Attention Savage Lovers!

[jo191145]

Hawkeye

Yeah I live even farther east. Absolutely nothin to poke a hole in around here. Well almost, This fall a Woodchuck set up his/her home in the Raspberry bushes at the end of my driveway. I resisted the urge to blast it. Just might have some little piglets this spring First chuck I've seen in 21 years on this property. Last one ran in front of a 357 mag.
I watched that chuck through my NightForce fattnin up on acorns a few times. 80yards. I won't be able to get further away. Sleep well Chucky.

josebd

I think that means rear mounting bolt.

[Hawkeye Joe]

Same deal here with the chuck. First one I've seen in these parts in years. All summer long he grazed on the back 40. Now that I have a 40lb Lab pup. I'm not sure I want him around anymore . I was hoping for some piglets also

[Rick in Oregon]

That's the rear action screw, or tang screw. It, along with the center guard screw have much less inch pounds of torque applied than the front action screw. Same as in most rifles in order to have no stress applied to torque the action. You want the front guard screw very tight against it's bedding, and the rear screw firm, but not over tightened. The center screw tight enough to bear, but not as tight as the rear screw. If the tang cannot bear properly on it's perch, you'll have stress, and the rifle will never shoot up to its potential, as the action is actually bowed somewhat.

If I had my torque reference handy, I'd post it. I'm sure someone will follow with the exact torque values if you happen to have an inch-pound torque wrench to tighten properly, but you can get a good 'feel' by hand, though.

P.S. (edit)...Nice shot of the chuck, there Mike! Talk about the 'perfect picture'! I can't wait for the spring green-up and the emergence of my buddy Skippy!!

[jo191145]

Very Nice Pic Mike. I hope he's enjoying his nap too.

Rick I wonder if the authors did it a little differently. The tang on a Savage is free floating. The rearmost action screw is in front of the trigger. Thats the one I've long contended is one of the weakest links in a Savage. I'm not sure about pre accutriggers as I don't own one but I'll bet theres a touch more bedding area with those.
Just guessing but I'll also bet when they designed the accutrigger the engineers took up to much room and infringed on the rear pillar/bedding area. If I'm wrong on that then its been under engineered from the beginning.

The rear pillar on a Savage is actually inletted 25% to allow room for the sear mechanism. If you can imagine a two screw action with the rearmost pillar missing 25% of its bearing surface in the rear and no bearing surface beyond that you'll understand my theory. Tighten the rear screw first and the action will rise slightly out of the stock.
Throw a magazine well just in front of that pillar and your bedding surface gets very small.
A mild 204 is not a big deal but I had a lot of problems with my 308's in this area. Laminate stocks cracking right up the pillar because theres so little wood on both sides to support it. A Talley crossbolt is one cure by the way.

So I wonder if they torqued the front and center and left the rear a little looser. Can you tell I've long hated that rear screw

Maybe Ohlsen knows.

[Ohlsen]

Very Nice Pic Mike. I hope he's enjoying his nap too.

Rick I wonder if the authors did it a little differently. The tang on a Savage is free floating. The rearmost action screw is in front of the trigger. Thats the one I've long contended is one of the weakest links in a Savage. I'm not sure about pre accutriggers as I don't own one but I'll bet theres a touch more bedding area with those.
Just guessing but I'll also bet when they designed the accutrigger the engineers took up to much room and infringed on the rear pillar/bedding area. If I'm wrong on that then its been under engineered from the beginning.

The rear pillar on a Savage is actually inletted 25% to allow room for the sear mechanism. If you can imagine a two screw action with the rearmost pillar missing 25% of its bearing surface in the rear and no bearing surface beyond that you'll understand my theory. Tighten the rear screw first and the action will rise slightly out of the stock.
Throw a magazine well just in front of that pillar and your bedding surface gets very small.
A mild 204 is not a big deal but I had a lot of problems with my 308's in this area. Laminate stocks cracking right up the pillar because theres so little wood on both sides to support it. A Talley crossbolt is one cure by the way.

So I wonder if they torqued the front and center and left the rear a little looser. Can you tell I've long hated that rear screw

Maybe Ohlsen knows.

I'm no expert here, but you have to remember this action is solid bottomed and it's sitting in a HS stock with a full-length aluminum bedding block, no magazine cutout, the action sits in this bedding block the whole length. In the May 07 issue of PS there is an article by M.L. McPherson and he basically states that(remember there are "3" mounting screws) that the all the rear action screw does is to hold the front of trigger guard in place, it just has to be snug. If you looked at a LRPV you see why, there's not much for the action to sit in by that 3rd screw.

There's nothing in either article on torque applied to the mounting bolts. I figured that seeing Rem says 65 inlbs on it's rifles in a HS stocks might be a good place to start.

Tom

[jo191145]

Ohlsen
Your absolutely correct about the three screw action.
I used the two screw action as an example of what I consider a long term problem with the Savage action design. In the two screw action that trigger quard action screw is the only other action screw besides the front. As you said not much meat to sit on there. Especially in a repeater. Instead of redesigning the rear screw Savage added one more in the middle on thier LRPV/Target actions. Just my opinion but that inletted rear pillar exerts a lot of stress on the action. Overcoming that stress is the free floating bolt head. Thats why I thought it might be beneficial to leave the rear one just snug. I'll have to give it a try sometime.

I found this for you. As far as I can tell these are Savages recommended torque rates.
wood or laminate (with pillars) and aftermarket synthetic 45-65 in/lbs.
factory synthetic, wood (no pillars) 25-26 in/lbs.

Savage Guru Fred Moreo's opinion is don't worry about it. Tighten by hand. As long as its bedded correctly small variations in torque should'nt matter. If its bedded incorrectly small variations in torqe won't help. (loosely translated)