More 338 questions? Well which action?

personally, if i were to do it all over again, i would use a custom CNC machined action such as the BAT, LAWTON, BARNARD, STILLER etc etc etc etc etc and forget the mass produced, sloppy, need to be trued, boring actions....

however, if you must choose between a savage and a remington mass produced action, as a person who owns both, i must advise that the savage action- and trigger in particular, is much nicer than the remington...

The main reason is the feel, safety and adjustability of the savage trigger compared with the crappy 'x-mark pro' remington offering which is absolute garbage... Alot of people dislike the savage accutrigger when they first try it because its different and i must admit i didnt like it at first either. But after spending more time with it, i like it more and more to the point where i feel no desire to replace it with an aftermarket trigger, its excellent as it is... Also the free floating/self aligning bolthead of the savage bolt is more accurate by design aswell.

 

If you allready have the Remington then that's what I would use. The cost of a jewell Trigger
is far less than another action and is the finest trigger available in its price range.

The Remington Action needs to be blueprinted by the smith but it is still the cheapest way for
you to go and there is an infinite supply of after market parts for them if you want to do more
customizing down the road.

The rum or the edge will be great and be reasonably inexpensive to shoot.

J E CUSTOM

 

I'm doing the same thing and started the same as you are. A Remington 700 SPS Magnum action that I already had. I really wanted a repeater too but one day I was shooting my heavy .308 which is a repeater and found I was loading it one at a time rather than loading the mag each time. I carry one of those elastic bands that holds 9 rounds and is supposed to go around the butt stock but use it around my forearm. I can load just about as fast that way and can seat the bullets out as far as I want. So I decided my Edge will be a single shot with a glue in aluminum floor plate. The stock I'm going to use is a H.S. Precision with the adjustable butt and cheek piece. I have one on my .308 and love that thing. Neither gun is a carry gun so it really does not matter what the weight is. The hole in the stock for the blind magazine can have a plastic bag put in there and fill it with shot and epoxy to add even more weight to the stock and in a place that will actually balance it better, behind the bi-pod.
I also plan on a Jewell Trigger as once you have used one nothing else comes close. Don't get me wrong as I have used the Savage target action and trigger and their nice but once a Remington action has been smoothed up and squared up its really hard to beat. Plus there are a huge number of things you can do or have done to them as everyone makes aftermarket parts for builds for them.
But even with what I'm doing in the end its your gun and you build it the way you want it. Its just what my plan is. I'm so use to the Remington actions that its really hard for me to change.

 

J E nailed it!

 

Depending on the limit of your budget, I'd go with a Savage long action and barrel it in .338 RUM. You get the accutrigger, action doesn't need to be blueprinted, you can mount the barrel yourself, aftermarket parts are readily available, the long action should give you a fine repeater, and switching to the EDGE later wouldn't be a huge undertaking. Don't have prices to quote but I'm guessing going with the RUM will save you money on dies for reloading.
Just my .02

-PJS

 

I have an edge, built by shawn carlock (defensive edge) and it was built on a 700 action. I do not have a detachable mag, and i shoot the 300 smks loaded in my mag. He did install a wyatts extented box mag.

I would use what your smith recomends.

 

I have a M700 in .338 RUM and would recomend it over the edge if your going to be on a budget. if you have extra cash then go edge for the extra 50-100fps. I get the best of both world with 210 TTSX's loaded in the mag and 300SMK's loaded single shot. Dont wanna talk you out of straight single loading but I really like this sysem.

+1 for JE CUSTOM. For the cost of a new action you can get your action blueprinted and a jewel installed with some extra cash left over (depending on your smith). I personally think that the Remington actions are nicer than the Savages but that is entirely personall prefrance. Either way I'm sure that you'll have a nice rifle in the end.

 

Use the Remington to save some money. If you want a new action than the Savage Target action is the way to go. My cousin has a Lapua built on the target action. As a single feeder it just plain works. If you should need to unload a loaded round, then you have to pull the bolt. Otherwise it ejects fired brass with out any issue.

Tank

 

I just rebarreled my 338 Ultra mag. I decided not to go with an edge because I already had dies and brass, plus 50 to 100 fps. isn't that much of a difference.
I opened up the bottom of the action to fit the longer magazines with a dremel tool myself ( on a budget myself ). I actually bought a spare Remington magazine box and cut the 2 and welded them together. 3.900 inside length.
Going to shoot 250gr NAB's.
Good luck
Tarey

 

nice

 

a savage target action is a short single feed action

 

If you are running a 30" barrel as stated, you want the EDGE , to take advantage of more case capacity .