Trust me when I say I fucking hate the way a Savage looks. I am also the guy that puts it in the back of the safe so I don't have to look at it, but at your cost level Savage makes some great 223's, and they are almost always accurate as hell. I have one in 223 that I would sell you if you were close, but look into them. You cannot beat them for price vs accuracy. I think I paid right at 400.00 with scope and all, as I was just going to use it to mess around with.
It is very accurate, only thing I would do to it would be a trigger job, but its ok as is. Similar to this
http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/m...TrophyHunterXP