Model 111 Magazine??

[J.Baker]

A blind magazine is one you have to load from the top of the rifle through the action. Only way to empty the magazine is to cycle the rounds through the action. Remington 700 ADL's are all blind mag's for example, as were the majority of the Savage 110's prior to 2005 which is when Savage made the switch to the newer centerfeed magazine system.

[big honkin jeep]

I have seen some interesting aftermarket upgrades, stocks, mostly, that have larger magazines for Savage rifles, but they all seem to be entirely for the short actions. That's not a huge surprise, I guess, long action DBM's aren't that common. At any rate, it's still a work in progress.


Most of the higher capacity mags are indeed for short actions. There are however aftermarket 10 round long action mags available and and I've also seen 6 round "Winmag" magazines as well. I've seen steel HK G3 mags grafted onto factory Savage mags for more capacity and seem to remember some internet videos on "How to". Heck, I've even seen a couple of guys projects a while back where AR magwells were grafted to synthetic stocks with epoxy making the rifles compatible with P mags after a little more adjustment. Be imaginative and set your inner tinker free to create. Those are the kind of projects I love to see.

[Lead Balls]

Most of the higher capacity mags are indeed for short actions. There are however aftermarket 10 round long action mags available and and I've also seen 6 round "Winmag" magazines as well. I've seen steel HK G3 mags grafted onto factory Savage mags for more capacity and seem to remember some internet videos on "How to". Heck, I've even seen a couple of guys projects a while back where AR magwells were grafted to synthetic stocks with epoxy making the rifles compatible with P mags after a little more adjustment. Be imaginative and set your inner tinker free to create. Those are the kind of projects I love to see.
I was thinking the exact same thing, I am probably going to find another magazine to solder together with the Savage mag, and make it high capacity. I found one for a Swiss machinegun of some kind that says it holds either .303 British, or 8mm Mauser. The 30-06 is only about 3mm longer than those, I'm thinking that long action box mags are probably all pretty close to a standard size. I'll start there. And the nice thing about soldering steel together is that it can be just as easily taken back apart, if need be.

But I finally have this gun feeding okay, now, although I have good magazine habits, I slap the mag on something to jar the bullets into to the rear, and smack the magazine into the well with the heel of my hand a couple of times when I put the mag in. This one really likes the extra attention. Those are good habits to form handling any DBM's.

And is it still considered to be a hollow magazine if it has an opening floor plate, like my Springfield, or an SKS? You can unload those that way (if you have to). Or does "hollow" enforce cycling "through the action only" unloading, like as in no floorplate?

[big honkin jeep]

Pretty sure you're referring to a "hinged" floorplate.

[Lead Balls]

Here is the thing, I have a 10 round magazine for my Springfield (that's what they called it, it's more of a pot-belly floor plate) that I know I could make work, easily, but I won't sacrifice it since it was expensive for what it is, and it's for the Springfield, and I just don't have the same kind of feelings for this Savage at all.

[Lead Balls]

I have noticed that this gun really prefers that the bolt be open when you put a magazine in. I don't really like doing it that way, but I think that's been a large part of the problem. This is my first time working on a sporting rifle. I have had a number of bolt action rifles, but they were all surplus military rifles. I guess what really attracts me in a b/a is wrapped in lots of walnut, with a bayonet lug for a really big bayonet. I'm surprised how many subtle differences in paradigm there really are. One of the things I like about this rifle is the detachable bolt head. If my understanding of the engineering I see serves me correctly, that means you can rechamber this gun just by changing the barrel and the bolt head. That's convenient.

[Lead Balls]

I guess this will be my final report on this rifle, the magazine works well enough, and I replaced the bolt bits that were missing. I do intend to do the bolt slicking mod to it, since it is way too stiff on opening, making it nearly impossible to stay on target through the scope whilst cycling the bolt. I see a lot of people online putting extensions on their bolt handles, and having handled one, I know why. But that is so not the right solution to that problem, at least not IMHO. And I threaded the barrel for a muzzle brake, since this gun is so light, although I haven't decided on which brake to go with, yet. But I like the light weight, I'm just not sure how much it will effect my follow up time and accuracy. And there is something about the way this action sounds that I like, it's sort of a hollow sound with a very crisp edge on it, hard to describe, really. Something about it's resonance that's not quite the same as what I am used to.
I still haven't had a chance to take it out to the range, but I dialed in the scope with my laser bore sighter, but was only able to in large part because I was able to tune my laser using the iron sights on my Springfield. I don't know if I could have gotten a reliable degree of accuracy without iron sights. The idea is to get the laser onto the the iron sight picture, first, when that dot sits on the front sight blade of the iron sights, then you can dial in the scope to the laser dot, and that will be pretty damn close. It will certainly get you on paper, if not on target. I hear people crying about getting on paper at the range, there is no reason to go through all that trouble. My laser was less than $10, and gets more than close enough. It might not need to be adjusted any more than that at all. Everyone should have one of those.