RE: what would you purchase money no concern
Either are fine choices. Personally prefer the encore, I have shot bothbut own neither.
If I were buying a new ML, I would get the Savage ML10II. The reason is I can use smokeless and the benefits are just to real to ignore. I have had the pleasure of playing with a number of inlines and by far to date this is the easiest out of the box shooting ML I have ever tried. It is extremely accurate, well made, arguably the best stock trigger(accutrigger) on ML (user friendly and clean) & true mag results (200 plus yard gun). I have had very little luck getting max loads to shoot accurately so I go with accuracy over trajectory, IME you can have both with the savage. Recoil is also non-exsistent, if that is a concern. IMO a great rifle and at least worth consideration. The savage however doesn't have the 209 placement you desire and if you can't use smokeless in reg. ML season then it become a bit ho hum.
BTW, I don't own a savage either. I actually own a Knight Disc(range gun/spare) and Rem 700MLS (hunting gun).
Best of luck