Savage 243s new life

[sniperjwt]

Back before deer season i traded a guy a Remington 710 for a Savage 243. Not really needing another 6mm caliber (have a 6br and 243 Super Rockchucker) i started looking for things i could do with it. I came across some guys on the net talking about being able to make a smokeless muzzleloader out of them. My interest was peaked with the thoughts of being able to shoot smokless powder and getting a lot more FPS than what i have right now. So i took the dive and bought me a barrel. After a couple months of waiting i got all the parts together and put it all together.
Before

After

At first i just had a 3x9x40 scope on it for the inital testing and trying to find a load
Shooting from the prone position at 100yds here is my first three groups

61g H4198 3 shots

62g H4198 3 shots

63g H4198 5 shots

After seeing what this thing is capeable of with just that little scope on it i put a larger one on it and the following weekend i went to a place where i could shoot it out to 370 Yards. Keep reading blow for more.......

 

[sniperjwt]

So after putting the 10-40x50 scope on it i took it and shot it at 100yds 200yds 300yds and 370yds. Yes 370yds for a muzzleloader. I wanted to see how this thing was going to shoot. After getting it on paper i fired 2 shots in a group at 100 when my brother came and i asked him if he wanted to shoot it so he shot the last shot in the group. I put some pressure on him cause the first two were touching but his shot went right through the first two.

200yds 3 shot

300 yds 4 shot
it was kinda funny cause i shot my first 3 shots at 300 but almost could not belive it so i shot another one just to see and by gosh it landed right there with the other ones. Boy was i happy.

370 3 shots
it was starting to get dark but i was able to make out the target pretty good however i would have liked to put another one down range to see if the last shot ( bottom one) was a fluke or possibly me.

I am so happy i decided to do this build. It has basically doubled my effective range for a muzzleloader which is a big help. My neighbor seen how good this thing shot and bought one less than 16 hours later. Ok here are the specs

Savage Model 11 action (already had)
28" stainless Pac Nor barrel .45 cal threaded for Petes breach plug $417
Petes breach plug $95
Choate ultimate sniper stock $190
Osprey 10-40x50 Scope (already had)

If there is anybody out there that is looking to extend there range with a ML and your state allows it it would be bennificial to take a look at building one of these. I am so glad i did

 

[liltank]

So do you need to do anything to the bolt face? What about headspacing? Your bullets you are shooting, are they saboted rounds or are you using a patch with your bullet? Quite curious as I like shooting muzzleloders. Thanks for the info.

Tank

 

[sniperjwt]

I will try explain this the best i can. Nothing needs to be done to the boltface. You actually use the back half of a rifle caseing. I chose 7mm-08 because i dont have one so i wont be cutting up any of my brass i use on any other rifle. You could actually use 243,7mm-08 or 308 or 45acp brass. First you have to cut down the brass (unless using the 45acp) to .890 then prime it with the hottest primers you have. I use F215 in mine. You will headspace it useing the brass that you choose. I use the Hornady SST 200g bullet with a Harvester light blue smooth sabot. I was told this is the best combination for this type of muzzleloader. I am getting 2760 fps with 63g of H4198 which is 300win mag terratory out of a ML. From what i understand the brass last a very long time cause there is little to no pressure comming back on the primer.

I will note that there is another type of this set-up but it uses a 209 primer but you need to have the Savage MLII action but then you need to have it bedded and put a third pillar in. Since i already had the action of the 243 thats why i chose to go the direction i did.

Please feel free to ask any more questions that you may have.

 

[Shooter264]

Did pac-nor install the breach plug? I am very intrigued by this

 

[sniperjwt]

No I installed it myself. It's not really any different than installing any other breach plug

 

[Shooter264]

I guess what I meant was did you order the barrel from Pac-nor threaded for a breach plug? I didn't see a 45 cal muzzle loader advertised on their site. I wanted to know if you just ordered the blank from Pac-nor then had someone do the work for you. Thanks in advance

 

[sniperjwt]

PAC nor threaded it for Petes breach plug. It's best of you call and talk to Penny because this option is not on their website.

 

[Shooter264]

Thanks, I am familiar with Penny. I think I am going to have to pull the trigger on one, so to speak!!!!

 

[sniperjwt]

I would defanatly recommend doing it. I took mine out again the other day and shot a .869 in group at 200 yards. I have rifles that won't shoot that