Another barrel swap question: 12FV

[BoilerUP]

New to the forum, did a search AND reviewed the FAQ but I may have missed something so please be gentle.

I have a Savage 12FV in 204 Ruger, and am considering converting it to .223 Remington. I have a few questions about this for those who have done this before:

1. Is this a reasonable do-it-yourself project for someone with intermediate knowledge, or should I go to a gunsmith? I'm not above taking my time & learning the weapon better...

2. Research on this site has shown me that the bolt head for 204 is the same for 223, so I should be good in that regard, correct?

3. Assuming I'm good on the bolt face, what would I need other than the new tube, a barrel wrench, and a set of headspace gauges? Would the internal magazine work or would I need tweaking there? Will the OE stock should work as long as the barrel diameter is similar?

4. If I wanted to go the other way toward .308 Win, would the .473 bolt head & new mag follower be sufficient on top of the stuff in #3?

Thanks to all for the insight!

[82boy]

New to the forum, did a search AND reviewed the FAQ but I may have missed something so please be gentle.

Welcome to the site!

1. Is this a reasonable do-it-yourself project for someone with intermediate knowledge, or should I go to a gunsmith? I'm not above taking my time & learning the weapon better...

Yes, it is something a person with a small amount of mechanical ability can do. The problem is if you only plan on changing one barrel it doesn't makes since to buy the tooling needed to change the barrels. Now if you plan on switching back and forth, or changing to other calibers then it would be a good investment.

2. Research on this site has shown me that the bolt head for 204 is the same for 223, so I should be good in that regard, correct?

Yes.

3. Assuming I'm good on the bolt face, what would I need other than the new tube, a barrel wrench, and a set of headspace gauges? Would the internal magazine work or would I need tweaking there? Will the OE stock should work as long as the barrel diameter is similar?

Yes, the stock, and magazine will work. There is many different way to skin the cat. To do the change you will need a minimum of a bench vice, a set of hard wood barrel blocks, and a barrel wrench. Many pepole have problems with breaking looses factory barrels and have opt for a action vice, I have never used one. With a bit of patients a factory barrel can be broken loose with a barrel vice, or a set of wood blocks in a bench vice. For a beginner a go and no-go gauge set would be a good idea. many people set their barrels up with using fired and sized brass.

4. If I wanted to go the other way toward .308 Win, would the .473 bolt head & new mag follower be sufficient on top of the stuff in #3?

All that would be needed is a bolt head change, but if you want the magazine to work you need to change the intire magazine box out.

[BoilerUP]

Thank you, Patrick!

I also have an older (15-20 yr old) Savage 110 in .270 Win. Is there a similar way to convert this long action to shoot the short-action .308?

[82boy]

Thank you, Patrick!

I also have an older (15-20 yr old) Savage 110 in .270 Win. Is there a similar way to convert this long action to shoot the short-action .308?

Yup, just spin the barrel on. A 270 uses a .473 bolt face. Many people do this because they like loading the rounds out to touch the land and shoot heavier bullets, when doing this it is impossible to feed them through a short action mag, but it works well with a long action.

[Con]

Swapping barrels is not rocket science. With thought and care ... even I can do it and I'm generally a mechanical clutz. :D
Cheers...
Con