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Paul Leverman

With the unbelievably bad news of no more MGBC, I took it upon myself to see what other epoxies were like. Yeah, well, Nathan you are just going to have to move to Canada so we can make and market it from here. No duties, no laws, no hassles. Just make it and sell it.

After I had prepped my Savage for bedding, and was about to mix up the compound, out comes the bad news from Nathan. So I decided to not use one of the two complete kits that I have on a hunter, and instead save them for my target rifles. Unfortunately, this forced me to use another epoxy that had less than stellar results, but should still be shootable.

And because all Savage long actions are basically identical, I never gave a second thought to the stock that I was bedding the G series action to. Turns out the AccuTrigger doesn't quite fit the same "normal" Savage profile, so after I broke out the action and cleaned it all up, and re-assembled things, I find out that the stock and the action don't mate up when the trigger is attached. The trigger assembly is way bigger than the standard, and the magazine box is a centre feed, not staggered (now, how did I miss that? What a putz.)

The trigger was easy. An 11/32" drill bit, using the rear trigger guard screw hole as a pilot, and keep going down the inside until the trigger fit. Perfect.

The mag box not so much. The centre feed Savage is a weird duck to say the least. It's narrow, has a steel strap retainer that anchors the bottom of the mag to the pillar area of the rear action screw. And the pillar housing is twice the thickness of a normal Savage. There was no way to stretch the mag to fit it to the new stock. Great. A single shot 30-06. That'll work.

I got to digging around the junk drawer and I found bits and pieces of an old Savage that had been one of my first. How lucky can a guy get? The mag box and follower were still there. It kind of fit. Sort of. It was the right colour.

After much grinding, shaping, and bending, it now fits perfectly with the allowable wobble to maintain a stress free action. So, it wasn't all a wasted effort.

Instead of a three-shot, centre feed mag, I now have a four-shot, staggered feed, bedded and pillared, customized G series that needs load work.

It's a good thing the weather was lousy today, or I'd have another bucket of parts on the shelf.