The stainless barrel is more rough than the blued.
It is too bad that Savage doesn't clean those bores up because these are great rifles. Although, as mentioned, it is not too much trouble to smooth out the bore.
I bought the blued with plastic stock Savage in 2003. This was before the accutrigger came out.
I have killed 3 deer with mine.
The first was with 43 grains of VV N110 and the 250 XTP.
The second two were with the same powder and the 250 SST.
I get 1 1/2 inch groups with the SST, and the XTP is slightly more accurate.
It is great to not have to clean after shooting. In fact, I killed a buck last November, and still have not cleaned my rifle!
The 4227 used to be a recommended powder but is now discredited, due to misfires. I dumped 3/4 of a pound of 4227 into the tomato patch.
I love the Savage.
One big advantage of this rifle is that aftermarket stocks are available from Richards microfit at rifle-stocks.com
This is because it is the same stock as used for the Savage centerfire rifle.
I am going to get a nice curly maple stock for my rifle.
Scrap 5000: A load that almost everybody gets good results with is 43 gr of VihtaVouri N110 and the 250 XTP.
You can order a box of 100 of the 250 XTP from Cabelas, and get the sabots from MMP.
This is also the cheapest load available for the Savage.
DO NOT use Remington primers.
I like Winchester.