Just had a brainstorm (or was that a brain fart )

How hard/feasible would it be to set up a Remington 700 action with a Savage style barrel nut headspacing arrangement to facilitate easy barrel switching?


HBB

can't stand the thought of being seen in public with a Savage?

HBB,

The problem, I believe, is not the nut, but the recoil lug that is attached to the bbl. Which is why most folks who make switch barrel Remingtons, either weld them solid or pin them to the recv'r.

Also the barrel nut idea would not work with factory Rem barrels. Factory bbls have no shank and start an immediate taper. Just my $.02 worth...

Grasshopper

Savage rifles are like ugly girlfriends. They both can really get the job done in a lot of fun, exciting ways but nobody wants to be seen in public with them on their arm

Thanks for the input. I was always under the impression that the Savage and Remington recoil lug arrangements were very similar.


If I did this, it would be custom barrels only.

Hey, it�s your rifle and it only has to please you...right? I will guarantee you that you will have no trouble finding someone who will say that anything you to do your rifle is ugly or stupid if it doesn�t happen to fit in with their personal ideas of what a rifle should look like.

if you pin your lug you should be fine.. the other option is to buy a wrench and vise and use the factory setup mucho easier in the long run.. whoever cuts your tubes for the conversion will have just as much work in front of them...

keep em' coming.......

woofer

I've talked to Karl at Kampfeld Customs about making a switch barrel 700. His price for a double-pinned recoil lug to make this possible is VERY reasonable. HBB, check his site, and e-mail him about it..... I think the nut idea will go away fast after that.....

another thing to consider is once you have the lug pinned and smith cuts your new barrel he has those numbers so if you want another just call... he should be able to cut another with the numbers he has....

woofer

The nut is no problem. The recoil lug is also no problem. It can be pinned. The receiver can be notched like the Savage and a little stud installed on the lug. The receiver can be recessed like the Kimber and the lug held captive by the recess.
If the barrel is fitted conventionally, it is as easily changed as with a nut. Headspace is constant. I would avoid the nut. GD

Compared to what?
The headspace can change if the locking lugs set back into the receiver. The action can stretch if you shoot enough hot loads over the years. I guess I don't agree with you.
whelennut

On what are you basing your statement about the action stretching and affecting the headspace...and when was the last time you saw a Remington 700 with lug setback?

Pac-Nor does it to Remingtons.

http://www.benchrest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44934

Bruce

Glenn Pierce, in Cottonwood Az. builds a Switcheroo that returns home to within 1/8 MOA.....the one I shot in .300 Win. Mag did, handsomely.

We just Tigged ( lightly ) the lug to the reciever, after pinning, if I recall.

It's a neat setup, .....butt ugly, but super functional.

GTC

The Marine Armorers at Quantico used to TIG weld the recoil lugs and the mag boxes to the M40 sniper rifles.

You can also use the Kleinendorst tool (sold by Brownells) to position and hold the Remington lugs in place when you switch barrels.

[quote=RickB]The Marine Armorers at Quantico used to TIG weld the recoil lugs and the mag boxes to the M40 sniper rifles.


...get your alloys in synch, And everything mated up

real ducky, no filler rod required......pure clean fusion welds.

GTC

Never!

Even 700s which have been subjected to a severe overload, show little if any setback. I've seen them with the bolt nose expanded out to fit the barrel counterbore and the cartridge melted into the bolt face yet headspace had changed hardly at all. If lug setback is experienced, the loads have to be unreasonably hot.
I have seen such lug setback on other rifles. On some of the softer '98s, of course. Also on a Sako L61 in 300 Improved which had been loaded too hot for an extended period of time. On this rifle the bolt face was also etched from the primers leaking. Further evidence of excessive pressure. The setback on this one was readily visible and amounted to about .005"
I once made up a Browning BLR (magnum action) in 416 Taylor for a guy who always over loaded things. He set the lugs back on this one by about .012". I pulled the barrel off to check it out then left it off.
Same guy did the same thing with a Browning A-Bolt in 7STW.
Back to the 700 though, headspace is constant. It is certainly constant with normal use. If you are able to load hot enough to set the lugs back, you will experience other problems before hand. GD

Thanks for the info. I'll inquire with Karl.

Just checked Karl's price list and the double pinned lug method is a lot less expensive than I thought.


I would imagine that swapping a barrel on a double pinned 700 would be a vice/wrench operation not entirely unlike a Savage?

If I go the DP 700 route here's what I have in mind.


Take my .280AI and restock it into a bedding block/pillar bedded synthetic stock to facilitate easier stock removal/replacement than the current wood stock and have it set up to take the existing .280AI barrel, a .25/06 AI, and possibly something like a .338-06AI, 9.3-62 or .375-06AI in case I get to hunt something big and nasty.