I just bought a savage mark 2 (mako model) with a 5 round clip.
The first time out of the box I began experiencing all sorts of problems with the clip feeding.
Problems included:

1) bullets would not load, clip appeared to be bound up
2) lubricated clip (i.e. gun oil), now bullets spray out and won't stay in
3) when I did manage to get the clip into the gun with bullets in it, as soon as I pulled the action
back, the bullets would load 2, or even 4 at a time in a blink of an eye
4) occasionally when one bullet did pop up, I would slide the bolt forward only to mash the bullet
into the back end of the barrell. Shards of mashed copper remained after the bullet was extracted.

Well, I had to put the gun down and come back since it was obvious I was getting no where while at the range.

I found some other posts on another site where people (as in much more than one) were having the same problem.
One guy ordered 5 clips and had 1 work properly.

Well rather than complain about how much this gun and clip suck, I will move on to how I fixed it.
After close inspection of the clip, I found that it is made of light guage (i.e. bendable) sheet metal. I quick
bend of the two tabs at the top rear, swabbing of all the extra lube I gave it, and the clip worked fine for about
5 minutes.

After 5 minutes (not at range, just at home working the action, clip etc.) the same problem begins to manifest.
So I inspect exactly how the bolt and clip interface and see that the bolt actually has a small tongue that is suppose
to neatly catch the end of the bullet and push it forward. Well it appears that if the bullet is at all misaligned in the clip, the bolt
catches the round, pushes it forward, and ever so slightly bends the tabs. Repeat this about 30x and you have a misfunctioning clip.

So then I got to wondering if the clip position had anything to do with the way the rounds would not slide forward properly and begun to notice a sizeable amount of play with the clip snapped into the gun. Essentially depending on how the clip seats, that is the direction of the round. If the clip seats skewed, your bolt will pancake your round into the side of the barrell instead of through the hole.

I then started noticing that the bolt would not slide very well, so I slid it out, cleaned it, dissassembled the firing pin, cleaned the chamber where the bolt slides etc. I lubed it up real well, used an emory clothe to burr off all the sharp edges and put it back. Still slid rough with the "metal on metal" contact noise and a slight "binding". I noticed that if I pulled the bolt using my fingers on the firing pin, the assembly slid as slick as glass. If I grabbed the bolt lever and pulled, it bound up.

Essenitially whoever designed and machined this gun put a little to much slop in the diameter of the portion of the gun that the bolt slides through. All the lube and sanding in the world won't fix that problem.

So in summary, if you get a crappy clip, try to bend the ears. Keep bending them back as the bolt mashes the clip up, or go
to single shot loading. If you get a sticky action like mine....I guess you'll just have to live with it.

And on a good note, for anyone who shoots federal, check out this site for a free ballistics software calculator:
http://www.federalpremium.com/resour...plication.aspx