What to do with old 110L

[megasupermagnum]

I came across an old Savage 110L, with no barrel marking other than 6mm, and Doak Ray. Being a handloader, I took a chance, and bought it for $125 out the door. The first thing I did was take a chamber cast, where I confirmed that it was chambered for 6mm remington. The gun seemed to be set up as a varmint rifle. The laminate stock was bedded, the barrel is a long 26.5" plus a muzzle brake, and with scope comes in just over 11 pounds. From the chamber cast I knew the gun had been shot regularly, as the throat was clearly worn. Still I managed to find a load that shot 3/4 MOA, and happily shot about 800 rounds before accuracy really started to fall off. Once it got to the point I couldn't keep all shots inside of 1.5" with any load, I put it in storage. Based on the numbers hand engraved on the parts, plus the old style bolt, my best guess is the gun was made in 1963. No idea when the custom barrel was put on, or who Doak Ray is. I've done a little research on the subject, and it seems not just any 110 barrel will fit this gun. The question is now on what to do with it? I've thought about seeing if a gunsmith can set the barrel back, but from the bore scope, it looks rough for a long ways. It might be beyond repair. So my two options are to buy a blank and have a gunsmith fit the barrel in any caliber I want, or buy the bolt assembly, trigger, and barrel from a new model. I am leaning towards the first option, as the trigger on this gun is surprisingly good. I don't own a gun with a better trigger, and the accu trigger doesn't come close. Being such a heavy rifle, It is at home on a bench. I'm not sure what I want to do with the rifle. I don't varmint hunt. It's on the heavy side for a big game rifle. It would be a great target rifle though. Maybe a plain old 308 Winchester, one of my favorites. I've even thought about something as big as 338 lapua. I'm not a fan of the small bores. Any input?

[J.Baker]

If you went to all that trouble and expense to update it to the newer style bolt you would also have to replace the stock as the early stocks were shorter (top to bottom) in the trigger area. If you put a modern trigger in that gun with that stock you wouldn't be able to get it back together because the trigger would be hitting the trigger guard before the action seated in the stock.

Any reasonably good gunsmith that does barrel work should have no problem making a barrel for you with the old bolt or setting back the exiting barrel if it has any life left in it.

As for what to do with it and dealing with the weight, with the stock being wood it can always be whittled down to something lighter and more hunting oriented if that's what you want. A good rasp, a DA sander and an assortment of sandpaper grits and you can make it anything you want - just takes a little vision and elbow grease.

[mnbogboy2]

The old style trigger was very good for a factory trigger. I believe your laminate stock is aftermarket as the barrel obviously is. Is it possible someone has changed the trigger as well?
With one of the converts of these pre-66 to the new style barrel I did required machining the side of the action for the new style sear (bolt release lever). Then using all the new style safety parts made a Timney trigger work. Then a few magazine alterations and a new style bolt body, a new bolt head and small diameter firing pin allowed for the newer convential style prefit barrel.
With the second and last one I kept the old trigger and installed a complete new style bolt. I set the second one up as a single shot because the original magazine was missing. My 13 year old granddaughter killed her first buck with that one.

The "old" ones are interesting and definitely cost more to rebarrel but all depends on what you expect for the end result.