I pulled the barrel and installed the PTG bolt head. No issues with bottoming out on the breech face. I lapped the lugs and re-set the headspace with a loose-ish feel on the go-gauge.

Took it to the range Sunday afternoon. Didn't shoot in the teens like before, but then conditions were different and, frankly, I'm not always that good either. Same load shot 0.46. Lots of factors in play, though. Fired cases measure the same as before, 1.145".

Still getting very small craters on about half the primers. No where near what it was and looks much safer to me. Probably not done fiddling, but I'll start by re-working the load and see what happens.

Last time I called Savage, 3-4 months ago, they refuse to sell parts directly to me. No waiver. Girl on the phone said "we don't sell parts anymore" and directed me to Numrich or Brownell's.