BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
I'm building a match rifle based on a Howa action and last night while I was at the gunsmith we both realized about at the same time that since the Savage thread major and minor dimensions are fatter than for the Howa that I could just have the Howa receiver re-cut for Savage threads since the major and minor dimensions on the Howa are all smaller, meaning that there's more meat left in the receiver than in a Savage. Both guns have a 1.350" receiver OD so there's plenty of material to support a Savage small shank spec thread being cut into the Howa. This will allow me to use drop-in pre-fit Savage small shank barrels and makes it so my gunsmith doesn't have to set up his lathe for metric which is apparently a PITA.
There's already a Howage barrel nut system offered by McGowan which really bugs me because now I have to come up with a different portmanteau of Savage and Howa so as to not collide. Maybe Sowa? Definitely not Sowage, that's a poopy name. I'm down for some ideas. Perhaps we just go ahead and make up something.
I wonder if this mod might get more popular. It seems to me that there's no reason for it to not.
So, obligatory cruddy pic of what we're dealing with. Here's the base rifle which was a tapered barrel .308 sitting in a Postman Precision Howa chassis which is undergoing a paint job now. I have a 6mm barrel from Columbia River Arms that I put 1800 rounds of .243AI through with 115's at ~3200fps. It eroded the throat enough that ammo got longer than the mag but we gauged the barrel and it's the same internal diameter as it was when I first got it so we're cutting 2" off the back end and rechambering it in 6XC. CRA barrels don't have conventional rifling and I'm trying to find out exactly how far one can take one when pushing it hard.
I really dig on this chassis. I can't get enough of it. The familiar features of adjustable LOP/cheek rest height/butt pad height are all there and it's got an embedded bubble level that I actually don't have to break my cheek weld to see but the really cool one is that the pistol grip can be slid forward or back to give you just the right reach to the trigger. Handy if you suffer from stubby-ness like I do or if you've got particularly large meat hooks.
There's already a Howage barrel nut system offered by McGowan which really bugs me because now I have to come up with a different portmanteau of Savage and Howa so as to not collide. Maybe Sowa? Definitely not Sowage, that's a poopy name. I'm down for some ideas. Perhaps we just go ahead and make up something.
I wonder if this mod might get more popular. It seems to me that there's no reason for it to not.
So, obligatory cruddy pic of what we're dealing with. Here's the base rifle which was a tapered barrel .308 sitting in a Postman Precision Howa chassis which is undergoing a paint job now. I have a 6mm barrel from Columbia River Arms that I put 1800 rounds of .243AI through with 115's at ~3200fps. It eroded the throat enough that ammo got longer than the mag but we gauged the barrel and it's the same internal diameter as it was when I first got it so we're cutting 2" off the back end and rechambering it in 6XC. CRA barrels don't have conventional rifling and I'm trying to find out exactly how far one can take one when pushing it hard.
I really dig on this chassis. I can't get enough of it. The familiar features of adjustable LOP/cheek rest height/butt pad height are all there and it's got an embedded bubble level that I actually don't have to break my cheek weld to see but the really cool one is that the pistol grip can be slid forward or back to give you just the right reach to the trigger. Handy if you suffer from stubby-ness like I do or if you've got particularly large meat hooks.
