Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Help- Savage model 45 Super Sporter

Promised a friend I would work on his inherited Savage 30/30 bolt action that he can't get on paper.

Took it apart and a tiny ball bearing rolled out from somewhere. No idea where but suspect on one end of a small spring near recoil lug? This spring is in its own vertical hole drilled into the stock.
Whole thing is is in pieces at home and not in front of me now but I suspect the bearing is for the trigger or safety?????

I called Savage and they have no manuals or diagrams for this model that looks to have ended production in 1940.


Tough one here- can anyone help clue me in?

Also try the Savage Collector's Forum here. Some very Savage-savvy guys there.

If push comes to shove, reassemble it and see what doesn't work.

You can find a schematic on the Gunparts/Numerich Arms website. I have a couple Super Sporters and I don't recollect any small ball bearings in anything. But my rifles have the early style magazine latch and the later style may be different. Te early style had the release latch on the bottom and the later style had a push button release set into the stock at about midway between the ejection port and trigger guard. But yeah, as said above try putting it back together. I like Super Sporters but I may be outstanding in my own field in that respect.

Thanks for that. Will help- although the little ball bearing seems absent from the schematic.......of course :-p

The bearings go with the safety. The safety cradles the action. The bearings ride on top of the safety and under the action. The spring acts as added pressure, to make the safety smooth. Shoot me a PM and we can talk on the phone, if push comes to shove.

J257, I hope you won't take this the wrong way but.....

I love you man! If I cry uncle when reassembling I will reach out to you.

THANK you - and everyone else. The parts diagram from Numerich helps too.

The safeties on my two sporters simply consist of a plunger with a spring that pushes it upwards to engage in a notch on the finger lever. The tops of the plungers are domed and not cupped for capturing a ball bearing. The last 45 I picked up was missing the plunger. The previous owner had substituted a sheet metal screw in its place. Obviously he lost it years ago. The safety seemed to work fine with the screw, though I wouldn't recommend it as a repair.

Novice description here but there is a metal piece that goes into the stock under the barreled action. There are two small holes in it that align directly over the separate spring in the center of the stock. I am assuming the bearing goes on top of the spring and cups into one of those two holes. Make sense ??

In case anyone is interested- the stock on this thing is finally starting to come along really nicely. Last nights coat seemed to begin to give it a little sheen. I think that is maybe the 4th layer? It had the original finish from 1930's. So it was dirty, cracked and dinged up with one horrendous gouge on the wrist that looks like it sat on a skill saw. I smoothed out some of the minor ones with an iron and cloth and been sanding lightly between coats of Tru Oil. I did not stain the stock as it had some color and I wanted to keep it period looking. Still plenty of dings to give it character but I think my friend is going to be really happy with the results- provided I can get this thing on paper at 100 yds for him.

There is still some light cracks showing tin the wood. Wondering if wet sanding the Tru oil would help fill. Already looks 100x better though.

Finish is a poor filler of cracks, especially Truoil. Should've filled with epoxy before finishing. You're far enough along I wouldn't sweat them, unless they're at a place that absorbs recoil, ie: behind the tang. In that case I would stop, excavate them and fill them.

Most are superficial scratches except for the ONE. For an 80 + y.o. stick it is coming together nicely. Any hints one doing the checkering? Should I use a sponge brush or anything?

I'd use a stiff tooth brush on the checkering every time you put on a coat. Otherwise the finish, especially True Oil, will clog up the grooves. I'd also be careful with True Oil if you are shooting for a period looking finish. Period finishes (pre-WWII) were varnish, oil or shellac and they were not built up very high, if at all, over the top of the wood surface. True Oil will build up pretty fast. Varathanes and hybrids like True oil perform different. But before I say much more I should defer to someone on this forum who is a professional stock maker or wood worker as I am not.

In a cases like this I always re-cut the checkering after finishing. That way I don't have to be anal about keeping the finish out of the checkering. That's no excuse for being careless about slopping finish into the checkering though.

If a stock is that bad so as to necessitate a re-finish, then the checkering is probably worn to hell and will need re-cutting anyway.

I see your point but recutting checkering is beyond me. I got through the refinishing and it looks pretty darn great. The fact the stock was old and thirsty I think helped keep checkering even. I spread out the tru oil across multiple fingers and quickly put on thin until checkering was mostly covered, then I rubbed the heck out of it in all directions with thumbs mostly. Took a coffee filter to it all on any roughish spot. Seemed to do the trick. Will give it a few days then wax it all.

Got it all back together. No idea what the ball bearing does but it went on top of spring and fit into cut out hole on the metal fixture the cradles the bottom of the action against the stock. Was a bear getting it to stay in place and had to hold it together while getting the action in place. Why am I sure the bearing is in the right spot? Because without it the spring pokes its head through the hole. Bolt works- took me a second to realize I had to pull the trigger to get the bolt in. Trigger works, safety works. Thinking I got it all set.

I used a magnetic boresigter I forgot I had to adjust the scope. Was it WAY off. I asked the owner if it was shooting high and left and he said yes. The boresighter showed the crosshairs low and way right.


Just waiting maybe one more day before I buff it out a bit and wax it all. Then -done. Will take it out this weekend and try to shoot it.

Congratulations on getting it all together. I don't think that ball bearing had anything to do with anything, but it's back together and will be someone else's mystery should they ever tear it down long after we are gone.

pictures? Want one of these in 300 Sav

Ok so first time posting after the photobucket fiasco. Sorry for the hugeness of them.

First two pics are original and last is of the nearly completed stock



This one shows the ball bearing but not the spring. I don't have a shot of the bedding area that shows the hole where the spring sits but you can see the hole(s) in the metal that captures the bearing atop the spring.


Need better pics,


I will take one of it all back together and waxed- in better lighting. Oh one more thing- is it possible to get a recoil pad on this curved butt stock?

Thanks guys for the encouragement and help.

Very nice work there Ken that looks beautiful!