A Scout Rifle Is Made... Savage 340
Posted: 19 Jan 2016 10:04
I decided to jump right in with the work necessary to make my Savage 340A into a scout rifle. My plan was to use a Wild West Win 94 Scout Mount that I've had on hand for a number of years. Some rough measurements indicated that that taper cut into the base of the mount for the Winchester was pretty close to the Savage so... it was time to give it a go. I was not going to drill & tap the barrel for the mount but epoxy it down on the barrel on just like the XS Clifton mounts are installed
I used levels to get the mount on top of the barrel and laser level & a laser bore sight to verify the alignment. With it in place I outlined the mount on the barrel.
With the mount area masked off, I mixed up a batch of JB Weld and worked it until it was getting on the thick side of setting. I applied it to the bottom of the mount and insured that the four screw holes in the mount were full as an additional anchor. This Savage replacement barrels came without any markings whatsoever and whoever stamped "30-30" really botched it! Thank God the mount is going to cover this mess and I can do an appropriate stamp myself.
The mount was secured with a velcro strap and the levels set back up to insure everything was square. I ran the temperature on my room up to 70° and left it overnight.
First thing this morning I setup the laser boresighter & laser level to see how parallel the upper surface of the mount was with the bore. The laser dot & lines are projected on the wall on the left side of the photo.
Here is the setup with the light off. The lasers are easier to see. In the 49" to the wall the difference in alignment was .4" or 5°. 5° doesn't sound like much but the difference with the crosshairs centered in the tube would be about 29" offset high at 100 yards! That is at the limit of most scope elevation adjustment but honestly, it was not as bad as I expected, and easily corrected with the Burris Signature Zee mounts with their offset inserts. This mounting system can compensate for up to 30° of error.
I will leave the mount alone from here until Thursday or Friday in order for the epoxy to completely cure. I will start on the stock though. The sling swivel studs need to be work on a bit. They are on the centerline of the stock but the thread insert used to install them in the stock need to be epoxied in place. Also, I'm going to install a better recoil pad, a grid to fit Pachmayr Decelerator. Still waiting for my parts package from Numrich. I'm replacing the bolt gas shield and its associated parts. The shield was slightly bowed.
I used levels to get the mount on top of the barrel and laser level & a laser bore sight to verify the alignment. With it in place I outlined the mount on the barrel.
With the mount area masked off, I mixed up a batch of JB Weld and worked it until it was getting on the thick side of setting. I applied it to the bottom of the mount and insured that the four screw holes in the mount were full as an additional anchor. This Savage replacement barrels came without any markings whatsoever and whoever stamped "30-30" really botched it! Thank God the mount is going to cover this mess and I can do an appropriate stamp myself.
The mount was secured with a velcro strap and the levels set back up to insure everything was square. I ran the temperature on my room up to 70° and left it overnight.
First thing this morning I setup the laser boresighter & laser level to see how parallel the upper surface of the mount was with the bore. The laser dot & lines are projected on the wall on the left side of the photo.
Here is the setup with the light off. The lasers are easier to see. In the 49" to the wall the difference in alignment was .4" or 5°. 5° doesn't sound like much but the difference with the crosshairs centered in the tube would be about 29" offset high at 100 yards! That is at the limit of most scope elevation adjustment but honestly, it was not as bad as I expected, and easily corrected with the Burris Signature Zee mounts with their offset inserts. This mounting system can compensate for up to 30° of error.
I will leave the mount alone from here until Thursday or Friday in order for the epoxy to completely cure. I will start on the stock though. The sling swivel studs need to be work on a bit. They are on the centerline of the stock but the thread insert used to install them in the stock need to be epoxied in place. Also, I'm going to install a better recoil pad, a grid to fit Pachmayr Decelerator. Still waiting for my parts package from Numrich. I'm replacing the bolt gas shield and its associated parts. The shield was slightly bowed.