Savage 340 E .223 revsited

bullethead

Of the hard cast variety
Back in 1982ish as a young teenager I saved up and bought a Savage 340 E in .223 at a local gun shop.
It never ejected properly. The LGS had a new extractor put in it by a local g'smith and it just never was reliable and towards the last few times I fired it I had to punch every empty out with a rod.
I didn't use it for years and at about age 16 I ventured into my first "I am going to play gunsmith" and took the whole thing apart down to individual trigger pieces but I could never get the barrel off. I had no idea what I was looking for but I DO remember thinking that the chamber looked Oval or Oblong, lets call it Out of Round. It sat in pieces for years until I moved out at 18yrs old and it got packed away and forgotten about.
I found it again 2 days ago. Trigger pieces, front sight, barrel band, springs, screws all in a 100rnd CCI MiniMag plastic box, barreled action, and stock side by side and I had the bolt and magazine together in a tool chest that I use for gun parts.
I was actually impressed with young Me for actually putting all the small parts together AND labeling it!
Anyway I get to looking at the chamber end of the barrel and dang if it still looks Out of Round and I now see a crack in the metal (upper left side of metal above chamber in attached pic) which I never took the time or had and decent way of seeing all those years ago!
Maybe I can get it rebarreled with a faster twist. I doubt that I'd find an old replacement barrel and not sure that I'd trust the workmanship from that era if I did.
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bullethead

Of the hard cast variety
My guess is that with the chamber being Out of Round that once fired the bolt just did not have enough camming action to twist the misshapen cartridge out of there. The extractors were pretty weak to begin with so no way it getting it out when oval.
Had to be a loose reamer or off-center reamer but that crack has me perplexed.
What are the thoughts in here?
 

rosewood

Senior Member
rebarrel to a 7mm tcu or 300 blackout
 

bullethead

Of the hard cast variety
One of these and a barrel nut wrench. Pretty sure the wrench will be the same as for a 110
I think the factory ones are 1:12 twist. I am thinking that something in 1:8 range might serve me best. Not sure if the mag length would handle the OAL for bullets that could benefit from a 1:7.
 

bighonkinjeep

Senior Member
I did a little looking around and the 340 barrel nut is different than the 110 series. There are also going to be clocking issues when setting headspace if the replacement barrel has iron sights.
Heres a little info I found. If you were to start a new thread on savage shooters I would bet someone knowledgeable on the 340 would be more than happy to help you get it up and running again.
 

Gaswamp

Senior Member
I knew they made a 222 in that model but was unaware of the 223
 
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