I love my Savage because I can tinker with it. I don't need to go to a smith to do a barrel swap. I went with the .270 basically because I hunt deer and pigs and don't need anymore then that. In my opinion you would be much better served buying a decent savage with or without scope (I ended up replacing my nikon with a redfield) and using teh rest of your budget to get into reloading. Simply being able to build custom ammo will do more for you then a higher end rifle shooting factory ammo. IE I got a ruger american .243 for my son which is a decent $400 rifle which 1" to 2" 5 round groups with different factory ammo. I decided to work a load up for him and he is now consistently shooting .750" groups @100yards. Many times we have had guy plop down there $1000 remi or whatever and get out shot by a 10 year old with a $400 rifle.