New barrel for Savage 10

[45shooter]

I picked up a cheap Savage model 10 FP in .308 Winchester from a co-worker yesterday. The bad news is that the barrel is no good as it has rust and corrosion in the bore and outside as if it had fired corrosive ammo and didn't clean it (is there corrosive .308 Winchester ammo?). The good news is that rest of the rifle is in good condition with decent finish and the bolt looks clean. I paid $120 for it and knew the condition of the rifle going in.

I want to replace the barrel the of the rifle and change the caliber to .243. Anybody know where I can get a new .243 barrel and where I can have the barrel installed properly? How much will it cost to have it done?

 

[joed]

You're probably in luck as I almost went through this 3 years ago. I had a mod 10 in .223 that I wanted to convert to .22-250.

My mistake was I went to the Savage site and was kind of pushed to custom barrels which weren't cheap. But, you can find Savage or fair aftermarket barrels at reasonable prices.

So, keep in mind the barrel you want will effect the total cost depending on quality.

 

[joed]

You can actually do this yourself if you have any mechanical aptitude. Others will be along shortly.

 

[MtnCreek]

Call Jim Briggs at Northland Shooting Supply
(763) 682-4296

Also, get his recoil lug and new nut to match.

Where are you located in USA? If you're near me, I have action wrench and nut wrench you can use.

 

[45shooter]

I don't want to spend a lot of money on it as it will be my "truck" rifle.
It will sit behind the seat for days at a time and get pulled out occasionally.

 

[brian923]

Ill be that guy. Best thing to do is... buy a 243 barrel from a known manufacture. Do your homework, pacnor, mcgowen, shilen, and try thebarrelman.com. Everyone offers prefit barrels for savage nowadays. Get a go gauge, and a savage barrel nut wrench from midwayusa.com. you can get barrel blocks if you want but I just made some from some oak I had laying around. If you want. Now is the time to add a precision ground aftermarket recoil lug and new barrel nut if you want. Clamp barrel in vise blocks. Remove old barrel nut. Remove old barrel. Screw in new barrel with old or new nut installed. (Put the recoil lug back on in between the receiver and the barrel nut) now, remove the extractor and plunger from the bolt head. But leave the bolt head on. Chamber the go gauge. Screw the barrel on until it contacts the go gauge. Torque down the barrel nut. Done. Now, if you want to replace the recoil lug with a new one. It probably will not have a locator tab on it. It might be good to buy the little $15 recoil lug locator from midway as well. I went this way because I like to be hands on with my gun projects. It fun, and you can change out barrels whenever you want! Good luck!

 

[brian923]

Well, if you don't want to spend a lot, clean it up and see how It shoots. You may be pleasently suprized. ..

 

[Gtscotty]

I don't really see any reason to go with a very high end barrel if you're just looking for a functional truck gun. What about one of the e r Shaw barrel kits? Comes with pretty much everything you need to change it yourself for $200.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/39...tory-contour-1-in-10-twist-24-stainless-steel

 

[rcmodel]

clean it up and see how It shoots. You may be pleasently suprized.

What he said.

What it looks like has little bearing on if it will shoot or not.

And a beater truck gun is gonna lead a hard life anyway.

rc

 

[dagger dog]

45shooter,

Brownell's has a good how to Savage barrel swap in their library it's a freebie !

 

[adelbridge]

eabco.com

also I just sold a .308 takeoff on gunbroker and it sold for $65, maybe ebay has them too

 

[slowr1der]

Honestly, if I was looking for a truck gun I'd look for a take off barrel. I see them for $50-80 occasionally. Much cheaper than buying even one of the cheap aftermarkets for $2-300.

 

[docsleepy]

FIRST thing to do is to clean/oil that existing barrel and shoot it to see what it does. I've read threads where people were astonished at how little impact the damage had. I saw one article where people practically took a DRILL BIT to the muzzle of a rifle and it barely affected the groups.....Mosin Nagants go 70 years and even if their bore doesn't look great, they shoot acceptably. The cheapest barrel you are ever going to get is already on that rifle....

And you got a GREAT deal, BTW. You can't get a Savage receiver for $300 anywhere, you have to buy an AXIS rifle just to get that receiver.

Please let us know what you find out, no matter what you do. Jim Briggs is great and a cheap barrel is less than $100 if you decide to go that route. Beg or borrow a .308 go gauge and the nut wrench, and read how to adjust, takes just a few minutes. I've done it several times.