Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Combination Guns and Drillings Savage 24 bad headspace?

My 22 mag over 20 started to misfire and got to where the 22 mag will not fire. Gunsmith says headspace is bad. Anyone ever hear of such?
Doesn't seem to be a cheap fix

Close the gun empty, take off the forend, and hold the gun by the grip and shake it. If you feel a rattle he's probably correct.

A .22 MAG would headspace on the rim and it is hard to believe that a .22 MAG would run at a high enough pressure to cause any physical changes to either the barrel's chamber or the receiver. If the barrel locks up tight with the receiver, I would look at the firing pin and the hammer selector to see how hard the firing pin is striking the cartridge rim. I've owned dozens of Savage 24s, still have a few of them, and have never seen one of the rimfire styles shoot itself loose.

If it does rattle with the forearm off you can try a coke can shim on the pull lug pivot.

Friend of mine growing had a M24 22 mag/20 ga and it would bulge the rimfire ammo when it fired.

Luv2safari is correct... it is hinge wear that causes the excess headspace.

Gun was torn apart and inspected. The selector lever button was not working correctly and thus not fully engaging to fire the rimfire barrel. That and cleaning out the firing pin seems to have solved the issue. Probably the first time the gun was ever torn apart so far and cleaned.

perfect!

If that had been the problem, Luv2safari's recommendation of shimming the hinge point would have been the correct one. But that wasn't the problem that the OP found, so that made my recommendation the correct one, didn't it?

It does if the original gunsmith misdiagnosed the problem. If it rattles as described they only fixed one symptom, not the problem.

You can chase the headspace with the firing pin. Hinge wear is a function of friction and cycles in the hinge more than recoil.

Your argument is obviously valid. Of the several styles of selectors the vertical slider is my least favorite.

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The OP must have edited out the rattle part of his post before I read it and responded. I would have advised looking for hinge wear if the barrels and receiver didn't lock up tight, which is why I specified that in my original post.

Agreed, of the barrel/hammer selector options, the vertical slider is also my least favorite and, it seems, the most frequently prone to cause problems. The selector tab on the hammer is the only other barrel selector option that I recall seeing on Savage 24 combination guns and it seems pretty close to being foolproof.

Luv2safari was the one introducing rattle into the thread, not the OP.

If the connection between the barrels and the receiver was tight, I wonder why the gunsmith diagnosed a headspace problem? He apparently didn't bother to investigate farther, maybe he was unfamiliar with the older Savage 24s with the vertical sliding barrel selector and just didn't know what to look at.

Right, and I NEVER recommended shimming the hinge pin. Also, I don't see where the barrel selector would have anything to do with headspace.

There's a lot of groping going on here.

There was never a headspace problem, the 'smith who diagnosed the problem was wrong, likely because he had little, if any, experience with the older Stevens and Savage combination guns that used the sliding barrel selector. The barrel selector was probably dirty or rusty, not sliding far enough to allow the firing pin to impact the primer with enough force to fire the cartridge.

That makes perfect sense.

B I N G O!

IF And let me repeat this... IF your suggestion was followed the issue would have been resolved immediately. The selector would not be confused with a headspace issue. Except for light strikes... Not a headspace issue because a loose hinge would have been eliminated.

Which would have exposed the weak firing pin. Short pin (broken, worn, offangle, etc), weak spring, carbon fouling, etc...

I bought one of these a long time ago in 223(original)/20ga that had light strikes and misfires on the rifle. Someone in the past had cut the main spring to lighten the trigger pull. A new main spring and then a trigger job cured the problem. Then after everything worked right I learned how crappy these things are for a predator hunting rifle.

The one I tried to like

I think that I've owned at least one of each of the Savage 24s with .410 and 20 gauge barrels except for a 24V in .357 MAX and the 24VS, the one style of 24 that I don't recall having seen. The rimfire 24s were pretty reliable farm/ranch utility guns, but the centerfire 24s don't have any provision for regulating the rifle barrel, so accuracy was often hit or miss. About 30 years ago I had a 24V in 222/20 that would reliably put the first shot in the 10-ring, but subsequent shots would land 6" from the bullseye in a random pattern.

The best shooting centerfire 24 that I've owned is a 24 in 223/20 from the period when the 24V was in transition to the 24F. It is a reliable 2" shooter with most brands and bullet weights/styles of factory ammo. I had the shotgun barrel converted from full to improved cylinder, as that is more useful for me.

There used to be a good article on the Savage 24 in the Tech Notes section of the Beiartooth Bullet site, written by Marshall Stanton. I can't seem to find that article or a link to it, although it is probably somewhere out there and somebody with better Google skills then me can find it.

One of my favorite woods loafing guns is a Westpoint 242, a house brand Savage 24, in 22MAG/410. It came as a 22LR, but I rechambered it so that I could shoot .22WRF and .22MAG. It is reasonably accurate with both the rifle barrel and the shotgun barrel with Brenneke slugs.

Good info, I actually have 22 cal headspace gauges, so can check stuff, I have had a 22/410 for over 40 years, and got one not long ago in 30/30/20 gauge, had to replace rear sight as it was missing screws from sight slide.
Numrich supplied one they had that works, it actually is used for Ruger 10/22 but it was what they show as a substitute.
Seems to sit higher so will need to try sight it in.
Just had a bit of snow fall, so not sure if I will get out.