So today on the way home from work in 5th gear around 65mph the trusty ole Savage popped once from the exhaust then just shut itself down. I pulled off to a frontage road still rolling fired it up by twisting the throttle a tish and away I went like it never missed a beat? I am not sure what would have happened ran fine back up to speed 65mph the next mile into town? Anyone else ever experienced this. Ample gas in the tank no low fuel light on?

Probably. Or you got some bad fuel and the carb had to try and pass a piece of grit, temporarily plugging a jet. Drain the float bowl into a clean jar and look for sand, rubber chips, water or similar signals of bad fuel.

But odds are your petcock hiccupped. Mine never failed, but it would occasionally have a hitch in its operation. Solved post crash via "new" (junkyard scrounged, no idea what off of) tank and manual petcock.