Savage 338 lapua to 338 lapua improved?

[ZSteinle]

Has anyone out there taken a factory savage and have the barrel reamed out 338 improved? If so how did it work out? I am thinking about doing it. Not looking to push the limits just wanted the added bennies of longer brass life and a tad more speed.

 

[barnesuser28]

IMO, get a new barrel for it instead of reaming out the factory one. It is worth the extra $ in the end. Have you tried rl33 in yours yet? I got to 99 grains at 2832 fps in mine with the factory barrel.

 

[savageshooter65]

I'm contemplating the same thing. You can rent the reamer from 4dproducts.com. It looks fairly straight forward.

 

[300magman]

I know I'm a little late replying, but . . . Don't I remember reading a while back that people tried this when the 338 Lapua Savage rifles first came out, and wasn't there an issue with getting the improved version to feed properly?

 

[savageshooter65]

The savage magazines are single stack so if there is any trouble feeding it would come from the shoulder. Correct? That would happen in just about any rifle with an improved chamber. I'm still tossing the idea around, it's a lot cheaper than a custom barrel and mine shoots fairly well as is. I figured a $100 give or take for 250 fps is a pretty good deal.

 

[Hired Gun]

Don't forget to set it back a bit before reaming to improved. The improved is .004" shorter than the parent case. If it feeds good now it should feed fine improved.

I am certain 250 fps for an improved is a pipe dream. I'm using a max load of RL-33 to get 2960 in a 30" barrel in the plain Lapua. It was only 100 fps better than our Retumbo load. Big speed and long case life do not go together. At 2960we are splitting necks at 5 shots. I forgot to anneal them. Hopefully that will extend the life of the brass. If your after longer case life back it down. I backed down my 300 Wby to 3100 fps with 210 Bergers and now am getting super long case life.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I purchased a Savage .220 Swift. Before I fired it I had the gunsmith rechamber it. It was a consistent .3"-.4" for three shots at 100 yards. Once sighted in I dialed for longer ranges. It was a first shot killer for rock chucks up to 500 yards.

Wear out the barrel then install an after market barrel.