Savage makes a heck of a rifle but the one thing that sucks on them is the stock. From what you have wrote I would figure you have thier standard synthetic stock. I had the exact same rifle and I hated the stock. If you were gonna upgrade on this setup I would say do this. Go with a 28-20" bbl in a lighter wieght contour, try and get the finished gun wieght to around 10-12lbs, and put a holland brake on it.
I have been amazed at the difference these brakes make. If you wanna increase the rigidity go with a heavier weight profile and have the barrel heavy fluted to have the wieght of a light bbl and rigidity of a heavier one. IF you are just wanting to hunt with it go with a standard twist, i think 1-10, and shot the 180gr accubond or the 210gr Wildcat ULD. You should be able to push these plenty fast and their aint anything, maybe brown bear, that it wouldnt drop like a truck hit it.
You might talk to Kirby Allen, FiftyDriver, about his sporter extreme v-block design for a bbl bedding block.
As for the recoil the holland brake will cut it down to 308 range. IF you dont go to the brake the heavier bullets seem to push more than snape on the recoil. If you seat the rifle properly the recoil if managable since it recoil "around you". Hold the rifle wrong and you feel like someone drop kicks ya in the shoulder.
The round can be accurate as hell. Put a custom bbl on it and you wont be disapointed. You might think about doing away with the savage "dog knot" bbl system and go with a rem recoil lug. Looks a lot cleaner
Good luck
steve
