Swapping barrels on my son's match rifle . . . on a budget!

Awhile back I built up a Savage rifle for my son to shoot in our local precision rifle matches. At the time I believe he was still 12 years old. He's now 14. The rifle is a Model 10 action and we added a factory 26" stainless steel fluted barrel in .223 (1-9 twist). I bought, from Savage directly, the bottom metal components necessary to convert the gun from blind magazine to a detachable box. We assembled it all into a Boyd Bros. Tacticool stock that we bedded and did our DIY raised cheek piece mod. The rifle is topped with a SWFA 12X Super Sniper in a set of TPS rings on a Warne tactical base. Using factory ammunition and 69 grain bullets we are able to print 1/2 MOA groups on occasion, always better than MOA though. We did try some heavier bullets but just couldn't get them to group better than about 1 1/2" at 100 yards. Twist rate is a bit slow I guess.

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For the past few months my son has been studying ballistic charts, reading articles, and watching YouTube videos in order to educate himself about alternative calibers for match shooting. I initially tried to talk him into the .260 Remington, but that wasn't his idea so he wouldn't have any part of it. The range of calibers swung wide, from PPC cartridges to the 6.5 X 284. He had grown tired of the .223 and just wanted something different. A week ago my friend who also likes to re-barrel Savage rifles told me that he had found a Hog Hunter and was re-barreling it. I asked him what caliber the original rifle was and if he had a buyer for the barrel and magazine parts. It was a .308 Win and he gave me first right of refusal on the barrel and accompanying parts. Since I've been shooting the .308 Win for years I have a ready supply of brass and other components. A little coaxing and my son was on-board with the project, especially when he found out that it was a 20" barrel. "That's different and cool", he said.

Right now the barrel and magazine parts are still wrapped up nicely in the shipping tube. It'll find its way under the Christmas tree and will be quite the surprise I'm sure. I'm not sure if we'll make any modifications to the stock. We'll have to see how the short tube looks in the Tacticool. For certain, we'll have to change the paint scheme. I've been Duracoating for awhile now and have a small library of "tactical" colors.

We'll post our progress with the barrel swap, any upgrades, paint, and resulting groups as we move forward on the project.

Sounds like a great project.

FWIW a guy I shoot with fairly regularly has a bone stock Hog Hunter with that same scope and he consistently shoots MOA or better at 600 yards.

nice...im interested to hear how your son likes the new set up...im betting he will be very pleased with it over the 223.

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The barrel swap was easy. The only "hitch" we found was that the barrel is oriented about 45 degrees to the left of the factory set-up. So, the sight holes are at the 9-o'clock position and the other barrel markings are askew as well. Not too big of an issue though as we'll be filling the screw holes and giving the barreled action a shot of Duracoat black.

At the range we were able to do a quick assessment to ensure that the headspace was indeed correct. None of the cases showed any abnormalities and accuracy was acceptable at about 1 moa. I don't think that this used barrel was shot much and may still need some more break-in. I reload, so we may experiment in the future with some other bullet weghts and powder combos. Aside from function testing, I wanted to get some rounds over the chronograph to determine the average velocity. We ended up at 2553 for a 10-shot average of Federal Gold Medal Match 168 gr. loads. The same load out of my Savage with a 26" barrel averages 2791 fps.

At present we're in the process of Duracoating the stock. It'll be dark earth which should contrast nicely with the black barreled action, scope, and mounts. I've got the sight holes filled with epoxy and will be sanding those flush as well.

Full steam ahead.

Finished the Duracoat application to the stock (FDE) and barreled action (black). Once the rifle was reassembled, we were struck with the idea of adding weight to the rig. After pulling the recoil pad, we drilled two 5/8" diameter holes 5" deep. This would allow for 5" pieces of 1/2" copper tubing. The tubing was filled with lead that we melted down from old cast muzzle loading maxi-balls. The two tubes combined for a total of 1 1/4 pounds of added weight to the buttstock. The Boyd's Tacticool has a 3/4" wide routed channel under the barrel section that seemed like another sensible spot to add some weight. After routing a matching groove in a 2x6, we melted more lead and poured away. The resulting slug of lead weighed 1 1/4 pounds as well. The total weight of the rifle is now somewhere between 14 3/4 to 15 pounds. With the suppressor added, this should make managing the recoil for my son much more manageable.

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Next up will be upgrading that glass! Rifle looks great!

Not sure what the twist on the .308 barrel is, but if you're looking for LR loads, I had the best luck with 175gr SMKs and Varget/IMR 4831. Avg. velocity was in the 2,600s and trajectory validation out to 600 was a breeze... Good luck and keep us posted!

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Originally Posted by WinnieTheBoom

Next up will be upgrading that glass! Rifle looks great!

Not sure what the twist on the .308 barrel is, but if you're looking for LR loads, I had the best luck with 175gr SMKs and Varget/IMR 4831. Avg. velocity was in the 2,600s and trajectory validation out to 600 was a breeze... Good luck and keep us posted!

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Thanks for the reply.

We've been really happy with a number of SWFA scopes we've had in the past. With that said, however, an upgrade is in the works.


The barrel is a 1-10" and we'll be shooting FGMM 168 gr. factory loads for the time being. I have a number of bullets on hand that we can experiment with - from 155 gr. Scenars to 208 gr. AMAXes. I've got some Varget to play with as well. We're excited to work up a load.

I'm liking the rifle. It's a sweet setup and building it with your boy has got to be an experience he'll never forget.