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Joined: 18 Feb 2015 Posts: 32 Location: SW WA state

sorry about the duplicate replies. It kept giving me an error page and looking like the reply didn't go through, and then all of a sudden there were three of them... lol

Joined: 18 Feb 2015 Posts: 32 Location: SW WA state

Joined: 09 Dec 2012 Posts: 736

you are going to have to wait a couple days for me to feel better and get into the gun safe and then I will pull out the 755 I have, which is basically a later iteration of the 720 and do some measuring for you (seeing as they use a lot of the same parts)

until then and maybe this will help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Xy5pgG2Y3h8&t=0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXbjSMEneK4

Also from what I am seeing on the web, the gun will say 3 Shot if it is.

Do a search on Savage 720. Both on the web and the forum here. Lots of information.

Joined: 18 Feb 2015 Posts: 32 Location: SW WA state

What I meant is that I'm away from home for a week now and can't lay my hands on this gun and see how many shells it holds and measure some things until I get home again. lol

Thanks for the links! Hadn't come across those yet. I was just looking at some about ejection issues.

Joined: 09 Dec 2012 Posts: 736

Joined: 18 Feb 2015 Posts: 32 Location: SW WA state

Problem solved. This gun prefers 1 1/8 oz loads. Works just dandy with those. lol

It doesn't seem to be a "five shell" gun, but that "three shell" spring I got is definitely not the right one, so I'll return that.

thanks!

Joined: 09 Dec 2012 Posts: 736

So it won't load 4 in the magazine and 1 in the chamber for a total of 5 ?

Joined: 18 Feb 2015 Posts: 32 Location: SW WA state

Joined: 09 Dec 2012 Posts: 736

Joined: 18 Feb 2015 Posts: 32 Location: SW WA state

It's likely there's a plug in there, actually. I haven't taken it all apart yet. But I just lined up four shells along the magazine and there is a bit of room left.

Either way, the gun seems to work fine with the heavier load. It's my only autoloading 16 ga so I hadn't run into the "prefers heavy loads" issue in 16 ga yet, I shoot one oz 2 3/4 or 2 1/2 in everything else so that's what I always have around.

thanks!

Joined: 09 Dec 2012 Posts: 736

So back to the cycling issue. Did you set the friction rings for a light load ? Or were you shooting a light load with the rings set for a heavy load?

Numrich does have parts for the friction rings and you are supposed to lubricate the magazine tube some. There are lots of posts about lubing an A5 which the 720 basically is. Same as my 755A, just the back of the receiver is rounded instead of squared off.

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1387 Location: Western WA

Re: Cycling, the old A5 here was very indifferent about cycling, but after disassembling everything down to the little pins and tiny springs and pieces and scrubbing inside and out, there’s no load she won’t cycle, even my light 2 1/2” 7/8 oz target shells. It’s not an unpleasant project for winter. Some here report that ultrasound cleaning devices can accomplish the same or better, but I haven’t ventured there yet.

Best of Luck
B.

Ultrasonic cleaning is great. It can be more thorough and time efficient if used properly. Sometimes you still need to scrub parts to allow the cleaning to work, either before or after. Sometimes multiple sessions are needed.

I don’t own a 720 or A5 (yet) but all my guns get some ultrasonic love, especially choke tubes. Wad residue can increase choke significantly over time.