I have to confess that I've got no experience with Savage guns. They are not popular in Europe, but the Tikkas' are and especially in Scandinavia. That by reason. Very good performance out of the box, reliable, great value for the money and good to tune if somebody wants to. The Tikka Lite can have strong recoil if the calibre passes 308 W due to its weight. However, muzzle brakes, suppressors could easily tame the unnecessary recoil. No problem. If I were you, I would go with the varmint model. Later on, you might add a decent Mc Millan stock f. ex. and a match barrel from Krieger. That gun will outperform a lot others so called semi customs.