As to action stiffness and harmonics, it is a known fact that actions that have no mag cutout are used for precision work, that being a given, if the Savage has a floating bolt head(and it does) why would a stiffer action lead to an increase in accuracy , when only the frt of the action and the bolt head come into play as to the firing of the cartridge.I have read, and it almost makes sense, that the rear of the action is mostly there to house the bolt body, and give a platform for securing it. Now, by no means an expert either (thought i did stay at LaQuinta once) i have seen rail guns that had NO back attachment of the action....a massive housing for the barrel shoulder and about 2" of barrel was it...and the action actually hung off the back!!!! If i'm not mistaken i read about it on Accurate Shooter.com forum....and it was a Savage!!!! Just another veiw of what actually may and may not effect accuracy....if we had the answer, we would all own 1 hole guns.....rsbhunter