Great to have you on board, and welcome! Sounds like you are heading down the right track for sure. You said it yourself, you are now hooked and may as well start hoarding savage parts. They get addicting fast! As for your scope, it will work for now until you get that Vortex then you will really be happy. I have a handfull of sub $150 scopes that have helped kill many animals just as dead as an "outta my price range scope." I have a few good ones, but heck I had a $28 Simmons 3-9 hold up to nearly 1k 30-06 rounds before it lost its guts.

I love varmint hunting, there is something about headless groundhogs that makes me giggle and hearing the thwack of the bullet is an awesome sound.

As for reinforcing a Tupperware stock, all I did to one of mine was cut/grind out the "braces" down the forearm and place a 3/16" all thread rod down into the groove I made and covered it with epoxy. I can now twist all around on my bipod and not get any barrel contact, but I also opened barrel channel a bit. I also epoxied an 1/8" steel plate to the sides of the stock in magazine cutout to greatly reduce the flex I was getting there too.

Are you handloading or shooting factory ammo?