I'm not sure that it isn't easier to load the Savage from top than to load magazine and then get it latched in place.
When I first got my Scout, I managed to dump a loaded magazine in in the sand that I thought was locked in place but it wasn't and you cannot disassemble the magazines to clean them. Talk about a pain!
The Savage magazines are inserted backwards to the M14/M1A in that the M14 is inserted front end up and rocked (pivoted) to the rear to catch the rear latch (which is larger and more positive than the Savage and the Savage latch is to the front), if that makes sense.
Regards,
hm