How many of you have your barrel fitted to your action?

[yobuck]

I bought my first Savage in the early 60s, a lefty 110 in 06. Reason was they were the only factory produced lefty at the time.
I later traded that to a guy who had a lefty 700 Rem in 7mag that kicked too much for him. The Rem was the better gun for my use at that time
anyway you chose to compare them. I still use the action and trigger with another barrel and stock in a different magnum cartridge.
I also own a half dozen factory savages, the largest currently being a 25/06. No doubt modern machinery is responsible for the changes we
see today in many industries. A few years back if you needed a new front door you'd call a skilled carpenter and have him do the job.
Today you'd be apt to go to a box store and buy a prefit unit and do it yourself. The skilled carpenter might be forced to do likewise in
order to remain competetive with the new generation of (CARPENTERS). Meanwhile most of the machines that make all this (PROGRESS) possible
have been relagated to the Chinese to build. I guess time will prevail as it always does so that at some point none of us know anything different.
I feel Savage today merits reason for owning them other than do it yourself gunsmithing.
i'll personaly choose to mow my own lawn which has become a rarity also nowdays, and pay somebody like Fred to install my barrels.
But thats just me.

[barrel-nut]

To me, the beauty of the Savage is its versatility. If you have the time, money, and inclination, you could do as Yobuck and 6-284 and send your action off to the finest gunsmiths, have a blank chambered and fitted to your action, and end up with a truly fine rifle. Or you could order a quality prefit, spend a little bit of your own time and much less $, and still end up with a great rifle. Then if you grow tired of it, change it up. That's hard to beat.
All of mine have the nut. I don't object to it visually, and as sharpshooter pointed out, they work quite well.

[Spectre236]

I guess I am nuts because I think the rifle looks better with the barrel nut. Pun intended.

[limige]

Pretty much been covered. You can assemble a .5 moa prefit very easily yourself.

You you want to seriously compete with the big boys you want everything squared up. Best way is to start with a good custom action and have a proven smith do the barrel work from the blank. You need to make sure its chambered square and true with a good finish. Throat lengths can be tuned to the bullets you want to use. Threads machined square to the bore and it should be installed with the spine of the bore running up.

Aside from having a full blown custom built for $4-5000 stick with the prefit.

[Savage6x284]

$4-5k!

I've got less than $1600 into my Savage 6-284 and this includes a SS 8 twist Rock 5R barrel recontoured to a #2 and 6" cut off the chamber end by Rock.
The barrel was chambered with a new reamer made to my exact specs and it was threaded nutless, crowned at 24", and fitted to a squared action by a respected 'smith in CO Springs.
It is held in a McMillan Hunters EDGE stock inlet perfectly for my BA configuration and for a Remington 700 ADL TG.
The bolt has a long discontinued Tubb 100% titanium FP and speedlock spring. It also has the 5/8" Stockade BH and my own lift kit.
Factory three screw trigger honed and fettled to rival in every way but price the sublime Jewell trigger.
A 2.5-8 VX-3 scope sits in a set of flatback S&K ringmounts.
IOW, about as custom as you get.

I can see $4-5k but not with a synthetic stock. Even a top shelf synthetic.
You need a wood stock meticulously crafted of exceptional walnut by a Master Stockmaker to approach that lofty price.
Heck, with the right stockmaker you can easily push the price of the stock work alone to well over $5k!
I've seen some stock blanks themselves selling for close to $5k!

I don't find a $1600 fully custom rifle to be exorbitantly expensive. Not when you consider that even Savage sells a few off the rack models which approach that price.

[D.ID]

I guess I am nuts because I think the rifle looks better with the barrel nut. Pun intended.

+++1.
Having a savage without a nut.......... blasphemy................The horror.......the shear horror.............just unthinkable.
That goes for "smooth" nut as well. :)

[243LPR]

Nothing more gratifying than buying a beater Savage,replacing/upgrading everything you want to yourself,then shooting under 1/2" at 200 yds. Between building the gun and the ammo,you have control over the whole process. Then you know who to blame if you have problems!

[foxx]

Ain't that the truth!

[Savage6x284]

Nothing more gratifying than buying a beater Savage,replacing/upgrading everything you want to yourself,then shooting under 1/2" at 200 yds. Between building the gun and the ammo,you have control over the whole process. Then you know who to blame if you have problems!

But that's just it. In the vast majority of the cases when using a prefit barrel you really don't have any control over the process.
You take the SAAMI spec chamber the barrel maker cuts for you using the reamer he has. Could be old, could be new, could be at the top of the SAAMI tolerance or the bottom.
Who knows.
This approach has proven to be pretty darn spectacular based upon the number of amazing shooting Savages I see here and elsewhere.
No question about that.
But I think spec'ing out your chamber and leade dimensions to suit your intended payload feels like more control rather than less.
Nut and shoulder are functionally equivalent. Neither IMO holds an accuracy advantage over the other.
My preference for a shoulder is purely aesthetic.
Maybe I look at a well done nutless Savage and I see a glimpse of what Nick Brewer and the crew at Savage might have come up with had their sights been set on the Winchester Model 70 rather than on the Remington 721 in the mid '50s when the 110 was designed.

Old Nick B. did alright though and legions of Savage rifle loonies like you guys (and me!) thank him for that nut every day.

[D.ID]

A:Who says a prefit has to have a SAAMI chamber? Lots of different reamers out there.
B:What does chambering SAAMI or otherwise have to do with the method used to set the head-space of a barrel? I.E. The nut.

[Savage6x284]

A:Who says a prefit has to have a SAAMI chamber? Lots of different reamers out there.
B:What does chambering SAAMI or otherwise have to do with the method used to set the head-space of a barrel? I.E. The nut.

A: Absolutely true.

B: Absolutely nothing.