One design characteristic of the Model 110 is ease of manufacturing, which, of course, keeps the price down. Its action is machined from a round bar of steel, reducing machining time. The gun uses a separate recoil lug captured between the barrel and the action, eliminating the machining needed for an integral recoil lug. The bolt is a Mauser-inspired design with two forward-mounted, horizontally opposed lugs, but it’s modular and assembled from several parts that are easier to make than a one-piece bolt. The magazine initially was a staggered column box without a floorplate; it was as inexpensive as was possible at the time.
The 110 was initially offered in .30-’06 Sprg. and .270 Win. In 1959, a short-action version was added chambered in .243 Win. or .308 Win. The catalog also offered right- and left-hand barreled actions, making the 110 the first commercial rifle offered in a left-hand bolt-action.
One of the most distinctive features of the 110—love it or hate it—is the barrel nut. Those with an appreciation of simplistic and pragmatic design love it, as do those riflemen who worship at the altar of accuracy. Brewer borrowed the concept from a machine gun design where it was used for rapid barrel replacement, but it made sense for a sporting rifle as well, particularly considering how it kept manufacturing costs down.
The usual way to fit a barrel is to screw it into the receiver so that a shoulder on the barrel fits tight against the front of the receiver. Then the chamber must be fitted for the correct headspace, usually by reaming it deeper until the proper fit is achieved. This is time consuming and does not always result in an exact fit with headspacing. There is a set tolerance and, as long as the headspacing falls within the tolerance, it is considered acceptable. But, “acceptable” can be at the extreme of the tolerance, which can result in poor accuracy.
With the barrel-nut design, the chamber is pre-cut. The barrel nut is installed onto the threaded rear portion of the barrel, and then the barrel is screwed onto the receiver. The bolt is closed on a “go” headspacing gauge and the barrel is screwed in until it’s a contact fit with the headspacing gauge. Then the barrel nut is tightened down to lock the barrel and receiver together. Headspacing is perfect and can be set at the minimum end of the tolerance for better accuracy. One of the features that custom gun builders often advertise is “minimum-spec” headspacing because it is desirable for accuracy. Savage does it with every 110. This design also requires a lot less machining to make the parts and much less time to install the barrel to the receiver, which keeps costs down.
Those who focus on the aesthetics of gun design detest the barrel nut. They have a point; it is an ugly thing when compared to the clean lines and smooth look of a conventional barrel-to-receiver fit. Some of the newer Model 110 and offshoot rifles have addressed the issue to some extent. The ugly cuts for the spanner wrench are gone and the barrel nut has been streamlined a bit. There is a single hole drilled in the nut’s underside to fit a torque wrench. When the gun is assembled, the hole is hidden by the stock. The result is a cleaner, sleeker barrel nut. It’s still there, but it definitely looks better.
I examined one of the 110 prototypes on loan from the Savage archives. The barrel nut has a series of deep V-cuts resembling the teeth on a gear, and the ends have sharp edges. The contrast between it and the new, sleeker barrel nut is astonishing.
The prototype 110 used a safety design from the Savage Super Sporter Model 45, a 110 predecessor. It has two wings, with one on each side of the tang. If the right one—located behind the bolt handle—is raised, the gun is on safe. Pushing down on that wing causes the left one to rise up as the right one goes down. This puts the gun off safety and ready to fire. Clearly, it was dropped, and the familiar tang safety used even today on the 110 was added to the final design. Today’s safeties are three-position and tang-mounted. Back for safety and to lock the bolt, forward to fire and center to open the rifle while still on safe.
For more information contact: Savage Arms Co. (Dept. AR), 100 Springdale Road, Westfield, MA 01085;
(413) 568-7001; www.savagearms.com.
