I haven't looked at the current Savage rifles but when I got my model 11 12 or 13 years ago, they didn't have butt pads. With a 300 WSM, you'd definitely notice the recoil. It had a synthetic stock and I installed a pad myself. The stock was hollow so I cut a 3/4" thick plug, sanded it to fit, and epoxied it inside the stock about 1/4" below the surface. Then I filled the gap with more epoxy and sanded it flush. That gave me a good solid surface to screw a pad to.
