450 bushmaster build

First time posting here (or anywhere for that matter). Picked up a Savage 110, 30-06, as donor for a 450 bushmaster build. Some good and some bad so far.
Barrel wrench from Wheeler and Timney trigger worked great. Relieving the stock to accommodate the heavy contour barrel was easier than I thought.


Headspace is an issue. Got Headspace gauges from PTG. Can not get correct adjustment. Either both go and no-go gauges allow bolt to close, or not close. Cannot adjust to the point where go will close and no-go won't. Contacted PTG and waiting for response.

Moving on to magazine, it is a stagger feed, and doesn't even begin to feed right. Magazine is clearly too long for the 450 cartridges, and they often tip down and hit the front of the magazine instead of tipping up to enter the chamber. Once a round is chambered, the bolt catches on the rim of the next cartridge when trying to open the bolt.

Some frustrations so far, so I am hoping someone else has invented this wheel before and can point me in a better direction. Any help you folks can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Mag lips are letting case rise too high, catches bolt. Tweak feed lips in? Maybe follower is wrong too?

Probably mag lips are too short also? Need to see how Savage shortens mags for .223 even in a short action.

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Measure length of both GO and NO go guage. If the go gauge is correct just add a .004 thick coke can shim to the back for a no-go guage unless the chamber is cut wrong.

For the mag maybe add a spacer to the back like the .223 center feed mags have.

Stagger feed mag cannot be modified to work with 450bm.

You would be better off selling it and syart over with short action center feed.

As for go/no go, measure both and compare length. You likely have 2 go's or 2 no-go's. If they are in deed a correct set, you are in over your head.

Thanks for the responses. The Go is 1.700 and the no go is 1.704 which I believe is correct. The gauges are .010 smaller diameter than a factory round. Wonder if the chamber has a taper at the case mouth cut which allows the gauges to slide past. Barrel is Apache so I have contacted him for his thoughts.

Magazine: wondering if I can get a cf from a short action and epoxy it into the stock. You may be right to start over with another rifle, I just hate to write this one off if I don't have to.

I have converted sf to cf for this exact application. However, I always do it with short actions, and the only reason I can see that would justify it is if you have a SF stock that you have a strong desire to use for the 450 build. Furthermore, I do not think a long action will work well. If it doesn't you've destroyed a perfectly good sf action trying to make a less than good 450BM. I don't see why you'd do that when cf sa can be had for less than the cost of what you could sell the la sf for. In other words, don't throw away the long action SF, just trade it for a short action CF.

As for why you can't get the barrel to turn into the action just enough to allow the bolt to close on the go gauge and not the no-go is totally beyond me.

process:
1. put go gage into chamber.
2. close bolt.
3. turn barrel into action till it won't turn any further.
4.back the barrel out of the action just a slight bit. JUST enough to allow the bolt to open with the gauge in the chamber. (NOT so tight it's jamming / slammed up against the bolt head).
5. tighten the barrel nut so as to hold the barrel in that position.
6. remove the go gauge and insert no-go. Bolt should close maybe 1/2 way.

is this what you're doing?

Foxx, Thanks for the help. The process you describe is exactly what I have been doing. If I use a once fired case instead of the GO, then the No Go won't allow the bolt to close, but neither will the Go. Makes no sense to me either. Haven't heard back from Apache yet. Meanwhile, I will start shopping for a SA CF and see what I can find.

^^Don't use a once fired case. Believe it or not, they can shrink upon firing. Take that once-fired brass and throw it across the room. It's confounding you and not important.

Just make the bolt close on a go gauge and not close on the no-go. At that point, all is good. You should now be able to insert a live round and it closes on it and extracts it. Next, fire that round. It should go "boom" and make a big hole in your wall, I mean target.

With the new Ruger American Ranch offered in 450BM, this seems like an uphill battle that could easily be solved with an off the shelf rifle?

Not at all. The Savage 10 in 450 bushmaster is a far superior gun compared to the Ruger

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foxx

Not at all. The Savage 10 in 450 bushmaster is a far superior gun compared to the Ruger

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What makes the Savage far superior? Just curious on different takes.

In fairness to the OP, i think thats a subject for a different thread that I would be happy to weigh in on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foxx

In fairness to the OP, i think thats a subject for a different thread that I would be happy to weigh in on.

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Fair enough - good call. I didn't mean to derail this thread .... going to remove my posts.