New Savage, bolt slop, high primers, headspace?

Zero response in 24 hours indicates something.

Perhaps it's characterizing the clearance issue you describe with a term that is considered negative, moralizing, or emotional. It's about a hard number and the way the bolt is operating, which may or may not be characteristic. High primers do seem out of the ordinary.

"Slop" is low grade food intended for farm animal consumption, or press gang sailors on galley ships. It's a term filled with social ranking and demeaning - the Savage fans aren't likely to respond using it. It's tilting the conversation before it even gets started.

Guns do NOT have to be precisely fitted to extremely close operating clearance. If anything doing that jams them up in cold weather or with gas residue on the action. It's a myth that high end guns do that - they may be smooth but they are also left with the necessary space between parts to operate under extremes of condition. It's why high end 1911's consistently have issues with tight slides - the customers don't want sloppy, rattly slides, but once the bullet has left the barrel in the first fraction of an inch in recoil, what the slide does is immaterial - rattle or not, the bullets on it's way. It's when it's locked up that things have to be right.

Parts perceptibly loose are not an indication in and of themselves of bad quality or assembly. Nonetheless those high primers are the major concern and it would be worth while to shoot it with a limited number of different makers ammo to see if they all do it. Savage may very well comply with your request and have it sent back for inspection, but it doesn't mean at this point we really know enough to prove definitively what a problem might be. There's not yet enough data. Goes to no response yet what could be causing the issue.

Very few of us who own firearms have issues with them, and we aren't experts - just experienced in what we know. High primers are also an indication that the load might be too hot, or that the cartridge is moving under high pressure to allow the primer to extend. That might go to the cases being shorter than the specific ream used in the chamber. Shooting other ammo might clear that up, but caution should be observed in the trials.

Its an interesting comment/situation.

you said you're getting high primers after the shot? What happens when you shoot match grade ammo? Could it be the pmc is actually under powered and the case isn't swelling to seal the chamber correctly and not pushing back against the bolt face?

As to fore and aft movement.. thats not much in all reality. If it shoots well and headspaces right, I'd not worry about it. You can always crack the barrel nut and take the headspace down to a minimum if it bothers you and see if it continues.

Have you tried blackening the back of your locking lugs and checked to see how much contact you're getting without the sear in place to push it back?

You might try decapping an empty case and put it in the chamber and see if your slack goes away.It most likely will.I would imagine 223 ammo is sized pretty small to work good in semi-autos,which could be giving you the high primers.The chamber in your rifle may be leaning to the large side of specs,and your ammo is leaning to the tight side of specs.I would try different ammo,both factory and handloaded.It's most likely not something to get excited about,especially if you've already guaged the headspace

All rifle bolts have a few thousandths back and forth slop when closed on an empty chamber. There's no cartridge in the chamber to limit that slop to near zero.

It's also normal for loads producing quite less than normal pressure to have their primers backed out past the case head several thousandths. When that round fires, its shoulder gets set back a few thousandths moving the case head that much more forward until the primer fires and burns the powder up to peak pressure. That pushes the front half of the case body hard against the chamber and pushes the primer out a little bit taking the firing pin back with it. But the cases back half will stretch back if pressure's at normal max until the case head is flat against the bolt face reseating the primer flush with the case head. If peak pressure's not high enough the back of the case won't push its head against the bolt face to reseat the primer flush with the case head.

A very normal thing that happens when charge weights are more than 10 to15 percent below normal max, I've seen that happen with both .308 and .30-06 rifles handloading reduced charges.

I've shot many 7.62 NATO proof loads in M1's and bolt guns and none of them had backed out primers. The primers were a tiny, tiny bit more flat than normal service ammo had. Showing those proof load fired cases to several people got their responses saying they still looked good for normal pressure. Facts are, normal pressure was 52,000 cup and proof load pressure was 67,500 cup. Reading primer shapes to determine peak pressure is voodoo as well as a bad practice for most folks.

bart is mostly correct.. some bolts will be tight enough that you cannot feel it.

That wiggle forward and back is the bolt lugs hitting the breech face of the barrel and back to the lugs on the receiver. Basically its showing .015 or so of your case head being unsupported (non issue). IF it bothers you though, you can fix that. You loosen your barrel nut, screw the barrel in till it just barely touches your bolt face, and lock it down. Now your headspace will be below minimum, so you use a pull through chamber finish reamer to correct that to minimum headspace. No more bolt wiggle... I wouldnt do that though. that .015 you have in wiggle room provides room for the action to swell when hot without locking your bolt in place...

The reason it feels tight when cocked is that the cocking lug in the blot is appling constant pressure to the sear lever, which will have an effect of pulling the bolt back into the lugs as it does this. When you pull the trigger, that pressure is no longer there and the bolt is free to move forward until stopped by the breech face.