Swapped my first Savage barrel...now what?

[megastink]

Last winter, I found a great deal on an old Savage 11 .22-250 and decided to try my hand at my first barrel swap. Ive always wanted a heavy barrel .243, so I found a factory takeoff, ordered a new nut and some go/no go gauges and did the swap.

I put the barrel on myself and I just want to double check with this community before firing the first round. The bolt closes on the go gauge, and won't close on the no go. Everything cycles well. Am I missing anything? Forget to do anything? I want to take this thing to the range but I can't help but be a little fearful of my first home gunsmithing project.

Everything is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Barrelnut]

Congrats on you first Savage barrel swap! Just make sure the barrel nut won't loosen up on ya. I torque mine to 90 Ft. Lbs with a cheap torque wrench from Harbor Freight. Some folks just tighten em good and tight. Either method should work.
Let us know how it shoots.

 

[NEMTHunter]

What he said!

 

[can1010]

proper headspace and tight nut. go to the range and enjoy your hard work just remember switching barrels will get addicting

 

[jjmp]

Congrats and keep us posted ! thks

 

[dsculley]

Sounds like you are good to go. Some people get really torqued up about the headspace but in reality, unless you are going to sell the rifle as is you can do whatever you like within reason. If you had it a bit long and the bolt just closed on the no-go gauge you would blow out your brass a few thousands more than sammi. As long as you set your dies accordingly there are really no bad consequences. I know a good riflesmith that sets his headspace a bit long on his own 6.5x47's to allow for a bit more powder. In my opinion, he should just change to a 6.5 Creedmoor but that is the way he wants it. If the headspace is too short then you may not be able to chamber off the shelf ammo.

 

[LongWalker]

Agree with everything that's already been said. But truth be told, after my first rebarrel let's just say I wasn't at full cheek weld and in the scope when I fired the first shot

 

[megastink]

Agree with everything that's already been said. But truth be told, after my first rebarrel let's just say I wasn't at full cheek weld and in the scope when I fired the first shot

How did you fire your first round?

 

[LongWalker]

Well since the long string idea didn't look like it would work......just kidding. I was shooting from a bench and got into the rifle like I normally do. Then I just picked up my head and dropped the butt more into my chest than the shoulder crease and pulled the trigger. Funny thing was I bore sighted it on the 100 yard sight in steel and the first shot hit it almost dead center. Two more rounds on paper and it was zeroed

 

[andrewsben]

Congrats. And as others have said it is addictive. You will end up looking for correlations between savage rebates and sales at locations that you can sell barrels and stocks to end up with a large stockpile of actions for relatively cheap. This also allows you to get into calibers that aren't offered by savage or configurations that aren't offered.

Anywho, congrats on having a successful first self rebarrel/trip to range.