If you were to covert a Savage 300 Win Mag...

[captainjoe]

I have a 116 Savage 300 Win Mag that I want to rebarrel and put a high quality stock on as part of a project gun for LRH. In doing so, I am considering using it as a donor action to change to another caliber. If you had this long action, would you keep it as is or change it to another caliber? Besides having another caliber to play with, my ultimate goal would be to use something that is more efficient and effective than the 300 Win Mag at long distances for shooting deer and elk.

I would rather keep it a repeater, so as much as I would like a 338 Edge, I would be looking at something like a 338 SIN or something similar.

 

[BillR]

So build a .338 Edge repeater. Not hard to do. Takes a bit of cutting on the front of the mag well and a few other minor changes to do it. Some of the guys on here and a lot of the guys on Savageshooters.com have made these same guns into repeaters without much or any problems and can help you out a lot.

 

[bigngreen]

I think the 338 Sin will be a good round for guys just wanting a barrel swap situation and still get some performance. I would do a 338 RUM over an Edge as it buys you a little room, still have to mod things a little but it's just enough shorter to give you some wiggle room and the same performance. The 338 Sin will be a go to round if everything irons out, needs to be easy to reload as well to really take of IMO and that seems to be getting addressed.
Swap barrels it works great and is kinda fun, I'm playing with a short action that I swap between a 270WSM and a 7mmRUM and will likely try to get my hands on a 338 Sin for it at some point.

 

[captainjoe]

So build a .338 Edge repeater. Not hard to do. Takes a bit of cutting on the front of the mag well and a few other minor changes to do it. Some of the guys on here and a lot of the guys on Savageshooters.com have made these same guns into repeaters without much or any problems and can help you out a lot.

I read somewhere that it was not possible to do a .338 Edge repeater on a 111 action as it isn't long enough (even with mods). If I could do a 338 edge repeater on the Savage, that would be ideal. Is there webpage or forum posting anywhere where someone has written up on how they did this?

 

[Camshaft]

Why would you bother with the edge? It offers nothing other the taking up mag space and costing more on dies. The standard. 338rum would be a far better choice in my opinion. But why go with a 338 even? A 7wsm or 300wsm with a long throat would seem ideal. Have you considered a 300weatherby?

 

[Trickymissfit]

the problem here is that he has a small shank barrel, and the big fat cases don't pan out as well in them. I think I'd be looking at something like a .300 Jarrette, or a .338 Jarrette (built off an 8mm mag case that's either necked down or necked up)
gary

 

[sinarms]

I have done ton's of 404 based cases (rum, edge, wsm, wssm, Sin) in Savage and 95% of them were on small shank Savages. I have never seen 1 problem with them.

 

[Trickymissfit]

I have done ton's of 404 based cases (rum, edge, wsm, wssm, Sin) in Savage and 95% of them were on small shank Savages. I have never seen 1 problem with them.

if you've never had a problem, then so be it. But a few folks have had the threaded end of the barrel crack in the past. That's why Remington and Savage went to a larger thread diameter years back on the bigger case diameters
gary

 

[sinarms]

Savage never went to a large shank because of a problem, they did it because of added safety. If there was a problem every small shank Savage that was made in WSM and Rum would of been recalled. There have been a very few Savage nuts that have cracked and that was a problem with the nut and not the barrel. Every factory Savage is tested above and beyond any factory ammo and if I remember right it is twice Saami specs for the cartridge and it passes that without failure. Any of the rum cases and wsm cases are fine in a small shank Savage. The end user would be the one that causes the problem by pushing it to far hand loading but then again you can blow up a 223 if you don't know what you are doing when you are hand loading.

 

[Trickymissfit]

Savage never went to a large shank because of a problem, they did it because of added safety. If there was a problem every small shank Savage that was made in WSM and Rum would of been recalled. There have been a very few Savage nuts that have cracked and that was a problem with the nut and not the barrel. Every factory Savage is tested above and beyond any factory ammo and if I remember right it is twice Saami specs for the cartridge and it passes that without failure. Any of the rum cases and wsm cases are fine in a small shank Savage. The end user would be the one that causes the problem by pushing it to far hand loading but then again you can blow up a 223 if you don't know what you are doing when you are hand loading.

the actual thread cracking was with Remingtons. There's very little difference between the root diameter of a 1.05-20 thread and a 1.06-16 thread. They are both sharp vee threads, and a few years back several folks were have cracks form according to Lilja. On the otherhand they were probably using generic 416 stainless steel, as most are still using to this day. A 17ph4 barrel might be a better fit. I don't see the real worth to gain 150fps at best, over a .300 Weatherby (a .300 Jarrette or a .300 Ackley are very similar cartridges).
gary