Off the wall Savage rimfire question

[handirifle]

I have a thought that's rolled around in the spacious area I call my head. My thinking is, that since the barrels for the 93 and Mark II are press fit, I wonder if anyone has ever thought of or actually converted their 93's to a swap barrel?

I envision it going something like this, pull the barrel from a 93, a 93 so it will handle the magnum pressures, and thread the OUTSIDE of the front of the receiver, and create a small notch in the lower front of the receiver. Next you would turn a .001" or so off the barrels that would normally be press fitted, and instead be a tight slip fit. The barrels would have a small lug,, so it fits into the receiver notch and a small washer where the barrel meets the receiver, brazed in place. Then a nut would be fashioned, that would slide over the barrel, and thread onto the receiver and against the washer, pulling the barrel tight against the receiver, yet making barrel, and thus caliber swaps a piece of cake.

One could easily swap from 22 LR to 22 WMR or 17 HMR or 17M2, just by swapping barrels. I think the magazines could be modded to work easily as well.

The lug on the barrel could also be a counter sunk hole in the barrel, so it would not rely solely on brazing to hold it. The lug would be necessary to maintain alignment of the extraction grooves, and the washer/nut combo, to maintain headspace.

Thoughts?

[JCalhoun]

It would be an interesting project.

[J.Baker]

With as cheap as Savage rimfires are (especially used), why go to all that expense? For what it would cost you to buy a barrel blank and have it machined to work in the manner you describe you could buy a complete gun. Also, how's that big nut over the front of the action going to affect mounting a scope?

[handirifle]

With as cheap as Savage rimfires are (especially used), why go to all that expense? For what it would cost you to buy a barrel blank and have it machined to work in the manner you describe you could buy a complete gun. Also, how's that big nut over the front of the action going to affect mounting a scope?

Well I guess it all depends on, one, whether or not you can find a used one (around here, the answer is a big no). Number two, making sure the seller doesn't want near new price for it. Around here, used folks want way too much for their used rifles. Barrels might be an issue, haven't really looked into it. I can do my own machining so that is not a factor.

The barrel nut/scope issue is a valid one, and most likely would demand a fairly thin barrel nut. Not a lot of pressure with the rimfires, so it should be more than enough, given a satisfactory number of threads mating the two. The barrel nut would not cause as much interference as the rear sight does.

I see no reason, savage could not have come up with this themselves. Sure they want to sell more rifles, but they would not be the first company to do this, but they could do it for a lot less than others have offered.