thanks steve,
I was just wondering about what he told me, I have ordered the dyna muffler, and I am having the rejet done, I just thought it was weird that when I changed shifting it stopped the back firing but I do need a long term solution that wont damage my bike

Shifting like that will not hurt your bike, but you are putting more wear and tear on it by keeping it in the higher RPM's all the time.  

However, it is not a mechanical fix to the carb's air/gas ratio problem of being too lean from the factory.

Rejetting the card yourself, or paying someone else to do it for you, is a better long term solution to the problem and will allow you to drive the way you like

What your friend's friend said about a partially clogged carb contributing to a lean condition is true. Clean carbs are your friend.

As far as where to shift, I don't remember the shift points well enough, but just upping the RPMs is not a great solution on a savage unless you were really dragging the engine down before downshifting. And, yes this would also contribute to the problem.

As others have pointed out the solution is changing the factory "lean" condition. As Verslagen1 pointed out the pilot screw will solve most if not all of the problem.

It is not too hard, but can involve some experimenting.  I went through 3 different jet combos/white spacer thicknesses until I got the wife's bike "right" for what we did with intake and exhaust mods.

So don't get frustrated if it does not work exactly the first time.  Just take your time.

For what it is worth, each set of jets ran me $9.00....the $27.00 and some tinker time was well worth the value of getting the bike to run the way SHE wanted it to

Mav