Originally Posted by EGSavage
Originally Posted by kcnboise
I'm with gnoahh on this, about not shimming, and wanted to add that most people are overlooking the importance of cheekpiece to receiver fit. If you've ever restocked a 99 you should have figured out that the design is based on recoil being shared equally on the recoil (bottom) lug and the flats of the cheekpieces that butt up against the receiver. In fact, when you're fitting the stock you have to iterate removing material from the top and bottom lug recesses and the cheekpiece flats. The way I do mine to prevent cracks is to get as perfect a fit on the cheekpiece flats as I can, get a good fit on the recoil lug, relieve the top lug by about 1/32", then skim bed the recoil lug and the cheekpiece flats. I'll use a black Sharpie to color the relieved wood to match the color of the top tang; it takes a magnifying glass to actually see that it's been relieved.


Sure, ideally the recoil should be distributed to all for contact points, with the lower tang taking the most, via the recoil lug.
But tolerances being what they are and the fact that different thicknesses of an organic substance like wood are probably going to dry and shrink to different degrees, that's unlikely to happen.

Plus, the fact that most Savage 99's weren't exactly chambered in heavy recoiling rounds like 300 win mag for example.
For the most part, you shouldn't have much to worry about as long as the lower tang is taking the brunt, which was what is was designed to do, and will do if you shim it.
Just remember to keep the bolt tight!


I don't have access to FEA software anymore, or I'd run a simulation to show what's happening, so I'll try to describe it instead. Since the barrel is not on the centerline, when you fire it wants to go back and up. This creates a rotational moment at the back of the receiver that wants to drive the top tang into the stock and pull the bottom tang away from the stock. It's the fit of the faces of the cheek pieces to the receiver that determines whether or not there's any actual movement - they are what is opposing the rotational moment of the receiver. If there's a good fit, the faces of the cheek pieces push the receiver forward and down, thereby redistributing force into the bottom tang/recoil lug. If it's a poor fit, or the stock bolt is loose, you get either the "dreaded Savage crack" around the back of the top tang, or you'll get cracks at the top corners of the cheek pieces, or both. Shimming temporarily reduces the chance of cracking by giving extra physical distance, but if your stock bolt gets loose, or you put the shim in when it was humid and then you shoot when it's dry, you're likely to crack the stock. Even if nothing loosens up you're risking cracking the bottom of the stock behind the bottom tang, as all the force is on the stock bolt head/washer. After it cracks there, you'll get the crack behind the top tang in short order - in case you've seen any with both and wondered how they happened...

To do it right only takes about 15 minutes more than shimming it, so why wouldn't you do it right?