Originally Posted by
Mozella
Save your money and use the Savage recoil lug and barrel nut. Yes, you can buy better ones (I do that myself), but any improvement in performance will be so small that you can't measure it, especially if you're shooting factory ammo. If you want a light gun, you're gonna' have a small barrel and that will have a much greater negative effect on accuracy than using a factory barrel nut. Plus if you are forced by budget constraints to buy an inexpensive barrel, you can't count on keeping up with the big dogs when it comes to competitive shooting.
On the other hand, if you're going to carry the gun around in the field for the purposes of hunting, the last thing you want is a real target gun. As others have pointed out, you can't make a gun which will be a good hunting weapon and a good target gun too. However, you can have some fun ringing steel at moderate to semi-long ranges; longer than you'd want to shoot one of God's little furry creatures anyway. For that, your hunting gun will serve if you don't mind your buddies doing better with their heavier, target guns. If you're into long range hunting, then learning to hit a long distance steel target on the first, cold bore shot is a very good idea. Killing animals is just fine with me, but the operative word is "killing". You will be judged someday if you think that wounding animals is funny.
You can do just fine with a Boyd's stock but you should plan on bedding it.
I'd say you're off to a good start. Just don't count on winning any F-Class matches. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try. All you need is a rest or bipod and an old moving quilt. Find a low-key local match and ask for help. I guarantee you'll have fun and if nothing else it will be good training for bagging Bambi at 500 yards.