In my mind, and I'm no expert at all, just mechanically inclined, and I've listened and read a bit online, I see the issue being: bad ammo, pin or spring, head space ( which I have no idea what that means or if its something I can remedy or not, or, more internal things like sear etc ).

Although a smart trouble shooting idea, I doubt its the lube/ oil on the bolt/ pin, etc. I just cleaned all and lightly re-lubed prior to hunting. This year and last, I shot the deer pretty soon after getting into the woods - temp was 27 degrees - gun was stored inside prior, at room temp. Last year, temp was 40 degrees.

As of now, I'm waiting on a few things:

- the parts to come in and to compare.
- I sent Savage an email asking for the production year and parts list based on my serial #

The guy I talked to at Midway seemed very knowledgable and took the extra time to assure that he had selected the right pin/spring. When I spoke to Savage, to try to buy parts from them, prior to my Midway call, they said they no longer supported parts for this gun ( at least the bolt parts I asked about ). I tried Numrich prior to Midway and the woman in customer service could not help me select from the (4) different pins/ springs available.

I'm hoping Midway either has the stock on them or a line on making it like OEM.

Lastly, I agree about not buying parts without knowing first. But, there are NO gunsmiths around where I live. None. Long Island, NY. The last guy died suddenly last year and now there is nobody. A lot of tinkerers, but no one with deep experience and a machine shop...