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Had some help from several folks with this project. Thanks guys, stole your ideas.

Wanted a small caliber walking rifle that might be a repeater. Chose .223 savage 11 gcns (det/mag) for ease of barrel switching. Ordered a heavy magnum taper, 1/12 twist barrel in 24." Several folks suggested cutting a feed cone champher in the chamber to help guide the cartridge.

Made up some dummy rounds (without primer or powder) to see if they fit and might cycle through the savage action. They did ok but not enough feed lip length and they didn't hold on the follower well. So I changed gears.

The cz .221fb mag was the right size for the .20 vartarg round. Tore the savage mag down to just the "sleeve," no bottom metal, spring, follower, or spacer. Hammered out the bends on the front of the savage feed lips.

Slid the cz mag in, it held tightly into the "sleeve" and could be moved slightly to adjust the tilt/highth and placement to the front of action reducing the amount of travel to the chamber.

Milled the savage bottom metal and inserted the cz mag, 11/16" from front of bottom plate and milled to back relieving a bit extra width at rear.

Ground two small "bumps" from cz mag (back and front) to slide into milled bottom metal.

cz mag fits tight without adhesive but will finish with filler of some kind.

Adjusted so feedlips on cz are a bit longer to front and dropped just below on the back. It is cycling rounds just fine, barrel isn't here yet for final test, but the .223 is working.

The fit on the bottom metal was milled tightly and the feed lips of the savage sleeve are a really snug fit too. Acting in tandem, the cz mag hasn't moved even with no bonding material. Had to use light taps with a rawhide mallet to move and fit the parts together.

For anyone trying this, the bottom is really hard metal. The front of the mag is rounded and the rear is square, changed tools plus a bit of hand milling fixed that. The back of the mag is wider so that has to be relieved more.

The magazine latch works just as the stock one.


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Great job on the magazine mod!

If it feeds reliably, you could probably make some extra money doing the work for others. There are guys on Saubier.com who shoot several Fireball-based cartridges. I bet some of them wouldn't mind going to a Savage and extra barrels to clean out the safe.

A license might be necessary. I don't know anything about the legal stuff.

SWEET!!!

Nice work!

Got the Savage repeater shooting. Bedded lug and barrel nut, need to get back of action done. Cycles rounds, breaking in this is #40-60 rapid fire today. H322, 40 vmax, 18.8 fire forming cases. This is a Sin Arms chamber on a McGowen magnum taper, 24" 12 twist. Shows promise. 20 rounds rapid fire, walking groups around, need to figure that out. Always throw that last one!

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Awesome. What is the approximate weight of the rifle? Keep us posted on this project.

Red,

Probably weighs in at about 9lbs scope and rings included. It is a little more than stock wood savage at 7.5lb plus scope/rings, much less than 12fv savage.

If I did it over, would use 22" barrel with smaller taper contour.

If this barrel would have been 2 contour sizes less and shorter, it would be a handier carry rifle. Judging from the break in preformance, a smaller barrel wouldn't have made much difference. Still not too heavy to carry and set up. It shot 20 times today without heating.
Sinn Arms barrel, he does good work!

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baddass!