Modifying the Savage 220 Bolt-Action 20GA Shotgun

Shotgun? This must be a rifle!....right?!!? :?

Kind of.....but in this case, it is a 20 gauge "rifle" called the Savage 220 Bolt-Action Shotgun!





Equipped with a carpenter's hammer-size bolt handle.





Not-so-different than a Savage 110-bolt assembly (which the gun is supposedly based upon).





Fully-adjustable Savage Accu-Trigger easily is adjusted from 1.5 lbs to 6 pounds of trigger pull weight.





The bolt-assembly slides along the rails of the action with minimal movement for a nice fit that is also quick to chamber the next slug from the magazine.

The receiver's ejection port is very wide for reliable spent shotshell hull ejection with no potential for jamming (albeit you still need to be critical of riflescope adjustment turrett placement in the mounted position).



The surprisingly squishy Savage recoil pad is somewhere on the order of "between a SIMS pad and a Kick's recoil pad" in terms of softness, recoil reduction, and material memory.



Insert your extra 2-rounds of 20 gauge ammunition here. The magazine catch is both strong and quite audible. No play in my magazine to mag well fit.



A 2-round plastic magazine provides for 3 shotshells to be on hand for your quarry.



Ammunition testing and modifications begin this month so.....stay tuned.......there is more to come.

Two 36-inch 4140 PH chromoly (116,000 psi tensile strength medium carbon alloy steel) round bars purchased from Huff Steel in Indianapolis, IN.


LINK: Huff Steel Company, Inc. (Click Here)


1 1/4" o.d. and 1 1/2" o.d.

1 1/2" o.d. is for another project unrelated to the Savage 220.







Looks like steel round bars, don't they?

Next step coming soon.

Take 4140 PH round bars to the gundriller and....viola!

Gundrilled to .594" (left) and .726" bore (right).





Looking down the .726" hole:





For my gundrilling service, I utilized Davis Machine & Tool, Inc. in Edinburgh, IN.
Excellent turnaround time and pricing. Highly recommended.

LINK: Gundrilling by Davis Machine & Tool, Inc. (Click Here)

....so maybe next we'll knock off a pesky Savage 220 barrel nut with a Wheeler Savage Barrel Nut Wrench:



Barrel nut and barrel on receiver (front view)



Barrel nut and barrel on receiver (rear view)



The Savage barrel nut wrench is produced by a couple different sources. I purchased the Wheeler Engineering wrench from Optics Planet (dot) com.

LINK: Wheeler Engineering Savage Barrel Nut Wrench (Click Here)

LINK: Sharp Shooter Supply Wrench (Click Here)

After locking the barrel action in a vise with wooden blocks, a "whack" with a 5-pound baby sledge hammer popped the Savage 220 barrel nut loose.





After unscrewing the barrel from the Savage 220 receiver, the barrel nut, and recoil lug were removed.





A look inside the simple barrel nut. Threads on the nut, barrel, and receiver were cleaned with a wire wheel to remove factory threadlocker.





The measured thread pitch is 20 lpi.

A look inside the savage barrel nut and the chamber end of the barrel.





A disassembled Savage 220 next to a 36-inch 4140 PH chromoly steel barrel blank. The finish o.d. of the barrel will be a 1 1/8" bull barrel with an overall length of 30 inches (when threaded and attached to the receiver). The factory Savage 220 slug barrel is 22 inches by comparison.

A long 12-hour day on the GUNWORKS (Click Here) CNC lathe and my smoothbore barrel was ready to be rejoined with the receiver (sans the Savage barrel nut).





Front scope base removed, headspace set, Savage barrel nut in the "Savage 220 spare parts bag." LOL! Bolt assembly closes properly on 20GA match chamber.





Improved support for shotshell brass lip and modified extractor recesses.





A look at the .950" muzzle o.d. prior to choke tube threading.

A look down the full-length, continuous tapered barrel (1.125" at recoil lug to 0.950" at muzzle)




Quick "look / see" of a shotgun into the factory stock (inlet for the 30-inch bull barrel).





...longer and heavier than the original 22-inch fully-rifled slug barrel.





Up next: final bore diameter reaming and honing; 20GA Invector + choke tube threading.

Lookin good Scott, now post some patterns for us

The Savage 220 is back from Indian Creek Shooting Systems (Click Here) choke tubes and Briley Manufacturing (Click Here) gunsmiths!

The turkey choke tube specialists at Indian Creek Shooting Systems outfitted the Savage 220 project gun with their 20GA Invector Plus Black Diamond Strike and Platinum Pro Elite choke tubes.

The fine gunsmiths at Briley threaded the business end of my custom smoothbore bull barrel for 20GA Invector Plus choke tubes (Browning and Winchester's 20 gauge screw-in choke system). Truth-be-told, I was unable to identify ANY other gunsmith or company in North America that is equipped to thread specifically for Invector Plus 20 gauge choke tubes (if you go this route for Invector Plus 20GA screw-ins, you might as well save time and send it to Briley from the start).





Indian Creek reamed the barrel with a Dave Manson Precision Reamers (Click Here) backbore reamer and 34" drive extension (thank you SPURGETTER!). The bore was reamed from the original gundrill .594" size to .625" in order to remove any surface-hardened spots from the heat of the gundrilling process or variation in the hardness of the 4140 PH steel itself.

Briley Manufacturing also honed the .625" reamed barrel bore on a 2-stone honing machine. The honing process removes any "high spots" and/or "low spots" that exist along the barrel's bore. The process allows for near perfect bore concentricity and a consistent bore diameter for the entire length of the bore. The benefit to the shotgun (and the shooter) is that patterns thrown by the shotgun become very consistent, tight, and predictable (as predictable as a scattergun can be anyway).

Here is my .6XX" finished barrel bore ready for competitive shooting (it is a mirror inside there!):





In order to get this shotgun project off the ground, I experimented with a variety of Indian Creek Shooting Systems' choke tubes with exit diameters from .540" through .575" and the 3" Hevi-13 1 1/4 oz number 6s shotshell. For my NWTF still target competition endeavors, the .560" Indian Creek Platinum Pro Elite (non-ported and no wad catchers) won out for best pattern "cores" and shot-to-shot consistency.

Here is the .560" Indian Creek choke screwed into my custom barrel:





Another look from a different vantage point:





Up next: Mounting 1" Burris Signature Zee scope rings (Weaver-style) and an optic (undecided at this point).

I took some time to mount a Leupold 4-12 x 40 VX-I variable riflescope on my Savage 220 bolt-action 20GA project gun.





Medium height, gloss 1-inch Burris Signature Zee rings hold the Leupold in place. Weaver cross-slotted bases attached to the receiver via 6-48 base screws and Loctite blue threadlocker.





Action open ready for ammunition stuffing!





The compelted Savage 220 build gun is so strong, it can even topple a rotten tulip poplar tree! ***eyeroll***








"In the white" 4140 PH bull barrel will be toned down with a future camouflage treatment and some other "special stuff."





Here is how she will ride into Indiana's fall turkey season (and yes, she is going to double as a turkey hunting shotgun!).





Pretty much done with the notable exceptions of a future laminate thumbhole stock and exterior decorations.

Questions/comments are welcome!

Cheers! -Sloppy

wicked lil gun there Scott

WOW............

Awesome. How much does it weigh?

J Gilbert said:

Lookin good Scott, now post some patterns for us

Click to expand...

Thanks guys!

The patterning board pictures will have to wait a bit....it is way too cold here in Indiana right now and I did not take pictures of patterns during my September - early October 2010 patterning sessions.

If Indiana ever gets a day or two with something over 45°F, I will shoot some Hevi-13 6s and 7s and Federal Heavyweight 6s and 7s for "best 10 circles in the winter."

Gut_Pile said:

Awesome. How much does it weigh?

Click to expand...

I am guessing around 9-10 pounds. I never weighed it but I will.

I see you settled on a 560 non ported.


Did it shoot a higher core count or just more consistent compared to the ported? and did you find that the 560 was about equal to a 565-570 in ported......... ie non ported needs more choke for same result? I've done some of the same testing........just comparing notes.

Gadget said:

I see you settled on a 560 non ported.
Did it shoot a higher core count or just more consistent compared to the ported? and did you find that the 560 was about equal to a 565-570 in ported......... ie non ported needs more choke for same result? I've done some of the same testing........just comparing notes.

Click to expand...

The non-ported, no wad catcher Indian Creek .560" choke was specifically tailored to this barrel. It is the clear winner in my "best 5-6 inch 'clumps' of number 6 shot" and most consistent with the 20 gauge 3" Federal Heavyweight 1 1/2" oz. number 6 shotshell and a longer barrel with this particular bore diameter.

As such, I have not (nor intended to) draw any correlation with any ported exit diameter Indian Creek (or other brand) turkey choke due to the requirements of the 20GA Flite Control wad itself (choke with no porting or features allowing pressure drop within the choke and no internal choke machining that could damage the side "fins" of the FC wad).

To be honest, the 20GA Federal HW load "working" so well in this particular barrel is somewhat of a fluke....it was designed (think "chamber") for a completely different shotshell that possesses hull dimensions similar enough to the Federal hull for both 20GA shotshells to "work" acceptably. Nice "by-product" of this build.