Ask a shooter to name the greatest bolt actions of all time and you will hear two or three names: Mauser 98, Winchester Model 70, maybe the Remington 700. Rarely if ever will the Savage 110 be included, and that is an injustice because the 110--now America’s oldest bolt action rifle in continuous production--is an unsung hero.

The Savage 110, introduced in 1958 and celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has proven over its lifetime that it not only has the positive qualities its designers wanted but a few unexpected ones as well.

The 110 was designed by Nicholas Brewer, an engineer for Savage Arms in the 1950s. In the postwar years, great attention was paid to simplifying manufacturing processes, reducing costs and lowering the retail price of all guns to make them more competitive. The greatest knock on the Mauser 98 and the Model 70 were the hundreds of machining operations required to make them, so Savage Arms gave Nicholas Brewer a set of guidelines: He was to design an action that would be both strong and safe, yet easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and ultimately cost less than its competitors.

The result was the Savage 110, one of few actions from that era that owes almost nothing to the Mauser 98. In fact, except for its dual opposing locking lugs on the front of the bolt, the 110 has little in common with the Mauser.

Brewer solved the problem of multiple, complex machining cuts on a single part by making the bolt an assembly of individual parts, each of which was easy to manufacture. Some were investment castings, others machined parts.

The main beneficiary of this approach was the bolt, which consists of about a half-dozen major parts fastened together. Unlike the Mauser or Model 70, the bolt shaft, bolt handle and bolt head with its locking lugs are separate pieces.

Savage and Brewer also took an entirely new approach to safety. To guard against gas escape back through the bolt in the event of a pierced or blown primer, the Mauser 98 incorporates a large flange on the bolt shroud to deflect gas that escapes back through the action. For this to have the desired effect, of course, the gas has already invaded the action where it can wreak havoc in any parts it penetrates.

Brewer solved this problem by placing what looks like a second set of locking lugs behind the lugs themselves. When the bolt is closed, the actual lugs rotate into the lug recesses, but the rear set remains in the lug raceways, effectively sealing them off to escaping gas. Should any gas escape from the chamber, it is directed out of the action through two holes for that purpose.

The bolt handle, which turns down into a substantial notch in the receiver, acts as a third safety lug. As an added safeguard, Brewer placed a collar on the rear of the bolt in approximately the same place Paul Mauser placed the flange on his shroud. This collar is manufactured separately and installed at less expense than the cost of milling a flange onto a shroud.

Inside the bolt, Brewer developed a completely new approach to adjusting firing-pin protrusion. He positioned an adjustable nut on the striker that comes in contact with the rear of the bolt face, allowing protrusion of the striker to be determined exactly and then set immovably in place.

Savage took a similar approach with the issue of headspace, barrel positioning and the recoil lug.