Thought I'd try again to post after some help from a great guy on here. You know who you are and thanks again for your patients with a computer neanderthal. LOL

Wanted to start a thread on my new rifle that was a co B-day gift from the wife and myself. She a keeper and all mine, so don't even ask.

Picked it up on Jan. 8 and ordered the EGW rail, Burris Z-rings and Nikon M-308 scope. Have the EGW and rings on another rifle and love them. Thought I'd try out the Nikon since the rifle is a .308 and I've heard good things about the Nikon line. Got everything together and mounted up without issue. Bore sighted the scope to a known zero/distance and was ready to go dial it in. As luck would have it, family obligations and such prevented a range trip until Feb 4th. Well, all I can say is way to go Savage! Set up on the bench with a Harris bi-pod and rear bag, verified bore site at 100 yards and fired the first three rounds. So cold bore and fouler and all right off the bat with 168 gr FGMM. Two shots within a inch horizontal and one shot 1 1/2" high and right. Small adjustment and three more shots. Two shots kissing and one about an inch high & right. Slight tweak and on to the main target center. Shot two 5 shot groups. First group measured 7/8" tall by 5/8" wide all touching. Second group measured 3/4" tall by 1/2" wide all touching also. Man this thing shoots good. Tool is great, carpenter needs to practice more! LOL (When I figure out the photo posting thing, I'll post the target in an update)
As for the Nikon, all adjustments were right on the mark, tracking was excellent and the parallax adj. was true. Real clear glass and great eye relief too.

So, feeling great about the world, I headed home to clean it and get some chores done. Well, low and behold, I was brushing off the bolt head face and saw a weird line running from the firing pin hole to under the extractor. Followed it over the lug @ the extractor machining and down the back face of the lug behind the front baffle. Yep, it's cracked. Now let be known that the rifle cycled, fed, fired and extracted without a hitch. The slightly tight bolt ops was actually less than others I've had. I did pre clean after buying, but admit that I didn't look that closely at the bolt head/face for this type of thing. My guess is a slight fracture existed prior to range trip, but who knows. I then looked real close at all my brass (which I had done at the range) just to re verify no pressure signs. None found. Heck the primers weren't even flattening much. (still had pronounced ring of pocket to primer) No signs of issue with body or necks on the brass.

Got on the phone with Savage and spoke to a gal there that is an 11 out of 10! Before I was done on the phone, my e-mail had a return UPS tag and info from her. That's customer service!!! Packed it up in the original box as instructed, run it down to UPS and off it went back "home" for repair at no cost. She said they will replace the bolt head, recheck/adjust head space as required and ship it back all at no cost. Might even find a little "extra" sorry for the inconvenience when it comes back. I did ask if they wanted the EGW rail removed and she said not to worry, they'd work around it or remount it if had to be removed. I have to say this is the second time in my life that I've used their customer service and it's been 100% great both times.

The only hard thing about it was packing up a >1 MOA rifle to send back for repair. It just didn't feel good. I have never shipped a firearm so this is a first. I did joke with her and told her how it shot and to not mess it up.....she laughed as did I. The Mrs. was worried about loss in shipping or something happening to which I told her they insured it and I trust them. Hell, after 30+ years married, 3 wonderful adult children and 3 of the cutest grand kids, this is a piece of cake. In my 20's or even my 30's I'd have just about blown a gasket....maybe. With age comes a calm and peace that would be wasted on youth! LOL

So there it is, the first steps of the new "baby". I will update as it progresses and I promise to figure out how to post pics of target, rifle and gear. Here's to good accurate shooting to you all.