setting your barrel to that dimension might make it challenging to resize your brass small enough in the future. On the other hand, your fired brass might not actually close into the chamber again, meaning it's actually LONGER/LARGER than the chamber and was slightly compressed upon extraction, so then setting the new barrel to this dimension leaves your headspace longer than it should be. It's not the worst idea, and it certainly gets close, but it's not great.
If you run into any trouble, shoot me a PM.
