Savage 340 questions/oppinions...

[db_tanker]

I am curious as to what one would call a fair price for this rifle?

Its a Savage 340, I know that. However it is stamped as a Savage/Springfield 840 and has some nice checkering along the grip. It is chambered in 30-30 and has no blemishes on the metal, the wood has a ding here and there, but no major craters.

Mods, if you need to move this thread, then by all means do so as I figured this would probably be the best forum to hit with this question.

I am thinking about moving this rifle as I wish to fund another project coming up and I am flush on 30 WCF's...Too bad it isn't chambered in 225 Winchester.

Thanks!

D

 

[rbernie]

Locally, they sell in the $175 range in 80% condition or so. If it's 95% and you find just the right buyer, you might get $200 or $225.

Excepting the need for a side mount to put a rear peer or scope on it, they're nice rifles. I've toyed with getting one myself on and off for a while now...

 

[ribbonstone]

Hard to find...weren't made for very long...but if you run across a Savage 340V, that one will be in .225Win.

Basic 340's in 30-30, 223, 22hornet or 222 (and the .223 version is harder to find) are selling for whatever the seller can get for them...but generally, see them passing hands in the $175 to $240 range, depending on condtion...and I have to admit, I've not seen a NIB one. The 340V would probably sell for the same as few people know what the .225 is, the ammo isn't that common, and it probaly wasn't a good idea to chamber that action in that round anyway.

The .225 is a bit too warm for that action...this from a guy who owned one for many years (along with a Win. mod. 70). That one-lug action is not happy running at 50K with cases in that head size.
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In 1992 put out the word to every gun shp in the area tht I'd like a look at any 340 that cme in the door, exp. any in .22centerfire. One shop calls me a week later with THREE .22centefire 340's...a little phone negotiation, and I bought all three sight unseen. Turned out to be a Stevens 322 .22hornet with a good old K-6 on top (basically the same critter as the 340), a 340 in .222 with a K-10 mounted, and a .225 340V without a scope.

Played with them...sold the .22hornet with it's scope and the .222 without it's scope for about what I had in all three. Put the K-10 on the .225 and kept that for many years (and I'd still have it but for Katrina).

NO...it SUCKED as a full charged .225. What it was was one of the best cast-bullet .22caiber rifle I've yet tried.
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Can tell, I like the ugly little rifles. they don't really pretend to be anything but what they are: basic shooting machines. I kind of appreciate the honesty of them.

 

[langenc]

I was thinking this was going to be about the 'new' Savage but I guess that is a 40..

Anyone have seen one?? Accu-trigger??

Dealer dont have and wont order unless Im going to buy. Im not going to buy a pig in a poke.

 

[db_tanker]

The interesting thing is that the barrels are retained by what appears to be the standard Savage barrel nut...

Bolt face is smaller than a 30 WCF...what would keep one from say swapping the barrels out?

How is the headspace adjusted on these rifles?

Of course, this is just an idea...I don't plan on taking this one out and butchering it...to be honest, I got it as a novelty...never heard of a bolt rifle 30-30 before this...now that I know about it and the 788.

I have a 94, and about to get a few TC barrels, one being a 30-30 14" which I plan on having MUCH fun with....I just don't want to be loaded down with a bunch of one caliber...

D

 

[ribbonstone]

Not quite the same nut I'd guess...at least the 110 wrench didn't work on the 340 barrel, but they defianetly are the same idea.

Assume you are still talkng about the 30-30 Savage 340...that bolt face IS the right size to take the 30-30's rim.

340 uses a real thick "washer" between the nut and the reciever. That "washer" not only exends down to take up recoil, it's also whee the action screw threads in (which is wy it's so fat). that's it...ONE action screw and a barrel band scre in the fore end...so forget about tradtional bedding methods or free floating.

On that .225, what worked best was to free float the ACTION and bed the barrel from 1" ahead of the action screw and 1" behind the fore arm band screw. the .222 wasn't so picky, it shot well without any adjustments. the .22Hornet just wanted the fore end band loosened (with so little recoil, the single action screw worked fine).

BTW: can add in the old Winchester 54 with bolt action 30-30's, although you seldom see those nice old guns anymore.

 

[db_tanker]

I know what you mean on the Model 54's...all I see on gunbroker are 30-06 chamberings.

when I made mention of the bolt face, I was refering to the 225 Win bolt face...it showed in my manuals as having the same dia as an 06... .473 about 30 thou smaller than a 30 WCF.


Did you lose your rifle in the flood or the grab?

D

 

[ROCKSHUND]

A Savage M340 .222 Remington in Western Field house brand guise was the first rifle I ever bought, through my dad when I was 12 years old. It did the trick on a WV 8 point buck at 40 yards that hunting season, one shot.

Some years later, the cheap scope that dad found to fit the odd sized mount that came with the rifle, died in a wet snowstorm, and the rifle went to iron sights only, after I found a buckhorn rear to install.

Some more years later, I found a fellow vendor at a gunshow who had a handful of new/old stock 1 inch scope mounts for it, and I thought that I'd died and gone to heaven. I bought all he had. At another show, I found another vendor who had some magazines for the rifle, and bought a couple, as dad seemed to have misplaced one of the two originals that came with the little rifle. I later scoped the rifle with an inexpensive Bushnell 3x9 scope, which has worked just fine.

Present time: At age 47, the little M340 is still in my possession, living in my safe. I have a pretty good stock of my handloads, and Remington factory ammo, for it. I refinished the stock a number of years ago, with an oil finish replacing the very tired factory job. The little rifle is good to go, and is an accurate, light, compact little jewel.

My 16 year old daughter is in for a surprise when she comes back later in the summer from visiting her sister out-of-state. -FNR.

p.s. I'd personally be tickled to find a M340 30-30 Win in excellent shape locally. It would be a handloader's wet dream.