Savage 6BR Finished

[Richard Jones]

Finished up my 6BR the other day. Pac-Nor 28" SS SM, 3 gr, 8 twist, Harrell's brake, 1.055 straight cylinder. On a Savage, of course, R-B trigger at about 3.5 ozs, Rayhill stock, from Brownell's,NEVER again will I fill and sand a stock!!!), lots o' coats of Dupli-Color, Magenta/Gold. B & L 36 on top with Burris zee inserts and Weaver bases. Weight is 16 lbs, 12 ozs.

Now let's see if it shoots.................

My thanks to all on this board who have given me advice on barrels, bullets, etc. Great pool of knowledge here, for sure.

Rich

 

[Forum Boss]

Rich,

Very, very nice rifle! You are "raising the bar" for a Savage. Looks like a Gun of the Week candidate to me! Your gun makes my Savage "Poor Man's Hammer" seem awful plain Jane. Good scope--those old B&Ls are solid. Your gun should be a pleasure to shoot with the brake and that nice stock.

30.0-30.5 Varget should do you. Watch for ejector mark with the Savages. You'll see craters even at low pressure unless you've bushed the firing pin, but with CCI primers I don't worry about it--the primers held at charges way too hot for the brass.

Re seating depth, I'd start .010" in for fire-forming, then try .010" out, and .005" in the lands. I like the Lapua 105s and Berger 105s in that order.

One last word--go EASY with the brushes on the SuperMatch. Mine cleans up with just patches and MT Extreme, followed by WipeOut after 50 rounds or so. You don't need to do an aggressive break-in. I didn't brush at all during break-in and copper stopped after about 15 rounds.

 

[paal_erik_norway]

Nice one
Kind of what i'am going to do. But i will use a Rem.action i got.

 

[LeeinOH]

Could you explain never agin will I fill and sand a stock???

I was thinking of getting an unfinished stock for mine and doing just that, but now you have me thinking twice. I'm also considering a Baer MBR.

 

[Richard Jones]

I did a LR stock like this one in a 6-284 a few years back, got it from SSS, and it was literally ready to paint. Brownell's sells the same thing, a bit cheaper, but needs filling and sanding, right out of the mold.

If you're comfortable in body filler, etc., by all means, try it. But it was WAY too much filling and sanding for me, slowed me WAY down in finishing this project. Next time, I'll spend the extra $$.

Rich

 

[bhawks]

I am currently working on a similar project using the same stock. Definitely a lot of prep work involved. Seems that every time I fill the pinholes and sand, more appear. I only hope mine turns out as good as yours.

Bill Hawks

 

[shcal]

richinva: I have the same stock but mounted with a benchmark standard contour barrel. Your barrel is a larger diameter. Did you open up the barrel channel? If so how did you do it? I am interested in putting a larger diameter barrel on my savage rig with this stock.

Thanks, shcal.

 

[memilanuk]

richinva,

it's not entirely the same stock... same style, yes. SSS normally offers it either painted and ready to go, or primed and finished, ready to paint.

Brownell's is selling the 'OTM'aka 'out of the mold' version, which still needs filled and primed before you can paint it. As you found out the hard way. Bad part is they don't charge much if any less for it that way.

Lock Stock and Barrel out of Valentine Nebraska offers them all three ways,OTM, finished-n-primed, and fully painted) as well, and you can get them direct from the maker that supplies SSS, Brownell's, and LS&B: Stockade Gun Works in Chadron, NE. SSS can supply the stocks OTM also if you want.

I ordered a stock from Stockade last fall that was OTM... and decided that for the ~$40 difference btwn OTM and filled-n-primed... I think I'd rather just have someone else do the bondo work and sanding. Sounds like thats about the same decision you came to

Monte

 

[Richard Jones]

Yep, thought I said that.............

The one I got from SSS a few years back was filled and primed, ready to go. Very little prep on that one, turned out nice with some color change paint.

The one I got from Brownell's is the OTM, cost me about $92 less than the SSS filled and sanded stock. Sounds like a lot of money until you actually start doing the work.

Like I said, never again.

Rich

 

[Savage6br]

Rich,

nice job on your rifle. I just finished 1 up myself.
Basically the same barrel as yours except mine is a no-nut and does'nt have a brake.
Mine shoots real good now. 30.5 Gr of Varget w a cci 450 Primer and 107 SMK. Running at about 2920

 

[Forum Boss]

Rich,

nice job on your rifle. I just finished 1 up myself.
Basically the same barrel as yours except mine is a no-nut and does'nt have a brake.
Mine shoots real good now. 30.5 Gr of Varget w a cci 450 Primer and 107 SMK. Running at about 2920

Savage6BR--

Your gun is very nicely executed! Is that a Richard Franklin stock? Looks like you ended up with a load similar to what I used for our PacNor Savage project gun. What's your seating depth and cartridge OAL for your gun. People have been asking whether the SMK 107s prefer to be into the lands or jumped a bit.

 

[shcal]

richinva & Savagebr: What freebore did you go with? I've talked with Rich at Pac Nor and their standard reamer has a leade dimension of .1163. Rich tells me that you should allow about .050 for neck/shoulder and stretch, this would give you about .0663 freebore if I understand his explanation. Pac Nor can lengthen the freebore but not shorten it. I have read many times on the forum that with an 8" twist barrel and shooting 87gr-V-Max to 107 SMK's a good freebore would be .080 to .090.

 

[Savage6br]

It is a Richard's 008 Walnut Laminate. My comparator dimension is 2.770. That's jumping them .010. It seem to be pretty good so far. I am right there on the edge load wise. I get a very faint ejector mark on the case head. The primer is cratered a little. Extraction is very easy though so I'll live with it.

As far as freebore, I sent Pac-Nor 2 dummy rounds w/ 107 SMK's that
I seated to 2.375 OAL per the Sierra book. As far as the dimension goes, I am not sure about the final freebore dimension in my barrel.

 

[shcal]

Thanks Savage6br for the freebore info. Pac Nor asked me also to provide them with samples of dummy rounds and they would take it form there. Sort of like the chicken and the egg. A little frustrating but they know what they are doing.

shcal

 

[Richard Jones]

I also sent Pac-Nor a dummy round with a 107 SMK. Bullet seated in pic and the one on the left is a 107 SMK, seated just to where the lands disappear on the bullet. The bullet on the right is a 105 A-Max which, while just a bit shorter than the SMK, has its' bearing surface quite a bit higher, so that it has to be seated "deeper" in the case in order for the ogive point,represented here by a slight scratched line with a Sinclair comparator) to be at the same spot.

COAL with the SMK is 2.444. A bit deeper than I wanted, but should work out well for the A-Max's, and, I hope, poorly for the 'hogs................

According to my measurements, the SMK is approx. .011 longer than the AMAX, but the AMAX takes up more room in the neck, while still not protruding into the donut. At least, that's the plan...................

Not sure if this answers your question, but I'm sorta new at this freebore stuff.............

Rich

 

[shcal]

Thanks richinva, your photo is worth a thousand words. Dave Kiff recommends a .104 freebore for the 105gr A-max. I ordered a reamer with a .085 freebore for a variety of bullets in the heavier range but not necessarily the 105 A-max and the 107smk. Have you shot the 105 A-max yet? Please let us know how it does on varmints since that is my intended use. I'll let you know how mine shoots when I get my barrel from Pac Nor and mount it on my savage action.
shcal