I managed to find a Savage 111 that had some mileage on it.
The barrel, from what I can see from just looking down the barrel, had grooves or scratches that ran the opposite direction of the rifling. You kinda expect in a caliber that has cheap ammo.
I thought to just replace the .223 barrel...but that just ain't my style.
The .224 Valkyrie sounded like something I would like to try and it was different.
The plus was it only required a barrel ( which was getting changed anyhow) and a new bolt head.
Savage is really ahead of the curve in both departments. Barrels swap with almost no effort thanks to using a jam nut on the barrel. So easy it's stupid.

I found a new 224 barrel that was semi finished and could be had in just a week.
It showed up Saturday. I got a #4 profile which was just slightly larger than the thin factory barrel.
Rather than buying a new stock. I thought I would just fit the new barrel by opening up the factory channel.

Sounds like a cool project. With a bolt action, you can milk everything out of the round.

Savage sure does make it easy to DIY them into different rifles.

What's the twist in the .224V barrel?

This one is a 1:7 twist

Very nice!

You can find Hornady 88 gr ELD-M easier than many others.

This is gonna be a fairly low budget build, the original composite stock is just going to get a facelift.
I had to open the barrel channel a bit for the new barrel to fit. In the picture I'm applying Marine Tex to the old checkering. Should make it nice and grippy.

I would say, main concern is making the forearm stiff, and keeping it from touching the barrel.

Pillar, and bed the stock.

Hopefully you are planning on taking these measures, as well.

Just got the bedding compound in ...What a freakin mess that is

Bedding is a mess but worth it in the long run. Last few I have done were with the accuglass gel which is to me a little easier than their other products I have used.

Had a lot of fun with my Savage project rifle. The rear pillar on mine was a little awkward, when you drill that thing out there wasn’t much of the wood stock left. Hope it comes out good.

I had hoped to get all the parts in to finish this project up in time to shoot some PDawgs.
As is always the case the parts show up the day I leave for the shoot...
Anyhow, the Valkyrie bolt head came in along with the Lil Bastard muzzle brake.
I also finished out the stock with black webbing and a chalk clear coat.

Now I gotta go shoot it and see if I did my part !

Looking really good! I hope you share your results with us once you get it to the range and get a load worked up for it.

I have about 120 pieces of brass prepped and ready and several projectiles to include ELD 75 & 88 Grain.
Going to take it to the range in a couple of days.
Really interested to see how it shoots!

That stock came out real nice

very cool project. I'll be following to see how it shoots. Love me some havey 22 shootings.

Finally got all my stuff together and went to the range today.
After 6 shots That were enough to get me zeroed in. I shot 5 for a group @100
While not the finest ever for a new barrel I suppose its not terrible.
I was shooting Federal Factory 75 Grain (Eagle) loads, which I'm sure is not match grade.
I have components and will build some handloads and test again.
What I found funny is that this rounds report is a sharp little POP...

What did you do on the bolt head issue?

PTG swapped out the bolthead that I had without the alignment groove for one that did.
They were just a bit slow at sending it out. I wanted to test it on PDawgs but wasn't in the stars.

I found an issue that i discovered at the range.
the rear scope mount had a hump on the rear tang, and this was in contact with the zoom ring of the scope
This is the first issue I have ever had with a DNZ mount.
I decided to modify it to clear and hit it with a Rednek milling machine.
not sure if this would affect accuracy but it is no longer an issue.

Hate DNZ mounts.

Pic rail, NF Ultralight rings.

I have always had good luck with DNZ mounts.
This one has me thinking the pic rail would be better.

You can't say "always" anymore.

True Dat

You can have issues with any of them. The power adjustment on my savage with a pic rail only clears the rail by a papers width or two. Lower the scope the better to me, its just something to be conscious of.

Headed back to the range today with some homemade 88s

Made up 10 of the 88's to test last night.
made it to the range this afternoon and started over.
Had to re-zero because the scope was off to fix the contact issue.
after getting a good zero I shot this 5 shot string.
What is strange is the first shot was the one in the square.
Then it grouped the 4. Only thing I can figure is still dealing with barrel break in, or it likes it hot and dirty.....

Barrel free floated?
How many rounds total?
How many rounds since cleaning?
Suppressor attached?

barrel is free floated
As of now 25 rounds total
cleaned last night @ 15 rds
lil bastard muzzle brake no suppressor

So clean cold bore shot was the flier?

it had 5 shots before but was (mostly) cooled off
Dirty cold