Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Tell me about making a savage switch barrel

I have a savage 22-250 that Im thinking about putting a 6.5 creedmoor barrel on. Who makes the best kit to do this.

Thanks

Well, the case heads are both 473, and the case lengths are comparable. Providing your box can handle the OAL on the creedmore, all you need is a barrel, barrel wrench and headspace gauges.

There isn't a kit. Just get a pre chambered barrel (criterion from northland shooters supply $300), an action wrench & barrel nut wrench, and a go headspace gauge. Screw the old barrel off & the new one on, takes about 15 minutes if you've done it a couple of times.

Go to www.savageshooters.com, there's lots of info about barrel swapping for savages on there. If you know someone with the tools then you won't have to buy them.

You don't even need the action wrench. A barrel vise (or a good, heavy, well padded bench vise) and a barrel nut wrench will do it. I swapped my .30/06 barrel for a .25/06 Pac-nor. It's not rocket science. Just take your time.

I bought a single Shot action off the Fire Classifieds a few years ago...

I have a 22.250 and a 25/06 take off barrel for it and a ER Shaw 7/08 barrel.

I just head space it off a dummy round...

Its simple and a lot of fun.

$25 stock shipped.. repainted it recently...

here's what she looks like for the spring sage rat season, with a take off 22.250 barrel... barrel was off the campfire classifieds, $100.

Do it all the time....here's my last project...

Savage Target action
20BR...Pac-Nor 28" no taper 9T/3G tube
Vortex PST 6-24 MOA SFP
Burris Sig rings/bases
Choate Varminter stock
Norma reformed 6BR brass/Rem 7.5 primers/40 V max & 55 Bergers
Once you have the few needed tools comes the experience
we simply used brass FL sized from our dies to set headspace
You can buy a donor rifle..pull it apart...rebuild or like my last two projects build it from scratch...previous build was a 6.5x55 LR heavy target gun.....both weigh in @ 17#....no recoil from the 20BR..trigger(s) break @ 16 oz...

Nice rig!

Have you had any problems by just using a sized round for headspace? Does that make the chamber to tight?

I went to Midway for the barrel nut wrench and Sharp Shooters Supply for the barrel work. I removed my barrel, had the 22-250 chamber reamed to 22-243AI at Sharp Shooters, and put it back together myself.

I am not presently using mine as a switch barrel, but would have no problems switching back and forth between any 22-250/308/30-06/284 class cartridge. My action is a single shot, so magazine and feed concerns do not apply.

I also set the headspace on my barrel using a freshly necked 243 case. I placed a case fresh from my sizing die in the chamber, set a dime sized piece of thin carbon paper (as in an old fashioned credit card receipt) against the head of the case, and then closed the bolt.

I screwed the barrel in until it made contact against the necked down case, and tightened the barrel nut. The cases chambered slightly hard after the first try, but it only takes a second to loosen the barrel nut and back the barrel out 1/32 turn and try again.

The only problem with fitting the barrel at home as I did, there is no way to predict where any barrel markings might end up.

When you switch back and forth, do you have to re-zero the scope??
I'd like to be able to zero my 6.5 WSM with one scope, then switch barrels and scopes and have it retain zero.

I did the Savage switch barrel thing a few years ago. I can't see a way around having to re-zero the scope when you swap barrels. The solution was to install a QR set of mounts and have a dedicated scope for each barrel. For me, this was a concept that looked good on paper and could be executed without too much trouble, but became a PITA when put into practice.

I was thinking that a set of three barrels, like this mix; 1-9" ROT 22-250, a 260, and a 338 Fed, would cover a wide range of demands and could be carried in a single two rifle hard case.

That's what I have read, even with a scope barrel combo, you still have to re-zero after swapping.
When I got into T/C's I thought it was a great idea. As time went on I collected enough frames to keep all but one barrel mounted to a frame.
Great marketing

Re-zeroing isn't something that would bother me. Have you guys found, with switching barrels on Savage actions, that the loads still shoot the same? I'm contemplating a Hoosier legal rifle cartridge and a smokeless muzzleloader on the same action.

My Savage switch barrel rifle had a dedicated scope for each of the three barrels, 22-250/257R/260, and would return to the same approximate POA, but not the exact POA. Never more than 2 MOA different without a rezero, usually less, so Minute-Of-Deer.

I'm getting all of the "switch barrel" equipment but for a different reason.

I bought a rifle off of the classifieds with no bolt, ordered a new bolt and will have to headspace it to my barrel once all of the parts arrive.

Already have barrel blocks remington/savage action wrench, vise, etc from other projects, had to order headspace gauges and Savage barrel nut wrench for this project. Will probably end up buying another bolt head and using my old Stevens 200 barrel on this rifle since I have it laying around.

Mike

I think that some folks are under the impression that it is easy and quick to swap between barrels in the field, so as to change calibers/cartridges and just go hunting with a different cartridge. But that hasn't been my exact experience.

I envisioned something like hunting deer in the early AM with your 260 barrel. Head back to the truck and swap barrels and scopes so you can shoot pdogs with your 22-250 barrel between 10AM and 2PM. Head back to the truck once again and swap barrels and scopes back to 260 so you can hunt deer in the late PM. Can it be done? Yes, it can, but for me it was a suboptimal solution and I ended up installing some of my extra Savage 110 specs barrels on other Savage 110 series and Marlin X gun actions.

Partial list follows:

A&B 22-250 barrel installed on a Savage 11 action.
Stevens 200 1-9" ROT 223 barrel rechambered to 22-250 and installed on a Marlin XS7 action.
A&B 257 Roberts barrel rechambed to 25-284 installed on a
Marlin XS7 action.
Stevens 200 barrel in 25-06 installed on a Savage 110 action.
A&B 260 barrel rechambered to 6.5-284 installed on a Marlin XS7 action.
Shilen 260 barrel installed on a Savage 11 action.
A&B 7x57 barrel installed on a Marlin XL7 action.
Savage 16 FCSS 7mm-08 barrel installed on a Savage 11 action.
A&B 338-06 barrel installed on a Savage 110 action.

update:

My barrel nut wrench and GO NO-GO gauges came in today, got home and went and tried the GO gauge no dice, bolted on my action wrench, gently slid the barrel nut wrench down the barrel and set it about 35 degrees up from the action wrench, layed it all on the carpet and pushed down slow and steady with my foot, barrel nut broke right loose.

Screwed it off a few turns and put GO gauge in and screwed barrel back tight, tried the bolt several times good to go, tried the NO GO gauge just to be sure all good. It was.

Tightened barrel nut good and tight, disassembled wrench and tried gauges again. Still good.

Put rifle back together and carried it and once fired brass and loaded ammo I had previously loaded for a Rem 700 KS Mtn Rifle in .338 I used to own outside.

Brass and loaded rounds fed smoothly! Yeah!

So I have 29 rounds of 200 gr Nosler Ballistic tips loaded and ready to shoot as soon as my ejector arrives.

Mike

Usually I tighten the barrel nut to 40 ft lbs, with a torque wrench. Use an anti-seize. I use Shilen, Brux or Pac-Nor barrels.

I'm almost bankrupt from these Savage's. Wife complained about them, so I changed to building Remingtons with the Savage style nut. Now I'm in the dog house.

Here's the partial collection from a couple years ago, did I mention how deep in the dog house I am?

The systems that I have tried that are truely switch and shoot/hunt are T-C and Blaser. To pull that trick of it does require a scope dedicated and mounted to each barrel. That can become expensive, And doubly so for the Blaser, as barrels new retail for $1100 up.

For the reasons listed, the Savage project is appealing, but in practice I can't see that it will ever ba a switch and go operation.