Looking at a custom barrel for my 110. Questions...

[TonyBen]

I have a small shank Savage 110 in 30-06 made in the mid-80's. Hunting season is over for me and I wanted to overhaul it before next season. I am stocked deep with 308 brass, primers and powder since I own three M14's and I shoot them a lot. I would like to re-barrel my 110 to 308. I want a 5R 1/11" twist barrel, cut with my pull-through chamber reamer that I used to build my last two M14's. Do I just order a short-chambered Obermeyer or Kreiger and screw in the barrel until it bottoms out, then back it off a few degrees, then cut the chamber to headspace?

Most people just order finished barrels that are already cut to a generic 308 chamber and use a headspace gauge. Since I'm going custom, that won't work and the question I'm having is how much clearance the barrel needs from the bolt lugs fully locked.

By cutting my own chamber to match my other rifles, I can most likely use the same loads between rifles and I don't have to touch my sizing die.

I have a full set of headspace gauges from 1.630" through 1.639". It will eventually sit in a B&C Medalist stock for hunting. Right now, it's in a standard wood stock which I pillar bedded myself.

Tony.

[DrThunder88]

Notjing about your plan seems impossible, but I question whether the motivation for it is putting the cart before the horse. It's a bit like buying a Corvette but getting the packge with the 3.8L V6 engine because you want to use the same gas as your Buick. Were it me considering investing in a Krieger barrel, I would be trying to get every drop of accuracy out of it. That would include using a match reamer with a throat length based on a load specifically tailored to that barrel. And I would probably set the barrel to the minimum possible headspace using the regular Savage barrel installation procedure instead of installing the barrel and cutting until the bolt closes.

I can't speak to the quality of the chamber cut by a pull-through reamer as compared to a breech reamer, but the pull-through design strikes me as a workaround for chambering barrels that can't be reamed from the breech end. That's just the impression that I get. It could be just as good, but I don't think it would be better or more gunsmiths would do it on precision rifles. It's also no guarantee that the chambers will be and will remain similar enough to share unsized ammo.

[TonyBen]

The reamer I'm using is a match reamer that I purchased this year and it's tolerances are very tight. It's close to an Obermeyer chamber, but different neck and freebore dimensions. I set my chamber headspace at 1.632". I'm a home builder and I don't have a lathe so I use a pull-through reamer. I just like to build whatever rifles I can on my own.

Tony.

[LoneWolf]

Using the same brass between bolt guns and semi autos never seems to breed the most accuracy. Bolt guns are most consistent when Neck sizing and maybe a light shoulder bump are the only adjustments made. I would separate about a 100pieces of brass just for the bolt gun and load specifically for it. Even if you use the same reamer autos are always hard on brass and will breed less consistency with shared ammo in the bolt gun.

[TonyBen]

Using the same brass between bolt guns and semi autos never seems to breed the most accuracy. Bolt guns are most consistent when Neck sizing and maybe a light shoulder bump are the only adjustments made. I would separate about a 100pieces of brass just for the bolt gun and load specifically for it. Even if you use the same reamer autos are always hard on brass and will breed less consistency with shared ammo in the bolt gun.

Yes, the plan is to separate brass between bolt-only and semi-auto when the time comes. The purpose of this build will be hunting, but for now, my semi-auto 308 outshoots my Savage in 30-06 by a wide margin. It's time to remedy that. My 5-shot groups with hunting ammo out of my M25 was under two inches at 200 yards while my 3-shot groups for my Savage was around 3.5 inches at 200 yards.

Tony.

[mudpig]

Should be easy enough for you. Min bolt head face to barrel face spacing should be around .005 for reliable functioning. Most Stock Savages are in the neighborhood of .020 or more spacing. You can take that .005 measurement and the measurement of the depth of the bolt face and use that for your headspace gauge protrusion number. You would then ream your chamber until the headspace gauge protruded THAT amount. Then you should be able to screw the barrel down on the headspace gauge and lock it down as normally you would do. Would give you ZERO headspace with .005 of space between barrel and bolt face.

[TonyBen]

Should be easy enough for you. Min bolt head face to barrel face spacing should be around .005 for reliable functioning. Most Stock Savages are in the neighborhood of .020 or more spacing. You can take that .005 measurement and the measurement of the depth of the bolt face and use that for your headspace gauge protrusion number. You would then ream your chamber until the headspace gauge protruded THAT amount. Then you should be able to screw the barrel down on the headspace gauge and lock it down as normally you would do. Would give you ZERO headspace with .005 of space between barrel and bolt face.

Great! So given that the thread pitch is a .05" lead, I can tighten the barrel until it bottoms out on the bolt face, then back it off a minimum of 36˚. That would give me a 0.005" gap. I'd probably just shoot for 45˚ and call it good. That would give me a 0.00625" gap from the bolt lugs to the barrel face. Then I can tighten the barrel nut and cut the chamber until the bolt closes on a GO gauge.

That answers my question! Much appreciated!

Tony.