Country-Folk
AH veteran
Yeah you're right ... I do love a cool diy project like this, and I definitely considered attaching the barrel and doing the head spacing myself but in this case it's actually going to be nearly the same cost to have my gunsmith do it versus me having the buying and shipping costs of the Savage barrel nut wrench and the rental and shipping costs of the 416 Rem Mag head space gauges.Looks like it is coming along. Have you considered installing barrel and headspacing it yourself? You seem like the kind of guy that enjoys projects and DIY. The biggest allure of the Savage actions are the easy and simple barrel installation and headspacing. Tons of guys do it themselves, in garages or kitchen tables. You could purchase the wrench and gauges cheaper than a gunsmith would probably charge. I would not mess with the barrel threads. I would instead take a thou or two off the inside of recoil lug. Easy to do with a dremel, or even with a socket wrapped in sandpaper.
CF,
the Accuracy International .300 Win Mag 3.850” COAL magazine likely will work better than the .338 Lapua Mag. It still may need adjustment, but it is closer to correctly fitting than the .338 Lapua magazine. I stuck five unloaded cases in and they were secure and feed fine by a thumb pushing them out, no odd movement at all.
.338 Lapua has a wider body than the .416 Rem, which is more similar to .300 Win Mag.
Here is a .416 Rem Mag in the AI .300 Win Mag 3.850” magazine and some similar cartridges for comparison.
Left to Right:
.300 PRC, .375 H&H, .416 Rigby, .416 Rem Mag, .338 Lapua, .416 Rem Mag in the 3.850” magazine.
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