Question on stevens 200 barrel swap

I have a Steven's 200 in .308, I put a choate stock on it and a match trigger. Then i ordered a factory savage varmint barrel in .308. I work a lot and figured it wold be quicker to have a gunsmith change the barrel for me. The question i have is he has had my rifle for over a month, he told me he had to order the wrench two weeks ago. Now i got a call that he sent my rifle to the factory because they said the number on the bolt had to match the number on the barrel. WTF has anyone ever heard of this? I am so frustrated he didn't even ask me if I wanted him to send it back he just did it on his own. How can your bolt match an after market barrel? What should i do ?

There are no numbers on the barrel.

There are numbers engraved on the bolt body that are the last four digits of the serial. I've even heard that even they don't always match from the factory.

Very odd. I think he should have talked to you about it before he sent it in. He should always ask your permission before it leaves his possession.

hold on your going for a ride on this one, you could of bought the wrench here or online for $35 and set the headspacing w/ fired brass and been done in an hour. a .473 bolt is a .473 bolt, if you needed a different bolt head thats another $30-50, but still your only upto about 1 1/2 hours. your worse case scenario is a wsm bolt head swap or something where you got to change the firing pin too.

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Originally Posted by hershey

hold on your going for a ride on this one...

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Sounds like a good ride too.

Your money would have been better spent at Cedar Point, Six Flags, Carowinds, or any number of amusement parks.

I suspect that the serial number BS may be a ruse for, "I haven't even bothered to look at your gun yet or I buggered it up and need time to fix it."

I hope he is not bilking you hard for this......

Hershey's right. If you installed the after market trigger, than you possess the technical ability to change the barrel yourself. It actually can go pretty quick.

I changed my last barrel in ten minutes, in the bedroom, with a wrench, headspace gages, and a brass mallet, (all of which I found in my wife's drawer next to a whip and fuzzy handcuffs, but I wasn't asking questions, after all, a wrench is a wrench, right?)

All I can say is:

Fire that idiot!!!!!!!

It is obious that he is NO GUNSMITH.

Jaesen41 welcome, sorry to hear about your situation. You and your smith need to have a talk, what he's done just is not right. He owes you some answers. Sounds like this guy is full of it, personally I don't think I'd let him turn a nut on a bicycle. :o

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Originally Posted by jaesen41

he sent my rifle to the factory because they said the number on the bolt had to match the number on the barrel

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I'm calling BS on that one.
Somebody would need to do some explaining or I'm calling ATFE Monday morning.
Start by asking him to show you his bound book entry recording shipment of your rifle to the factory.

dk

The only numbers I saw on my factory 10flp in 223 was "model 10 223". That was it. The numbers on the bolt head do match the last digits of the serial number on the action, but thats about the extent of it.

I will agree that the numbers on my FACTORY bolt head that came with my Stevens .308 had 4 numbers stamped into it (I think it was 4....maybe 5) that matched the S\N of the last 4 or 5 on the receiver.

But so what?

I've sinced changed bolt heads so it now accepts a smaller brass. But I'm certainly not aware that I need to engrave a S\N back into my new bolt head. My guess is that Savage did this to keep 'em together at the factory. I'm not aware of any BAFT requirement to have a S\N on a bolt head.

But then, I don't profess to know everything there is to know either.

But, I think perhaps you got a young....and not too knowledgeable gunsmith.

Dave

Just a word on the shade tree gun butchers fee. My first 2 bbls were removed by a local precision gun mfgr (he guarantees 1/3 in at 100 yards) for free. after that I got the tools. The last one almost stripped the wrench so I took it to Mc Gowens and he charged a whole $5.00. Since the wrench also fits the Remmy and he did not have one says a lot about him. Get your 200 back and run (do not walk) away from there.

Get your rifle and your money back from this jack leg.

Where are you located? I am sure that there is someone on this sight that will live a reasonable distance from you, that will help you do your first swap.

I charged the last guy I helped do a barrel swap a six pack, but only if he helped drink it.

Sounds like he may have tried to remove the barrel nut without a wrench and messed your gun up. Now he is stalling until he gets everything fixed or maybe he sent it to the factory to have the damage repaired (no doubt at your expense).

I suspect this is going to be expensive for you because he will probably try to make you pay for anything he is out plus what he quoted you in the first place.

I would definately inspect the gun for damage/ missing parts before I left the shop. Whenever I drop a gun off for repair it is a barreled action only. I remove any optics, stock or anything that is easily damaged or able to come up missing. No one is going to take of your stuff as well as you.

BTW, my local smiths charge anywhere $30-$50 to do a barrel swap on a Savage. Never more than $50 and that includes test firing the rifle before it leaves the shop.

Sounds like this is not going to end well for you. Sorry to hear it.

Dolomite

Man.....I hate post like this. All doom 'n gloom. All the guy wanted was a quick 'n dirty barrel change and on a Savage\Stevens that's about as hard as makin a peanut butter sandwich.

Now his gun is shipped back to Savage and he's in the dark. And all he wanted to do was go shoot something small 'n furry.

I just hate when that happens.

Well, maybe the guy will be upstanding and eat his screwup. He should.

Just a thought, but you could always call Savage directly and ask them what the heck is going on with the gun. You know they will be straight with you as they "don't have no dog in this fight."

Dave

I just did my first swap myself, without anyone looking on or helping. It was extremely easy to do. Jim at Northland walked me through the process in about 10 minutes on the phone. It was a snap. Of course, I bought the right tools, action wrench, barrel nut wrench, and headspace gauge. I also took my time and was careful, since it was MY gun. The whole process, including resetting the headspace a second time to get it right, took maybe 20 minutes.

The first thing I thought of when I read the post was, "Uh-oh, he screwed up the gun and sent it to Savage to cover it up."

I hope not for your sake... I think the idea of calling Savage is an excellent one. They should be able to tell you the REAL reason why it's there. Call Savage first, then call your "gunsmith" and tell him to "fess up" on what the real story is. His matching numbers story is pure horse feathers.

I don't think the original poster has been back since he learned he was getting taken for a ride from Hershey.

Hope he has this cleared up. Life's too short to be diddled around by some hack.

Sorry I havn't been back for so long work takes up a lot of my time. So I called the so called gun smith and told him that I was pretty upset about the whole situation. He told me that it was not going to cost me any more money than the he qouted me. he also told me that he had taken the old barrel off And that when he put the new barrel on and head spaced it he did like the way the action closed so he said he called savage and they told he to send the rifle back to them so they could check the way the bolt fit up to the barrel. I am still waiting to get my rifle back. I now wish I would have just ordered the wrench and did it myself. I am in wheatland ca near Lincoln there's only 1 gunsmith in town so o am sure you guys can figure out who it is. I am just hoping now I get my rifle back and the scope I dropped of with it to be bore sighted with the new barrel. thanks for all the info

I'm just over the hill in NV. I get over to Sac fairly often. I could have brought my tools sometime and had it popped off in no time.

So i finaly got my rifle back from the so called gunsmith and it was put together and looks alright will test fire it next weeked what and ordeal I looked at the paper work and i dropped it off on june 2 wow the best part was the guys story changed and now he says he couldn't get the actory barrel off himself and thats why he sent it back to the factory. then he told me that the factory has to use a hydraulic press to get the barrel nut off. Then he told me i was lucky to get my rifle back so soon since every other gunsmith is out 6 months. Yeah i am lucky it took 3 months when he told me 1 week what an ass. any way thanks for all the info guys.

Just my thoughts......if it's not right.....you can certainly complain to the alleged Smith. But, don't let him take possession of your gun again.

Dave