Buying a 10/11, which bolt face is the most versatile?

[Nandy]

Im going to buy a 11/10 next week and would like to know which bolt will offer me the most opportunities for caliber changes. I want this SA rifle mostly for punching paper but also to hunt for SC deer in occasion. I have a switch barrel built on a LA 110 which is a 30-06 and 7mm rem mag (I should be receiving the 7mm from sss tomorrow) which is my main hunting rifle but there might be days I am hunting the thicket and might want to take something lighter with me.
Thanks!

[darkker]

Well.... Since you can change them for $5, does it really matter??

Depending upon hunting reg's, the standard .473" will do just about everything larger than 223.

[Nandy]

I was probably not clear or I am missing something. You say there is a source where you can get bolt heads for $5? Last bolt head I bought I paid $25 and that was just the bolt head, no springs, retainer pins, ejector..., just the plain bolt head....

[Nandy]

Calibers I like to consider for the .473 bolt face will be:
243Win
308Win
25-'06Rem
270Win

I think all these will fit a short action without having to resolve to make the rifle a single shooter, of those which one will be "cheaper" to reload?

[pdog06]

Calibers I like to consider for the .473 bolt face will be:
243Win
270Win
308Win
25-'06Rem

I think all these will fit a small action without having to resolve to make the rifle a single shooter, of those which one will be "cheaper" to reload?

The 270 and the 25-06 will need a long action if you want to use the magbox, but will work in a short action as a single shot.

The .473 bolthead has the widest range of available caliber choices.

[LHitchcox]

To stay with one bolt head size in a short action, I would pick .473. With it you can have a .220 Swift, .22-250 or 250 Savage and from there any .308 based cartridge.

[darkker]

I was probably not clear or I am missing something. You say there is a source where you can get bolt heads for $5? Last bolt head I bought I paid $25 and that was just the bolt head, no springs, retainer pins, ejector..., just the plain bolt head....

My point was if you are spending money for a new barrel(assuming), a $25 part really shouldn't make you cringe.
I understand the whole "doing things on the cheap", believe me I DO!

[Nandy]

Darkker, got your point. LHitchcox, I thougth the 22-250 was .472 or does the .001" really dont matter?

[LHitchcox]

I have a Model 11 that shares 3 barrels- .22-250, .243 Win and 7-08 Rem. Nary a hitch in performance among the 3. For simplicity I have 4 Savage centerfires. One is a first model rebarreled to .25-06 that will not be changed and a long action and 2 short actions. One of the short actions has a .473 bolt head and the second has a .378 bolt head. That way I don't have to worry about changing bolt heads and mag boxes- just barrels.

[1ShotKing]

Darkker, got your point. LHitchcox, I thougth the 22-250 was .472 or does the .001" really dont matter?
The 22-250 has a .473" bolt head. The parent case for the 22-250 is the .250-3000 Savage. The parent case for the .308 Winchester is the 300 savage, which again was based of the .250-3000 Savage. The .250-3000 Savage was based off of the 30-06 case which was shortened to make it fit in the Model 99. So between all of these cases of course there are many cartridges/calibers available to choose from to suit any needs for North American hunting provided you don't fall into the magnum craze.

[Cycler]

Other possibilities for the .473" (actually 12 mm) bolt head are cartridges based the 8x57 (8 mm Mauser) which include the .257 Roberts, 6 mm Rem, 7x57, and many others. Most of these do better in a long action but can be easily used as single shots in a SA and even loaded short enough to fit an SA magazine.

[stomp442]

I favor the thought of just buying both bolt heads. Hell I would even buy a magnum just because then I could build whatever I wanted to at any time and not have to worry about if I have the bolt head to fit it.

[Nandy]

I favor the thought of just buying both bolt heads. Hell I would even buy a magnum just because then I could build whatever I wanted to at any time and not have to worry about if I have the bolt head to fit it.
Not sure I follow you, Do you mean to buy a larger bolt head?, do you care to elaborate?

[stomp442]

Yeah just buy a 223 bolt head and a magnum bolt head and you could run anything from 223 to any of the WSM cartridges in a short action.