Had a Savage STW that I liked a LOT. Sold it to do a new build. Barrel life is a relative thing. Once a given cartridge gets the reputation of a short barrel life it is difficult to overcome. If you shoot light bullets at high velocity in the STW you are going to have short barrel life. The STW comes into it's own when you shoot nothing less than 162g bullets. I settled on 168 and 180g Berger VLD's in mine and it was a very accurate rifle. Shoot the heavy bullets with slow powder and barrel life will be extended. The STW does not do much more than the 7MM Magnum until you get into heavy bullets.
A Berger 180VLD (BC=.659) at 2900fps set 3.7" at 100 is -232" at 1000 and still moving at 1653fps. That basically eats most 30 caliber pumpkin rollers for lunch.
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