Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Remlinsavchester 7 SAUM

Converted a Marlin XL7 270 into a 7mm SAUM. The platform will be a Winchester Model 70 Extreme Weather LA stock (Thanks BlackDog1 for stock) with a PTG Aluminum bottom metal. The barrel is a light Varmint contour 24" Criterion barrel.

After fitting the action to the Winchester Model 70 B&C stock it was bedded using Devcon epoxy. Clean up the epoxy with my dremal, and made sure everything cleared. I did some some mods to my trigger, and housing but I'll keep those on the down low. Lets just say I have zero creep, and very little overtravel. Big thanks to Dangerous Dan for helping me with the bolt head . Lugs have been lapped as well. Button up the action with a PTG Aluminum black 1- piece bottom metal.

Topped off with Talley LW 30mm rings and a Vortex 5-15-44 mil/mil scope.The rifle complete with scope weighs in at 9 lbs. 14oz. Super happy with the weight outcome.

180 hybrids and Retumbo for my load. 2909 fps avg.






Seating depth adjustment, and settled on .019" off the lands.


700 yards with 3-4 mph wind left to right.6 shots in each plate.

Holy chit that thing is a beautiful mess of parts.

Dave

Cool!
a lot of thinking outside of the box on this one

Interesting build...you did a great job!

Yeah, its an interesting build. I'm super pumped how well it came out. It sure brings up a great conversation at the range. What manufacture is that? Need to really stretch it out to 1500 yards or so.

Trailrider,
Being that the Marlin action is a round receiver and the M70 stock accommodates a flat bottom receiver, how did you make it work?

Also did you have feed problems with the SAUM?

Cool build by the way.

Irfubar,

Thanks...

Lots of modifications and grinding to the stock for sure. The action is sitting flush on chassis and used Devcon to accommodate the flat bottom. Zero feed problems, and saum brass works well with stock marlin magazine. You can also use a savage mag for a magnum ( 7mag, 300WM, etc. )and make small mods to it, and would work fine.

I ran H4831, H1000, and Retumbo. All powder shot well; however, h4831 I would get weird pressure signs on some days. Its was a tad slower, and really snappy in recoil. H1000 second best, with great speed, slightly compressed, less recoil than h4831. Retumbo was very accurate, and is a compressed load. Speed is fast and recoil is more of a big push, and comfortable to shoot.

Devcon bedding before I cleaned it up. BTW its not clamped in the vise, just laying there and supported for pics..haha

Trailrider,
Thanks for the pic's and explanation.
You do nice work and I like that you think outside the box.
I have been playing with Savages lately, swappin barrels...
I have eyed the Marlin and the main thing stopping me was lack of aftermarket stocks, I can't stand the factory tupperware, and laminates are too heavy.
I understand my Savage barrels will fit the Marlin, I like the Marlin action better than the Savage, thanks again.

Thanks... I agree with what you said, and the laminates are on the heavy side.Not much aftermarket for the Marlin X, hence why I went the model 70 stock route, plus I like them.

The Marlin action is much better than savage I think, and I own both. PM coming your with my 260 rem tack driver.

I have used savage barrels on my marlin, and find some of the chambers too deep, resulting in them bottoming out on the bolt head prior to being properly headspaced. I have too take a few thousandths off the back of the barrel to properly headspace on the marlin. They work great after that though.

The chambers are deep cause they are for setup for savage bolt heads. The Breach to bolt clearance on the gun is very important,and it should have clearance from .008 to .015". The savage and marlin bolts are not the same depth, the marlin is .134, the savage .120 deep. Hence why the savage chambers are deeper.

Great work, looks like a really fun project.

Looks great!

So with the mods you made could I fit a long action X7 into a Model 70 Featherweight stock?

Very cool. I have a XS7 in 308 thats just too darn accurate to mess with. Great looking rifle.

Nice job man!! Great shooting rifle.

Thanks 805. So I got around to shooting my 7SAUM again. The 180 Hybrids and Retumbo still performing great for me. 10" square plate(bullseye is bottom of spray paint 2 1/2"?) at 840 yard, shot prone with bipod and rear bag. First missed the plate by .3 mils, kinda missed judge the wind.

Shooting through the canyon is real tricky, gets crazy winds. Wind was blowing to the left 3mph. Made adjustment and hammered the next three rounds. Love this 7saum, and now I found some Retumbo local, its time to shoot it more. Going to find a spot and hopefully get 1200 or so.

Tell me more......

Great build love the saum case. Could you tell me your coal with the 180 berger hybrids and what freebore you went with? Thanks

That's a labor of love that seems to have paid off in spades!

I too am fascinated by your fitting of the winchester stock, great job! Were there changes in fitting the bottom metal and action screw spacing?

I'm curious why two of you prefer the Marlin action over the Savage, just the weight? I prefer the older Savages for fit and finish.

I spun a shaw savage pre-fit, chambered in .284win (the original short action 7mm mag!), onto my MXS7, then swapped out the tupperware for a boyds walnut, it's a great shooter.

Aalf,

I started with H4831 as we know its a great powder, right! However, I found a great node with 60.5-61grs (upper limit). No pressure signs what so ever.But when I shot it in a little warmer weather, I started to see pressure signs of flat primers and got very slight sign of ejector. So it was telling me I'm on boarder line, and H4831 is pretty consistent, but it wasn't working for me.

I and a few other members on snipershide were having the issue. It worked great, just didn't like the slight pressure signs.H4831 had the most snappiest recoil.Tried H1000 and it got better, and less recoil Then shot Retumbo and hit pay dirt. Full case, soft recoil(more like a push), and great velocity.