Ruger's while I have never owned any one other then my 10/22's, I have heard are pretty decent rifles. I lean toward the Savage due to the ease of barrel replacement. You also get to set your headspace to your liking. If you are shooting for long range accuracy you will want a heavy barrel so you can fire more then 3 or so before you have to take a break. As tobnpr say's-The 308 is a great place to start, more then good for 1000 yard ( paper punching). The 6.5 is much better, but also as he said-More costly to shoot- If you don't reload.
If you are going to get into this game- Jump in or stay home. If there is one thing I have learned since I started-You can't half ass it and expect to excell.
Get your rifle, Press, dies and have at it. While reloading can be dangerous, it is a pretty simple, no brain thing to get into. It's not rocket science for sure. You are going to want to make the round for your rifle anyhow, so you really need to reload. I started with a RCBS Partner Press and ntill it broke last year I never saw a reason to upgrade, now I have a single stage Rock Chucker.
Press-$80.00
Good Die-$60.00
Caliper-$ 10.00
Digital scale-( personnell preferance)- $50..00
Case trimmer-$60.00
Powder, bullets and brass and primers. There is more to get, but not needed right away. You can add as you go. In the course of 1 year you will have payed for the press and everything else you got, and have a better load then you can buy.
As for calibers-( If you buy a press) I would go 6.5 Creedmor hands down over the 308. When you have to buy a new barrel there is no difference in price between the calibers. A good barrel is going to run you about $600.00. I do one a year on my 6MM. Takes abaout 25 minutes and your done. With that in mind-Don't buy a starter rifle, you just end up having to buy another better one later, Cheaper to replace barrel then buy a new rifle, Again-I lean to Savage.
I would love to tell you it is a cheap sport to get into, but I would be lying to you. I offset my cost by Donating Plasma every week, thats $320.00 a month I sink into my hobby for free. PS- Makes the wife happy too that I don't hit the bank account.