What to do first?

Hey guys. Got a hunting Savage 110E in 7mm RM. It shoots fine, and I am working on reloading for it and getting about 1" groups. I got a Timney trigger that I am tweaking.
Down the line I am thinking of replacing the stock to synthetic and the barrel (got it used and I have no idea how much life it will have on it!!). I think I will still keep the hunting contour, not go to a heavy one, but will go to Stainless Steel.
Any recommendations on what to change first and stock options? Barrel might be a Shilen or one from Savage-stocks. I'd like to keep the replacement stock and barrel under $300 each.

Thanks a lot.

If it were me I would start with the barrel, if you are going to keep the same contour barrel you could drop it into the factory stock and continue shooting it until you figure out what stock and from whom, you wood like to put on.

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Originally Posted by Sponxx

Hey guys. Got a hunting Savage 110E in 7mm RM. It shoots fine, and I am working on reloading for it and getting about 1" groups.

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Since it shoots so well, what's the incentive for changing both the stock and barrel?

I would recrown the barrel and get a stock you like and bed it correctly.

Cycler - No rush to change anything yet... although not a target gun, I shoot it at the range and I do plan on shooting that barrel off at some point ;D and when that happens I'd like to improve it as quickly as possible and not start my wondering + lead time then, plus that way I can start saving little by little, I won't spend all the money in powder and bullets :)

bowhunter42 - that was my thought too, but then I get thinking, what if a better stock makes it shoot better??? The factory contour is #4 right?
sinman - never thought about recrowing... does it chop off a piece barrel to get it done? how much will that run?

Like sinman said get a stock and properly bed the action. This upgrade will still be good when you get a new barrel. If you do the barrel first you stock could still hold you back and you would just waste barrel life. Who knows with a good stock and proper bedding you might not even need a new barrel.

I picked up a 110 in 7mm mag in a trade a few weeks ago. First thing I did was put it in a walnut stock I had and installed a thicker recoil pad. Shot it at the range and bench shooting was still a bit painful even with the walnut stock and thicker pad.

Gave a good hard look at the factory Tupperware stock and noticed they had stiffened the forearm all the way back to the recoil lug area with ribs. I though about filling the voids with lead shot but decided against that as it would have made the stock way too heavy for a hunting rifle.

Looking around my shop, I find a bag of sand I had used in a brick walk way project. I removed the recoil pad on the tupperware stock and saw it was filled with expandable foam. I dug that out and filled the butt stock with sand and reinstalled the recoil pad. Definitely added some weight to the stock. I then tackled the forearm area. I filled the hollow voids with sand about 3/4 full and then sealed over that in with Devcon to hold it in place. Now the stock felt pretty good. I bedded the action and the weight combination of the modified stock and action gave me enough weight to dampen recoil.

The proof of the pudding was a range test after the Devcon was fully cured and the action/stock cleaned up and scope reinstalled and bore sighted. I shot 15 rounds of handload with the Speer 145 grain SP (,005" OTL) pushed by 65.2 grains of RE-19. This load gave me a velocity average of 3115fps with low SD and ES. Five rounds got me centered up at 50 yards and the remaining 10 shot into 1.5" at 100 yards, a little more than one inch high. Best part was the recoil was manageable, like a 30-06 with 200 grain loads. No sore shoulder, no bruising. Now I can tweek the Speer load to tighten up the group and try some 162 grain A-Max.