The synthetic stock on the Savage rifles are just fine to hold on to to fire the gun. Thats all a synthetic stock is for. If you are going to try knocking trees over with it then you might have a problem. I have had a ton of Savage rifles and never had a minutes problem with the stocks. The Barska scopes are pretty good stuff and I have not seen a bad report on them. For long range shooting though, I would buy a Night Force. They start at 1100 or so but there is probably not a better long range scope available. For just varmit hunting and big game hunting the 6x24's and 3x9's are as good as it gets IMO.