Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 23B Build From Scratch

Hi Y'all,

A long time ago I had a nice 23B...money got tight and I sold it. So years later in my search for another one I ran across a stripped action / barrel, a late model with the 3 screws on the top rear bridge. The S/N is 2135xx. The price was right and there wasn't a 23B to be found at the time, so I picked it up for nostalgia's sake. In the meantime, I've added a NOS magazine and a Savage 15 rear peep sight to my parts inventory.

I need everything for this little rifle, except for these 3 parts. I know I have a 'late' model, but don't know the differences between a lot of the early and late parts. For example, if I can find a bolt, how do I i.d. it? I know the triggers are different. I think the stock is different because of the change in mag release styles. Anybody have any suggestions on how and where to find parts, or how to identify the correct ones?

Pictures of late 23B's in or out of their stocks would be really appreciated to help me weed out the parts I need.

As far as I know, all late model 23C parts will also work for all of the rest of the gun, if you happen to run onto some. BUT (Mike's big butt), you picked a hard gun to find good parts for.

I have no doubt that they are "out there". Finding them may well be the rest of your life's work, though. You'll need to be dogged as any bulldog, and spend lots of internet screen time. Strangely, workable magazines are one of the hardest 23 parts to find.

I'll keep your handle handy in case I run across anything. I've got one late model 23B that intend to be buried with. They are worth preserving and/or rebuilding.

I'm pretty sure you can't use an early bolt on a late gun. Early bolts have a cocking piece that kind of looks an 03 Springfield or Krag. Late bolts don't have this feature. The triggers are simple but I think early triggers simply engaged the bolt and late triggers had a separate sear. Overall, early guns tend to resemble the 23A and later guns the 23AA. Gun Parts Corp does, or used to, have a few parts. Put up a list of parts needed, there may be some folks here who could help you out.

You might PM Tal35. He might have some pats.

JBI I tried to send you a PM but it said your full

I will have to look, but I am not sure what I have left. I sold a bunch of it on ebay several month's ago. What all did you need?

Hi Y'all, I'm sorry for the delay in replying, for some reason I wasn't notified I'd gotten any replies.

Jericho, I'm too new of a member to be allowed PM's. Anyone can contact me by email at jinskeepATyah00PERIODc0m, though. Obviously replace the zero's with "o's", etc.

I basically need *every* part except for the barrel / receiver and a magazine. I need it all...stock, screws, trigger, bolt, front sight, mag catch...all from late model rifles.

And yes, Numrich has some parts but not complete bolts....I didn't want to go buying bolt parts and then find a complete bolt; thought I'd try it the other way around first. The bolt is really the one thing I'm most concerned about.

BUT, it seems like a lot of stuff is just advertised with no regard for early / late model, so that's why I'd like to see one of these late models with and without a stock, with closeups of the magazine catch style, the trigger ass'y, and the bolt. If anybody gets a chance.

try Ahlmans gun shop in Minnesota

Will do, thank you!

And in case somebody here has a high S/N (over 204k) 23B or 23C, let me ask again, would you be willing to either email to the above address, or post in this thread, good pictures of the bolt separated from the action? And if you're willing to pull the stock off, could you also post or email pics of the barreled action AND the stock including any small parts?

It's hard to i.d. early vs late parts when you don't know which ones are which. Thanks a million for all of the responses so far!

As mentioned above, it's easy to recognize the right bolt--the hardest-to-find part on your list--if it DOESN'T have a great big honkin' knurled cocking piece like a Springfield '03 or a Krag on the the back end, it's YOUR bolt. (And the cute little single locking lug ahead of the bolt handle is a sure giveaway that it is a 23 bolt).

do you have an email? I have some 23B parts , I have a bolt, stock trigger part, trigger guard, and sights. your private box is full. Todd

Hey Y'all,

I swear I don't know why this system isn't sending me email notifications of replies, I'm signed up for them. Anyway. After a lot of searching online, I did find pictures of assembled late-model 23B/C/D's with the proper bolts. And yes, Mesa is absolutely correct that the late bolts do not have knurled cocking pieces at their rears.

Tal35, I just replied to your email with 2 of my own. Some pics of my action / barrel are attached as requested. I don't know when it all happened, but so far what I *think* I've learned about the early vs late follows, please correct me if you know better:

-Early rifles have the cheese-grater mag; late models have a curved mag with a few ribs following the curvature of the magazine.
-Early rifles have the trigger guard recessed into the stock; late models have it standing proud of the stock.
-Early rifles have a small, separate piece of steel filler actually surrounding the trigger where it comes out of the stock; late models don't.
-Early rifles may have one or two holes drilled and tapped at the top rear of the receiver for a peep sight; mine has three factory holes.
-Early rifles have the caliber designation directly ahead of the safety lever at the left rear of the action; late models have it centered on the rear sight dovetail on the left side of the barrel.
-I believe the above was done because late models are factory drilled / tapped on the left side of the receiver for a side-mount scope; at least mine is. The pictures I've seen of early rifles have a smooth receiver face with no drilling and tapping on the sides.
-Early rifles have a half-cock on opening / remaining cock on closing feature; late models cock on opening.
-Early rifles have a knurled cocking piece on the rear of the bolt; late models don't have a cocking piece at all.
-Early rifle triggers are visually different than late ones. I wish I could be sure of which one is which, but until somebody posts pictures, the pics I've found on the internet are unreliable. Some people are calling a style early, and some people are calling the same thing late. There are definitely two types of triggers.
-At minimum because of the trigger guard inletting, but probably also in the magazine well / release area, the stocks are different between early and late rifles. The early ones I'm seeing have schnabel tips and the late ones have more of a traditional rounded forend, but I'm aware there were multiple stock options for the different grades...and there aren't just millions of these rifles pictured online.

So that's what I believe I've learned so far. PLEASE correct me if you know anything above to be untrue. I've been trying to figure this out from conflicting reports online and from piecing together my own information from what I've noticed in pictures of obvious early and late styles. I've spent hours ferreting all of this out from here and there, but it's still only worth what you paid.

I'll add that it seems a lot easier to find early than late-model parts, and I wonder if a late action and early action are the same aside from the various drilled and tapped holes for sights and scopes. In other words, if the pin holes and machining are the same and would allow a complete early model trigger / bolt setup to be used in a late action. You obviously couldn't swap just the bolts because they wouldn't work with the opposite generation's trigger.

Also keep in mind that the whole magazine setup differs between the two models: the early model's magazine is released by gripping the "cheese grater" corrugations and pulling it out against spring pressure from within the mag well itself. The late is released by pulling back on a more "modern" mag release latch like many .22 rifles had/have, against a different spring setup.

Keep lookin' and learnin'--you WILL "get it together"! (Besides, it beats the crap out of watching TV and gives you a chance to roam the virtual gun world like a coyote looking for a Big Mac wrapper!).

Yes, absolutely, I forgot to include that in my list....dumb me. The mag releases are absolutely different systems.

Since I still haven't been able to find a picture of one of these actions assembled but out of the stock, can anybody tell me if the mag release system on either / both of these is screwed to the action or is it screwed to the stock? For some reason it's in my mind that at least part of it attaches to the stock.

Another factor in assembling what you want is to avoid 23D parts. A few parts of the .22 Hornet version of the 23 may work, but many of the main ones won't--magazine, bolt head (f that's what you call the front half of the bolt0, ejector floorplate at least. I dont know about the stocks; haven't had a 23D since the great Northwest Recession of the mid-1980s. Lost mine then and haven't found one I wanted (and could afford) since.

And you do know that the headspace on 23s can be "tightened" by adding an appropriate thickness shim stock "washer" between the two halves of the bolt, if you need to....but usually only the 23Ds that have been K-ized need this. Still, if you are trying to fit a bolt to a different receiver/barrel, you might try this to get the headspace tighter.

Thanks Mike for the info on the D. I expected some of that but not all, thanks! I talked to tal35 awhile today, and he gave me a lot of valuable info on the 23 as well. I've had several offers of early-style parts come my way, still sorting out what will work and what won't. Prices are all over the map as well, I guess parts are scarce but so is demand, so there aren't really any trends.

I need to add to my post above on what I thought was different and what was the same.

I had been under the mistaken impression that Savage retooled a lot of things at S/N 204,048 and that the early model / late model stuff all began and ended at that S/N. Stock, magazine type, trigger guard, speed lock / speed bolt, removal of cocking piece from rear of bolt, drilling and tapping for side scope mount and the top of the receiver, etc.

Apparently this isn't the case. These things do change as the rifle matures, and some of them did happen at that S/N, but it seems like not all of them did.

I do know that the late receivers won't accept early model bolts, and vice versa. Tal35 checked that out for me and said there were issues with the ejectors being in the way at minimum. Also, the receivers themselves are different, with additional cuts in the late receiver for the sear pin, and it looks like the forward action screw is in a different location.

I'm also not sure about my earlier statement that the bolt function changes to cock-on-opening in the late models. I saw that a couple places online and repeated it here, but I'm going to hold my tongue on that now. I hope to have my hands on a complete early model rifle in a couple weeks, and I'll add more then.

It looks like my trip to find the proper late parts will indeed be a long one. If no one minds, I'll just keep adding to this thread as time goes by and I find parts or have questions / discoveries.