New to Savage 110 & Forum with a few questions

[dmattaponi]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this forum, and Savage rifles. I grew up hunting, but until last year hadn't hunted in 16 years. During that time I sold off my hunting rifles. Then at the request of my son who turned 12 and wanted to go hunting, I got back into it last hunting season. I bought him a rifle, and borrowed one for myself from a friend. This year I decided to look for a used rifle for myself, and a local hardware store had a used Savage 110 in 270Win for $275. I chose it over some new Ruger American', Remington 770, and Savage Axis models they had on the shelves, because the 110 just felt and aimed better to me. It appears to be an older model with wooden stock (no checkering), and no accutrigger. It was in very nice condition overall. Came with a cheap Tasco scope. Since purchasing the rifle I've been trying to do a little research on it. When I first got it I cycled some live rounds through it, and I noticed the live rounds were just barely ejected out of the gun. They cleared the wood, but just barely. At the range, it seemed to eject fired casings fine. I ordered a new ejector and spring, but since it did okay on the fired rounds, I think I'm going to leave it as-is for now. Otherwise it functioned perfectly and was more accurate than the shooter. Anyway, in the process of looking for the parts I've read some things that have confused me a bit. 1) From what I read I thought this rifle should have a "flat back" receiver, but when i look at it under the rear scope mount it appears to be round. It's an E972### serial number. Can anyone shed some light on period of manufacture without me having to call the person who Savage recommends? Also, the bolt at the rear is sloted, not hex. What I'm wondering is when did Savage switch from flat to round receivers and from slot to hex bolt take-down? Basically, I'm wondering the age of my rifle, and if these are original parts or if the gun may have been "tinkered" with? Also, does the way the rifle ejected unfired rounds sound normal for a 110? Thanks very much in advance for any help any of you can provide on educating me about my Savage 110.