I know some of you out there are Savage guru's so this question is for you.
I have in my posession a Savage 110E in 7mm Rem Mag that has excessive headspace.What are my options for fixing this? Do I take the barrel off and set it back or what? With this Savage having excessive headspace what are my other options I was considering parting it out but not sure what to do.
Thanks

Provide the 110E is like every savage I've seen with the nut on the barrel. Take it to a smith with a savage wrench. He will loosen the nut turn the barrel back to set the headspace and off you go. You can buy the wrench and guage yourself(if you have the skill) but for a one time cheaper to have it done.

IF the headspace isn't too excessive! Otherwise the end of the barrel may contact the bolt.

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IF the headspace isn't too excessive! Otherwise the end of the barrel may contact the bolt.

Thanks Jim I didn't think about that possibility.

Thanks Jim and Ramrod, how severe would the headspace have to be to need to turn a little off that barrel?

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how severe would the headspace have to be to need to turn a little off that barrel

Jim would have a far better answer than me. I have only headspaced one Savage. Since yours is a 7mag that normally headspaces on the belt I'm having trouble seeing that you would need to trim the barrel. But, again I don't have one to look at and I sure don't remember what the heck it bolt face area looks like.

Savage Headspacing is not rocket science but it is important to keep your rifle safe and within SAAMI specs. There have been a number of post here. Here is my 2 cents worth. You have two options have a qualified smith check and reset your headspace. he should charge no more than $35.00 for this service as it can be done in less than 1/2 hour. The second option is to buy a set of gauges one go and one no-go gauges a Savage barrel nut wrench, and a barrel vice and action wrench if you want to really do it correctly. As stated you can usually get buy with just the barrel nut wrench and a barrel block set. I am a gunsmith and I can't afford to mar the customers action, thats is why I have all the tools necessary to do the job right from the get go.

The procedure done corretly means you need to completely clean the chamber pristine with a chamber brush. You should also run a die over the barrel threads to insure they are clean and a tap into the action cleaning them up.The action and bolt should be inspected and cleaned thoroughly. The extractor and ejector should be removed from the bolt. The barrel tendon, recoil lug and action face should be cleaned pristine. The barrel threads should be coated with anti-seize or a high temperature lithium/molly grease.

With the go gauge inserted into the barrel depth micrometer should be used to measure the gauge protrution from the barrel.

The correspoding measurments should be made from the receiver face to the closed bolt front, and a second measurement to the bolt face.

Using these two measurments you can deterimne if you have a safe amount of bolt protrution. Most prefit Savage barrels have between .115 and .125 of case protrution.

For Savage target guns I like about .003 to .005 of clearance between the bolt front and the barrel tendon. I like about .001 and .0015 of clearance.

For Savage hunting guns I like about .005 clearance between the bolt front and the barrel tendon. I like about.003 clearance between the bolt face and the gauge. This allows for variences in factory ammo, dirty ammo and chambers, and heat expansion.

Just for refrence the Savage barrels are threaded with 20tpi and .025 pitch. I complete turn of the barrel is .050.

With the barrel fixed in blocks or a vice so as it want spin insert the go gauge. Screw the barrel nut onto the barrel all the way down the threads until bottomed out. Put the recoil lug up on the tendon with the alignment screw or bump facing the action. Screw the action onto the tendon a few turns and align the alignment screw or bump into the mating grove in the action face. With the naked bolt closed, screw the action down until the bolt bottoms out on the go gauge. The next part of setting the headspace is trial and error. when the barrel nut is tightened down it will cause the threads to crush fit. This usually gives about .0015 to .0025 of additional headspacing. The difference in a go gauge and nogo gauge is usually .0035 if their are SAAMI spec. Correctly headspaced Savages will allow the bolt to close on the go gauge and not allow the bolt to close on the nogo gauge.

The barrel nut needs about 50 foot pounds of torque.

Then test fire your gun.

Rustystud

Thanks longshot I appreciate all the info you gave me here.
Are Savages known to have headspace go bad on them?
This rifle is not worn out (seems like it has been shot relatively little)but the headspace is excessive what causes this to happen?

Another option if you shoot reloads ONLY. just leave the headspace alone and adjust you die to neck size only,or buy a set of neck dies and shoot away, you will have a coustom cartrige. But you will first have to fireform the cases.

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This rifle is not worn out (seems like it has been shot relatively little)but the headspace is excessive

Just curious how do you know you have excessive headspace? Measured? Case signs?

If the rest of this is old news please disreguard.
What many shooters will see in a mag case that spaces off the belt is that the distance from the belt to the shoulder in the chamber is longer than needed. It is not a true headspace issue because the distance from the bolt to belt is correct. If they then full length resize they will push the shoulder back which will then move forward next firing ending up with a seperated case. Not because of a headspace issue. To solve this many will just touch the shoulder with the die and then headspace on the shoulder like a normal case.

dave if you want to send it to me ill fix it for free let me know and ill get you an address