Long Action 110 in .243

[vern748]

Hi All,

New to the Savage Shooters forum, so go easy on me. I recently picked up a Savage 110, long action, in .243. It is a great shooting weapon and am very pleased with my purchase. I am looking to get a different stock and do a few thing to it to make it a better long range / bench rest shooter. Not to say that it is not pretty go now, making 1 big ragged hole with 3 shots at 100 yrds.

What I am running into is a lot of push back from vendors, most ofter stock vendors.
"Need a thumb hole stock for my Savage 110"
"What action"
"Long Action. 5 inch on center"
"What cal. ?"
"243"
"Savage did not make a 243, 110 in LA. Call back when you have the right action"

OK then.

Is this so uncommon that most vendors don't know about it or is it just a case that its hard to find good help ?
Now, when buying stuff, I will says its a 30-06, just so I dont have to give someone a history lesson on Savage naming conventions.

Thoughts?

[ellobo]

What you have is a first generation Savage to adapt a long action to shoot short action cartridges. This was prior to thier making true short acions. Stocks are a problem because the action bolt spacing was different due to a shorter magazine and a stock made to have a long magazine being all they make. You cannot add a long magazine as there is no notch in the action to take it. No stock maker makes a stock for a long action with a short magazine and the odd mounting bolt spacing that goes with it. I know, I had the same problem when I bought a 110 I thought was a real long action but turned out to be one of those modified for short cartridges. I was going to make it a 7x57 mauser. I ended up making it a .308 and sold it. Call Boyds and see if they can help you out. You may have to get a long action stock, fill in the empty place in the magazine well to support the short magazine and redrill the action mounting screw holes. You probably wont have to redrill the rearmost hole. Glue in dowels in the holes and redrill. Color with Minwax stain. You have a blind magazine stagger feed.
El Lobo

[Smokey262]

The regular long action stock will fit just fine. It did on all three of my short action/long action rifles, and will be OK on yours too. Don't worry about what cartridge it is for. The 5.062" spacing is the key

[vern748]

Hi ellobo,

This is exactly what I am talking about. The action will fit into the standard long action stock just fine. There was no issue with the magazine length / size. As Smokey262 mentioned, I also have replaced the stock, and it works great. I did have to weed through a lot of misinformation, of which Savage Forum appears to be not immune to.

[bootsmcguire]

It sounds like El Lobo is thinking of the 4.52 spaced actions (I think they are refered to as the "J" actions), those are the impossible ones to get stocks for. The 5" spaced LA, short mag or long mag will fit in a Standard LA SF stock. At least all of the ones I had have.

[GUNFANATIC]

What you have is a first generation Savage to adapt a long action to shoot short action cartridges. This was prior to thier making true short acions. Stocks are a problem because the action bolt spacing was different due to a shorter magazine and a stock made to have a long magazine being all they make. You cannot add a long magazine as there is no notch in the action to take it. No stock maker makes a stock for a long action with a short magazine and the odd mounting bolt spacing that goes with it. I know, I had the same problem when I bought a 110 I thought was a real long action but turned out to be one of those modified for short cartridges. I was going to make it a 7x57 mauser. I ended up making it a .308 and sold it. Call Boyds and see if they can help you out. You may have to get a long action stock, fill in the empty place in the magazine well to support the short magazine and redrill the action mounting screw holes. You probably wont have to redrill the rearmost hole. Glue in dowels in the holes and redrill. Color with Minwax stain. You have a blind magazine stagger feed.
El Lobo

Absolutely not true. For all intents and purposes, you have a long action. Magazine size makes no difference. Any long action stock will fit.

[82boy]

It just shows how much the vender's know about the products they are selling, my thoughts is if they don't want to take the time to research the products they are selling, then I don't want to do business with them.

The fact is Savage made literally hundreds of thousands of 110's in 243 win. Now how many are long action or 1st generation short actions is the question. The long actions have a screw spacing of 5.062. The 1st generation shorts used a spacing of 4.522. The second generation short action has a screw spacing of 4.275 and the third gen short has a screw spacing of 4.400. Now if you gave them a measurement of 5 they should have know that it was a long action regardless of caliber.

This is just like the moderan parts store. it is easy to fit a 351 Windsor in a Fox body Mustang, but go to the parts store and try to get spark plugs. You can tell them the engine is not original, but they will still insist on selling you 302 parts. That is the problem now a days people just want to have answers spoon feed to them and they don't want to think. It is just plain sad.

[ellobo]

To clarify my post; yes it was one of th "J" actions I was talking about. That was some yrs back when I was into Savages and knew nothing about the first and subsequent short actions. As I rebarreled more of them and getting on this forum I learned a lot about all the subtle changes I had to contend with, like differnces in firing pin dia, bolt sleeves with a bump on the inside and bolt heads with no provision for the bump. those are a few. Since that action I have rebuilt two for my hunting purposes, thats all I use them for, calibers not made in commercial rifles, a .35 Whelen and a 7x57.

El Lobo