I'm new to this forum and new to the Savage rifle, but not new to guns in general. I was also wondering how true the face of my receiver was. I am not a gunsmith or a machinist by any means, but I turned and threaded a mandrel on my lathe between centers. It is a nice tight fit in the bolt raceway and threads in the action and the shoulder of the mandrel bottoms out on the bolt face. I then chucked one end of the mandrel in a 4 jaw chuck and the other end went into a live center. I indicated the mandrel as close to 0 run out as possible. I then took a .0005" test indicator an indicated the face of the action and it showed that the face was out about .0025". I then took a total of .003" cut .001" at a time and now the face of the action shows no run out at all. I would say at the point, the face of the receiver is perpendicular to the threads, well as best as I can get it. Not sure how to post pics or if I even can since I'm so new, but I'll give it a try. Let me know if the pics worked.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...923/HdFVJA.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...924/33N8ox.jpg
Frank