Savage 110 30-06 to 308?

D

deadcoyote

New member
My buddy offered to sell me a savage 110 in 30-06 for $100. He's used it in a lot of heavy hunting. It's only got a couple hundred rounds through it but the cheap factory scope is broken, the front site is missing, and the barrel is really rusty. It has a nice stainless bolt and the action operates good. I'm hoping to buy it and get a heavier 308 barrel, not super varmint type, maybe just better than the pencil thin barrel on there.

Can I go short caliber in a long action??
 
Yes, it will work. I am not a Savage expert, but for years all the Savages were long actions no matter what chambering. I am not sure if they used a filler block in the magazine or not for the shorter cartridges.
 
That's exactly what I did. I have a long action, that's was also 30-06 and now it has a factory heavy conture 24" 308 barrel on it. I can load the higher BC bullets out futher to allow for more powder room. Also, changing the barrel on your savage action is simple. You can do it yourself with a barrel nut wrench, the new barrel and headspace gauges. Also has tons of nice aftermarket stocks and if its like mine, pre-accu-trigger, lots of nice triggers availble as well.do itm. If you don't want it, ill give you 125$ for it. Brian.
 
It's a keeper. The stock is a factory laminated multi color stock? I never new savage made these, its kind of neat even though its beat to hell. I'm sure I could refinish it and it would look good. My buddy is adamant it came from the factory with that stock. I'm thinking an ER shaw stainless barrel, maybe savage factory medium-heavy. I'll let you know how it works out.
 
I'd shoot it, before I even gave a thought to changing anything.

We had an old 110 in .223 come into the family about 10 years ago, a gawd-awful ugly beast with a badly-stained birch stock. It had an even more poorly done recoil pad (on a 223??) and touches of rust on its exterior, which didn't even correspond with the bright spots where it rode in a pickup rack. Oh, and it would occasionally fire when you slipped the safety off.

Once the trigger & safety were sorted out, I scrubbed the bore and shot a few groups with it using remnants of whatever .223 ammo was lying about. It shot them all well. I loaded up 50 rounds of ammo using Nosler BT's, taking moderate care to keep them consistent. It would keep three of them in a thumbnail-size group at 210 yards.

One of my brothers has it now, the bum, and after I did all that work on it ;) It spends about every third year here (there are three of us) and I always look forward to its arrival. I cleaned up the rust spots and cold blued it the last time it came through, but it still has that awful stock. I kind if like it that way. It shoots so well it's cosmetic flaws are almost comical.

Savage 110's are superb, utilitarian rifles. I've never met one that wouldn't shoot well with a wide variety of ammo.
 
Yes you can but you will not have any of the advantages of a short action. I don't see how it woudl be worth the money to change it to a .308 from an 06. If you want that chambeing sell your rifle and buy the .308 with the money you get.
 
brownells sells kits with everything you need.

or visit switchbarrel.com for an instruction list, and parts for sale.

also check the auction sites for barrels, wrenches, headspace gauges, etc...
 
The thing is i was already in the market for a 308 savage and the price has gone up alot since i bought my last one about 7-10 years ago. My partner says "dont buy a new one, buy my old 30-06". Its a good deal and I have tons pf 308 ammo in the garage.
 
yeah .....two.

One, you will never have a problem w/ seating depth w/ any bullet style, the long action will let them set way out there.

Two, if you choose, you can go back to a long action caliber, some thing you can't do if you started out short.

Some say the long action is not as accurate, more flex, and that may be true.
It certainly is a tad heavier, but that does not matter in my use. (match rifle)

I addressed the action flex by screwing a steel top shelf pic/weaver sight rail, which should help w/ any flex.

Good luck w/ your project.
 
"...has a nice stainless bolt..." Something about this ain't right. An SS bolt with a rusty blued barrel that only has a couple of hundred rounds through it on a old used 110? The rusted barrel means you buddy is full of excrement.
 
I believe that all savage bolt body's and heads are stainless, and the bolt knob is changleble to different styles, stainless or carbon steel.
 
alright, to clarify:
The bore is fine, the barrel itself has alot of surface rust.
The rifles not that old, maybe 10-15 years. He's just beat it to death. He took a header this season.
 
My buddies 110 is a long action with a pencil 22-250Rem barrel on it. It's a tack driver. It heats up insanely fast however.
 
Buy your buddies rifle for $100 sounds like a good deal. Shilen will sell you a prefit Savage barrel in .308 heavy varmint in match grade CM barrel for $300 stainless for $335 about $200 if you go with an A&B barrel in stainless. You can pick up a cheap Duramaxx stock for around $100 from Stocky's Stocks. Sharp Shooter Supply will sell you a nice trigger for another $100. Midway will sell you the other things you need like a barrel nut wrench, and action wrench or barrel vise for another $85-95. So you will have around and additional $500-600 tied up pretty easily by the time you are done and that isn't even including bases, rings, and scope.

Or you could buy your buddies rifle for $100 clean it up and sell it for a little more money. Add some cash and buy this rifle from Bud's Gun Shop for about the same money you would spend building that 110.
 
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you dont need a new magazine, or even follower, the .308 while a bit shorter than the '06 will feed just fine.

and you can find good barrels wayyy cheaper than the shilen.

the only 4 things you need:

barrel.

barrel wrench.

headspace go gauge.

head space no go gauge.

and the auction sites often have the last 3 for dirt cheap, from people that have done the same thing.
 
the only 4 things you need:

barrel.

barrel wrench.

headspace go gauge.

head space no go gauge.
Click to expand...

Still looking at over $200 for all that easy especially by the time you pay all the shipping and that is going with the cheapest A&B barrel you can find. Any decent barrel will cost you at least $250 if you buy it new unless you can find a new factory take off from somewhere. You can do it with with what you mentioned but an action wrench or barrel vise makes it go a lot easier than trying to lock the action into a regular vise without damaging/marring it. Sometimes thoes barrel nuts are a bear to get off. Plus since the OP mentioned he wanted a heavy barrel that is either a new stock or hog the old one out for the new barrel contour. If you are going to go that far you might as well replace the trigger as well the SSS and Rifle Basix all cost around $100 the cheapest one you can get is the Northland Shooter Supply 3 screw trigger for aroudn $50. A good recoil lug isn't necessary either but you might as well replace the factory one if you are going to take the barrel off and the SSS one is around anotehr $30.

I'm not trying to talk the OP out of it, but if you buy good quality products switching a barrel on a Savage for the first time isn't cheap. If he wants to do this on a regular basis the by all means buy the stuff. If he just wants a rifle to shoot just buy the new rifle.
 
My former .30-06 110 is now fitted with a heavy douglas 27" in .243. Got it from Sharp shooter supply. I would like to upgrade to a savage target action at some point though.
 
Still looking at over $200 for all that easy especially by the time you pay all the shipping and that is going with the cheapest A&B barrel you can find. Any decent barrel will cost you at least $250 if you buy it new unless you can find a new factory take off from somewhere. You can do it with with what you mentioned but an action wrench or barrel vise makes it go a lot easier than trying to lock the action into a regular vise without damaging/marring it. Sometimes thoes barrel nuts are a bear to get off. Plus since the OP mentioned he wanted a heavy barrel that is either a new stock or hog the old one out for the new barrel contour. If you are going to go that far you might as well replace the trigger as well the SSS and Rifle Basix all cost around $100 the cheapest one you can get is the Northland Shooter Supply 3 screw trigger for around $50. A good recoil lug isn't necessary either but you might as well replace the factory one if you are going to take the barrel off and the SSS one is around another $30.

I'm not trying to talk the OP out of it, but if you buy good quality products switching a barrel on a Savage for the first time isn't cheap. If he wants to do this on a regular basis the by all means buy the stuff. If he just wants a rifle to shoot just buy the new rifle.
Click to expand...

and how much would a new rifle be?

he is trying to do this on the cheap, not make a match rifle, so...

the recoil lug fine, no need to replace it. triggers is ok, no need to replace. it doesn't take 30 mins with a dremel to widen the barrel groove in the stock.

i used 2 2x4's in my bench vise to clamp down on my action, and used a dead fall hammer to break free the barrel nut. no fancy equipment needed.
 
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