Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Savage w/ accutrigger and changing barrels

Hi, new here, but seen lots of good info. Anyway, I'm looking to buy a new .243 model 11 Savage. I've seen some posts about changing out barrels and now I'm really curious. Is the 11 one of the models you can do this with? How? what tools needed, etc? I assume you stay within the caliber family of the action which I belive to be .308 family for the .243. Any info appreciated, I haven't bought it yet, but this is the leading contender in a new rifle for me.
Myles

Yes the Model 11 is one you can easily change barrels on. The A&B barrels can be had from Midway and cost you somewhere between $100 and $150. You will need a barrel nut wrench and a simple barrel wrench...both can be purchased from Midway. Be sure to check the contour of the barrel to make sure it matches your stock. If you change caliber family your can also get new bolt face parts for the bolt but then you get into feed and magazine issues I would pass on.

Wow.That sounds great. Ok, how do I know what contour the barrel is? Don't think I'd want to change caliber families, I'd buy a different gun to do that. Everything I hear tells me the Savage mod11 is what I want. thanks again

First, to answer your question, most barrel makers that offer prefit barrels for Savages, make them in three contours, straight bull, factory varmint and factory sporter. So fitting the stock is not a problem.

Secondly, if you haven't done it, and/or are not absolutely certain how to set headspace on a Savage, DON"T ATTEMPT IT. You could easily blow a gun up. If you do it, you must take full responsibility for the outcome.
If you do understand headspace and how to set it, then the job is really child's play. The hardest part of the whole operation is removing the factory barrel, which at times can be pretty tight. It's sometimes hard to break the nut loose without marring the barrel finish.

Savages can be pretty darn accurate even with their factory barrels which are available at darn good prices from Savageparts.com.

Good luck

Thanks, I'll keep all that in mind. Guess I need to buy the rifle first.
Myles

I have a Savage 11 accutrigger that I have 3 after-market barrel set up for. Although it isn't hard to do, it isn't really very practical, since you (probably) need to swap scopes, or re-zero the single scope, whenever you swap barrels. I have 3 A&B barrels; 22-250, 257 Roberts, and 260, plus the original 243 barrel. If you'd be interested in buying it for what I've got into it, send me an email. It is all set up with the barrels indexed to speed up the process of setting the head-space and comes with a barrel nut wrench and headspace gauges.

Contour speaks to the shape of the barrel. Unfortunately, there isn't a universal "standard" for barrel contours.

Jeff

260Remguy, email sent

Thanks again to all for the info. Seems I bid on a Rem7400 in .243 on gunbroker to see what the reserve price was. well, I hit it on the nose and actually won the auction. Guess I'll have to check it out and put the Savage accutrigger on hold. Especially after finding a Savage 99 in .250-3000 at a local gunshop today. Traded that Ruger .30-06 and and old .22 for the Savage. Still hardly believe I got a 99. just fell into it...
Myles