Savage Stevens ???'s

[darrindlh]

Fellas,
I love my savage Stevens 300 wm but I have some questions for you. My internal box mag is extremly short , the coal in my mag box is 3.38. Right now I am shooting my rifle as a single shot. What can I do to extend my internal magazine? Would converting it to a 300wsm be benificial so I can seat the high b.c bullets longer? Or is there a less expensive way to extend the length of my mag box? All opinions are welcome!!

Darrin

 

[thorbird]

If this is a newer stevens, it should be a centerfeed. Is the mag box connected to the action, or contacted to the stock? Staggered feed has the box connected to the action. I don't have a centerfeed mag box here to measure, but if someone can measure there's for you, it will let you know if it was a mistake or a design feature? Could be someone placed the wrong box in the stock? My guess is that you have a small shank action? If so, it will be hard to find a factory 300 WSM barrel as they make them all large shank in that caliber. You could sell the 300 WM barrel and apply that to a custom barrel. The 300 WSM is sure not a bad choice.

 

[mopar440]

could try a 300 rum box its stag feed if you have center could glue it in and it would take some tweeking to get it to feed i beleive it 3.60

 

[darrindlh]

Yeah my rifle is the older version stagerfeed. If I go 300wsm it would definantly be a semi custom project. I would have one of the smiths on here do the work for me. The rum box would be nice, do you think since I have stgerfeed that it would require a fare amount of gunsmithing to get it to fit in a stock. If I go Joel russo i could tell him the size of the box and it would fit no problem. What about switching it to a dbm? Could a smith do that? And would it be worth it?

Darrin

 

[thorbird]

I think you would just have to hog out the stock to get the ultramag box to fit, and I suspect you might have to make a few action mods to accommodate the box. Rather than modifying the staggered feed to DBM, I would just sell that action and put it toward a centerfeed DBM gun.

 

[geargrinder]

It isn't the work to the stock that is the problem. It's modifying the action for the RUM box.

I'd vote for switching to the WSM. That's what I did with mine. Two are 300wsm's, one Hart one Krieger. The other is a 7mmWSM Shilen.

I don't worry about OAL anymore.

 

[darrindlh]

So the question of the day would be which caliber to change to in wsm the 7wsm or 300wsm. This rifle will be for deer to 1000 and elk upto 800? Or just use it as a single shot but that kinda is not the point with a long range hunting rig. Figuring out the project is so much fun

Darrin

 

[geargrinder]

Many long range hunting rigs are single shot. My 338 Edge is single shot built on a Savage long/short action.

Opinions on calibers are just that, opinions. Yours is the only one that matter.

 

[406pat]

If you're any sort of mechanically inclined, switching barrels on the Stevens is a fairly simple job. Custom barrels aren't that hard to come by and headspace gauges can be rented for around $10. Shilen, McGowan, Lothar Walther and many other premier makers all sell savage pre-fits and would be able to get you the WSM of your choosing in a small shank (my .300 Ultra is a Stevens 200 wearing a Shilen pre-fit.)
This is one gun where it might actually be less work to re-barrel than alter the mag box!

 

[darrindlh]

You are right. I really was not liking the idea of a wsm all that much. There is nothing wrong with the caliber at all just my choice. I could however purchase a prefit for a 300 wm or a rum and a local smith will set the headspacing for only 50 bucks. That makes me feel alot better that I am not the only one hunting with a single shot.

406pat, Is your 300rum a single shot or repeter? 406pat I will be up in Helena this summer about july I love that city!!

Darrin

 

[406pat]

Mine is a single shot. When I built it I had grand plans of working on the box and getting it to feed, but after I got looking into it I decided it wasn't worth it for me. Just a personal choice but I didn't feel a repeater was necessary and I didn't want to spend money and time it would take (I did all the work myself) to figure out how to make it work at the time. It's still something I'd like to look into eventually though. For now I just make sure the cartridge wallet is off the belt and laying next to the gun when I set up .

Seems like a good excuse to get some fellas together for a shoot or something! July is usually hot and dry but I'd rather shoot through mirage than wind any day! Also, I should have my latest build done and dialed in by then

 

[darrindlh]

Sounds like a plan!! What are you haveing built?

Darrin

 

[406pat]

I'm building a .260 on a Mauser 98 action. I'm fitting it to take M1A mags and am working on making bottom metal and building the stock right now. I've got the barrel in and ready to go. It's a short chambered one so I just need to screw it down and finish ream it. Been a really fun project so far, that said it's to the point where the fun of doing is almost gone and I'm ready to be done!