110 LA 30/06 conversion to 308

Yep,new guy here.Old,cranky,and in the way most of the time but happy to be here and even happier to be back on Savage.What I have is a late '89 110 LA (thanks for the DOM Mad Dog) that we've re-barreled to 308.Changed out to a SA plastic follower and spring in the blind mag and fit a spacer block aft in the well.Problem is in loading and feeding.The plastic follower re-defines TILT and is consistently inconsistent in both retaining rounds in the mag and feeding the next round into the chamber.Is there a metal follower/spring combination available that might help?Also,can a SA mag box be fitted to the long action reciever -not a course I'd like to take as the stock is an older LA McMillian nicely bedded and relieved to fit the new EABCO bbl.All ideas and comments welcome and appreciated.As a side note,the new EABCO tube(current manf.) is not painting copper-printing 6's and 7's at 100 on break-in and is a nicely done piece.Got tired of waiting for a 1/12 for shoot the long light 155's and decided to try a Brown despite the scuttlebutt of late on the in house bores.This one's as good as any I've shot.Then again,the only thing I'm sure of is that I "don't know nutt'n". Good to be here. Old Grumpy Bark

Your feed lips on the magazine probably need tweaking as the neck on the .308 is shorter than the 06. Also try turning the spring on the follower 180 degrees, it might help and a cheap fix.

El Lobo

For what it's worth, I did the same conversion. I left the long .30-06 magazine box as is and it has worked fine with no feeding issues. It was one of my first barrel swaps and I was playing. Still have it in that configuration. Boog

Thanks for the replys Lobo and Boog.I've just really grown fond of this old Savage and plan on spending a lot of time with her.Calling SSS in the morning for a trigger and bolt handle.The 3 screw came in great,around 40 oz.-no creep-clean break-little overtravel and the .041 pianowire worked like a charm.Clever design by Savage.The bolt handle is just a love trinket for my new gal,and I have to try Fred's trg.-know it'll be sweet.Question for Boog-did you find that the rounds loaded in the LA mag box migrated forward during firing or did they remain basicly static?I tried placing a block in the rear of the mag box and using a SA follower but feeding was spotty and the rounds would tip up and early release as the feed lips are about .5" too short.I have 3 LA boxes coming from Midway and will be working this next week on fabing some longer feed lips and filling the aft section with accuraglas,then using a modified Calloway alu. follower.If it works out to satisfaction I'll make up the other boxes for the others here with LA conversions if there's any interest.Didn't see Boog's post before I had the parts ordered for the mag conv. as if I had I would have just tried the original LA follower.Guess I live by the old saying "...if it ain't broke,fix it till it is". Thanks for the great forum guys,these Savage's sure are fun. Old Grumpy Bark

With the bull barrel it doesn't recoil much, I have never had the cartridges move after they were put in the box. Mine feeds fine from the long box with no spacer, maybe I just got lucky. The SSS trigger and a new bolt handle will change the feel of the gun, you will love it.

I have the same conversion...30-06 to 308.....and I too, left the long box and feed in. (no spacer)
No problems with feeding at all. Worked with 243 and 308.

Pop

You'll have a hard time contacting SSS right now, they're at the SHOT Show.

Not trying to sound hard, but if you become a paid member you'll have access to the classified section as well as
a wealth of friendship and info from this great site.

Pop