Savage Axis 30-06 barrel threading

[Longranger]

So I asked a gunsmith about if my axis sporter in 30-06 could be threaded for a suppressor and he said no, because the diameter is too small. So I measured the muzzle myself and it's around .58". So yes that'd be too small to cut 5/8x24 threads but I was thinking, what about 9/16x24 or 14x1L? Both of those threads are used on 308 rifles like the FAL and 308 AKs, is there any reason I couldn't have my axis threaded in one of those sizes instead?

[Robinhood]

Not a gunsmith but you could thread it 9/16 -24 and bottom out on the small diameter instead of the large diameter face. there simply is not enough of a shoulder on the big diameter.

[Longranger]

Not a gunsmith but you could thread it 9/16 -24 and bottom out on the small diameter instead of the large diameter face. there simply is not enough of a shoulder on the big diameter.

I'm not sure I understand, do you mean use an adapter that snugs up against the muzzle instead of the shoulder? And how much shoulder would it need? I believe 9/16x24 major diameter is around .56" and 14x1L is around .55" and my barrel has .58" at the muzzle but it's a tapered sporter barrel so it would be a little thicker back where the shoulder would be cut

[Fuj']

With a 308 bore, and after machining to a 9/16-24 thread; At bottom of thread to
bore would be around only .100" wall thickness. I would not view this as enough
material to hang a suppressor.

[Longranger]

With a 308 bore, and after machining to a 9/16-24 thread; At bottom of thread to
bore would be around only .100" wall thickness. I would not view this as enough
material to hang a suppressor.

That's roughly the same wall thickness as the 338lm savage in 5/8x24, equal wall thickness to fals, and more wall thickness than 308 and 7.62x54r AK variants

[Dave Hoback]

It doesn’t matter what some other rifles may be. The point is no one will take on that job. And none of us, who actually understand & do a lot or a little machining ourselves, would do. But you can try it yourself.

If you want to do it, have the barrel cut back an inch or two preferably, thread & re-crown the muzzle. This should provide a great deal more wall thickness & shoulder.

[Longranger]

It doesn’t matter what some other rifles may be. The point is no one will take on that job. And none of us, who actually understand & do a lot or a little machining ourselves, would do. But you can try it yourself.

If you want to do it, have the barrel cut back an inch or two preferably, thread & re-crown the muzzle. This should provide a great deal more wall thickness & shoulder.

I'll find someone who will do it I'm not at all worried about that, my only concern is whether or not it's a good idea. I agree that it seems thin, it does to me too. But I'm wondering why it doesn't seem to be a problem on equally thin FAL's and even thinner examples like 14x1L 308, 7.62x39, and 7.62x54r AKs? As well as every 1/2x28 9mm that has a .05" wall

[bootsmcguire]

I would consider .100" min wall thickness acceptable (not preferable), Savage certainly accepted close to that for their ON/OFF muzzle brakes as the 30cal brake was factory threaded 9/16-28 which left a wall thickness of about .114". Considering that manufacturers have to be lawyer friendly and they were fine with .114 then I would think the .100 that you will end up with should suffice given you exercise some care. I would certainly want a bit of a shoulder to mate up to for a suppressor, so I would consider trimming the barrel back for that purpose as previously suggested.

FWIW I had a 458WM that had 5/8-24-RH threaded muzzle which left me with about a .060 wall thickness and it did fine.

In the end I would say if you can add more "meat" to the wall thickness by either trimming the barrel shorter or just picking up a heavier profile barrel then I would highly recommend it, but I tend to be an overkill kind of guy with these things.

[Longranger]

I would consider .100" min wall thickness acceptable (not preferable), Savage certainly accepted close to that for their ON/OFF muzzle brakes as the 30cal brake was factory threaded 9/16-28 which left a wall thickness of about .114". Considering that manufacturers have to be lawyer friendly and they were fine with .114 then I would think the .100 that you will end up with should suffice given you exercise some care. I would certainly want a bit of a shoulder to mate up to for a suppressor, so I would consider trimming the barrel back for that purpose as previously suggested.

FWIW I had a 458WM that had 5/8-24-RH threaded muzzle which left me with about a .060 wall thickness and it did fine.

In the end I would say if you can add more "meat" to the wall thickness by either trimming the barrel shorter or just picking up a heavier profile barrel then I would highly recommend it, but I tend to be an overkill kind of guy with these things.

OK thanks good info, I'm curious how much of a shoulder is necessary so I can calculate how much length I'd have to trim off?

[bootsmcguire]

OK thanks good info, I'm curious how much of a shoulder is necessary so I can calculate how much length I'd have to trim off?

Assuming you are starting with a 22" sporter barrel I would look at trimming to 18 or 19 inches from the back of the chamber and see what diameter you get. It may be enough to go 5/8-24, don't have a sporter handy to measure myself. A .050 radial shoulder would do well enough I would think. Again people have different opinions and preferences and in this situation if you are going to error, error on the side of more wall thickness and more shoulder with wall thickness being preferable. As far as the shorter barrel for performance (in case that is a concern), I had trimmed down a 30-06 sporter down to 16in some years ago mostly to practice cutting crowns and testing out a jig I made for holding tapered barrels in a lathe. Accuracy improved slightly and if memory serves I only lost about 150fps tops. Still above 308 Win level and was a handy little length. Come to think of it I may still have it in the cabinet. If I do I'll take a measurement of that muzzle diameter for reference. I believe it was an older barrel and I think it had a skinnier profile that the more modern sporter barrels made in the last 20 years of so. I'll check and report back if I do still have it.

EDIT: Ok so it looks like I did have it, and I had it trimmed to 16.5 inches and the muzzle measures .640"

[Dave Hoback]

Assuming you are starting with a 22" sporter barrel I would look at trimming to 18 or 19 inches from the back of the chamber and see what diameter you get. It may be enough to go 5/8-24, don't have a sporter handy to measure myself. A .050 radial shoulder would do well enough I would think. Again people have different opinions and preferences and in this situation if you are going to error, error on the side of more wall thickness and more shoulder with wall thickness being preferable. As far as the shorter barrel for performance (in case that is a concern), I had trimmed down a 30-06 sporter down to 16in some years ago mostly to practice cutting crowns and testing out a jig I made for holding tapered barrels in a lathe. Accuracy improved slightly and if memory serves I only lost about 150fps tops. Still above 308 Win level and was a handy little length. Come to think of it I may still have it in the cabinet. If I do I'll take a measurement of that muzzle diameter for reference. I believe it was an older barrel and I think it had a skinnier profile that the more modern sporter barrels made in the last 20 years of so. I'll check and report back if I do still have it.

EDIT: Ok so it looks like I did have it, and I had it trimmed to 16.5 inches and the muzzle measures .640"

Nicely detailed Boots. This is precisely what I was recommending in my response, though not so eloquently installed as your words my friend

[Longranger]

Assuming you are starting with a 22" sporter barrel I would look at trimming to 18 or 19 inches from the back of the chamber and see what diameter you get. It may be enough to go 5/8-24, don't have a sporter handy to measure myself. A .050 radial shoulder would do well enough I would think. Again people have different opinions and preferences and in this situation if you are going to error, error on the side of more wall thickness and more shoulder with wall thickness being preferable. As far as the shorter barrel for performance (in case that is a concern), I had trimmed down a 30-06 sporter down to 16in some years ago mostly to practice cutting crowns and testing out a jig I made for holding tapered barrels in a lathe. Accuracy improved slightly and if memory serves I only lost about 150fps tops. Still above 308 Win level and was a handy little length. Come to think of it I may still have it in the cabinet. If I do I'll take a measurement of that muzzle diameter for reference. I believe it was an older barrel and I think it had a skinnier profile that the more modern sporter barrels made in the last 20 years of so. I'll check and report back if I do still have it.

EDIT: Ok so it looks like I did have it, and I had it trimmed to 16.5 inches and the muzzle measures .640"

Hmmm yeah that's an option I'll have to think about it. I'm thinking my two options are 1. Leave the barrel at 22", thread it to 9/16x24, and find a mount that will index off the muzzle instead of the nonexistent shoulder, if such a mount exists. Or 2. Cut the barrel back until I have enough meat for a shoulder. Not sure what to do

[Dave Hoback]

What you could do, instead of using a shoulder, thread back just a bit extra & use a jam nut. It would operate much the same as our beloved Barrel Nuts! There are indexable muzzle attachments that work in this fashion.

[Longranger]

What you could do, instead of using a shoulder, thread back just a bit extra & use a jam nut. It would operate much the same as our beloved Barrel Nuts! There are indexable muzzle attachments that work in this fashion.

Yeah I had an idea kind of like that! But I was thinking to have a very precise collar that could index off of even a tiny shoulder and basically create a big shoulder. But the jam nut idea is interesting too, I wonder if anyone has done that before

[jbierling]

Yeah I had an idea kind of like that! But I was thinking to have a very precise collar that could index off of even a tiny shoulder and basically create a big shoulder. But the jam nut idea is interesting too, I wonder if anyone has done that before

I know this thread is a year old, but I'm wondering if you ended up doing anything. I'm in a similar boat with a 111 .30-06 with a muzzle measuring .578 which I'd like to thread for a suppressor.

I saw elsewhere the idea of welding a sleeve on the muzzle and then threading into that. It would be nice to have a 5/8x24 rather than use a 9/16 adapter or cutting the barrel.

[jbierling]

Yeah I had an idea kind of like that! But I was thinking to have a very precise collar that could index off of even a tiny shoulder and basically create a big shoulder. But the jam nut idea is interesting too, I wonder if anyone has done that before

Given this is a year+ later, what did you end up doing? I'm in the same boat.

[J.Baker]

As was detailed above, a factory sporter barrel is generally considered too small in diameter to be threaded for a brake or suppressor at the factory length (usually around 0.550-0.580" diameter at the muzzle depending on caliber). If you want to have said barrel threaded, it is strongly recommended to have the barrel cut back a few inches to where the muzzle diameter will be in the 0.625 to 0.650" diameter to ensure sufficient wall thickness remains after threading. Additionally, if/when the wall thickness is too thin and you cut the outer threads on the muzzle, metal may often be pushed into the bore during the process resulting in what appears to be threads on the inside of the barrel as well which may have a negative effect on the accuracy of the barrel.

Finally, under no circumstance is it ever a good idea to weld anything onto a rifle barrel as the heat will deform and/or weaken the metal which could result in disastrous result.

[PhilC]

Given this is a year+ later, what did you end up doing? I'm in the same boat.

Longranger has not signed in since 12.24.23 so not likely to get a timely reply. Can always check a member's activity by clicking on their username where last log on date is provided.

[LDSILLS]

Finally, under no circumstance is it ever a good idea to weld anything onto a rifle barrel as the heat will deform and/or weaken the metal which could result in disastrous result.

Next I suppose you'll say I shouldn't be putting my shotgun barrel into the hole on my trailer hitch to bend it left or right to make it accurate. DARN!!

[Robinhood]

Next I suppose you'll say I shouldn't be putting my shotgun barrel into the hole on my trailer hitch to bend it left or right to make it accurate. DARN!!

No kidding!

[LDSILLS]

Only kidding!