Quote Originally Posted by MrFurious View Post
Ever since touring the factory (2004 I think it was), and seeing what I saw, I've always been a little amazed that Savage's shoot as well as they do due to one particular step in the process.

After the barrel blanks are drilled, reamed and have had the bore rifled, they're sent over to a CNC machine where the outside of the barrel is finished out. The shank threads are cut, the contour is turned and the crown is cut all in one operation.

From the CNC machine it goes over to the "bore inspector" (Ray Silva) who looks through the bore at a special lighted box to check that the bore is straight and uniform. If it's not, he has a little tool there to gently bend the barrel to make the bore straight. Basically it's a craftsman's art of using the reflected light and shadows in the bore to get it perfectly straight. See Page 2 of the 2012 catalog for a pic and description.

After that the barrel heads down the line to have the chamber cut, and then gets racked and awaits being mated to an action.

When the time comes, the "swedger" as Savage calls them mates the barrel an action, sets the headspace, tightens down the barrel nut, and then using a fixture check the barre's runout and align it as necessary. See Page 26 of the 2012 catalog for a picture of this. (the big round press thingy at the very right of the image is the press used to "align" the barrel to the action)


Now here's what baffles me:

When the "swedger" checks and tweaks the barrel's alignment to the action, they use a hand press to push/bend the barrel in the direction it needs to go in relation to the action (which is held firmly in a pneumatic vise). Doesn't this process totally negate the bore straightening done earlier? First we straighten the bore and screw up the outside uniformity, then we try to straighten the outside uniformity and screw up the bore's uniformity.

Talk about running in circles and accomplishing nothing! Even so, most still shoot extremely well so you can't really argue with the end result.
WoW! that does seam kooky! Ya know when I straight edge the barrel. (been doing that all night and all morning) it seems it starts shortly after the receiver. May be they flinched on the "swedger" handle when doing mine