Another little Savage trick: The order that you tighten the action screws, and the way that you do it matters. After you just have the slack out of the screws, set the rifle on its butt, so that the weight of the barreled action is on the recoil lug, and start your tightening sequence with the front screw, and work to the back. Tighten them in stages, and always start with the front screw. Never tighten the back one first on a Savage. Another thing that can bite you is the front scope base screw. Its hole bottoms on the barrel, and because of that, if the screw is just slightly too long, you may think that it is properly clamping the base to the action, when it is bottomed in the hole. The way that I deal with all "blind" holes is to precisely note where the screw starts to engage, by turning it in a half turn or so, and then carefully backing it out until I hear the click that happens when the start of the thread falls as it passes the beginning of the female thread. I do this with the base off the action, counting the half turns till the screw bottoms, and note the number. It might be something like 4 1/4 turns to bottom. Then I mount the base and do the same thing. If the number is the same, the screw is not clamping the base to the receiver, and it needs to be shortened. I usually like to have a half turn of difference. I do this anywhere on the rifle where there is a hole that is not open on its bottom, and something is being clamped in position. In some case this applies to action screws as well. One classic that can happen with Savages is that after you finish tightening the front action screw, the bolt cannot be opened, or becomes difficult to operate, this because the hole in the receiver lines up with the front lug, and the stock has compressed to the point where the screw is bearing on the end of the lug.