Improving my Stevens 200 25-06

Check your stock to see if its pillar bed and free floated all the way. If it is then I would leave it alone, those stocks deliver excellent factory accuracy. As far as the trigger, I have not worked on that particular one, but I know there are aftermarket units. Anytime you work on a trigger you really need to know what you are doing to end up with a safe product. I have undertaken the task myself on about all my rifles and have had good success, but you need to fully understand the mechanism, and how to conduct satety tests to ensure its safe.

http://savageshooters.com

The forum is free, but its WELL worth the $12 to join for the technical articles and access to classifieds.

Yes, you should be able to adjust your trigger (replacing the thick original trigger wire with 0.040" wire makes a big difference alone) and yes, 110 long action stocks will fit your Stevens (you'll need to confirm if you have a staggerfeed or centerfeed action).

I bought a Boyd's Featherweight Thumbhole laminate stock for my staggerfeed long action 110 for under $100 and it breathed new life into the rifle..and with a Dremel and 15 minutes you could easily modify it for a centerfeed action if necessary. If you don't want to mess with that, I think Stocky's makes a centerfeed thumbhole for a long-action Savage 110/Stevens 200 but its a bit pricier than the Boyds stock.

mshootnit said:

Check your stock to see if its pillar bed and free floated all the way. If it is then I would leave it alone, those stocks deliver excellent factory accuracy. As far as the trigger, I have not worked on that particular one, but I know there are aftermarket units. Anytime you work on a trigger you really need to know what you are doing to end up with a safe product. I have undertaken the task myself on about all my rifles and have had good success, but you need to fully understand the mechanism, and how to conduct satety tests to ensure its safe.

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Have you ever seen the stock on a Stevens 200? It is worse than junk.

I am in exactly the same boat as the OP, and with the exact same rifle. Some of the Savage stocks will work, but I don't remember which ones. I will look it up when I get home if no one else posts it.

I found a couple of resources for how to modify the stock trigger to make it better. I will also post those once I get home tonight.

If its a 25-06, I'm almost positive it'd be a long action.

petrey10 said:

I have the staggered feed... but i am unsure whether its short action or long action as I have not been home to measure it yet.


I am glad you said you liked your laminate stock from Boyd's because I am actually looking at purchasing one. If I did I would try my hand at bedding the action (pillar or glass... or both) with my old syn. stock being the test dummy...

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.25-06 is long action.

the long actions are the 110s, Savage 10s will be short action. not all Stevens stocks will swap out, depends on whether your magzine well remains with the stock when you remove it. then you got to do some home smithing, maybe whittling.

To check if a barrel is free floated, you will need a special free float gauge. These are produced by the U.S. Federal Reserve and most of them cost between $1 and $100 with $20 being the most common. I prefer the $1 since the $20 variety tends to carry too many traces of controlled substances.

Ahem. After you get the dollar bill out of your wallet, you place it around the barrel and see how far down you can slide it between the stock and the barrel. This distance will show you how far the barrel is free floated. If it binds, you can manipulate the dollar bill to determine about where in the stock the binding occurs. If the accuracy has gone south during a long string, the stock may be bearing on the barrel. If so, you should relieve the part of the stock channel that is touching the barrel. I use a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a dowel of appropriate diameter. (This particular modification turned my little 7-08 from a 3 in. group rifle to a one hole rifle.)

I can almost guarantee better accuracy with another stock. I had a Savage 10fp and couldn't believe how bad the stock on it was. But it was still better then a Remington.

Trigger work will improve the accuracy too. I prefer not to fool with a trigger and have always paid a smith to do that. For triggers I like to replace the standard with a Timney set at 2 lbs.

You picked a good bullet for that cartridge. I've owned a .25-06 for over 30 years and could probably write a book just on reloading it. My favorite and most accurate has been the Sierra 87 gr Spitzer. I have the 85 gr Noslers but accuracy is so good with the Sierra I just haven't fooled with anything else.

I had a savage 110fp 25-06 when the stocks were pillar bed like yours. I just ensured the barrel was floated by taking some 220 grit paper and sanding both sides of the channel and at the fore end tip so that they didn't touch the barrel. Mine had the accutrigger so I didn't mess with that. The rifle would shoot five shots inside of a nickel at 100 yds with a 9 power scope. The stock on the Stevens is the same type of stock I had. Most just don't like the look or feel especially with that center seam on the top of the buttstock. If it were me I would take the barreled action out of the stock and sand the barrel channel and tip to float the barrel. Then I would carefully reassemble making sure the screws were torqued evenly and that the barreled action was centered in the stock. If I were going to buy anything it would be a nice aftermarket trigger. What base/rings scope are you using? I really like a one piece railed base on my rifles and that is what I had on my Savage. It helps to make sure your rings are straight and may add some rigidity to the action.

Which is newer, staggered or center feed?

Centerfeed is newer (2006 and later, I believe).

As far as staggered feed LA stocks go, Choate makes a number of LA staggerfeed Savage 110 stocks, as does Bell & Carlson (Duramaxx, Carbelite, Medalist Sporter). I think Hogue & Ram-Line are also options. For more money, Stockade, Manners or McMillian can make you a custom one but lead time is 3+ months typically. Then you've also got Richards Microfit, etc.

All of Boyd's Savage 110 long action stocks are designed for staggerfeed actions, including the Featherweight Thumbhole I have.

You can find some Savage long action factory stocks from Numrich; some are staggerfeed (l/a 12BV, for example) while others are for centerfeed (112 VLP, for example). What their customer service folks tell you the stock is won't always be accurate with regards to a given stock...learned that one from experience.

the stock touches one side of the barrel

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Big one right there. The sandpaper and dowel method is an excellent one to cure this issue. I'd do that along with your trigger lightening and see what you have before spending more money.

Savage trigger work:

http://www.varminthunters.com/tech/savage/

I've adjusted two 3-screw Savage triggers down quite a bit from factory simply with new 0.040" wire and adjusting the pull weight/safety/sear screws - nothing unsafe about it provided you follow instructions and, worse case scenario, you're forced to buy an aftermarket trigger anyway.

As far as custom Stevens 200s go...

What model is the rifle with the box mag? I have a savage in .243 that I wouldn't mind putting a new stock and .308 barrel on but it is a box magazine model with limited stock options.

HB

All those pictures are posted on SavageShooters; reportedly the box mag is a Stevens 200 with .308 barrel and I'm not sure but perhaps it has an DBM trigger guard (CDI precision)?

That's a Choate Tactical stock, and I'm not sure if they make a DBM or if the owner had to inlet the stock himself.