I'm wondering if anyone can comment on a couple of things:

1. My father's Savage 110 in 7mm Rem mag, circa 1965, has a really long throat--no way I can approach the lands given the magazine length (or lack there of). This seems to result in a significant loss of velocity (at least 400 fps, maybe more) The tech guy at Nosler said I could step up, incrementally of course, the charge until pressures came up. Have any of you experienced this sort of dilemma?

2. It seems I could alleviate this problem if the mag had more length in it. Is this possible, and would this introduce feeding issues?

Thanks,

friar

I have two Savage rifles, and one of them has a vary long throat as well. It still shoots great, but I had to experiment to find the sweet spot for cartridge oal. Mine works best with the bullet seated tat max length for the magazine. This leave about .2" between the bullet and the rifleing.

I did not notice any loss of velocity. I load mine to max book loads (Honrady was the hottest) and get the stated velocity. Do you get low velocity with factory loads? That would be the best way to see if you're loads are slow or if the throat is the problem.

You may want to get the rifle checked out by a smith to see if the headspace is set right. The barrel may just need to be turned in a thread or two. With a Savage rifle, this is an easy process.

I think you could load a little hotter and check the case head expansion. If you get over .0005" in expansion stop. Most reloading manuals tell you how to estimate pressure using case head expansion.

elkhunter,

Thanks for the heads up--it got me to thinking that my father sent the gun to someone in Florida to have it reblued (apparently it is a stainless barrel that was factory blued). The bluing turned out to be a mat, "parkerized" finish...

But maybe they took the barrel off, and perhaps that is why the throat is a bit longer? Hopefully it is as simple as screwing the barrel in a little more.

I'll suggest to my dad that he check it out. It will be a hard-sell, though, as he's the sort of fellow who isn't prone to mess with something that tain't broke! (and to him, 400fps is apparently not that big a deal!)

Maybe I should just tell him that his 7 mag just became a 300 Savage--that would get him going!

Thanks again,

friar

I have a hard time believing that a long throat would be the source of a loss of 400 FPS. If the throat was ridiculous like 4 to 6 inches long then might think it would contribute some. It is true that the pressure curve for smokeless powder is affected by the containment of the charge during combustion, but I doubt that it would affect it that much. You need to get some measurments of your chamber. Have a smith "cast" the chamber and actually measure the throat before you assume the throat is the problem. He can also check the headspace.

Remember that Weatherby routinely uses very long throats in their rifles. I don't care for that myself.

With a Savage you can easily adjust the headspace with a few hand tools and a go/no no headspace guage. All you need is a barrel wrench (about $30) and a large cresent wrench to loosen the barrel from the action. Place the headspace guage in the chamber and turn the barrel down until it touches. Then tighten it back up.

Thanks again, fellas. I'll see if my dad will let me send the gun over to Jim Kobe in the Twin Cities. I'll definitely have to use the "soft-sell" on my father though!

Take care, and thank you,

friar