"Bought the necessary tools to take it down & reassemble it."
Actually no reason to buy anything to disassemble the 8/81 barrel. A piece of leather and pliers work to unscrew the barrel nut, and without damage. No spanner wrench needed. And most any piece of flat thin metal will work to unscrew the barrel bushing. A small hose clamp will help hold the barrel back during the process.
"I just picked up a new to me Model 81 in .300 Savage."
.300 Savage ammo and brass can be difficult to find today. If you are a reloader, .300 S cases can be made up very simply by FL sizing .308/7.62 brass in a .300 S FL sizing die, then trimming the neck to length. From experience, any .308 or military brass works, but I had some problem with Federal cases so I don't use them.
Some may not know that the .308/7.62 is essentially the .300 Savage case, but with a longer neck and a slightly different shoulder angle. The early post-WWII U. S. Army experiments on rifle development used the .300 Savage, but they decided that its neck was too short to adequately support the bullet for use in full auto weapons - so they lengthened it.
