Savage Striker bolt head swap

[Bravo 4]

For some crazy reason the thought of having a long range pistol keeps popping up in my head. I could possibly buy a Striker with a .473 bolt face for a decent price but would like a cartridge with more oomph (and conventional). Could the bolt head be simply swapped for a magnum (I happen to have one laying around)? I also have a few barrels that I could just swap out in various chamberings.
Thanks for any info.

 

[Doublezranch]

Hopefully Yorke-1 will chime in. He has extensive knowledge with long range pistols.

 

[Bravo 4]

I called Savage and they do not have an answer for this. I contacted one of the resident LR pistol experts on here as he doesn't know. He just put me in contact with a gunsmith that may be able to answer the question.

 

[Doublezranch]

I wonder if you can try the bolt with a go no go gauge to see if headspaces?

 

[Bravo 4]

Was just advised that it is possible with some fitting of maybe bolt and also firing pin. However he isn't a gunsmith, he is a gun builder and would do it if I did a full build. Not what I'm currently after.

 

[yorke-1]

I'm a little late to the party here, but swapping the bolt head is very easy. Strikers use standard right hand, short action bolt heads and firing pins. All of the new magnum bolt heads floating around use a small diameter firing pin, so you'd want to swap that out as well.

You can use a long action bolt head but it has to be modified slightly. That should be a cheap/easy modification for anyone with a lathe.

 

[Bravo 4]

Thanks for the info yorke. What mods need to be made to the long action bolt head to make it work?

 

[yorke-1]

The "tail" on a long action bolt head is about .100" longer and needs to be shortened so that you get enough firing pin protrusion. The dimension isn't that critical since you can adjust pin protrusion on Savages. I've actually shortened them on a bench grinder.

the other option is to buy a PTG short action magnum bolt head, but those are a little pricey.

 

[Bravo 4]

Thanks again yorke.