If you have a newer Savage, you will see a number on the inside bottom of the tang.

It's so that Savage can keep track of how many operations done with each cutter in their CNC machines.

At the time the Accu Stocks became available, Savage bought all new CNC machines. The new machines are turning out the parts with much tighter tollerences than the old machines did.

Just one more example of why Savage is the best rifle made. A computer keeps track of how many parts are cut and when that number is reached, the cutter is changed. No cutters that are dull and cut the parts to less than perfect specs.

Many other manufacturers only change cutters on a time schedule, so they may be dull and cutting parts which will end up out of spec.

Savage deserves cutos for doing so.

The older actions required much more metal be removed when blueprinting the action. The new one's are so close that little metal needs to be removed to blueprint the action.

The bolt faces are always so close, they don't even need to be trued anymore, just checked. If out of spec, many smiths just throw the bolt head away and put a new one on.

Just one more way and one more reason that Savage is the best. They continue to find ways of improving their products while others look for ways to save money, making their rifles cheaper.

Did you know that Remington is now making their barrels by hammer forging them, no more button rifling. The last time I checked, the makers of premium barrels do not use hammer forging as it does not make the barrel as accurate.

John K