12FV to 6.5 grendel conversion plan. Need a double check and mag info

[Pit808]

Hi Savageshooters,
I recently bought a savage 12fv in 223 and want to convert it to 6.5 grendel.
I did my best to search previous posts and came up with the following list that I believe should work.
This is my first time working on a savage, so I apologize for ignorance that may follow. Previous post covered #1 and #2, but I couldn't really find info regarding #3 relating to 6.5 grendel.

1. Pre-fit small shank barrel in 6.5 grendel
2. PPC bolt head
3. This one I'm not sure of...My rifle has the blind mag. I'm fine with that. Could I take a savage detachable 7.62x39 mag, remove the floorplate, and swap it with the 223 mag body/spring/follower? My 12FV is center feed and AFAIK so is the savage 7.62x39 magazine. I'm new to savage's so sorry if this idea is way off.

Aside from the tools to do the barrel change and head space gauges, is there anything I'm missing?

I'm planning on upgrading the stock down the road. Haven't decided to what yet.

Thanks for any info.

[Mountain Man]

I think you should look at how long your going to be able to seat bullets in a 7.62x39 mag then look at the throat depth length on your chamber. The best option may be to go single feed if you don't require a magazine.

My guess is if your going to the trouble of building a grendel bolt gun your going to want to wring every last bit of performance out of that cartridge which is usually limited by the AR platforms 60k ish limit, not to mention general accuracy issues generally associated with mag fed semi autos. I'm guessing your going to shoot for 120 grain vld type bullets which in my experience end up doing better in the caliber than the 140s. But that experience is based on an AR so you may find that you can throw 140s fast enough.

This will be a fun build to watch. I started off with a 20" Mid length grendel AR and killed a few deer with it using 125 nosler bt. One day I was playing with subsonic loads when all of a sudden I found one that cycled the rifle. Thoroughly excited, I pulled the trigger 3 more times and was rewarded with a nearly silent but functioning AR. I pulled the charging handle back on the jam and heard a slight hiss reminiscent of a PBR bring opened. At this point I realized that the rifle was working because none of the gas, nor bullets were leaving the barrel.

Long story short that barrel is now a 8.5" carbine length pistol that shoots Lehigh Defenses 95gr controlled chaos at 2400 fps and does a reliable 1.5 MOA @ 200 yds with a 2-A A 7x Leupold on top. It's a great cartridge and should be a real kitty on recoil if you go the bull barrel route. Barrel life should new excellent as well, I have a little over 3500 on my stainless AR barrel and it still looks/shoots great.

Sent from my A571VL using Tapatalk

[s3silver]

Mountain man: pretty scary, lucky nothing else happened.

[s3silver]

Pit: I'm thinking about doing the same thing also. I already purchased a barrel and bolt head from one of the fellow members on here.

#3. I'm not too sure about the blind mag configuration, but your idea seems like it would work. It's worth a try before having to buy a new stock. If it doesn't work at least you'll already have the mag ready.

I'm thinking about doing something similar on my build. My donor uses the axis type mags. Was thinking about buying the 7.62x39 mag and swapping out the follower too.

Let us know how it goes and hopefully someone else chimes in.