I would agree on the chassis.
As for the barrel length, I have three 26-inch barrel Savages - 2 in 6.5mm CM and one in .223, and they are at the top of my other 24-inch barrel Savages, in my average 5-round group tables (more than 200 groups with each barrel) and in the top 25 load averages.
The data says that the barrel length does not make much of a difference in group size, but it does say that the group averages are better with the 26-inch barrels.
I have no good reason why that would be the case, since I load for exit time to minimize the harmonic impact of each barrel.