Quote Originally Posted by South Prairie jim View Post
Personally I went the opposite direction.

i chose a bolt handle from extreme hardcore gear, as I didn't care for the big ugly knob on my model 12 .
i ensured that even though the diameter was reduced I still had the length for leverage. Savage primary extraction design requires a bit more effort than other actions, bolt lift kits are available although you should be aware that the rear bolt baffle slope should NOT be altered"
i recently spent quite a bit of time studying this with a master rifle smith.
what we did was first set the firing pin protrusion to .063
next was to back off the FP spring to set the cocking pin to .080 off the bolt body
then lightly debur the cocking ramp
third was to mill off the top of the cocking sleeve the same amount as the thickness of the Stockade insert with the ball bearing.
lastly re adjust sear contact to ensure no AD on bolt closure the end result is a bolt that manipulates smoothly without upsetting the rifle in the bags allowing a return to battery and remain on target.
Savage's don't generally have a primary extraction issue unless you were unlucky enough to get one of the bad bolt handles from a batch several years ago where Savage ground down/polished out a casting flaw on the PE ramp and took too much off resulting in no PE. What they do have is a timing issue which is what the bolt lift kit, sear mods and cocking ramp mods all address.