I hunt the Baldwin/Luther swamp northwest of Big Rapids. I can tell you from personal experience a savage 10 or 110 in .260 is an IDEAL northern Michigan deer rifle. I use 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tips and have dropped 2 nice sized bucks in their tracks inside of 200 yards with it. It shoots 1/2 MOA and has about the same recoil as a .243. I absolutely love it.

Mine is an old 110 with the older style stagger feed detachable magazine in a factory walnut stock. Being long action, I have the option to use longer cartridges than the short action mag allows. It was one of my first "Custom Build Savage" I built from a collection of many different parts from many different rifles. My pride and joy. :)

I think you are on the right track. Boyds can make nice stocks. They often need final fitting, pillars and bedding, but not always. I would suggest you look at the Heritage with checkerring. It has a slightly smaller pistol grip (than others in their line up) and a slightly higher comb. Most importantly, it allows wrap around checkerring, which the Boyds Classic does not.

Good luck. I think you will enjoy the build and the end results.