What is the "bolt torque fix" for Savage rifles?

Just out of curiosity, I was wondering what these "bolt fixes" for Savages are that people talk about to alleviate the hard bolt lift.

Is it just a matter of making the bolt handle longer for more leverage, possibly by tigging in a piece of steel to make it longer?

Longer leverage reduces your input effort to open bolt, but doesn't do anything for the actual mechanics of it. The bolt lift issue can be reduced by having it properly timed by someone that really knows the savage action, like Fred or Kevin. The home remedies that have helped but don't compare to a true time and true job are polishing of contact surfaces, proper lube, and a bolt lift kit which is a 38 special case head with a bearing inserted into flash hole placed under the Allen head bolt. I also shorten the bolt some to account for the thickness of assembly added under it. Some use a thrust washer instead in the same place. This cuts down on friction and helps to reduce time of operation and for myself, most importantly, reduces how much the rifle is upset in the rest/rear bag it is placed in.

If you only want it easier to lift and don't shoot from a true rest setup often then the longer bolt handle may give you everything you are looking for.

Thanks, Maztech89. That's interesting information.

You don't happen to know of any links that talk about that 38 Spl / bearing modification, do you? I'd like to read more about it.

I'll have to do a search here (guess I should have done that in the first place).

Thanks again.