Thinking about building my first savage

[Anton Chigurh]

I think may have my predator 10 max 243 sold, and if so I may go ahead and start gathering components to build a rifle. I have wanted a CBI barrel for a while. I could order one in either 6.5 CM or 260, and also pick up a varmint action with the top bolt release.

My hang-up comes on the stock. I would like to get a barrel in light varmint contour, .700 at the muzzle IIRC, but I know the only HS stock that would fit (PSV118), are cut for a barrel .850 at the muzzle. Not sure that oversize barrel channel would look good, and probably too much fore-end width also.

I would like to stay with a fiberglass stock, and as reasonable in price as possible. Am I down to MCM stock if I go this route?

Other options would be just buy a model 11 in 260 with the plan to re-barrel and be stuck with accustock. Or the long range hunter or another predator max 1 in 260 and not look to re-barrel.

Savage experts, what say you?

[Anton Chigurh]

Okay, to answer one of my own questions I had forgotten about stockade stocks. I see he inlets for DBM. Anyone tried the coyote stalker thumbhole? How are his paint jobs?

[FW Conch]

IMHO, a light varmint will look fine in a heavy varmint stock. Just a little more room for more air flow and barrel cooling. ;-))

[jpdown]

+1. There is only about 0.060" difference in barrel diameter measured at the tip of the forearm between a varmint and LV contour. An additional .030" gap on each side of a CBI LV barrel won't be unsightly IMO.

And if you decide you want a tighter fit, just tape the bottom half of the barrel to free float it and use bedding compound to fill in the barrel channel. Let it cure, remove the barrel, sand down the top edges of the barrel channel and air brush the stock with some Dura-coat paint. That's the trick I used to switch from a CBI LV barrel channel back to a sporter barrel channel on my favorite stock; a Stockade Hunter. The CBI LV barrels I own/owned all shot tight little groups and cleaned up with ease. But a 26" CBI LV barrel was just more than I wanted to lug around all day on a hunting rifle.

Stockade Gunstocks are top notch for the price, but the wait time is a killer.

[Anton Chigurh]

Ok, thanks for the input guys. Would you say an SS varmint action+CBI 24" LV barrel+HS stock would make a nice rig? How heavy would you guess? Will I need to skim bed the HS?

Another option I thought of was the Model 11 long range hunter. It would have the plastic stock of course, but would be $500 cheaper.

Building sounds fun though.

[jpdown]

I have a Savage SS DBM action with CBI 24" .204 Ruger barrel in a Boyd's Tactical Cool stock. It weights in a 11 lbs, 5 oz with the Leupold 6.5-20x40 LR scope. So my guess would be somewhere between 10-11 lbs with scope.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii276/jpdown/PICT0062_zps1901a19f.jpg (http://s266.photobucket.com/user/jpdown/media/PICT0062_zps1901a19f.jpg.html).

[Chrazy-Chris]

It is too easy to sand barrel channels. I sanded one laminate and one B&C medalist down for Savage builds. One was a factory sporter that just needed a little more room to float and the other was a sporter channel opened all the way up for a bull barrel. When "building" your own gun, it's the little projects within the build that make you look back at it and appreciate how you've made it 'yours.' I think mating up the barreled receiver to the stock is definitely one of those pieces. Just make sure you have enough forearm to work with, but it shouldn't be an issue unless you were going with a really thin stock.

Good luck!

[BillPa]

I would like to stay with a fiberglass stock, and as reasonable in price as possible.

Another stock rarely mentioned is MPI. When I was in the business they were my first choice well ahead of McMill's, Six and etc. Doc probably offers stocks in more styles for more actions/rifles than any other manufacturer.

Reasonably priced? At my age not much of anything today is reasonably priced! :p

http://www.mpistocks.com/index.htm


Bill