savagesmith

**winchester70** · October 3rd, 2014, 04:37 PM

Looking for gunsmith to swap barrel on my savage near lower burrell

**aubie515** · October 9th, 2014, 10:38 AM

Have you considered DIY. That is why most go to Savage. You need minimum tools to do a barrel swap. You can do it under 15 minutes.

I have a barrel nut wrench, action vice (which you could make yourself or purchase one) and you will at least need a GO gauge to headspace. You can get away with not having a NO GO gauge by adding tape to the GO gauge.

It's very simple, so don't be intimidated by doing it yourself. I'd help, but I'm in SEPA.

What caliber are you switching to or are you just upgrading the barrel?

**jerkin** · October 9th, 2014, 01:09 PM

I have the tools to do it also, including the go gauge for 308, 7mm-08, 243, etc. if you are changing to one of those calibers. I'd help you do it if you want to drive up this way, probably an hour or so from you (New Castle area). If you are changing to a different caliber you would just need the go gauge for that caliber which are about $25 from Midway unless you know someone to borrow one from. Like Aubie said, we just use a piece of scotch tape on the back of the go gauge as a no go.

**aubie515** · October 9th, 2014, 02:46 PM

You don't need to buy GO/NO GO gauges as there are online companies that will rent gauges for an inexpensive price.

**jerkin** · October 9th, 2014, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by aubie515

You don't need to buy GO/NO GO gauges as there are online companies that will rent gauges for an inexpensive price.

I hadn't heard about that before so I looked it up and found "reamerrentals", they will rent the gauges for $7 but the round trip shipping is another $17, might as well just buy the go gage for that. There was another company that came up called 4D or something like that but their site didn't seem to be working.

**winchester70** · October 9th, 2014, 11:11 PM

Ya I know I could do it myself but I figured by the time I buy everything I could just pay a gunsmith to do the work cause I don't have barrel vise, action wrench, barrel nut wrench or go no go gauges. I did check out renting the go no go gauges from that website and that was the route I was going to take but I want to see how much a smith will charge me before I buy everything.

**jerkin** · October 10th, 2014, 08:04 AM

Local smith told me $50. I bought the action wrench and barrel nut wrench from Northland Shooter Supplies for $85+ whatever the shipping was. My thinking was that if I do it twice I'd about break even and I have two different Savages to play with, one long action and one short action. I put a 243 barrel on the short action for my Daughter but after she gets comfortable with the recoil she may want to bump up to a 308. The long action is currently a 30-06 but who knows. From what I understand that action wrench also fits the Remington 700's but I'm not positive.

**aubie515** · October 10th, 2014, 09:36 AM

Well depending on the caliber...sometimes buying gauges is hard to get...IE I had a tough time finding gauges to purchase for 300 blackout, so I rented them.

Midway was waiting on order from PTG...and if you order directly from PTG...the prices were higher than from other vendors.

OP, it's not just about saving money...for me the point with going with Savage is I didn't have to send off my firearms to pay someone to work on my rifles. I'm not a fan of sending off my firearms for any reason. You end up wasting time and money. When you DIY, you get the satisfaction of knowing your rifle shot that well because you had complete control over materials being used and you DIY. You also learn a new skill to be able to service your own firearms.

Being able to do it yourself is a huge advantage of going with a Savage.

If you have high disposable income, you probably should have just gone with a Remington or another action that way you would be paying someone to do the work on your rifles.

**Bang** · October 10th, 2014, 11:50 AM

If you will be reloading for the chosen caliber, you could buy a Wilson brass gauge and a box of high-end ammo. Add tape on the head of a cartridge until it exceeds the gauge by one layer to make a no-go. The Wilson will be a constant companion for evaluating cases regarding shoulder set and OAL of the brass.