Guys, if I rebarrel a Savage to make a .257Roberts, what caliber does the Savage have to be in so the bolt face is the same as the Roberts?

Thanks,
Jim

Anything based on the .308 Win / .30-06 or the metric European calibers based on the 7x57 and 8x57 mauser.

Thanks Mike! Would a short action be preferred?

Jim

Not neccessarily. But it is a relatively short cartridge with no really long bullets to seat out so if you have a short action fine if not no problem either. I think a lot of guys if they have the long action go for 25-06. I love both.

Thanks Moxgrove!

Jim

Keep in mind if your looking for a used Savage the bolt face is interchangeable.

Keep in mind if your looking for a used Savage the bolt face is interchangeable.

Thanks Bob! Looking at my options for a youth .257 Roberts... Since my son turns 3 in January, I still have plenty of time.

Jim

That should make him a dandy rifle. Nice thing about a Savage is it takes about 15 minutes to put another barrel on it. If you started with a 30-06 length action he could have a 257 for deer to start with and in a few years add a 35 Whelen barrel for elk. That is if we have any elk left in a few years.

All it takes to make a switch barrel rifle out of the Savage is a Go headspace gauge for the caliber your going to shoot, a barrel nut wrench and a barrel vice, and of course the new barrel.

That should make him a dandy rifle. Nice thing about a Savage is it takes about 15 minutes to put another barrel on it. If you started with a 30-06 length action he could have a 257 for deer to start with and in a few years add a 35 Whelen barrel for elk. That is if we have any elk left in a few years.

All it takes to make a switch barrel rifle out of the Savage is a Go headspace gauge for the caliber your going to shoot, a barrel nut wrench and a barrel vice, and of course the new barrel.

Bob, you are smarter than me! I never even thought of that! And guess who has a set of Lee dies w/ factory crimp for .35 Whelen, but has never owned a rifle in that caliber?! Thanks Bob, I now know what I will be looking for...a long action!

Jim

Do some research on the action length question before you buy. It may work fine with either but the .257 is longer than most of the cartridges built on short actions.

My Remington is a long action.

Yup, I was gonna say the same thing Ken did. The Roberts is a kind of "tweener" round in which you sometimes have to seat heavy bullets deep in the case to either fit the magazine or the action opening.

Unless you do opt for the long action (in which the Roberts has no such problems), you just might look at the 250 Savage in a short action. Later, you could rebarrel to a 308, a 358 or even go the other way and have a 22-250. Change boltface and have a 223 or 204. All superb rounds.

Good advice from all above.

Had a Ruger Ultralight in .257 AI which had the smaller action. It was fine for the .257 and would have worked with any of the .308 family cartridges. The one limitation was as Rocky pointed out - the seating depth on the heavier bullets. That would also apply with the recent VLD type bullets or the solid copper ones.

If you are considering a cartridge change in the future, I would opt for the standard length action so my choice wouldn't be limited to the shorter length cartridges. That said, there's lots of shorter cartridges out today that sorta make the longer length unnecessary, but the standard action will allow the proper seating of the longer bullets in them.

Thanks Mike! Would a short action be preferred?

Jim

Maybe. Savage puts the 'long' in long action, and there are a number of scopes that won't work on a full-sized Savage 110, at least not without extension rings/bases.

My Ruger 77 .257 Roberts is a long action, but that doesn't bother me at all.

Good luck....

Mike sure hit the nail on the head about the long action and certain scopes. My hunting partner bought a new Savage package rifle in 7mm Rem mag (the 30-06 length action) and we had fits putting a Burris 3 by 9 Ballistic plex scope on in. That big Savage action looks like it would take a 300 Ultra-mag without any problems.

We got it solved, but went thru a couple sets of rings and bases before we took care of it. There are several short scopes that simply won't fit without extension rings.

If I was building a new rifle the Savage with it's barrel and bolt head interchangeability would certainly look good. The magazines contain the feed lips so you can change them along with the barrel to match the cartridge if your going from a standard cartridge to a magnum or short magnum cartridge and the same with the bolt heads. It just takes minutes to break down a bolt and switch out heads.

Now what would it cost to make my Remington into a switch barrel? I know that there's a smith somewhere that does that.