You didn' t really mention if this is going to be a " serious" range rifle, or just a rifle you want to take to the range and shoot a lot, but will be accurate enough to not be embarrassing.

As far as the bbl lasting for range shooting, they are right, the .30-06 won' t last as long as a .308win, in theory, but as in all theory, it isn' t necessarily true for all circumstances. The .30-06 operates at higher pressures to get virtually the same outcome, so yes it SHOULD have faster barrel decay, but I don' t know that the difference would be truly noticeable. (Does that model have a heavy bbl? I wasn' t aware anyone was still putting out a heavy bbl' ed .30-06, if it doesn' t, then I' d get a .308).

Important thing to remember about serious range rifles, those guys have heavy bbls and synthetic stocks for good reason, and anyone getting into it should follow suit if they want to hang in there.

The savage is a good gun, not an amazing shooter always, but they' re a great starting range gun. The stock really isn' t worth much, so even being synthetic you' d probably still need to replace it soon, but if it shoots well enough for you, maybe you' d be able to keep it with just a bedding job. Heavy bbl? Their site won' t load for me right now...

The wood on the Tikka would have to go, first and foremost, spending any money to build/accurize a rifle is all for not if you keep it in wood. Buying a quality synthetic stock for it, such as an H-S precision, plus the bedding block/system, and having someone install it correctly is going to add ~$300-500 right off the bat, so that' s another thing to consider. The sporter isn' t a heavy bbl either is it?

Have you considered a Winchester Stealth? They aren' t terribly expensive, and are great on accuracy right out of the box. Or a Remington 700 of some sort (PSS would be my choice), it' s less expensive, and a great shooter out of the box. PLUS, check the " duty rosters" at 1000yrd shoots, most of them are built on Win 70 or Rem 700 actions, possibly for no other reasons than that they are good actions, and highly customizeable.

Guess just some food for thought, sorry I couldn' t really help your choice much, if you' re set on just those two options, I' d get the savage, IMHO, it' d be the better gun, but turning either one of them into a " WAY DOWN TOWN" precision rifle is probably going to cost more than just buying a more expensive model like the Win. 70 or Rem 700 right off the bat. (When I enquired about my 700PSS, the guy said if it doesn' t get 1.5MOA at a half mile=800yrds, I could bring it back, don' t know if that' s a real guarantee--I might think so since it' s a police issue arm--but at any rate, it was a great deal).