So as anyone who has been around knows, it is a giant PIA to find a single shot adapter for a Savage rifle which has a blind centerfeed magazine. And if we can find the engineer who took the sheet metal from the DBM and then stuffed that into the the blind hole in the stock, he should get a wooping too. How Savage could expect customers to accept such an awful magazine is beyond me.
Anyway, after messing with it for a few weekends, I solved the issue for the short term today. I took some aluminum flashing from the local hardware store (it is about 0.016" thick and springy from being rolled) and a pair of tin snips and cut a rectangular piece of the flashing large enough to cover the opening in the receiver and overlap about 1/4" on either side. At the trigger end, I cut a notch for the action screw when the front edge was just touching the front action screw. This way the 2 action screws locate it in the axial direction.
I then rolled the flashing, initially around the front end of the barrel, but I could not get the curvature to extend to the edges. So I used a screwdriver shank to get the curvature to the edge of the strip.
I removed the blind magazine from the stock, then put the L shaped metal clip back in position at the rear action screw (leaving it out the rear of the action drops down too far). You might need a dab of 5 min epoxy or superglue to temporarily hold it in position. Then turn the action upside down, lay the new flashing material down on the bottom of the action, correctly aligned with the action screws and drop the stock in place. Insert action screws and torque and you are in business.
The fact that the material is so uniform in thickness and so thin seems to have no great negative effect on the bedding. The curvature seems to place/guide the cartridge and the height seems perfect for the feed ramp on the front of the action and all bullets fed perfectly (308 185gr Berger VLD's).
Instead of waiting several months for the SSS adapter (I want one but don't have that kind of patience), just use a few cents worth of flashing and you are good to go. It is completely reversible too. I got my DBM + bottom metal today so now I need the stock inlet for it and in future if I want to single load I will have to get a "Fred Sled". Single loading today at the range was much nicer than trying to single feed over the blind magazine. The only way that worked was if you loaded the bullet tip into the chamber and then used the bolt to push the rest of it in. With the flashing guide, just drop in the bullet through the port and push it forward.
Here was the final result
Without the flyer (1st shot) I was pretty satisfied.
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