Safety on older Savage 110

[CamoHunter]

My wife inherited her dad's rifle which is a Savage 110. It appears to made in the first year of production as serial number is only 4 digits long. I am not familiar with Savage rifles but the safety on this rifle is different than any I have had. The safety is a 2 position: Safe/Fire.
Once you work the bolt the safety can be moved to the safe position and then I am able to move it forward into the firing position. Then to put the rifle back on safe I have to work the bolt up to the top of the stroke and re-cock again, then reapply the safety. Does this sound correct?
I am sorry that this is long winded and confusing. Thanks for any light that you can shed on this.

Camo

 

[hereinaz]

Yes, that is the way the safety works on all my Savages. You can only slide it back into safe if it is cocked.

The newer ones have a three position safety where you can work the bolt with it on safe, basically two safety positions.

Search on Savage shooters forum or post your question there. Quite a few helpful people.

 

[CamoHunter]

Thank you, will do.

Camo

 

[Dwh7271]

You received good info above.
The 110s cock on opening and the safety will not engage unless the rifle is cocked.

 

[Dr. Vette]

If it's already cocked, you should be able to move it back and forth from Safe to Fire more than once. If you pull the trigger, the safety will not go back on until cocking it again.

If you have to re-cock it even though you have not (dry) fired it, I would check to see if the firing pin is disengaging when you take the safety off. If so, that is a problem because your safety is now your trigger.

At least, that is how I understood your question.

 

[CamoHunter]

Update: After going back and working the safety and bolt many more times here is what I have found.
After operating the safety dozens of times in succession it has seemed to free up a bit. It now appears that this is a 3 position safety. In the full back safe position the bolt is locked.
If I gently push in forward it moves into the middle position that will allow the bolt to be operated but when pressure is applied to trigger it will not fire. Moving it the the front position will allow the firing pin to drop when trigger is pulled. The safety still is pretty stiff to operate and I have to be really gentle with pressure to hit the middle spot when pushing the safety forward. Then once is is in the front firing position it takes a lot of thumb pressure to get it back on safe. I think it might just need a good cleaning to get it to operate as it should. I will disassemble the rifle and clean trigger assembly to see if it improves. Thanks to all for your advice.

Camo

 

[Dwh7271]

When you take it apart, make sure there's nothing under the tang that may be interfering with it.
I would work it out of the stock a few times and see if there is a more positive difference. If there is, bed it and float the tang slightly. (They shoot better with the tang slightly floated anyhow)