I am so glad all you folks have had such great accuracy with the savage. That has not been my experience and yes I've owned and own both. My savages are good hunting accuracy, 243, 06 both around 1 1/2 at 100. I prefer the vanguard/howa over the savage for fit, feel and it seens to shot a hair better (3/4 to 1" @ 100) for me. I've never had to deal with vanguards customer service so I can't remark on that but savages service is top notch. I would like to mess around with a xs7 but that probably isn't in the budget for a year or so.