Be careful opening up the stock holes, especially with the laminated wood stock. From experience, a drill bit will grab and break out large chunks of laminated wood. I use a Dremel tool with small wood router or sanding drum to open up the holes. Cheap lamp rod cut to fit works well for pillars. Since the Savage factory plastic stocks have no resale value, I usually salvage the factory pillars and use those in the replacement stock. Heat the metal pillars with a torch until the plastic melts and the pillars drop out of the stock. Also salvage the 1" factory recoil pad for resale. The action tang needs to be floated on a Savage action. I use a business card thickness. If you raise the action without removing some wood, make sure the bolt will still pick up a cartridge from the magazine lips before doing the final bedding. I usually bed the pillars first and then come back and fully bed the action and recoil lug. I put two warps of painters tape around the stock screws to center them in the pillars. Attach pillars to the action. Put barreled action in stock and use tape around barrel at forearm tip to center/float in barrel channel. Put tape/business card under tang to float. Once everything is centered, floated and level, you are ready to add bedding epoxy to the pillar holes and stress-free bed the barreled action. Make sure to use Kiwi neutral shoe polish as release agent on metal parts that you want to be able to remove from the stock. I use vinegar or acetone to remove excess epoxy before it hardens. Devcon Plastic Steel epoxy from the local hardware store works well as a bedding material.
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