No Barrel Nut on a Savage Rifle

A

abintx

Guest
Both my competitive benchrest rifles have barrels that are just screwed on their BAT actions. Makes it very convenient to change barrels. Why can't a barrel on a Savage action be screwed on the same way? Without the nut? :confused:
 
99.9% of competitive Bench Rest rifle builders will be of the opinion that a shouldered barrel is more accurate.

Harold Vaughn shows and explains WHY in his book 'Rifle Accuracy Facts.'

But Lou Murdica, a man who's opinion I personally value highly and who lives with a state-of-the-art private underground testing range much better than Harold had, opines that the barrel nut "does good things."

I'm engaged in testing 4 different barrel attachment systems and don't have any valid opinions.
al
 
Bill Calfee opined that a barrel nut split the errors (tolerances sounds better), which (since you only care about the barrel) could improve alignment.

Yes, I see the perhaps-absurdity in that thinking. There are a number of things that a nut shouldn't help, but apparently does, including chamber distortion in .22 RFs when you tighten things up.

Now Calfee might not be right, or your tolerances might be real, real low. But best I can tell, both the theory & real-world testing aren't over yet.
 
I have Savages with both types of barrel mounting and have no experience or testing ability to prove one better or worse than the other. What appeals to me about the barrel nut mounting system is the ability to get prechambered barrels, sporter or competition, that can be easily installed without having to send the gun to a gunsmith for chambering and fitting. The nut works especially well when the mating surface of the nut and the front of the receiver are trued. Some very accurate rifles have been built using both systems.
 
abintx said:
Both my competitive benchrest rifles have barrels that are just screwed on their BAT actions. Makes it very convenient to change barrels. Why can't a barrel on a Savage action be screwed on the same way? Without the nut? :confused:
Click to expand...

It can and many have done it. If your not planing on switching the barrel with other actions it will work fine. The main reason why people keep the nut is that they can buy prefit barrel, and dont need a gunsmith to instal them.
 
Lou Murdica said:
I have been playing with a barrel nut on other actions and love them on a bolt in. The problem is on a glue in.
I have been waiting for some smart guy out there to come up with a wrench that works.
Thank you al
Click to expand...
Lou, how much force do you want to use? We use a round "nut" that takes a pin wrench on most of our barrel nuts (includes the tensioning nut on a tension-barrel rifle). With a glue in & the stock in the way of a conventional pin wrench, you'd need a long, straight pin acting as a lever. The holes in the nut ('bout 6 should cover any eventuality) & the pin would have to take the needed force to break the nut loose. So, just how much force do you need?

Edit:

Thinking on it, I have had stocks made with a 1.50 barrel channel (Kelbly's will do it). You could make a nut, then, that would allow a strap wrench to break it loose, & have some other way -- pins, maybe? to spin it off fairly quickly... You'd need a special strap wrench, but nothing too hard to make.
 
Last edited:
Lou,

It might be a bit 'low tech', but I believe there used to be a fellow who used to tighten/loosen the barrel nut on his Savage rifles using a large flat blade screw driver angled into the slots and tap it with a mallet. Supposedly an old diesel mechanic trick for working with castle nuts in tight spaces. Sounds a bit red neck, but it does work (both on castle nuts and barrel nuts) and gets around the problem (in his case) of having to take the scope off every time he changed barrels (IIRC he was a fairly serious varmint hunter). Might be something to try, at any rate. Me, I'm pretty sure I'd manage to slip with the driver and scar the stock up in no time ;) and I don't have any glue-ins so I usually just use a conventional barrel nut wrench with the stock and scope removed first.

Monte
 
.

Charles E said:
Lou, how much force do you want to use? We use a round "nut" that takes a pin wrench on most of our barrel nuts (includes the tensioning nut on a tension-barrel rifle). With a glue in & the stock in the way of a conventional pin wrench, you'd need a long, straight pin acting as a lever. The holes in the nut ('bout 6 should cover any eventuality) & the pin would have to take the needed force to break the nut loose. So, just how much force do you need?

Edit:

Thinking on it, I have had stocks made with a 1.50 barrel channel (Kelbly's will do it). You could make a nut, then, that would allow a strap wrench to break it loose, & have some other way -- pins, maybe? to spin it off fairly quickly... You'd need a special strap wrench, but nothing too hard to make.
Click to expand...

Best method I found is to use 2 nuts tightened together and set at the appropriate headspace, sometimes with locktite.............then install and/or remove the barrel using a standard barrel vise..................Don
 
Lou,
Why couldn't you make a two or four "lug nut that was castellated on the edge that was toward the muzzle, that way, you could make a wrench that was tubular in form past the length of the forend. You could move the barrel vise out an inch or so farther than normal, and have flats on the muzzle end of the tube, past the stock.
 
Don said:
Best method I found is to use 2 nuts tightened together and set at the appropriate headspace, sometimes with locktite.............then install and/or remove the barrel using a standard barrel vise..................Don
Click to expand...
Hmm. A jam-nut shoulder. So the question comes up, what does Mr. Murdica like about the nut system, and would this method remove what he liked?

The jam-nut shoulder would certainly work for the pre-chambered barrels.
 
Lou Murdica said:
I have been waiting for some smart guy out there to come up with a wrench that works.
Thank you al
Click to expand...

One of the first wrenchs that came (Cant remember who made it.) out for a Savage was basicly a big socket that slid over the barrel and grabed the nut by all points, it then had mulitiple threaded holes drilled around the circumphernce in wich to insert a handel. If you have enough clearence around your stock this would work on a glue in.
 
Nut or nutless it does not effect the accuracy just makes one barrel fit many actions. It was a real cost saver for Savage. Kinda like the old Remington 788s.

I have done thousands either way the customer wants.

Nat Lambeth
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top