Quote Originally Posted by MrFurious
With as cheap as Savage rimfires are (especially used), why go to all that expense? For what it would cost you to buy a barrel blank and have it machined to work in the manner you describe you could buy a complete gun. Also, how's that big nut over the front of the action going to affect mounting a scope?
Well I guess it all depends on, one, whether or not you can find a used one (around here, the answer is a big no). Number two, making sure the seller doesn't want near new price for it. Around here, used folks want way too much for their used rifles. Barrels might be an issue, haven't really looked into it. I can do my own machining so that is not a factor.

The barrel nut/scope issue is a valid one, and most likely would demand a fairly thin barrel nut. Not a lot of pressure with the rimfires, so it should be more than enough, given a satisfactory number of threads mating the two. The barrel nut would not cause as much interference as the rear sight does.

I see no reason, savage could not have come up with this themselves. Sure they want to sell more rifles, but they would not be the first company to do this, but they could do it for a lot less than others have offered.