I posted earlier that I would take the Savage over any other sub-$1000 rifle made today. I was posting from my phone at the time, so let me add a little bit to that.
First of all, I didn't own a Savage rifle before less than a year ago. The first one I bought was the 10T-SR. I was looking to get into long range shooting and really didn't have anything in particular in mind but I went into a store and they had this rifle on sale and for the price of less than $500, I thought I would give it a chance (I was expecting to spend around $1500). I had a buddy that shot club level F-Class matches and he used a Savage and gave me his run down on why he went with a Savage and since I knew him to be a meticulous type of guy, he convinced me. So, I bought the rifle and it shot great. Not just good, great. I started shooting long range at a private range and various regulars there tried my rifle and every one of them said, if they had known you could get a rifle that shot like that, for that kind of money, they would definitely buy one. This rifle is in 6.5 Creedmoor. Another reason I chose this rifle besides price and reputation was that it was threaded for a suppressor (that is the SR in the model number: suppressor ready): I owned a .30 rifle suppressor and this was just one less thing I had to do to use it.
At that range, I met a guy that had a Savage-Ashbury rifle in .308 that he wanted to trade me for a .308 rifle I had. I traded him and started wringing out my new rifle. I fired over 40 different handloads with two different bullets, three different powders; 40 different loads in all, five shot groups, and I got to 40 loads before I had one five shot group go over an inch at 100 yards.
So at this point I owned two Savage rifles, both of which shot terrific for an out of the box, factory rifle. Based on this and the ease of changing Savage barrels and bolt heads, when I saw the sale at Cabelas, I ordered two of those 12FV rifles.
So here are a few of the reasons I would go with Savage:
For an out of the box, factory rifle, I seriously doubt you will get anything that shoots better.
The price on these things is incredible. I am not normally a price shopper. I buy what I think is the best thing I can afford. But, I certainly don't just ignore price. And for a rifle that shoots like these do for less than $350 ? You can't go wrong. On my 6.5 Creed, I have a $2500 scope on it. In part, I could afford this level of optic because I paid $400 for the rifle. And the rifle shoots good enough to get the most out of this caliber of optic.
The barrel nut. Barrels are a consumable item in rifles just like bullets and powder. If you shoot as much as I do, you are going to replace barrels. And with the Savage, you can do this at home with a few readily available tools. There are plenty of pre-chambered barrels available from major barrel manufacturers ready to screw in. The wrench, the barrel vice, and the headspace gauges are readily available. You can not only rebarrel the rifle, you can change calibers (within reason). You can also easily change out the bolt heads for cartridges with different head dimensions. I have changed out a half dozen or so AR15 barrels over the years so I have first hand experience in how nice it is to have the ability to rebarrel your own rifle.
There is all kinds of after market support for Savage rifles. You can get stocks, chassis, bolt handles, magazines (if your rifle uses a detachable magazine), optics rails, triggers....... Lots of aftermarket support. If there is something about the rifle that you don't like or think needs improvement; there is someone making the part to do it. This is often touted as a big advantage to going with a Remington 700 based rifle. And I am sure there is more stuff, and more variations of stuff available for the Remington 700 action, but how much do you need ? Most people who shoot a lot, "trick out" their rifles to some degree; they personalize them. And with the Savage, doing that is easy.
Basically, after owning bolt rifles made by Remington, Winchester, Tikka, Ruger, Armalite, ............... I honestly don't see the point in buying anything other than Savage. My experience is that they don't shoot any better and they cost more and in some cases, significantly more to get the same or less performance. Are Savage rifles the absolute best rifles being made today ? No. But for less than a thousand US dollars, I think they are at least as good as any factory rifle. And they are usually cheaper.
