[Unclenick]

Styles90,

Welcome to the forum.

Peetzakilla is correct that barrel wear is a pressure and temperature related matter. Staying below the pressure he cited will help. Lighter, faster bullets have shorter barrel times for a given pressure, so they provide less cumulative heat exposure which tends also to improve barrel life.

Aside from fit, a common error people make in firing a rifle is to think they should back up from it to experience the least recoil, but the opposite is true. You don't want to give the rifle running start before it slams into your shoulder. Get the butt stock solidly in your shoulder and pull it in firmly and you will not feel the recoil as sharply.

You said you wanted the most versatility, but then specified modest recoil. I think the 6.5×55 is the best choice based on your criteria. It has been called by some the "perfect" deer rifle chambering, and has a good selection of hunting bullets available. It recoils about like your .30-30 in a same-weight rifle, but has more muzzle velocity and its bullets have higher ballistic coefficients, so it shoots flatter. It has been popular as a target shooting round in Europe for a long, long time, so a good selection of match bullets for target shooting are also available for it.

Running the 6.5×55 in the 45,000-50,000 psi range, where it works just fine, you will not see a lot of barrel wear. It seems to me that 6,000 round barrel life is fairly typical for it, where a .308 typically runs in the 3000-3500 round range. 300 yards is a breeze for the 6.5×55, and 300 meters (just over 328 yards) is where a lot of European matches have been fired with it. It will go to 600 yards right along with other match rifles for the service rifle courses of fire.

The Savage is an excellent choice. Get a model with both the AccuTrigger and AccuStock for target work.