Chamber Specs For Mod. 12 F/TR...

[Ernie B]

Good Evening All,

Before I began, I wanted to let everyone know that I finally remembered to do a search of the forums BEFORE asking this question!!

I was wandering if anyone would happen to know what the chamber/reamer specs. for my Mod. 12 F/TR in .308 Win. are?? I've searched the Internet over today trying to find this info, but with no luck. With as many Savage Mod. 12 F/TR's as are out there, I would have thought that at least SOMEONE would have either gotten hold of a copy of the chamber or reamer specs, or had made a lead mold of the chamber or something of the sort. I am especially interested in knowing the neck size and free bore so I might have some idea as to what bullets I want to start out working with. What I HAVE found in my research today are several 'horror' stories of folks who loaded up their "correctly" sized and trimmed brass, loaded a 185-grn. Jugg to "correct" depth only to find that their bolt would not close on the round, etc., etc., etc.. Now, I'm certainly far from an expert when it comes to loading match ammo with long bullets, but I am smart enough to realize that there are MANY reasons why the previous could have happened, more than a few of which could have been caused by "operator error!!" At this point, I sure don't want to take the barrel off this gun just to make a lead mold of the chamber!! I would sure appreciate it if anyone having this info could pass it along.

Regards,
Ernie

[Fotheringill]

Ernie-

You will need to call up Savage (order department) which is VERY responsive to pre purchase questions. They will get you to a gunsmith in a flash. My experience post purchase, so far, is less than stellar.

[Ernie B]

Fotheringill,

Thanks for that info... I actually sent them a request for this info through their FAQ's page last evening. If I don't hear back from them in a couple days, I will certainly try giving them a call. Hopefully, I will have better luck with my first post-purchase request!!

Ernie

[Ernie B]

One other thing that may perhaps 'ring a bell' for some of you out there... I've spent probably close to 12 hours researching this over this past weekend, and I happened upon maybe four or five occurrences where it was mentioned that Savage used a copy of the 'Obermeyer .308 Match Chamber' reamer on the F/TR's. Has anyone else heard or read this?? Thanks again for the help.

Ernie

[yobuck]

They would no doubt have multible reamers chambering multible barrels at the same time.
I doubt any 2 would be exactly alike. Factory barrels are chambered to fit within certain standards due to factory ammo.
A custom chamber can have whatever dimension desired as for neck and freebore. Some are specificaly
chambered for certain bullets as for freebore. Other than having a chamber cast made i dont see how you
could get accurate information on your chamber dimensions. I also dont see what good it would do to even know that.
A fired case will give you all you need to know. When you fire a round the case expands as far as the chamber will permit.
It then retracts slightly which allows for extraction. You can insert a bullet point first into an (unsized)case fired in your chamber to get some idea of
how tight the neck is. Chances are there will be little to no resistance in a case fired in a factory chamber when doing this.
As for freebore, that will change depending on your bullet choice as for weight/legnth and the magazine legnth assuming you use that.
A factory barrel is like canned soup. Be happy if it taste or shoots well.

[FW Conch]

I agree with yobuck completely.

I don't see that any information you get from Savage could have any more value than the suggestions made above.

I find the lands by sizing the first 1/16" of a fired case, insert a bullet long with my fingers, slowly chamber and remove it, catch it before it ejects, measure it ... and I know what the o.a.l. is for that bullet to the lands. Everything I need to know about the chamber is recorded on a fired case. :-)

[Fotheringill]

Ernie-

Take a DEEP breath and hold it. I would be shocked if you get anything from Savage on the support ticket system for a long while other than "waiting for assignment".

[Ernie B]

Fotheringill,

You could very well be right!!! I haven't even got the "waiting for assignment" notice yet!! I guess I'll just take a piece of brass and a bullet and go that route. It's been YEARS since I've done that, but I think I can still fumble my way through it. I think I've got a box of Berger 185-grn. Match Hybrids or VLD's (I can't remember which) and either one of them should be long enough to get the job done. I know there is a lot of negative stuff said about the Savage target barrels, but in the 2 or 3 years I spent researching these rifles, I only ever ran into ONE case of someone getting one that right-out-of-the-box didn't shoot really good. I talked to a LOT of folks who own these and the common terminology I got from the largest majority was "it shoots lights-out!"or something very similar to that. If it doesn't shoot like I want it to, I'll use that barrel for load development and put a Lilja or Krieger on in place of it. We'll just have to see. Thanks so much for the help.

Ernie