7mm mag to 7 rum?

New to the savage swap game (obviously =) , but I have been reading from the wealth of knowledge here for quite a while.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but no harm in asking.. (except my pride) ::)

I have a 110 7 mag, small shank, factory barrel & am wanting to change it to a 7 rum..
Would I be able to use this same barrel & just change the headspaceto fit the larger case?
Mag box isn't an issue, I would probably just keep it as a single shot as I'm using long Berger VLD's..

Thanks for all your help!

Changing the headspace has nothing to do with it, they are two completely different cartridges. You would have to either have your chamber re-bored or buy another barrel. The RUM shell is longer and larger diameter than the belted mag shell. Most barrel makers will chamber one in a small shank barrel although there has been quite a bit of discussion as to whether it's safe or not. I've never heard of any barrels splitting though.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm pretty sure your factory barrel is only 24" long to begin with so I don't think rechambering to the 7mm RUM would gain you too much. The big cases need longer barrels and slow burning powders to reach their full potential. I would not personally consider a barrel less than 26" long and more likely would go with 28" or 30" . As far as the small shank action goes I think if I built a RUM on one I would probably not use the barrel nut and go with a larger diameter shank in front of the recoil lug but then again the barrel nut is one reason I like the Savage action so much to begin with!

Bob

You need a new 26" to 28" barrel and a small shank will be fine.

Yep defiantly a longer barrel and like said before the small shank is perfectly fine.

"no harm in asking.. (except my pride).." Ouchy lol :P

But seriously thanks for setting me straight fellas. I actually may have found a 116 300 rum pre accu locally for around $325. Sounds like a pretty good deal if I can get my hands on it.
In the mean time I'll keep lurking & learning.

Thanks again!
I Love this place ;)

That does sound like a good deal, good luck with that. I'm no metalurgist but what I think about when using a conventional shouldered barrel is, yes it's thicker where the shoulder starts and that's a good point. But, what about the portion under the recoil lug? That's still the small shank exposed from the receiver. Now granted, it's a small area but I doubt the recoil lug would be enough to prevent a barrel bulge. Although I've never heard of it happening. Remington uses roughly the same shank diameter with larger/deeper threads and they haven't had any issues. The shoulder portion is thicker but there's still an exposed portion of the small shank outside of the receiver and I would think if it were going to let go, that's where it would do it. Again, as stated before though there's plenty of them out there and I haven't heard of any problems. I do feel better with the large shank size though since there's a little more metal around the chamber even what's under the recoil lug. And it's really not that much smaller than the shouldered portion of a Remington barrel.