No you don't.
While barrel swapping seems to be a dominant practice with many of the members here, in the grand scheme of things they only represent a very small percentage of Savage owners and most have never changed a barrel or had need to do so. More often than not people are going to an aftermarket barrel because they want to shoot a cartridge that isn't offered from the factory. Others do it because they're competitive shooters and they're trying to get as tiny of groups as possible. The third and final group are the tinkerers and wildcatters - they're the ones who just like to play around with things and see what they can come up with just to keep themselves busy and entertained.
Savage's provide more than adequate hunting accuracy right out of the box. In my 11 years of owning and reviewing Savage's I've only had two that wouldn't consistently shoot sub 1" groups from the bench with factory ammunition, and even those two would still shoot 1.5" groups with factory ammunition. That's typically using a benchrest style front rest with a proper sized front leather bag and a leather bunny ear rear bag, or a Harris bipod and the same rear bag.
Bookmarks