long action/large shank

[zloe]

How hard is it to find one of these things?
I can't find one anywhere.

[want2ride]

How hard is it to find one of these things?
I can't find one anywhere.

I have never heard of such a thing.

[35Whelenshooter]

The ultra Mags are long actions large Shank.


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[444afic]

The ultra Mags are long actions large Shank.


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This is correct; I used to own a 300 RUM. They also had a longer magazine box and "window" in the bottom of the action to accommodate the longer cartridge.

[grouse]

375 ruger donor is the way to go. Large shank with all the new features.

[efm77]

+1 on the 375 Ruger. It's a long action large shank. Of course you could get a 338 Lapua action too but that would be pretty steep for just getting a donor action.

[yobuck]

We hear so much about the buy once cry once opinions on things we buy regarding guns and other things related, i wonder why more people dont consider that when building guns chambered for the large cartridges and use one of the now many custom actions available.
I would think that for most who do that it just isnt done on a whim, but rather as a long thought about decision.
The only real difference in actual cost would be the action itself, as all the other component parts would be the same.
Especially if we need buy a complete rifle in order to use just the action for the project, and then pay to have the action trued.
As for resale value, which one would you buy?

[efm77]

We hear so much about the buy once cry once opinions on things we buy regarding guns and other things related, i wonder why more people dont consider that when building guns chambered for the large cartridges and use one of the now many custom actions available.
I would think that for most who do that it just isnt done on a whim, but rather as a long thought about decision.
The only real difference in actual cost would be the action itself, as all the other component parts would be the same.
Especially if we need buy a complete rifle in order to use just the action for the project, and then pay to have the action trued.
As for resale value, which one would you buy?

Maybe because the Savage action is so easy to tinker with/change parts on. Or maybe just because that's what they want to do and the action they are set on using. Everyone has their reasons. To each their own I guess.

[yobuck]

Maybe because the Savage action is so easy to tinker with/change parts on. Or maybe just because that's what they want to do and the action they are set on using. Everyone has their reasons. To each their own I guess.
Well it goes without asking or saying, that those are reasons why many people choose Savage, and also choose to be members of this site.
But there are guns, and then there are guns, at some point dosent economics also become a consideration, or is the desire to build it on our own even to the point of using less desirable parts outweigh all that? Ive probably answered my own question.

[zloe]

"there are guns and then there are guns".
They're all guns. They all go bang.

As far as I'm concerned the higher priced actions are not worth the extra cost. At least not until they are making me money.
Economically, I can custom build on a savage action for much less money.

[yobuck]

Yeah your right, and the ones that require a hundred or more grains of powder can really go bang. Lol
But it still is a free country, at least as to laws where we choose to place our own faces.

[efm77]

Yeah economics has to come in to play at some point. And that kind of goes along with what zloe said about custom actions. Sure you could go real far and end up with more in your Savage by the time you're done over a custom. But spreading it out by buying parts here and there, it doesn't seem to hurt as bad. Wasn't trying to be a smart a__ and I've surely questioned why people do some things that I think is crazy. But at the end of the day, it's a free country (at least for the most part but that's a whole other topic), and it's their money. They can spend it how they want. I've got 3 Lapuas. Why? Because I can and I wanted them. Doesn't make sense to some others but I didn't buy them with their money.

[zloe]

Yeah economics has to come in to play at some point. And that kind of goes along with what zloe said about custom actions. Sure you could go real far and end up with more in your Savage by the time you're done over a custom. But spreading it out by buying parts here and there, it doesn't seem to hurt as bad. Wasn't trying to be a smart a__ and I've surely questioned why people do some things that I think is crazy. But at the end of the day, it's a free country (at least for the most part but that's a whole other topic), and it's their money. They can spend it how they want. I've got 3 Lapuas. Why? Because I can and I wanted them. Doesn't make sense to some others but I didn't buy them with their money.
I've got 3 6.5s
swede
creedmoor
260 rem

why? cause I can.

but to yobuck's point on economics, I'd love to build a rifle around an expensive custom action and if I found one for the right deal, probably would.

[yobuck]

Well for sure there isnt, and shouldnt be any argument as to what we have a right to do with our own time and resources.
But i also dont think it out of line to question things. Especially where it might affect the decisions of others.
For example, suppose my name is Leroy, and this here is my brother Leroy, and over there is my other brother Leroy.
One might be inclined to ask questions like why anybody want 3 boys all named Leroy?
You wouldnt happen to have names for those 3 Lapuas would you? lol
BUT, since we are talking about 338s, it might also be fair to question ones reason for even having one, other than simply wanting one of coarse.
Again, it might be a bit enlightening for others.

[efm77]

Well yeah it's ok to question and I didn't mean it that way. But when people start doing more than suggesting, and start, almost degrading, people for their choice just because it's not what they'd do, I guess that's what sticks in my craw. You weren't doing that though so please don't misunderstand. That's not what I meant. Just meaning that I see a lot of threads where people start with the comments like, "why do you want a 338? You don't need that to hunt with. All you need is the grand old 308." or something to that effect. Well yeah, that might be all I need, but it wasn't what I wanted.

Anyway, to your question about my 338's. They're all named Leroy lol! Just kidding, I really haven't named them. But I'll tell you why I have them for the sake of conversation and satisfying your curiosity. I've always liked the 338 caliber. In fact, I've always leaned more toward larger calibers. I can kind of blame my dad for that as he used to always hunt with a 35 Remington in a Marlin 336. That was the first center fire rifle I ever learned to shoot and hunt with. I got bit by the bug then and have had it ever since. I've got smaller calibers too and enjoy them as well, but am partial to the larger calibers.

I started with 338 win mags first and still have them. Love the cartridge, but started wanting a 338 that could shoot the heavier bullets faster than the win mag, because of the better trajectory and greater energy. So for years I considered the RUM or the Weatherby. The Weatherby is, in my opinion, over rated and too expensive. So at first I'd finally decided to go with the RUM and build one. But as the Lapua started gaining more and more popularity, it became easier to find ammo and brass for it over the RUM. Reloading makes it not as big a deal, but RUM brass is harder to come by than Lapua brass.

So I first got a 112 Magnum Target because I liked the looks of it, the rigidity of the single shot action, and don't intend on shooting rapidly with it anyway so was fine with a single shot. Still have and love that rifle, it shoots basically one hole groups at 100 yards with my mediocre hand loads, and I'm not that good of a shot. I wanted to hunt with one too so got to wanting a repeater and something a little easier to carry, so a couple years later ended up getting a 110 LRH. It's not quite as accurate as the 112 but plenty good enough to hunt with and I haven't tried hand loads in it yet.

Finally I wound up with a RPR too. It's a heavy beast. I've always been a Ruger fan too on top of being a Savage fan as well. The RPR grew on me more and more and I started reading how Ruger had enlarged the action to better handle the magnum rounds. With all the claims of lug setback with the Savages, that piqued my interest enough that I had to have one to compare. And, as crazy as it sounds, I wanted it for a backup in case my Savages experienced lug setback. The Ruger is better built for the Lapua size cartridge. It may not be any more accurate than a Savage, but I fully believe it's a stronger action for the round. I've measured and compared them myself. The Ruger receiver is about 1/10" larger in diameter than the Savage. The locking lugs, individually, are smaller than the Savage, but only slightly smaller. They are still large enough in size, that being that there's 3 of them, they add up to more bearing surface area than the Savage by about 30% according to my rudimentary measurements. So the Ruger should be able to handle the bolt thrust much better.

So there you have it. A little lengthy, but that's how I wound up with 3. They each have their purpose and I don't intend to get rid of any of them. Hopefully that helps with anyone who might be considering something along similar lines.

[yobuck]

Well thanks for that information, and it takes being a bit lenghty in order to get our point across at times.
And i totaly agree about the questions about why we do what we do being a bit annoying at times.
Ive probably mentioned that i began hunting in 1947 at age 12, in 1949 i had a brand new model 141 Rem pump in 35 Rem.
Never had a scope or a sling on that gun, just carried it like i was told you were supposed to do.
I always wondered how the adults got to know so much more about deer hunting than me since most had done so very little of it.
Including my father, who due to the depression, and then WW2 had only been deer hunting 2 times before i started for a total of maybe 4 days.
But there are things you might think about, but not dare question. Lol
The deer all lived on the bottom half of the mountain, which was good because we never had enough people to cover the whole thing anyway with the drives we did anyway.
That never made much sense to me, even as a kid. As i became older lots of things didnt make much sense to me. But thats the way we did things, and in order to get along we tend to go along.
I traded that 35 Rem pump for a 760 Rem pump in 06, and it had a 2.5 Weaver scope on it and a sling. The nicest thing about it was that it had a detachable magazine. And regardless of what was said about them, i could actually hit a barn with it so long as i was standing inside it when i shot.
But then Savage legitimized those of us who were screwed up by being born left handed, and asking stupid questions all the time by building the first production lefty bolt rifle. Which frankly is why i still have a soft spot for Savage rifles and always will.
But life moves on, and by the early 60s my father had died at age almost 55, and tomorrow will be 59 nine years since that happened. My brother and i had enough of the traditional ways we had been going about our hunting with a group and driving the steep sidehills for deer. So we left the group, much to their dismay, since we did so much of the driving.
The first season there were 5 of us, hunting by just glassing with hand held binoculars at distances we were simply guessing at up to about 400 yds. Of coarse no dialing of scopes, since that was unheard of to us and most others at that time. And there were no hunting scopes that could be dialed at that time anyway. We just held and hoped, but that first year we went 4 for 5 guys on bucks, from a bench we made from a folding saw horse. Talk about a light being lit, we had emerged from total darkness. lol But the best was yet to come, and it wasent all that much longer coming. About that time, the Worlds first 1000 yd benchrest club was becoming organized near Williamsport by a group of Ground Hog hunters.
About 1969 a few of those shooters moved into the area we had been hunting for at that time about 20 years.
They soon had people talking about them, by filling all their tags with bucks in less than a week. Two of them were brothers, both named Leroy. lol Actually Larry and Ritch, from Harrisburg, who built a camp in Driftwood in 1970.
I made it a point to meet Larry and Ritch, asap. They knew things i needed to know about how to kill deer at the distances they were doing it, and i wanted to do it also.
And frankly by then so did a lot of others in that area also. And i had information they needed such as how to get to certain areas they wanted to go to. So it was a good situation for both of us. They got me hooked up with Howard Wolfe, who had built Larrys 30x378, and who had also built the large 3 lug action it had. Actually he had much of the action work done by a large machine shop in Williamsport, as his shop wasent equipped to do that type work. Larry died of cancer in 1977 at age 42, and about 8 years later i acquired the 30x378 on the Wolfe action #29, and im still using it today. Ritch had also built a 30x378 on a large action built by Gene Grabil who copied his design from Howards. Gene hunted with us occasion and built the actions primarily for his own use and a few others like Ritch. He was also using them in his experiments with a short 50 cal spotter round case necked down to 338. Unlike Howard, Gene worked in a large machine shop where he had access to the machinery needed to build them.
One day at least 20 years ago, and possibly even 25, Ritch and i and our sons were hunting from a lookout on top of a mountain, and known as the county line. You can see for some hellish distances there, and the wind can be hellish as well. But it wasent on this day which is why we were there.
After a while a vehicle pulled in and it turned out to be Bruce Baer with a couple of his buddys who we knew also.
So they stayed and were glassing with us as there is plenty of room and plenty to look at at that location.
It wasent long before the conversation turned to guns, and 338s in particular. Bruce had been building quite a few of them by then and Rich and i were a bit scepticle over what we were hearing, and we told him that.
So Bruce said well lets just put all that to rest right now. So Ron, one of his buddys got his gun out of their truck and got it all set up on their bench. It of coarse was built by Bruce on a Getski/Getsky custom action, and had an 1”350 straight taper barrel. It probably weighed 40#, and hardly moved when it was fired. Cartridge was a 338 on an improved version 416 Rigby case. I dont know the load but i assume they were using SMKs because Bruce is no fan of Bergers. The small stump on top of the chosen rock ledge was a call it an even 1500 yds. Bruce dialed the scope for the distance, and i asked him how much he was adding, to which i said if you can get that over there with that much ill be impressed. Well we were all watching thru our large tripod mounted glasses when Ron touched it off. And if he had been aiming at a deers head it would have died instantly. Bruce about rolled on the ground laughing, and when he could talk he looked at me and said, well are you impressed or not?
I mean whats left to say about something like that, what else could be said, the shot said it all.
Poor Ritch didnt sleep for a week, maybe even more, just thinking and talking about that.
Finally his wife said just go order the damned gun and shut up about it. lol
He built his on a Bat action, and so did my brother in law, which is the most accurate large rifle ive ever shot.
Ritch died 3 years ago from Alzheimers, another very sad situation, and loss of what had become more of a brother than a friend. About 8 years ago i went over to see Bruce and said i think i might need another barrel. I was never really happy with the one i had anyway, so it didnt bother me much about changing it. Bruce asked me what i wanted for a cartridge, and i said im not unhappy with my 30x378, but whats your opinion. He said you already know my opinion, but ill give you something else to think about. So he put a case on the table that dwarfed my 378 case and said thats what you should do. When i questioned my old action he said all you need is the barrel, your action is just fine. And then added, in fact i have one of my own i got thru a trade for some work. I took one of the cases home and showed it to my sons, who will inherit the gun, and they made the decision. 3250 with the 300 gr SMK, without making it sweat. Easily 250 fps faster than a 338x378. Ive owned that gun for about 35 years now, and im still rebarreling it with much larger cartridges. How much is that worth in the overall picture of things?
Now to be fair and also honest, if i were a young man today, not knowing the type people i have been lucky enough to have known, would i buy a Savage 338 Lapua? I cant answer that, so the answer has to be at least a maybe.