Savage Long Range Hunter 6.5x284 Norma

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but..........

I purchased a Savage Long Range Hunter and am very happy with its accuracy. I probably put 150 rounds through it already and I believe I could hit with it at longer than 100 yard ranges with ease. I built a custom rifle on a Stevens 200 long action and a custom barrel from Savage Barrels and I am surprised at how accurate a rifle, that I screwed together on my kitchen table, can be with barely any copper fouling during break-in. With that said, I've observed the following:

1. Any brass that was fired in the long range hunter, sized or otherwise, will not fit in the custom rifle. The bolt won't close.
2. The brass from the long range hunter, sized or otherwise, extends above the Wilson case gage's upper limit. From the instructions, this exceeds SAMMI specification for "maximum" cone to head dimension.
3. I used the Forster go-gauge and a thin shim to set the head space on the custom rifle.
4. The brass fired in the custom rifle, sized or otherwise, measure somewhere between the Minimum and Maximum step on the Wilson Case gage. Perfect.

I believe the Savage Long Range Hunter chamber is set too loose allowing the brass to "fire form" to specifications exceeding SAMMI limits and I don't know how to fix the fired brass. I have Hornady and Redding dies screwed down, touching the press. If I reset the LRH head space, I'll have $200 of Lapua brass that I cannot use. I don't believe it is affecting accuracy, however, the custom built rifle is more accurate.

I'm not sure what to do here. I was thinking of doing nothing to the LRH and just dedicating the over-sized "fire formed" brass to this rifle. The 150 to 200 pieces of brass should last a long time as this is a hunting rifle, not a target gun.

Any opinions?


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I had the same type of problem with my 300wsm. Brass fire in the factory barrel would not or would with effort chamber in the custom barrel. After working the brass through the custom firing them it helped. But, I just bought new brass anyway and it made things easier. The Savage chamber is definetly bigger on mine.

I think typically factory or semi custom rifles chambers are oversize. A friend and I have 3 -6.5x.284's we built on savages, and all have custom barrels, ER Shaw, Benchmark, Shilen. The Shaw and Benchmark are mine and tackdrivers from the get go, the shilen is his. He also has a cooper in the same caliber, and ammo that falls into it, wont start to fit in any of our custom barrels. I have had several ER Shaw barrels, and all of them have ranged from good, to unbelieveable accurate. I have had 4 Benchmarks, 3 were as good as it gets, one was a turd. We sent it back, via the guy who chambered an threaded it, and they promptly replaced it, and this one is a barn burner. Kevin Rayhill did the chamber work, has been a stand up guy by me in all my dealings.

I was always taught to use a once fired brass with a one layer of cellophane tape and/or Go-gage should be tight right at the moment of bolt lockup?

Just sounds like excessive headpace to me allowing brass to grow to out of spec size.

Just my $.02 worth.

Larry
Tinkerer

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tinkerer

I was always taught to use a once fired brass with a one layer of cellophane tape and/or Go-gage should be tight right at the moment of bolt lockup?

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Yep! Exactly.