No. 1; yes those at the range will throw you out. Plus your earmuffs wont be enough to quell the noise, put ear plugs in your ears under the muffs. Get a better buttpad like a Pachmeyer decelorator to quell recoil.
No.2; yes you can rebarrel to .308 but it may or may not feed from the magazine. Changing barrels is easy enough with the proper tools, like an action wrench and barrel nut wrench. You can get them from Midway USA or Brownells. You will need headspace guages.
No.3; If you have what is called the "3 screw trigger" it can be adjusted to a decent pull wgt. Tutorials on how to do it are here on this sight. There are several makers of aftermarket triggers available. All are good. SSS is the best.
No.4; Aftermarket stocks are availble From Boyds, Stocky's Stocks and some others. Midway USA has some.
No 5; You will not get great accuracy from factory loaded ammo. If you get 1 1/2 inch groups with that ammo consider yorself lucky.
No 6; Make sure the barrel is free floated as well as the tang (no contact with the stock.) Check the barrel for copper overload, Run some patches soaked in copper remover to see. If they come out blue you have to get the copper out. Follow instructions that come with the copper remover.
no. 7; once you have settled on a new stock glass bed the action into the stock. If it has no pillars, install them When you rebarrel add an aftermarket recoil lug. Tutrials on glass bedding are on this site.
No. 8: Make sure all scope mounting screws are tight. If your shots are all over the target, suspect a bad scope. Try another one if you have an extra.
No. 9: yes, under $1000 is very achavable. For under $300 a model 200 Stevens (cheaper version of the Savage) in .308 would be the way to go. If under $1000 another new Savage model would be a much cheaper alternative. Some good models under $500 are avaialble, Dheck the Savage website or get a catalog from a dealer.
Stand by for more suggestions from other people on the site. Beware of those guys who try to talk you into thier favorite calibrs. Your .30-06 will handle any game you care to go after. There is a eason why it has been one of the most used cartridge for hunting in almost hndred yrs.
El Lobo
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