Just be very mindful of what game you really want to play.To mac1911, thank you for your response. I've been shooting for many years, mostly pistol and some AR.s, this is my first try at shooting precision rifle, and I enjoy it. The amount I mentioned is my budget, I already have a good optic, a Viper PST Gen II 5-25x50 FFP, I have it on my Savage. At the present I'm doing just bench rest shooting, using bipod front and bag for rear. Where I shoot now the longest I can shoot is 200 yards. If I was to have a chance to shoot longer I would like to do it, that's why I'm thinking about getting something that might be better than the Savage 110 that I've been shooting for 2 years.
If its PRS do you really need a new rifle (which savage do you have) or will one of the chassis systems out there be a good choice to get you going.
PRS is a moving and shooting game so getting something your comfortable with may not be fun to shoot from the bench at your 200 yard range.
You can waste a lot of money and time trying to build something your not 100% sure your going to use the way you think you are.
That said do you have a budget for matches ammo and supplies , have you planned out matches for next season?
Im still curious what you can do with savage
Is there something inherently wrong with a savage that keeps it from shooting sub MOA , I mean really until you reach a extreme high point of skill will a 1/2 moa rifle really be any better than a 1.25 moa rifle for someone starting out?
I have a few 1/2 builds in the closet only after finding out mid way i was going down the wrong track.
Lets say you drop $500 on a chasis system for the savage and run a season of matches with it. i bet you could sell that savage or chasis system for a decent return to the next new guy. By then you should know if you like the PRS game or start thinking you should have built a 200yd Bench Rest rifle?
Now if you just want to buy another rifle, by all means do so . i get it. Im always looking at the tikka.