As others have said, I would also suggest replacing the aluminum base with one made of steel. I was quite surprised that Savage ships them with aluminum bases. I bought two used Savage 338 Lapuas, both had aluminum rails on them. I replaced them with steel, based on the problems I have had in the past with aluminum picatinny rails on heavy kickers. One of the original rails had some serious deformation of the top front corners where the cross bolts from the rings were making contact. I didn't mic it but the rings had moved almost 1/10th of an inch forward past the slot and likely would have continued to do so had I not replaced the base. I don't recall the brand / model of rings that the previous owner had on there, but they did have shallow recoil lugs on them which contributed to the problem. Rings with round cross bolts are usually the worst at mashing their way forward under recoil. I also avoid steel bases for heavy kickers that have a huge cutout down the middle of the top of the rail, essentially decreasing their resistance to damage from forward movement by 1/3. I know they do that to make them lighter, but in my view it should not be done. I stick with solid topped, steel picatinny rails only unless I am building a lightweight lower recoiling rifle.