I recently had my gun smith remove the .204 Ruger barrel from my Savage Target action and chamber an X-Caliber barrel in 20 VarTarg and install it on the Savage Target action. The casings will extract from the chamber, but drop off the bolt loooooong before they get back far enough in the action to eject.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem???? If so, I sure would appreciate hearing what you did to solve it.

Thanks in advance.

I had the exact same problem with a Rem 700, several years ago. There really was no solution.
Remington did change the location of the extractor and/or the plunger in the bolt face and they chambered factory rifles in 221 and 17 fireball. Those design changes solved the problem.

My question is why did you switch from the .204 Ruger? I don't have one, but have been considering one for years.

carpetman1--I have two other .204 Rugers and wanted a .20 caliber rifle that would use a much smaller powder charge, have casings with a 30º shoulder, and not produce as much barrel heat as the other rifles I have in .204 Ruger, .17 Remington, .17 Tactical, and .22-250.

I purchased this Savage target action from SSS back in 2010 so I'm contacting them to see if they have a solution, but if you have a solution PLEASE share it with me.

df06 answered your question. As with the Rem 700, the location of the ejector plunger is the solution for the much shorter (than the 204 Ruger)Var-Targ case.

I just got the word from Lisa at SSS:

quote:

Our modified extractor kit will cure the problem.

I might just try this kit. Has anyone else tried the kit that Lisa mentioned?

Thanks in advance

Feeding extraction issues is two reasons I well not use a savage action for a big game rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
My question is why did you switch from the .204 Ruger? I don't have one, but have been considering one for years.

I have a .20 Tactical (.20/.223, which is similar in performance to the .204 Ruger) and a .20 Vartarg. I much prefer shooting the Vartarg. The Vartarg has ample case capacity for the bore and will launch a 32 grain bullet at 3700 fps. Sure, you can wring a few hundred more fps out of a larger case, but the extra velocity means little in extending the range of the tiny pills and comes at the expense of somewhat more powder, heat, and muzzle blast. When shooting colony varmints the Vartarg lets you shoot longer strings without overheating, and more shots before barrel cleaning is needed. If I wanted more power and range I would step up to a larger-cased .22, or a 6mm. In a .20 caliber I like to keep it small.

I think the main reason that Ruger made the .204 case as large as they did is that they wanted to be able to attract buyers with its hyper 4,000+ velocities. Such velocities really don't get you much more range or improve trajectories all that much under field conditions.

Most of you, if you read my PD hunt story about my outing on November 13, know that my 20 VarTarg Savage Target action is a right bolt/left eject single-shot rifle. During that hunt I was having difficulty removing the spent casings from the action because the fired casings won’t stay on the bolt and with the cold temperatures I was wearing insulated gloves and couldn’t grab the casings. I posted a query on many different boards asking for help in getting this action to eject the spent casings and got some suggestions. I had purchased this action from SSS and they worked their timing and truing magic on the bolt for me and I used it as a .204 Ruger for several years until I changed barrels and calibers. Since I purchased the action for SSS, I decided to ask SSS if they had a solution.

Lisa, at SSS, told me their “Modified Extractor Kit” would solve the casing ejection problem so around the 19th of October I ordered the kit. Well, it finally showed up on November 21. The kit consisted of a new extractor with a slightly longer claw than the original, a new ball bearing that is slightly larger than the factory one, a new ejector spring, and a new ejector which is slightly longer than the original. I installed the kit today and I am EXTREMELY HAPPY with the results!!!


The casings extract and do eject out of the action!!!! That was probably the best $20 I have ever spent!!! Even though the wait to get the kit seemed long (30 days and counting) because it was on backorder, it was worth waiting for.