Savage 116 Weather Warrior--338 Win Mag to 270 Winchester

This 116 in .338 WinMag is about to become a .270 Win.

Barrel to arrive shortly. Got the barrel wrench and decided to build a barrel vise. After seeing Midway's version with oak blocks, I went to work. I hoped I could make my own barrel vise for about $10. The wood was free at Lowes. It's a 2x4 of hardwood that they use to bundle lumber. Plenty strong for the purpose.

Here's my reloading bench. The work surface is 1/4" steel.

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The Rockchucker on the right is mounted with 3/8" holes. I'll bore them out to 1/2" to mount the vise. So I won't have to make any new holes in the workbench; and when I'm done with the Savage, I can remount the RCBS press.

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Holes bored to 1/2".

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Here's the 1/2" Grade 8 bolts, washers and nuts.

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Oak 2x4', cut to length.

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Holes drilled in wood, and everything checked for proper alignment.

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Now a pilot hole that goes all the way through, so the hole saw will produce a channel that's fairly concentric.

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I didn't take any pictures of the wood in the vise, but mounted vertically allowed me to use my pilot bit hole saw kit to go right through the center. Half way through I flipped it and began again from the other side. Turned out pretty well. I used a 7/8" saw. I think an inch would have been too big for a barrel that's 1.055 at the threads.

Next I found an old scrap piece of 1/8" steel barstock, and used the wood as a template to drill two 1/2" holes.

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Here's the competed vise. Didn't have to buy the steel, and having a 1/4" steel bench surface helped. The wood was free, so total cost was the fasteners--about $7. If this wasn't temporary, I would have cut the steel to match the top block, but it's already drilled and tapped to mount a water filtration unit, so I'll keep it whole. I'll put some anti seize on the bolt threads since I'm going to be torqueing this down with a 4' cheater bar

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Barrel and action inserted. . .. The top steel is deformed from the pressure exerted upon it, I have no idea how tight, I could hear the wood settling as I tightened up the assembly. I don't think this barrel is gonna spin.

Here we go. I'm apprehensive, first time; and this rifle is almost 20 years old. Moment of truth--don't know what to expect. I stood the barrel against the wall and ran a bead of oil around the barrel nut every day for two weeks. Each day the oil was gone, so it's been seeping into the nut/threads. If the oil doesn't do it; I'll take a torch to the lock nut and neutralize the thread adhesive.


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Good mother of god! That was easy. The nut gave up the ghost on the first blow with a 3lb. rubber mallet. I was ready for "Savage's built in aptitude test" with a real steel hammer if need be, but wanted to give the rubber a try. All went well, thankfully. The barrel doesn't have a mark on it. I'm pleased with the way things turned out.

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Here's the barrel after a wipe-down. The recoil lug and barrel nut are in fine shape. Anybody looking for a stainless 338 barrel off a 110?

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When the 270 Win. barrel arrives, I'll have more to come.

Kudos! Way to use what you had on hand to get the job done!

Thanks, DrThunder88! After watching Larry Potterfield's video and seeing him using a Midway action wrench, and Midway barrel vise--I said to myself, "I can make one of those. . .. " I thought worst case scenario was I'd have to break down and spend the money for the "right tools," as Larry Potterfield likes to say. I think the man owns stock in Wheeler Engineering.

Anyways, it turned out well. But it's just the beginning. I'll have many questions, I'm sure.

I was waiting for my LH, LA bolt head. It arrived yesterday. My 116 in .338 WinMag was purchased around 1993. Some details. . . .the original stock was broken on a hunting trip in Canada about 3 years after purchase. I sent the barreled action to Lone Wolf riflestocks, who built me a beautiful stock of fiberglass and epoxy that weighs 21 ounces. In 1995, they didn't get the memo about floating the tang, so it's not floated, but the .338 barrel was floated. It's always been very accurate, so I don't anticipate issues with the 270 bbl. After the 270 Win barrel swap, there's a LOT of dead space under the barrel in the existing stock, but I'm not worried about it. Free float is free float, be it 1/32" or 1/4" or more.

I have the old style large body firing pin. Lisa at SSS took good care of me. To prevent me from having to buy a new bolt head retaining pin and firing pin, SSS opened up the small FP hole in the bolt head to accommodate my large firing pin. Additionally, my old bolt head had the recess milled on the stem on the extractor side, so I had to dremel out the post in the bolt body to accommodate the new bolt head. Done.

That's where I am now. I dremelled out the bolt body and reassembled with the new bolt head. I confirmed firing pin protrusion was acceptable. It's at .056", I'm happy with that. I headspaced the new barrel with the go and no/go gauges included with the E.R. Shaw barrel I purchased from Midway.

So the new barrel is installed and headspaced. The new assembled bolt is in place. Next I will confirm that the new bolt feeds 270 Win ammunition from the existing 338 stagger feed magazine. I'll mount the EGW picatinny aluminum one piece 0 MOA rail and rings.

I'll keep you all posted.

So all that's left is to shoot it. Today I installed the new EGW 0 MOA single piece Picatinny rail mount, and the two .084" high rings. EGW only had a 30mm set of rings, so I purchased that, and some delrin inserts to accommodate my 1" dia. scope. Bore sighted it with the Bushnell kit (the arbor inside the barrel and the 'reverse scope' with collimator mounted on top) and it's dead center.

I had some issues, which I won't go into unless tomorrow's trip to the range produces terrible results.

Pics to come.

E.T.A. The existing 338 stagger-feed magazine feeds the 270 Win better than it did the 338s. I had issues feeding with the 338, and even sent the rifle back to Savage early on. They fixed it, their dime, and the problem was back less than a year later. Anyways, very happy about the magazine. It's like a new factory Savage 116 in 270Win, but with old stainless steel hardware.

Tomorrow I'll take it to the range and see what kind of shooter it is. Can't quite make it out in the pictures, but the bell of the front clears the front of the picatinny rail by about 1/8".

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Just completed a ladder test with 36 rounds reloaded. I shot 6 sets of 6 rounds each. (Round robin style--I shot a bullet at each of 6 targets; one target at a time, with all 6 targets mounted on a single rack, so I never walked out until the end of the shooting.) All rounds were charged with 53 grains of H4320 (+/- 3000 fps.), and a 130 grain bullet. First set of rounds was .002" off the lands, with the other 5 sets being .020" further from the lands than the last. The rifle liked best the group that was .040" off the lands.

Here's the 100 yd. target, six shots. Next, I will ladder test different increments of powder, and see if I can close up the group at all. This will be a hunting rifle only, so I'm happy enough with the results of this new E.R. Shaw barrel in .270 Win.

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Looks like you've put together a winner. Good shooting!

Thanks, Dr.

It just keeps getting better. I've tuned my pre-accutrigger and I'm thrilled with the result. I've got the creep down to near zero, release is very crisp, and the pull is probably less than 2 lbs. To top it off, it's safe and solid. Jarring and dropping on the butt doesn't cause trigger break. VERY happy with the results.

I think the mechanical aspects of the rifle are finished.