Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors The Savage CRACK

Good point, don't I feel dumb now

Oh goodness, don't feel that way!

It's not the draw bolt that's to blame, it's the wedges. (The Ballard wedge is a tapered receiver extension - which is the draw bolt receptacle - which sticks back into the stock, contained in a closely fitted tapered hole.) Many many other rifles and shotguns utilize a draw bolt but their designers had the good sense to make the stock heads solid and butt squarely against a solid wall of steel.

With the Savage, as I've said before ad nauseum, it has more than just the draw bolt working in its disfavor. Any force/shock that acts to drive the wedgie tang back into the wood can have the fickle finger of fate pointed at it, not to mention horny-handed folks putting lateral pressure on it when attempting removal. But I will lay down most of my betting money on The Big Screw.

As for what cracks Savage stocks, this is a case of "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail".

If you've had one busted by x,y,z, then you tend to generalize them all that way.

There are so many firearms with a wedge shaped tang that aren't prone to breaking, you'd have to factor their dimensions and so forth into the equation to get a more complete picture of what's happening.

Indeed yes, but they don't employ draw bolts and/or have more solidly designed stock heads than the Savage, unless there's some I don't know about. Note I referenced the hollow/thin/flimsy Savage stock head in conjunction with the draw bolt a couple paragraphs back.

Lots of double rifles shooting massive cartridges and very thin wood. Are they prone to breaking?

I don't know! Are they as hollowed out as Savage stock heads are? Are their tangs as wedge shaped as Savages upper tangs? I will bet they're way more closely fitted, metal to wood, than the typical 99 stock. Perhaps that has an ameliorating effect - more even load bearing?

Not familiar myself, just asking.

And tripping over branches buried under snow.

Stock bolts don't cause tang cracks. People do!

There was a discussion on tang cracks much earlier than the original start of this one that to me made sense, that was before I even had a though of ever owning an 1899. The tip was to make sure there was a slight amount of clearance at the rear and tapered sides of the upper tang so the stock was supported only by the sides and not by the rounded rear of the tangs. Supporting anything on a rounded or tapered surface creates side forces as you get away from the exact center. Take a couple pieces of wood and separate them slightly and then push them against a rounded surface about the same diameter as the tang and they will spread apart. If you shim the rounded rear of the tang it should be with a thin strip in the center so you do not increase the diameter toward the sides and create firmer contact there causing more side force.

The angle of the stock screw and the angle of recoil forces could be why it only seems to be at the upper tang, or it could just always be due to side force when bumped or dropped.

Ralph had a couple experimental 99's that did not have the step at the rear of the receiver so the sides of the stock were thicker, it was thought that was to lessen the chance of the stock cracking by adding more support there.

"Ralph had a couple experimental 99's that did not have the step at the rear of the receiver so the sides of the stock were thicker, it was thought that was to lessen the chance of the stock cracking by adding more support there."

He owned 2 of 3. Each was different. He had them at the 2012 Savage Fest.

Info card said they were in .308 Win. made in the 50's , redesigned receivers to remove the stress cracks. None worked, One had a bad crack.