Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Replacement Savage barrel

“Inherited” a Savage 7-08 from my BIL. Thinking about replacing the barrel with a fast twist 22-250.

I see a lot of companies provide Savage replacement barrels. Any experience and recommendationswith this process?

I’m assuming that this change could be done without having to make any modifications to the magazine/feed mechanism. Correct?

Thanks!

Correct. I have used Shilen and MGM barrels to build various rifles. I have yet to modify the ramp.

I have Pac-nor and Shaw barrels. Headspace them correctly and you'll be fine. No issues with the magazines.

Correct,
I've swapped multiple barrels on my Savage rifles and it's never needed any work on the feed ramp.

I've had Savage factory barrels Adams and Bennett, E R Shaw , Shilen, Criterion, Lothar Walther , McGowan and PacNor, only one barrel was a disappointment.

You'll need to know if your rifle is a Small shank or Large shank to order a replacement and you'll need a barrel nut wrench, headspace gauges and a barrel vise to remove and replace the barrel.
I didn't like wrestling with the barrel vise so I made a wrench to fit the recoil lug.
One wrench on the lug and one on the barrel nut and pop them apart or tighten as required is far easier than a vise.

If you were going from a magnum to a standard boltface that would be a slightly bigger project but yours is very straightforward.

Check youtube for videos there's several, Good Luck!

Steve,
Who is your Canadian source for your chambered replacement barrels as I would like to get a couple myself..
One for my older Savage and one for my RAR as it also has a barrel nut..
Thanks

Your only issue will be the mag itself. Savage makes a mag specific to .22-250 and .250. The case is shorter than the .308 family and also has more body taper. When I converted my old slow twist 7-08 to .22-250 I had feeding issues with the factory center feed mag and bought the correct mag for it and feed issues ended. If your rifle is old enough to have staggered feed, you will probably be fine. Check Savageshooters.com for more info.

Criterion barrels are my go to for savages, Northland shooter's supply is their exclusive distributor. They're more reasonably priced than most of the others mentioned and will usually outshoot them.

I have bought several barrels from Northland Shooting Supply. They will set you up with everything you need to swap the barrel yourself. Plenty of youtube videos to help you through it. Depends on the magazine if it is center feed or the older feed mags if feeding will be a problem. I would swap the barrel and see if anything else needs to be tweeked?

Absolutely. Jobs like this are a prime example of employing the KISS principle. It's alright to be prepared for further work, but don't assume that it will be needed, out of the gate.

Northland shooters will sell you a prefix schilen or criterion for a decent price. I bought a shilen and my brother bought the criterion. Both shot very well on our target guns. Whatever he has in stock will work. As far as the 22-250 get at least a 1-8 twist. I have a 1-9 and above 70 trainers accuracy drops off. Ed k

If you go the custom route I would also consider the 22 Creedmoor but if you have dies and brass already you can't beet the convenience and cost of a ready made barrel. Might be hard to find a pre-chambered barrel faster than 1 in 9 but I am sure that Shilen or PacNor would do one if ordered. If I had to order then I might go faster for the extra heavy weight bullets a 1-8 will cover the 75 grain bullets but the specialty 95 gr. need a 1-6.5 which might be harder to find.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate all the helpful feedback. Now I just gotta figure out what I want to do!

Which one was the disappointment? I am curious, even though a sample size of one is not enough to wrie it off completely.

The "Disappointment" was a 22-250AI from Adams and Bennett several years ago, It was visibly bent.
I threaded it on and tried to bore sight it, Mmmmm nope, not gonna happen.

The 35 Whelan and 338-06 from A&B worked very well, I still have the 338-06 barrel.

Interesting. Surprising that a visibly bent barrel could make it out the door. Good to hear the others were good. Did they replace the 22-250?

I would bet the barrel got bent after it left the factory. You can't imagine how bad some of the UPS and Fedex gorillas are.