Savage factory barrels, I have not shot one, sound like they are make or break.
Some shoot amazing some suck.
With a bore scope some look like [beeep] but appear to shoot fine.
I think Remington has been aroud enough to have smoothed out their barrels but they still arent great.
It seems savage has got a rockstar action design with the floating bolthead, cheap, easy and very repeatable.
I own a factory rem 700 30-06. I think the remmy action feels smoother in the hand but lacks the simplicity of being so accurate.
IMHO for my Minnesota close action woods hunting a 700 is great. A factory Savage shooting 3/4 moa and under or a factory remmy shooting 1moa or under... in the woods, off hand on a possibly moving animal. It comes down to skill.
If you want a custom hunting rifle(Im not talking a honker target rifle) call Jim Briggs of Northland Shooter Supply 763-682-4296 he is a Savage guru. You talk to him and pick out the factory savage action and an Awesome(AND CHEAP) Criterion barrel in your caliber and he has factory stocks, or for a little more a nice aluminum bedded H-S Precision stock. He has most of it on hand and will mail you the pieces and you bring it to a local gunsmith and they can put the barrel on a savage action lickety split. They will assemble the whole gun if you want otherwise just bolt in the barreled action to your stock and whamo you got a custom hunting rifle YOU picked out. Best of all it doesnt cost much more than factory and you got a Criterion barrel(Criterion is Kriegers new button rifle devision[CAN NOT argue with a Keieger] and are cheap to get the name out quick) Criterions SHOOT, a 15 year old girl schooled a big group of old F class guys in a comp in Texas with the exact rig from Jim I just mentioned. He has his catalog on SavageShooter.com but you have to join the site to see anything on the site because of some hacker BS. Jim is an awesome guy and does tons of business around the states and further, I was lucky enough to live 3 miles from him! I do business off his kitchen table and I can tell you he is a stand up guy.
Good luck. Threads like this start knife fights!
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/?s=jim+briggs Topic of Criterion, pre fit, pre chambered barrels
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2011/09/15-year-old-gal-wins-her-first-ever-f-class-match/ 15 year old champ........ Pictures are worth a thousand words
Im not trying to say Remmys suck, but I know first hand these rifles are great. I shot F class for about 6 months and just started reloading a year ago. I am getting awesome groups and my first F class comp was the first time I ever shot over 500 yards. 600 yard comp and I got 3rd place of 26 in the Marksman/Unclassified catagory. Love this rifle.