Ordering my first barrel

[DennisPA]

As the title sayd I'm ordering my first barrel and I'm really worried I'm going to miss order something. Here is my goals. I have a old savage chambered in 220 swift and I want to put a 220 swift fast twist barrel on it. Hart currently has one of the better lead times so I'm going to give them a try.
My plan is to get the action trued and all the barrel work done by a gunsmith. Here's my question the chamber end of the barrel I want is 1.250 OD and my gunsmith asked me to have Hart "set the shank diameter" what does that mean?

My understanding the adavantage of having the action trued and having the barrel threaded by a gunsmith is better match up of the barrel to the action.

Is there a standard shank diameter that Hart will know and this is no big deal?

I just want to make sure the gunsmith has enough material to make the threads what ever he need to best match up with my action.

Thanks for any help.

[KRP]

Are you planning to use the barrel nut? I'm assuming your smith is referring to having the blank turned with this in mind. The barrel you want is 1.25" at the chamber, which would require turning several inches of the barrel to use the nut instead of a fixed shoulder. You should ask him though to clarify.

[DennisPA]

KRP that a good point I just always assumed that I would be using the barrel nut. We do most savage owner do, keep the barrel nut or not?

[wbm]

I would keep the barrel nut. Not so sure the 220 Swift is a real good idea though.

[bodywerks]

Is your gunsmith a savage expert? Generally, savages don't need the action trued, not in the traditional sense at least. If you pay your gunsmith to true the action like a Remington you are going to get nothing for your money except a receiver that is now not threaded to accept prefit savage barrels.
There are only one or two gunsmiths that I know of that do anything outside of the realm of the diy guy. It involves lapping the lugs in the receiver and timing the extraction process so that the extractor cam doesn't fight the receiver lugs.
Just make sure you're getting what you're paying for.
And keep the barrel nut if you can, but I converted one of mine to a savington because I wanted to put a Krieger barrel on it. I have no regrets.
Why 220 swift? Nice, fast, flat flying, but a barrel burner if memory serves. Hard to beat 22-250 and you might be able to get one right now from McGowan.

[sinman]

just a guess but I am going to assume he isn't a Savage expert and he is going to true it like a Remington and thus make it not able to accept standard prefit barrels (most likely). And he will probably shoulder the barrel as do most gunsmiths that don't usually work on Savages.

[JCalhoun]

Why not just go with a prefit barrel from one of our vendors? They know what you need and you can do the job yourself.