This is one of the many reasons I don’t buy ANY manufacturers rifles or pistols any longer. Not even Savage. I build my own...myself.

You said if they ever made one that wasn’t “butt ugly” you would try it? And the High Country was your bride of choice? Ok.(beauty TRULY is in they eye of the beholder!) In any case...do you know why YOU are complaining about it? Because YOU are unfortunately one of the unlucky few who received one of the fractions of 1% of rifles that either missed QC or was damaged somewhere along the way dyring delivery. Yes, yes...I know some random “Gun Store” guy (you say a friend.. random to us), told you he’s seen several.. Uh-huh. I wonder if he’s related to one of the COUNTLESS Gun store guys who have seen all these many, many Savages that are just BAD! These guys are fairly easy to find. But we never see any evidence. Save of course for that FRACTION of a percent of the MILLIONS of rifles Savage sells. Strange thing, ALL manufactures seem to suffer this same problem..go figure!

I don’t mean to disregard your situation OP. We can all, I’m sure, understand your frustration. But your first sentence is the resounding number of cases of Savage rifles. Many offer quite good performance for their price tags. Still though, this does happen. And what makes it worse is you chose one of Savage’s much higher priced offerings. Thus you went into the purchase with the misconception of a $500 Savage is supposed to offer GOOD accuracy, this rifle should offer DOUBLE the performance! Many firearms buyers have this thinking. As has been said, I’m sure Savage will address the issue to fair standards.