Action Work - What can be tinkered

[300magman]

I'm the kind of guy that hates to leave things in factory spec, I have to keep playing away until everything is optimized...it doesn't matter if its my car or my toothbrush ;)

So, other than sending my action off to SSS for a true & time what options are available when it comes to improving a savage action. Anything that improves the cocking, lock time, feeding, etc...I'm interested in any detail.

[Grizzly2279]

Check out the threads on bolt lift. That is something that I want to try. My bolt is not hard to open but I am like you and think that everything can be made better!! I also Cerakoted my action and my bolt is as smooth as butter now. I didnt even think about it affecting how smooth the bolt would be to open and close!

[300magman]

If the coating affected the bolt's throw, then I take it you coated the entire action, inside and out ... did you also coat the bolt?


I've never cerakoted a rifle, but I had been thinking about it, and I assumed that one would only do the exterior surfaces of the action and leave the contact surfaces and the bolt untouched....but if tolerances are loose enough, I guess you could do it all.

[Grizzly2279]

I sprayed the entire action inside and out. Cerakote is sprayed very thin and did not affect anything. I even sprayed the scope base screw holes. The screws went in with no problems. I did not coat the bolt on my gun.
http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/zz312/cary2279/075376e9.jpg
http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/zz312/cary2279/cec8052a.jpg
http://i839.photobucket.com/albums/zz312/cary2279/2924d341.jpg

[82boy]

I'm the kind of guy that hates to leave things in factory spec, I have to keep playing away until everything is optimized...it doesn't matter if its my car or my toothbrush ;)


Well sit down to the drawling board and think what you would like to improve about the action, then think how can it be done. That is how Fred at SSS figured all these things out. If you do the trial and error method you will find you will learn more about the gun that you thought original. Something else I would remove the term "optimized" from my vocabulary even when you think you found the best method, sometimes it can be tweeked more and get a even better result.

On the mods your asking questions about; to start, dont wory about lock time, the Savage action stright out the factory, is plenty fast enough. It is faster than most actions on the market, and what do you gain by gaining a half a milisecond of lock time, the answer is little to nothing. Remember most things are a trade off, what you gain here you may loos in a nother part. On cocking unless you have access to a machine shop there is little that you can do, as the main problem lies in the geomotry of the action. There is a few thing that you can do to improve cocking in lift, and over cocking, by use of a "Gunk Button" (38 brass in the back.) polishing the moving surfaces, straighting the action, and adjusting timming. Tweeking the firing pin spring will imporve lift the most, I would not sugest that you cut coils, or take temper out of the spring, this is a bad decision. Going with a heavier spring to imporve lock time will add to a heavier bolt lift. (Remember I said trade off this is a priime example.) On feeding most people just do trial and erron, tweeking the magazine lips, polishing out areas and so for. again some thing can only be done with in a machine shop, such as adding feed cones to barrels ETC.

Somethings as far as knowledge goes it cost money. It cost money to go to school to get a degree, and sometimes the best learning method is to pay to have work done, and then look to see what was done, and how you can imitate that. Some knowledge is worth waht you pay for it. Sometimes you screw something up, and it is a learning experince, that may cost you money.

[cwop]

i sure like the looks of the cerocote. 82 boy some good advice and tricks you told.

bob

[82boy]

Thank you Bob,

A few other things to add: There are hundreds of hours of topic, and knowledge shared on this site, if you do you homework, and search the site, you will find dozens of tweeks, that will inprove the Savage action. Check out the FAQs section there is a lot of common fixes in that section, as well as T&T explained. Check out other sites like www.benchrestcentral.com They dont have much information on the savage action, but some of the tricks used on other actions (Remington Clones.) like Bat, and Panda will help you to understand funtions of the moderen bolt action rilfe. You will have to makes tools to measure, and do other things to tweek your action, so conside that also. Look into buying some books. Mike Ratigans book "Extreme Rifle Accuracy" mostly deals with remington style clone actions, but there is some good infomation that can be applied to the savage action. Again, spending some money for knowledge.
http://extremerifleaccuracy.com/

[Eric in NC]

Somethings as far as knowledge goes it cost money. It cost money to go to school to get a degree, and sometimes the best learning method is to pay to have work done, and then look to see what was done, and how you can imitate that. Some knowledge is worth waht you pay for it. Sometimes you screw something up, and it is a learning experince, that may cost you money.


Hehe - done all of those and they are expensive. The most fun, slowest AND most expensive way to learn though is screwing stuff up on your own!