Thanks guys, looks like I should give the savage another closer look! Aside from these two, any other competitors around the $500 price point?

the savage may not look the prettiest, but they sure do shot pretty.

under that price range , the remington 700 adl would fit the bill for a 7mm rem. mag. , or a pump 7600 in .30-06 but , the savage is still your best bet

P.S.- i would like to clarify what i meant by the rifle is more stiffer ,
it does involve the action , the newer savages are much better than the ones made about 10 to 15 years ago , i had a model 110 long action in .243 from that time period and the action was very difficult to work , it was like it kept sticking upon opening and on closing , and would some what bind during cycling , it shot great but that action is what made me get rid of it ,
when they first came out with the short action version i looked at one and saw a lot of improvement in the rifle itself and it' s quality so i purchased a model 11 in .22-250 rem. , and i' ve never looked back , that rifle handels great and is much more improved over the ones from 10 to 15 years ago , i,ve also got a newer model 111 in .25-06 and i' m equally satisfied , those rifles are very accurate out of the box shooters ,
anyway , that' s why i said that the stiffness wasn' t in cycling the action grizz , i was saying that the action isn' t stiff or sticky to operate , they work great , the short action is considered stffer because you don' t have as long of a pull to load/unload your rifle , so the bolt has a lot less space to travel and less chance of any jams and also helps to improve accuracy ,or at least that' s my understanding of it , if i' m wrong i' m sure i' ll get corrected

The Ruger is a nice rifle. You will probably need to get a trigger job that will run about $75.00. Mine shoot great besides that though.