Lately there have been a few threads asking about identifying the new or old MKII and 93 actions. Savage used to make two different receivers/actions. One for the MKII (.22lr or .17hm2) and one for the 93 series guns (.22mag or .17hmr). Sometime in the past year or so Savage started making the "E-Receiver". The e-receiver is now used for all of the 4 common rimfire calibers. Here are some pictures that show the past and present guns.

The top gun is an old style MKII F in .22lr. The bottom gun is an e-receiver MKII F in .22lr. Some of the changes are:
*The e-receiver is 7 3/4" long vs 7 1/8" for the old MKII and 93 receivers.
*The ejection port is roughly 1.66" long on the e-receiver vs. 1.39" long for the old MKII receiver. The old 93 receivers had a 1.6" long ejection port.
*The e-receiver has a gas escape hole on either side, just forward of the bolt. The old MKII receivers did not have this hole but the old 93 receivers did.
*The trigger groups, mag wells, pillars/holds downs, and associated brackets are all different.
*The e-receivers are drilled and tapped for scope mounts. The older MKII F was grooved for tip-off scope rings. The more expensive versions of the old receivers were drilled and tapped for scope mounts.
*There are two barrel retaining pins in the e-receiver guns. The older guns only had one pin.







Here is a quick picture of a old style action from a Savage Striker pistol. This action only has one hold down/pillar. I believe that some of the older rifles were like this also.



E-receiver barrel is on the left, old MKII barrel on the right. Both new and old MKII F barrels both measure 0.68_" in diameter but have slightly different cuts near the chamber.



Old MKII action is on top and the e-receiver is on the bottom. This particular old MKII receiver is a left hand action from a Striker pistol. Notice the difference in receiver length and ejection port length. The older MKIIs had a shorter ejection port than the older 93s and the e-receiver guns. For some reason Savage changed the scope base mounting hole spacing on the Strikers. Unless they are modified, the one-piece scope bases that are currently on the market won't line up with the Striker's scope base mounting holes. The old style MKII and 93 rifles should have the same scope base mounting hole spacing as the e-receiver guns.



Old MKII action is on top and the e-receiver is on the bottom. This particular old MKII receiver was not an F and is a left hand action. The mounting holes and cuts are totally different. The mag well cut out on the e-receiver is sized for the .22mag/.17hmr magazines even though this gun is a .22lr.



The e-receiver on the left has a strange bevel inside of the receiver where the barrel slides in. The old receivers did not have this.



The top gun is a older .17hmr gun with the Accutrigger. The middle receiver is an older, left hand MKII action. The bottom is the e-receiver. The old style MKII and 93 actions are the same length. The e-receiver is about 5/8" longer than the old actions.



The top gun shows the old Accutrigger (maybe the same as the e-receiver Accutrigger???). The trigger in the lower left is the non-Accutrigger from a e-receiver gun. The lower right is an old style non-Accutrigger. The e-receiver non-Accutrigger looks very similar to the Accutrigger.



The top bolt is from an old style, left hand, MKII gun. The middle bolt is from an old style 93 action. The bottom bolt is from the e-receiver gun.



In this picture, the e-receiver stock is on the top and the old style MKII/93 stock is on the bottom. They are both marked for the MKII and 93 actions. The e-receiver stock has raised contact points where the pillars/hold downs are. The inletting for the trigger group is a little different and the safety cut-out is a little larger on the e-receiver stock. I'm wondering if, with a few modifications, the stocks could be swapped.





Heavy barreled guns have an easy way to tell the old style from the e-receiver. The old style receivers had heavy barrels that were the same diameter as the receiver for the first four inches. After that the barrel steps down to about 0.80" and stays that diameter all the way to the muzzle. The e-receiver guns have heavy barrels that are one diameter (around .80") all the way from the receiver to the muzzle.

The top picture is an old style MKII BV. The bottom picture is a e-receiver gun with a heavy barrel (and Accutrigger). Thanks to cwa11is for the picture!





Unfortunately I don't have an example of all past and present Savage guns so there may be small details that differ. Please let me know if you have anything to add to this write up! I didn't discover all of these changes. I just thought it would be good to document them.