Several years ago when Ruger introduced their Ruger American Ranch Rifle in 7.62x39 I had immediate case of the wants. I have a large supply of the caliber and it would be very useful here in Pennsylvania. However, I generally don't buy right handed bolt action rifles unless they are a classic or military surplus. So, I've held off on getting one.
However, yesterday I got my hands on a suitable alternative in another caliber I stock with similar ballistics. It's a right handed boltgun but for this case I'll make an exception. It's a Savage Stevens 325B in .30-30 Winchester.
In 1947 or '48, Savage Arms' Stevens subsidiary introduced a new rifle, the model 325. It was designed to appeal to returning GIs who'd gotten used to shooting bolt action rifles and was chambered initially in .30-30 and .22 Hornet. After a few years it was renamed the Savage 340 and in addition to these two calibers, was chambered in .222 Remington, .223 Remington, and .225 Winchester. Savage sold the 340s until 1985.
These rifles used modern manufacturing techniques including many stamped sheet steel parts, to help keep the cost down. Instead of walnut the stock was made from birch. It sold for $38 in 1948, which an inflation calculator tells me is worth about $656 today.
The Stevens is rather plain, but a serviceable rifle. I imagine that many of them were working guns on farms. Over on the Gun and Game Forum, member Outpost75, who owns a Savage 340A in .30-30, described them, "These are good, sturdy, accurate little rifles, if a bit "agricultural" looking."
This Stevens 325B in .30-30 followed me home from the Oaks, PA gun show yesterday. It's in excellent shape for a 76 year old gun. It's stamped on the top of the barrel near the receiver with a B inside of a circle. This appears to be a Savage date code indicating it was built in 1950. The bore and crown are spotless. Along with the gun I bought a Chicom SKS sling. I like these because they are simple, light, quiet, and easy to adjust.
The unloaded rifle weighs 7 lbs. but feels a little lighter to me because it balances very well. The barrel is 21" long, and the length of pull is about 13-5/8", which fits me nicely.
If you're enamored with Jeff Cooper's scout rifle concept one of these would be a good scout-ish platform, keeping in mind that it cannot be rechambered for .308 and scope mounting requires a side-mounted rail. You won't get stripped clip loading but because it uses detachable box magazines, that's moot, IMHO.
The detachable box magazine feed also makes these ideal for truck gun usage. You can keep a couple magazines loaded and locked in a separate container from the rifle, but quickly load it when required.
The standard scope mounts for this series of rifles mounts to the side of the receiver, due to the split bridge design. My rifle was built before Savage came out with their side mount so it lacks the drilled and tapped mounting holes. However, it is drilled and tapped for a receiver peep sight. I setup a search on eBay to see if one turns up.
For now I'll rely on the open iron sights. Another possibility is to drill and tap the receiver ring for a short section of Picatinny rail and mount a small dot sight on it. That would help preserve the rifle's handling while giving a much better sighting arrangement.
Something to keep in mind if you buy one of these is that the bolt has only one locking lug, relying on the root of the bolt handle to act as a safety lug. Compared with, e.g., a Mauser, Mosin-Nagant, or Lee-Enfield, the action is relatively weak. That said, it is plenty strong enough for factory loads in the calibers for which it was built.
The Stevens feeds from a three-round detachable box magazine. I like such magazines on hunting rifles because they facilitate easy loading and unloading, and with a spare magazine in your pocket you're set for a day's hunt. I ordered a couple reproductions from Numrich Arms, which may require a little final fitting.
The magazine is also a limiting factor on those who want to use spitzer bullets in the .30-30. While rifles with tubular magazines can't use hard-tipped pointed bullets because of the risk of unwanted detonation in the mag, the short length of the Savage / Stevens pretty much limits cartridges to those with the same length as factory loads. Here's the mag filled with Remington 170 grain Core Lokt factory loads. You can see there isn't much room for a longer bullet.
An interesting feature on my rifle is a .30-30 case head inlet into the right side of the butt. The pictures I've found of the Stevens lack this so I'm guessing a previous owner put it there. Pretty cool.
The .30-30 cartridge is great for shooting cast bullets, which I plan to do. So I slugged the bore by driving a .32 caliber lead bullet through the barrel and then measuring the groove diameter, which came out to .30905". I have some .310" bullets from MOD Outfitters I'll be trying in the Stevens after I get the chance to load some .30-30s.
In my wanderings online to search for info about the Stevens 325 and Savage 340 rifle I ran across these two articles by Leeroy Wisner, which are worth saving if you have one:
- Stevens 325 and Savage 340 Bolt Action Rifle
- Gunsmithing the Savage Model 340 Rifle
And also this site:
I've always thought this series of rifles was neat and I'm happy to have finally acquired one. Now all I need to happen is for the weather to warm up so it's normal Southeast, PA winter instead of feeling like I live on Hoth, and I'll get to shoot it.
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