Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Combination Guns and Drillings Savage 24 , Regulating Barrels ?

I have a 22 Magnum/20 Ga and I fired a test target yesterday. With the iron sights adjusted to be dead on with the rifle barrel the shotgun barrel puts slugs about 3" low. This is at only 50'. Windage is OK it's just the elevation that is off.

Is the spacer between the barrels silver soldered ?

Anybody done this fix and have any helpful tips ?


Mike

I guess I'd ask, "How far do you plan to shoot something with (I'm assuming" a Forster style slug out of a smoothbore 20 gauge? Personally, I'd probably limit it to 50 or 75 yards and you should be able to compensate with a little "Kentucky elevation".

When you say the rifle barrel is "right on" I'm assuming at 50 yards also? If that's the case, you could carefully take down the front sight a little until the rifle barrel is hitting an inch or two high at fifty, putting it closer to zero at 100 yards or so and reducing the amount the 20 gauge slug is low at 50 yards.

It seems either of those solutions would be preferable to trying to regulate the barrels. Just my $.02

The 3 INCH difference that I stated is at 50 FEET not 50 YARDS.
If it was only 3 inches at 50 yards it wouldn't bother me.

Mike

That's the way they made 'em, a shotgun built for pointing shot, not for aiming slugs.


I did this to one of mine. Not so much because I needed to shoot slugs, but because someone told me you couldn't do it.

Sorry, the eyes read it right, the brain got it wrong.

Back in the '60's my brother had a 24 with .22 LR over 20 gauge. It shot slugs very well and to pretty much same point of aim.

Obviously there is no barrel regulation on these guns. Some people will jam a piece of metal, or a coin between the barrels at certain points, but it doesn't look very aesthetically pleasing if it works at all.

I go sort of the same route Cas did, but with a scope for the rifle barrel set in see thru mounts so I can use the irons for the shotgun barrel. I'm really not a fan of see thru sights, I really don't like them at all, yet I can say they work well, and I find them necessary on a Savage 24, especially on the 24V's(centerfires).

Shown is a Savage 24 Series S in 22 magnum over 20 gauge with see thru NC Star Aluminum Dovetail rings and a Western Field 3X9 32MM scope.

THAT rates a Two-Cool!

Before you bother regulating the barrels you may just want to shoot some 50 yard groups with several different kinds of slugs to see how well they group.

I have had several over the years. The one I have now is a 60's vintage DL in .22 Mag/20 ga. Not only are the two barrels not even close, the 20 ga barrel with slugs is a "pattern" not a "group" maker at 50 yards...and that is with about 5 different brands.

So I don't even both with slugs for this gun...just Winchester .22 Magnum 40 gr. HPs, #4 buckshot and a variety of #4, #6 and #7 1/2 birdshot...

Bob

Seems to depend a lot on the gun..My dad has a 222/20 as well as a 223/20. The 223/20 seems to group pretty well between the two barrels. The 222/20 does not though for some reason.

Fifty feet is not how to see where something shoots. Fifty yards is. My bet is that the slugs will hit higher at fifty yards.

I like what cas6969 did.

Had a 24 in 223/12 guage that the shotgun barrel shot real low also but I never shot a slug through it. I never could get used to holding high with the shotgun so I sent it down the road.

machine a small wedge to fit between the barrels, make the rifle shoot with the shotgun, then adjust the sights, the rifle barrel will bend with the wedge, bow the rifle barrel up in the middle, it will lower poi.

I had a Mo. 24, in 22/410. when I was a kid that shot spot on both barrels with the same open sight. Wish I still had it. Much later I got a 223/12ga. That was way different. Very disappointing.

If a Savage 24 barrels ever shot to the same point of impact is complete, random chance. There is no way to regulate. i tried really, really hard to like those guns, owned a few, they were all cheaply designed and badly made. I gave up on them. Hope you get lucky with yours.

I agree about the quality, but it’s to be expected, given the price. OTOH, my 90s .30/30 over 12ga put Remington Foster slugs right on the button with the Remington .30/30 ammo at 50 as luck would have it. Killed a decent 8 with it while still-hunting into my stand one morning when I’d overslept.

The synthetic stock on that one was square on the top and distinctly unpleasant to shoot with the shotgun barrel, and while I never weighed it, it was a total anvil. Didn’t last long here, and the crudeness kept me from wanting to do anything to improve it. Older wooden-stocked models look much nicer, but since I don’t have a barn, I don’t need a barn gun.

A slug at a different velocity might group higher, due to longer barrel time, but also might go astray horizontally. Only way to find out is to try some. Brennekes are always my first choice in smoothbores, if available. Get ‘em when you can, because they don’t last long.

If at fifty yards, you get vertical separation, you might try a scope with plex cross hairs. I had a 222 /20 that I did that with. The 222 was lower and the 20 higher and a tad left. With a 1-4.5, I found at 3x, I should shoot off the fat part for the 20 and the x for the 222. The 222 was on the money, the 20, close enough for woods whiteltails and turkeys with shot.
I've done this a bunch with German BBF's when using cast bullets and different bullet weights. You just need to remember which is which with which gun and load. It can be a witches brew with multiple guns and loads.
Bfly