The .460 S&W Magnum Bolt Action Rifle Project: Part 3: Rifle Acquisition

We left off with my project clearly defined. I needed a bolt face to accommodate the .520 rim diameter of the .460 S&W Mag, a new barrel, a barrel nut, and the Savage Rifle itself. I figured I’d buy a new HOGHUNTER and I knew the price of that, but I tried to find it used and a bit cheaper. Used I don’t really care what caliber it is in, I was in it for the stock (which would hopefully be ready for a varmint profile bull barrel) and the action and bolt body. I put an ad on ArmsList wanting a Savage Short Action Rifle in any caliber. I got a few inquiries from people looking to sell $1000+ custom rifles. Then I found a great ad. A guy in my state had a Savage 10P in .308 Winchester for sale/trade, and he was looking for an AR15 to trade. I have a TNArms based AR15 with a PSA Premium barrel that I don’t shoot much anymore with 5 other ARs in my safe (2 are matching for the boys, only 3 are mine…I don’t have a problem…I have 6 5 solutions). I emailed him and we ended up working out a trade.

I had my base platform, the Savage 10P. It comes with a slotted barrel nut instead of the newer smooth one, so I'm going to try to reuse that and save $15+shipping on a new one. It has an Accutrigger (pure sex), basic stock, 20” bull barrel. He threw in a free Blackhawk scope rail and Caldwell branded bipod. I may or may not end up using those. The stock is already free floated for a thick barrel, so that will easily enable me to use a Savage Varmint profiled barrel from McGowen without extra stock work. I went ahead and ordered a not-so-custom bolt face from Pacific Tool and Gauge, a .540 bolt face (Standard Savage Magnum Size) in short action length instead of requesting a custom .520 bolt face. I also threw in the Go/NoGo gauges in the same order. I skipped the field gauge because the NoGO should cover what I need to verify headspace isn’t too excessive. Going with the .540 bolt face saved ~$75 over having a custom .520 face made…and left me with a spare .308 bolt face from the stock bolt. If the .540 face didn’t work out I could easily have a local gunsmith open up the .308 face I was swapping out. It is also nice to have a spare and possibly save some cash. This decision is important, remember it for my future updates…

Where am I at now?

Big Bore Savage Parts	Price Estimate	Real Cost
Savage HOGHUNTER (new)	$500.00	Basic M4Forgery with TN Arms Lower ~$500
Bolt Face	$150.00	$78.25
Slotted Barrel Nut	$15.00	$-
460 S&W McGowen Barrel	$450.00
GO/NoGO Gauges	$95.00	$83.32
Barrel Wrench, Rosin, Misc	$75.00
Total	$ 1285	$161.57 and misc considerations

Next Up: Modify the magazine to get it to feed properly. As a teaser, you guys seem to be focused on getting a rimmed cartridge to feed in a Savage Magazine so I'm going to leave this picture of a dummy 460 S&W (no primer or powder) in a stock, unmodified magazine.

Part 1: The Beginning

Part 2: Proving the concept and making the parts list

Part 3: Rifle Acquisition

Part 4: Modify Magazine for rimmed cartridges

Part 5: Ordering the custom 460 S&W Chambered barrel

Part 6: New Bolt Face

Part 7: More Fuckups and a Completed Bolt

Part 8: Fine tuning

Part 9: New Magazine

Part 10: Barrel Installation

Part 11: Test Fire

Part 12: Iron Sight selection and installation

Part 13: Optics or not?