I am doing something very similar right now. Thought about going the custom route but a friend of mine that is a very decorated shooter told me to just do a Savage right now since that's what I know. He said it should be good enough to get me going for a few years. By that time I can rebarrel it as a hunting rifle and go with a custom action if I feel necessary. He pretty much just said that a Savage probably won't take you to nationals but it CAN make you competitive at local matches. I figure it will take me shooting out a barrel to get everything figured out, get reloading dialed in, and start to understand the wind. I may even be going to cheap on parts of my rifle but I can always upgrade as I feel necessary. I'm going to have about $800 in mine not including optic and bipod. Hopefully it will be a fun experience. Now if my barrel would just get here!