Just picking up an old project from last year that I let drop to heal up from surgery. Want to put a 358 Win barrel on a 308 Win Savage. I have all the gear, but the thought just struck me…DOH…what happens to the Point of Aim? Will I have to resight in every time I swap barrels? If so, the advantages to swapping just took a big dive.
Or are the barrels witnessed marked so that they can be reinstalled in the same spot and hopefully at the old point of aim?

leverite, I believe thet you will have to re-zero the rifle after a barrel swap. The witness mark you talk of is a piece of steel that looks kinda like a shell casing called a go gauge, these are slightly shorter than the no go gauges that look identical without calipers. Usualy the are both color coded and stamped. To swap barrels you will need one for each caliber you change. Due to pressures in centerfires, you cant just swap them out like changing drill bits, its a precise operation.
What the savage system does let you do is change calibers without having to go to a gunsmith and potentially lets you have a bunch of barrels but only one stock and receiver. I personally like a bunch of different guns rather than barrels.
DO NOT TOUCH THE BARREL NUT WITHOUT HAVING THE PROPER GAUGE TO ADJUST IT PROPERLY. If its mis-adjusted and you fire it, if could blow up.

Sometimes you luck out and get two barrels of different chamberings to print loads to the general same POI. Will have to fool around with various bullets weights, types, powders, primers, seating depths, etc. to make it happen, though.

I have the "go"guage and I understand how to do the barrel swap. I wasn't clear, but what I was asking about was if the 308 barrel I take off would shoot to the same point of aim when I put it back on. I don't expect the 358 to shoot to the same point of aim as the 308 barrel, but I could track the clicks needed to zero the 358 so I could reset the scope for the 308 zero when I switch back.

I've seen barrels/receivers that have been witness marked after they are headspaced correctly. Was wondering if Savage did that with their barrels. Between those marks and the go guage, I should be able to get the 308 barrel back to where the factory set it. Would be great if it then shot to the same point of aim.

will not know till you try it...

The short answer is no it probably won't and yes you'll probably have to re-sight it in. I would expect that even taking off and re-installing any barrel may change the point of aim unless the sights, be it open or optical are mounted on the barrel such as the contender's.

Just the physical act of removing, headspacing and replacing a barrel will introduce factors that will change the point of aim. I'd suspect that though your POI may be close your going to have to re-sight each time you remove and replace a barrel.

I feel that it would be akin to taking off then remounting a scope. ---> It could be right on.....but.....probably would not be.(chances are slim) -----pruhdlr

I feel that it would be akin to taking off then remounting a scope. ---> It could be right on.....but.....probably would not be.(chances are slim) -----pruhdlr

With most rifles, pulling the stock from the action for cleaning will shift POI enough to be a problem. Most barrels of the same caliber are an individual in their own right, the same taper on the barrel, with a much bigger hole almost has to be different.

My bet, not a chance ;)

There are witness marks on conventionally threaded barrels to help you find the same headspace each time you install it, based on how far you screw it in. The Savage barrel nut system is different. You re-establish the headspace with that go-gage each time you put the Savage barrel on. If you always use the same gage and are careful to screw the barrel down to touch the gage the same way each time and apply the same torque to the barrel nut each time, the headspace should repeat pretty closely with each installation. I will mention that you need to be very certain the boltface, receiver and barrel threads and barrel nut are completely clean and free of debris or you won't get the same headspace registration each time.

Still, it is pretty easy to imagine you being of a thousandth or two one way or the other. You may have difficulty getting neck-sized-only ammunition to carry over from one installation of the barrel to the next? Maybe not? Keeping the same POI will be tough for the reasons TMan mentioned. At the very least, you will have to fire several rounds to ensure the gun has re-settled it in the stock. If any dirt or fouling is left in the threads, the barrel will not align on the same axis as it originally had, and will likely not have the same vibrational moments.

Yes...those comments all make very good sense. I may look for an old Savage bolt rifle w/ a shot out barrel and use that as a base for my 358 WIn project.

Savage is also selling new actions with the Acutrigger based on their F-class rifle action, I believe. If you have an itch to go for something a little extra, that's another possible route. Also, M.L. McPherson has been running a series of articles in Precision Shooting on using Savage action. In particular, he has describes using single-piece scope mounts to improve the rigidity of the Savage action. You may want to look those up, if you don't take the magazine?

I keep looking at these Savage posts and thinking.

What's more, I saw a picture of a new Savage, and it looks like they moved the bolt release to a more suitable spot. And the catalog illustrations are looking a bit like a CDL.

It's a tempting way to get a pile of -08, or -06 variants into a crowded gun safe. For cheap. Or maybe a series of .350 Remington wildcats :rolleyes:

I keep looking at these Savage posts and thinking.

What's more, I saw a picture of a new Savage, and it looks like they moved the bolt release to a more suitable spot. And the catalog illustrations are looking a bit like a CDL.

It's a tempting way to get a pile of -08, or -06 variants into a crowded gun safe. For cheap. Or maybe a series of .350 Remington wildcats :rolleyes:

That was kinda my idea at the time. I bought a nifty 308 Savage w/ a detachable magazine. I then got the 358 Win barrel with the plan to rechamber it for a 358 WSM...that's a 300 WSM necked up to 0.358.

I thought I could just pick up a 300 WSM magazine and all would be well, but it turns out that Savage has decided to use a beefier connection for their WSM chamberings. If that was Savage's recommendation, I didn't want to ream out my barrel as a wild a** experiment. I can be very happy w/ a 358 Win unless I have to spend all my time resighting when I swap a barrel.