New to me Savage .22 on the way

[FergusonTO35]

Got my parts for the beater rifle yesterday. Everything is correct except for the front action stud under the barrel, the male thread on it is too small. Best as I can tell the original is 5/16-24, it threads into the action but the original stock screw is frozen in it. I simply replaced one of the action screws in front of the trigger with the new stud, and drilled a hole under it in the stock for the stock screw to tie it all together, works perfectly now. This rifle only used one stock screw from the factory anyway, so in effect I just moved it back a little bit. Fired a few rounds at 25 yards and the rifle is grouping well enough for what I need it to do so all is well!

 

[FergusonTO35]

Still shooting the beater Savage. After cleaning and oiling the extractor, it has been extracting just fine too. One wrinkle: the mag catch is just a little leaf spring that engages protruding sheet metal on the back of the mag. On this rifle, it is not holding the mag far up enough for reliable feeding. If I push the mag up with my free hand while working the bolt it feeds 100%. So, more work is needed.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Compared the mag housing of the beater rifle and nice rifle and turns out the former was not assembled correctly. The top of the mag catch is supposed to sandwich between the receiver and the mag housing with a screw holding all three in place. On the beater rifle, the mag catch was under the mag housing, thereby not holding the mag up high enough into the action. That corrected, it feeds great now.

 

[FergusonTO35]

The Marble's Bullseye rear sight was too high, the rifle was still shooting high with the sight all the way down. I found a Williams rear in my little gun junkyard that fits it perfectly. That done, its shooting great!

 

[Gizzard]

Lance, good info and way to keep after it. That first rifle was a real investigation piece. Looks like you can make good cardboard swiss cheese too.

I had a Savage .22lr/410ga with slide button and Vietnam vintage Savage 12ga pump that were both projects with head scratching. With time got both going and functioning great.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks bro. What can I say, I'm a softy for neglected guns and machinery!