I said it before and I'll say it again: Look at the top and bottom tang and note they are tapered. Try over-torquing the butt screw and imagine those two wedges doing their best to split that piece of kindling in two. Add ham-handedness on the part of Old Uncle Leo twisting and yanking it from side to side as he tried to remove it and you'll see how the bear's share of cracks got generated. I doubt that recoil had much effect on generating cracks but I guess it could too, especially in the hard kickers like .358 and .308's- but that wouldn't explain the cracks in the light recoil .22HP's, .25-35,
et al. Just torque the screw until it's snug and stop- you're not torquing the head on a 12 cylinder Jaguar.
I'm loathe to recommend epoxy bedding of time-honored old stocks for aesthetic/collector reasons, but I have on otherwise Bubba'ed stocks and/or newly made replacement stocks.
Was it a poor design on Savage's part? To a degree, but with the layout of the trigger and cocking mechanism, the two tangs are necessary, not to mention how clumsy looking the guns would be if the tangs were given parallel sides.
Savage got the gun right, as we all know. It's advantages far outweigh it's foibles.
