Restoring Stevens Savage 311 Series H Double BBL. 12ga.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I know all about complex, I have to deal with it every day, the customer don't know what the part is called, or what it does only that it's broke, we don't know what the part is or how it works and just go by what the Hollander manuals tell us fits. Black boxes, silver boxes, stuff that you don't touch or the air bags go BOOM. That's why I like antiques, I could fix my Model A with chewing gum , bailing wire, and my leatherman tool My friends Uncle owns the largest towing outfit in the area, he has a fleet of rollback trucks, when he moved into his new home I helped him move that heavy bastard toolbox of his on a wicked cold winter night, ice all over the drive, what a job even with the ramp down and the winch. Whenever my Caddy has a problem I get on the horn and yell for him to come down and look it over because there is no way I am messing around with all the computers and such, might as well be a rocket ship for all I know about fixing that sort of stuff. When I start talking about points, adjusting valves, rebuilding carburetors and such he gets cross eyed

[WeldonHunter]

I know all about complex, I have to deal with it every day, the customer don't know what the part is called, or what it does only that it's broke, we don't know what the part is or how it works and just go by what the Hollander manuals tell us fits. Black boxes, silver boxes, stuff that you don't touch or the air bags go BOOM. That's why I like antiques, I could fix my Model A with chewing gum , bailing wire, and my leatherman tool My friends Uncle owns the largest towing outfit in the area, he has a fleet of rollback trucks, when he moved into his new home I helped him move that heavy bastard toolbox of his on a wicked cold winter night, ice all over the drive, what a job even with the ramp down and the winch. Whenever my Caddy has a problem I get on the horn and yell for him to come down and look it over because there is no way I am messing around with all the computers and such, might as well be a rocket ship for all I know about fixing that sort of stuff. When I start talking about points, adjusting valves, rebuilding carburetors and such he gets cross eyed

LMAO, Yeah I grew up with that stuff too. I started working on cars just before they put the first computers in them in the mid 70's. Now everything is computer controlled. One Caddy I worked on had 12 computers in it. The last shop I worked in specialised in computer and electrical diagnosis. I was the shop foreman and was in charge of quality control. Along with doing all of the same stuff everyone else did. I had headaches constantly. I miss chevy small blocks and the gut wrenching power you can get from them.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Oh yea, I had a lot of Chevy's, still have a couple, working on a '82 Chevy ex military step van just now, it's a carbureted 350 4bbl with ordinary HEI. In the old days I had a lot of muscle MoPar, big ass Chrysler C body's with 440's, 383's, B body's and a few A body's. Even had a 1952 Chrysler 331 hemi Saratoga, I remember my first ride in a 426 Hemi powered Charger, dam thing lit off like a rocket ship. Had a small fleet of Caddys over the years, 472's, 500's, engines that could move a 4600 pound car like it was the space shuttle, but would never pass a gas station. I only recently sold my old 1970 Chevy plow truck, that one had a 307 in it, rear main was leaking, so much rust I can't figure what was holding that truck together. The current Caddy is an older model with the 4.9, running well so far but I am well aware of that engine series history starting with the 4.1. Everything Caddy made after 1994 looks butt ugly to me, with the newest models being the worst offenders, and quality control leaves much to be desired. I was running Ford Crown Vics, and big Mercurys but seem to be unable to keep the head gaskets from blowing on the 4.6's. Just got in a 2003 Vic interceptor that is supposed to only need a starter, still has all the lights and sirens in it, might have to play with that one. Park it in the drive right past the stop sign everybody blows and watch the reactions

[entropy]

I well recall putting the works back in one of these, took some time

Here I was hoping someone would come in and say "Oh it's a piece of cake". Being a mechanic, once I saw the way the hammers are installed I had an idea it would be a real pain and some research confirmed it JYD. I saw many posts where guys say it's a real bear. Lots of cussing and a six pack is what one guy said. I did a see where a few of the guys said you need to make a Z bend in a flat blade screwdriver to compress the mainsprings and I found a post with an article where the process is explained in detail by a guy making modifications to one with some replacement springs among other things. http://savageshooters.com/SavageForum/i ... 469.0.html I right clicked and saved all of it to my 311 folder. We'll see if it helps.

I actually did a trial run with one hammer and got it close without a vise. Put some scratches on the hammer where the sear hit it so I stopped. No harm done it's just superfical scratches. I'm going to load it in a vise to finish the job.

Actaully, the 311's are easier than many SxS's and O/U's.

[WeldonHunter]

Update:
I bit the the bullet today and decided to put the reciever back together. New hammers, cocking lever, 2 new fire pins and springs and a new stock. It went better than I expected. I used my neighbors vise. I will definitely be getting a vise real soon. It made all the difference. It took about 20 minutes to get the hammers and cocking lever in. I used a 5/32nds drillbit as a slave pin. Started from the left side and one at a time put them in. Then drove the hammer pin through from the right and it was done. It was hard but not as a bad as I thought it might be. Then I finished up by putting the whole gun back together. It's not completely finished but it's in working condition now and shoots great. I still need to refinish the foreend and do some minor metal work, some reblueing of some small parts as well as fitting the stock a bit better. It needs some minor filing to make it sit better on the reciever. I will also attempt to darken the reciever as well as touch up the blueing on other parts of the gun. It isn't the greatest but it's so nice to look up and see it in a gun rack on the wall.

I put 6 shells through it with 5 shots. Yes you know what that means. I shot it once with both barrels. I couldn't resist. I used some Remington Gun Club #8 1-7/8oz. 2.75" shells. I'd forgotten just how much kick this thing has. Especially when shooting both barrels. It kicks like a mule. I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Almost ripped my fingers off.

[desdem12]

Looks so nice Nice job on it

[WeldonHunter]

Here's a before and after for now. Not the best pictures but the lighting is terrible. Once I can get the reciever darker and do the finish up stuff I'll repost.

[millman]

That turned out great.

[WeldonHunter]

Looks so nice Nice job on it

That turned out great.

Thanks guys. If I had the shop together it would look a lot better. I'm just using cold blueing and am not happy with the reciever. The barrels turned out fairly nice. I wanted a checkered stock like the one it had but good luck finding one. The quality of the pictures is hiding a host of imperfections. I'm a perfectionist. I'll settle for operational for now. This gun hasn't been fired since about 1990. Felt so good to let her rip. The dog loved it too. She's a little bitty thing but she's a heck of a hunting dog and loves guns. Loves to see me come out of the house with a gun let alone hear one being shot. I've seen her attack a full grown male coon a third bigger than her and she's tough as nails but let it start thundering and she's in the house and under the bed. Hates storms.

[Ironnewt]

Out of curiosity, Where in Maryland was (is) your Uncle?

[WeldonHunter]

Out of curiosity, Where in Maryland was (is) your Uncle?

He's lives on Oella ave. above Ellicott City. My great uncle still lives down on river road. Same place he and my grandfather grew up at. My family is from that area going back to the 1680s and all the way up river to Woodstock Md. I grew up in Catonsville and Woodlawn. I noticed you're from Md. and have been meaning to ask where you are there.

[bunkysdad]

Hi Mike. You might think that I don't care for shotguns much since you never see me here in this section. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love shotguns and shooting them as much as any other, including milsurps, well almost that much. I have a few and between me and my brother the list of shotguns can get crazy. We had a birdhunter father, and did our share of hunting doves and ducks, and a few quails too. These days I don't much at all, too expensive when you don't have property, and any cash to spend goes towards guns and ammo. I know this is a few months old, but it in not too late to catch up and tell you how nice that Stevens looks. Hey I was given good advice a long time ago. Never point out your faults! I know you are a perfectionist, but we may never notice the small imperfections that drive you crazy. Anyway did I mention just how great your shotgun looks? Nice stock, and man oh man I still am wanting to find me a double. My brother has collected a number of various doubles over the years, including a 10 ga O/U. My dad's well used and never abused Charles Daly 12 ga o/u is the first to be claimed anytime there is any form of shooting clays to be done. It is one of the Japanese made Miroku guns, but good God does it ever shoot!!!!! I have a fully custom single shot 12 ga Whippet that I got for Christmas year before last that prbably has more pent on the wood than the gun was worth, but I love it. Hey I thik I told you......... that Stevens looks great!

[WeldonHunter]

Hi Mike. You might think that I don't care for shotguns much since you never see me here in this section. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love shotguns and shooting them as much as any other, including milsurps, well almost that much. I have a few and between me and my brother the list of shotguns can get crazy. We had a birdhunter father, and did our share of hunting doves and ducks, and a few quails too. These days I don't much at all, too expensive when you don't have property, and any cash to spend goes towards guns and ammo. I know this is a few months old, but it in not too late to catch up and tell you how nice that Stevens looks. Hey I was given good advice a long time ago. Never point out your faults! I know you are a perfectionist, but we may never notice the small imperfections that drive you crazy. Anyway did I mention just how great your shotgun looks? Nice stock, and man oh man I still am wanting to find me a double. My brother has collected a number of various doubles over the years, including a 10 ga O/U. My dad's well used and never abused Charles Daly 12 ga o/u is the first to be claimed anytime there is any form of shooting clays to be done. It is one of the Japanese made Miroku guns, but good God does it ever shoot!!!!! I have a fully custom single shot 12 ga Whippet that I got for Christmas year before last that prbably has more pent on the wood than the gun was worth, but I love it. Hey I thik I told you......... that Stevens looks great!

Thanks Russell. I respect your opinion. You know how I think being a mechanic too. We see the things that are wrong in any situation. It's what has been imprinted in us to be able to do our job, fix things that people bring to us that are broken. It is a nice gun and was the first shotgun I ever purchased. I have others that were given to me that were also being stored with this gun where it was damaged by my neglect and I have others that I've purchased since and one that was given to me. I have about 6 of them all together. This one thankfully was the best candidate for restoration. It's not finished. The rest of the work is mostly cosmetic. It's fully functional now and that was my goal. I get a real nice feeling everytime I look up and see this gun on the rack. I really like this one, it's my favorite. I also repect it after reminding myself of the power it has firing both barrels at the same time again for the first time in over 26 years. Ouch!!!