Re: Leveling Scope on a Savage
When we toured the Savage factory in November 2009, they had two banks of five high end CNC machining centers that could do the entire receiver in two passes i.e. set it up once, machine most of the receiver, take it out, set it up again and machine the rest. Kind of hard to get just the scope hole screws 'off', at least to my mind. To the best of my knowledge, *all* the Target Action receivers (except the very early ones) came off the CNC machining centers. By now... I'd expect most of the receivers period go thru there.
Previously everything had been done on mostly manual machines, with something like 28 stations and the potential for error every time parts were setup in fixtures fore each step.
I think what geargrinder is referring to is that Savage, like most factories that make guns in significant quantities, do most if not all of the machining *first*, then heat treat the receivers and then assemble the parts. This saves on tooling costs but there is potential for the receivers to warp/twist somewhat during the heat-treat process. There are also other components that can can have a significant impact on how 'straight' the barrel points - the recoil lug, for one, and the barrel nut if not true can push things off center ever so slightly. I've had a couple receivers that factory target barrels would point way off to one direction - high, low, left, right... had to use Burris Signature Zee rings with the 20moa inserts to adjust the *windage* somewhat close to zero. Put a custom tube on there with a ground recoil lug and all that silliness went away.
Custom receivers are, as I understand it, heat-treated first and then machined with more expensive tooling. It's a more expensive process, but when people are willing to pay $1000-1500 just for the receiver as opposed to for the entire rifle... some things become more feasible.