I've been given a lemon, and I want to make lemonade.

Some talk about .400 whelen type .30-06 Cartridges. Well you really need a shoulder on a rimless bottle neck cartridge unless you machine a stop in chamber to limit brass length , like a .45acp has. The .400 whelan ish types were proven a very long time ago to be troublesome and so were the efforts trying to get it to work . You shoupt consider stopping at the good 9.3mm case which is readily available. The other way to go bigger is to use a rebated case head that has the 30-06 .473 "+- bolt opening with a bigger diameter powder chamber diameter. If you want to open the Bolt face a bit to say .535 up from .474 then you can use the Ruger Short magnum cases and go all the way to the .375 Ruger in the .30-06 length action. .404 Jeffery is .445 bolt opening and the belted Magnums .555 bolt opening . So what I am saying is unless you want to open or replace the bolt head, as you can do in a Savage for a bigger diameter I'd stick with the 9.3 mm which handily takes bullets up to 300 grains and is a fine, available round. Also you don't have to mess with the magazine follower and opening to get it to feed like you would going bigger

HowieG said:

Anyway, that artillery trainer is not what I used that 14.5mm cartridge in. The Germans used that device during the war (WWII) and used the same cartridges. In Germany, we had a stubby bolt guns that looked kind of like a benchrest rail gun, but with an adaptor for inside of the breech of the six inch (152mm) gun on an M60A2 tank. These bolt guns were single shot and fired out through the tank's cannon tube. We used them on a subcaliber training range firing at little tanks and such. I considered it pretty much a waste of time. The last time I did that (1978 probably), I ended up with a live round and brought it home.

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That’s pretty cool. I never knew about the sub munition training aid for the M60. BTW, my first tank was the M60A3.



But to get back to the topic, the OP wants to go big and base it off the 30-06 cartridge, what about the .375 Gibbs?

In my experience, the .35 Whelen, with new production brass, can be difficult to use due to headspace issues caused by misplaced shoulders during manufacturing. The 9.3x62 and .400 could only be worse due to their small shoulders.

I've been at your "crossroads" before and chose the .35 Whelen because of one factor: a veritable plethora of .358" bullets ranging from 100 gr. pistol bullets to 310 gr. big game bullets, including widely available, inexpensive cast bullets that can be used for plinking and small game.

My father chose the .338-06 and it's a beautiful cartridge for large game such as elk, but not nearly as versatile as the Whelen.

35W

rbernie said:

$300 shipped (CrMo blued) and headspace gauges doesn't sound so bad, to me:

http://northlandshooterssupply.com/barrels/criterion-savage/

If you want a broader range of chambering options, $299 plus shipping will get you a Shilen prefit:

http://northlandshooterssupply.com/barrels/shilen-savage/

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That's still a significant amount more than I spent on my rebore with JES!

I did the exact same thing and went with the 9.3x62 - Shaw barrel- shoots better than MOA all day long and thumps the crap out of whitetails..... The only downside for some is the lack of variety of bullets- it doesn't bother me because once I find a good combo I stick with it- and heck you don't build a 9.3 to shoot varmint bullets-

Nature Boy said:

That’s pretty cool. I never knew about the sub munition training aid for the M60. BTW, my first tank was the M60A3.

View attachment 960160

But to get back to the topic, the OP wants to go big and base it off the 30-06 cartridge, what about the .375 Gibbs?

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Or the .375 Whelen. 'Bout the same. I actually would prefer a 338-06 just from the practicality point of view. 338 bullets whoop up on 375 bullets in both BC and SD and there are a better selection of them to boot. For stateside use of course. African countries have those weird caliber laws.

HowieG said:

Or the .375 Whelen. 'Bout the same. I actually would prefer a 338-06 just from the practicality point of view. 338 bullets whoop up on 375 bullets in both BC and SD and there are a better selection of them to boot. For stateside use of course. African countries have those weird caliber laws.

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My first tank, by the way, was a straight M60. The one with the M48 style turret.

Get some J & B bore paste and some new brass cleaning bristles and go to work until it's as smooth as you can get it. You may be impressed with how well it shoots.

I built a .358 Norma Mag on an Enfield 30-06 action. It can be loaded really hot (250 gr at 2750 fps) or down to .35 Remington power for deer and hogs. It's basically a .338 Win Mag necked up to .358. Form brass from .338 Win cases. If you want something unusual, you'll probably never see another one.

Not a rifleman but it’s hard to beat the “06” for versatility as close to a one rifle for any chore as one could get I’m thinking. An incredible choice of bullet weights, designs and powder choices if one hand loads. Varmints to any game on the North American continent I’ve read.

whughett said:

Not a rifleman but it’s hard to beat the “06” for versatility as close to a one rifle for any chore as one could get I’m thinking. An incredible choice of bullet weights, designs and powder choices if one hand loads. Varmints to any game on the North American continent I’ve read.

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Yep, but using any 30-06 based round for varmints gets old in a hurry. I had a 25-06 for that kind of duty. Burned too much powder and kicked a bit too much for repeat varmint use. A coyote now and then would be okay, but something like pasture poodles, well, not me.

A little late to the game, but I swapped in a 35 Whelen e.r. Shaw barrel on my 110 for under 200 bucks. Had to inlet the stock a bit, but talk about a fun cartridge. Wanted a 35 Whelen since I was a kid, so it beat out the 338-06 and 9.3x62. A 375 whelen sounds cool, as does the 400, but the best balance of use seems to land at the 9.3. I just wanted the Whelen for all the available 35 cal bullets and so many cast options.

jamesinalaska said:

I appreciate that offer and may take you up on it, however I'm beginning to think I may not even be able to get the barrel off of the action. I'll let it soak a little longer in the PB Buster.

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Heat and pressure. Everything has a breaking point

jamesinalaska said:

however I'm beginning to think I may not even be able to get the barrel off of the action. I'll let it soak a little longer in the PB Buster.

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That's normal - the stock barrels are on TIGHT. I usually need to use a 36" cheater pipe over the breaker bar/barrel nut wrench.

rbernie said:

That's normal - the stock barrels are on TIGHT. I usually need to use a 36" cheater pipe over the breaker bar/barrel nut wrench.

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This! My first one had me wondering if the nut was going to break.

I would still stick with 30-06. Only difference is I would get a longer barrel 26" heavy barrel maybe add a muzzle brake if recoil is a problem. The extra 2" of barrel will add an additional 50 fps more on velocity, making it easier to get the 3000 fps many shooters want. I've seen some 28" barrels as well, but at that point I began to wonder about barrel whipping, but may not be an issue depending on the contour chosen. As has been mentioned, changing a barrel on a Savage is the easiest thing ever.

adcoch1 said:

This! My first one had me wondering if the nut was going to break.

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I cut the nut off the first time i did it lol.

jamesinalaska said:

It is an old 110. I'll have to check the serial numbers for the year of manufacture but I'm thinking it was made in early 70's. The receiver looks forged, not as beefy as a Mauser, for sure, but you can see the tooling marks on the receiver (where the tool strokes end) so I'm pretty sure it was made from a forged block. Unfortunately, the rifle was handed to me in a zippered, vinyl (VERY 70's, yes?) gun case, and laid in that case for several decades - hence the damage.

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Get yourself some Qmaxx: https://www.amazon.com/QMAXX-GI025-A16-1-Industrial-Lubricant/dp/B007MECJ2O
The "Industrial" penetrating oil disolves rust. I have yet to see something it cannot break loose, given a little time. If you have trouble getting Qmaxx in Alaska, try some Kroil. It gets into the tiniest cracks and crevices, too.
I hope this helps,

Enfielder said:

Heat and pressure. Everything has a breaking point

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Man built it- man can take it apart- don't give up and like the man says HEAT- and pressure.

Does Savage no longer offer factory rebarreling?

We used a subcaliber device like the Germans above for training with Gun/ Howitzers as well. I only used it from a tripod like those Germans, but there was supposed to be a in breech kit for 105, 155, and 8 inch guns Shell looked like a .45-70 with a long projo.

-kBob

Little of advice from years of automotive and truck work in the rust belt -- heat and shock are your friends. Heavy torque is good for putting things on, not taking them off. Usually strong torque off bends or strips the fastners. You are much more likely to get tight fastners to move with hard hits with a heavy hammer on the wrench handle. This is the principal behind impact tools.