I just though i'd share a few pictures of my most recent experience with the parts I bought to switch out a savage small shank barrel as there were a few recommendations I had a hard time finding on the hide forums.
First, I purchased a proof research savage small shank prefit. Needless to say it was worth the money and from what I read other people are pretty happy with them too. I even got mine on sale which made it cheaper than purchasing a good steel barrel at a few of the recommended online prefit makers. I almost ordered a carbonsix but the wait time was a quite long. I will say their customer service was awesome and if you can't find a prefit in stock I would give them a call.
Next I needed to pick out a barrel nut, after reading a few forums I found a few reconditions but not a lot of first hand experiences, this is where I made my first mistake. I bought the patriot valley arms nut as it looked good online and no one seemed to say anything negative about them. Well PVA customerservice wasn't great and used the excuse that their a small shop and just had one guy packing the boxes and answering the phone and I sympathize with that but the shipping took 3 weeks usps. I had things I ordered after this item from all over the US arrive before it did, so that was frustrating. When the barrel nut finally arrived I was extremely disappointed. The nut was covered in machining marks and dirty, it had some kind of black plastic scraps stuck to the threads, this didn't really bother me as I didn't purchase the cheapest one available expecting it to be pretty. What did bother me was the quality of the threads, they are rough. I'm not a machinist but I can tell you thats not how threads should look. Its hard to see how bad the threads are in the pictures but its not worth the cheaper price. I then decided to order the big horn arms 12 point barrel nut; worth every penny. It was about $10 more than the PVA one which made me feel pretty stupid for buying the cheaper one to start. The big horn arms threads and finish were perfect, I could spin it on and off the barrel with a flick of the finger where as the PVA nut, after cleaning off all the debris couldn't.
The next issue I had was getting the old barrel off, I broke a breaker bar trying to turn the action wrench. I recommend anyone trying this to skip using any undersized tools they have lying around the house and just buy the appropriate sized tools. Apparently Factory barrels torqued are well over the recommended 150 ft-lbs American Rifle Company Recommends (use your actions manufacture recommended torque)
The Proof barrel shot great.
The POI was a just a few inches lower than the previous barrel, which was 7" longer, and I shot about a 1/2" moa at 100. I had no problem getting out to 600 yards and I could consistently hit a 3" plate.
Here is a list of all the tools and the cheapest place I found them
Brownells: Action wrench, "Go" and "No Go" gauges (yes, you should get both)
Home Depot: Appropriate sized breaker bar ( around 2 foot long), 12 Point wrench (1-1/8") (they are about 1/2 price in the automotive section)
Big Horn Barrel Nut: https://bighornarms.com/product/12-point-barrel-nut/
Places that had Prefits in stock: stockys, optics planet, bugholes, carbonsix
Anti-seize: I just had some in my tool box but you can find some on amazon, I used the copper type but any type will do.
*PVA-Box wrench, Big Horn-12 point
The picture of the PVA threads are after i wiped off about half the machining debris and before I took a toothbrush to the threads. The Big Horn is straight out of the box.
First, I purchased a proof research savage small shank prefit. Needless to say it was worth the money and from what I read other people are pretty happy with them too. I even got mine on sale which made it cheaper than purchasing a good steel barrel at a few of the recommended online prefit makers. I almost ordered a carbonsix but the wait time was a quite long. I will say their customer service was awesome and if you can't find a prefit in stock I would give them a call.
Next I needed to pick out a barrel nut, after reading a few forums I found a few reconditions but not a lot of first hand experiences, this is where I made my first mistake. I bought the patriot valley arms nut as it looked good online and no one seemed to say anything negative about them. Well PVA customerservice wasn't great and used the excuse that their a small shop and just had one guy packing the boxes and answering the phone and I sympathize with that but the shipping took 3 weeks usps. I had things I ordered after this item from all over the US arrive before it did, so that was frustrating. When the barrel nut finally arrived I was extremely disappointed. The nut was covered in machining marks and dirty, it had some kind of black plastic scraps stuck to the threads, this didn't really bother me as I didn't purchase the cheapest one available expecting it to be pretty. What did bother me was the quality of the threads, they are rough. I'm not a machinist but I can tell you thats not how threads should look. Its hard to see how bad the threads are in the pictures but its not worth the cheaper price. I then decided to order the big horn arms 12 point barrel nut; worth every penny. It was about $10 more than the PVA one which made me feel pretty stupid for buying the cheaper one to start. The big horn arms threads and finish were perfect, I could spin it on and off the barrel with a flick of the finger where as the PVA nut, after cleaning off all the debris couldn't.
The next issue I had was getting the old barrel off, I broke a breaker bar trying to turn the action wrench. I recommend anyone trying this to skip using any undersized tools they have lying around the house and just buy the appropriate sized tools. Apparently Factory barrels torqued are well over the recommended 150 ft-lbs American Rifle Company Recommends (use your actions manufacture recommended torque)
The Proof barrel shot great.
The POI was a just a few inches lower than the previous barrel, which was 7" longer, and I shot about a 1/2" moa at 100. I had no problem getting out to 600 yards and I could consistently hit a 3" plate.
Here is a list of all the tools and the cheapest place I found them
Brownells: Action wrench, "Go" and "No Go" gauges (yes, you should get both)
Home Depot: Appropriate sized breaker bar ( around 2 foot long), 12 Point wrench (1-1/8") (they are about 1/2 price in the automotive section)
Big Horn Barrel Nut: https://bighornarms.com/product/12-point-barrel-nut/
Places that had Prefits in stock: stockys, optics planet, bugholes, carbonsix
Anti-seize: I just had some in my tool box but you can find some on amazon, I used the copper type but any type will do.
*PVA-Box wrench, Big Horn-12 point
The picture of the PVA threads are after i wiped off about half the machining debris and before I took a toothbrush to the threads. The Big Horn is straight out of the box.
