The barrel is pressed in and held in place with 2 fairly large pins on the botom of the recevier. As far as swapping barrels, it could be done by a gunsmith, but no way for the DIY'fer, like a model 10 or 12 can be done. Sleeved barrels work and have worked for many decades. I am taking a SWAG and saying that IMO, Savage went with the pressed barrel, to save machining steps, which reduced cost and keep in more in line with the M-40 .22 Hornet and the 93R17 style rifles.
As far as pressure, I have shot up to 30.2gr of BLC2 and 28.0gr of Benchmark, with 32gr V-Maxs, and I am showing no pressure signs. On futher test, I will be increasing chagres by .2gr increments to see if I can find the max pressure points, and see if I can get even tighter groups. The only pressure sign I saw, well actually felt, was with my low end test loads, 26.0gr of Benchmark and 28.0gr of BLC2, and the bolt was just a little hard or sticky in opening, but as I went up in charge, the bolt opened just fine.
As far the feel goes, I like the feel of the rifle. I like the varmint rifle performance, in a sporter weight and lenght rifle. It is much easier to handle and faster handling, than than my 12FV's in .223 Rem. and 308 Win, being it's much shorter and ligher.
The only negative thing I can say at this time is, the barrel heats up so quick, after just 3 shots. With the loads this rifle likes, it would put 3 rounds into bugholes or tight clover leaf groups, in the mid-.2" to high .4" range. But the barrel heats up so quickly, that the 4th and 5th shots open the groups up to .75"-1" range, even though I was firing five shots over a 10-15 minute span.