We also have a cheep crappy savage package 110, 243.
It was bought for my Daughter when she started hunting.
It has a 3X9 Bushnell and what ever barrel comes with it.
Turned out way to big and heavy for her small frame. She killed a lot of deer, antelope, coyotes, and Prairie dogs, but did not like it.
So I used it for years. I put a 4X12 Redfield and pillar bedded the Barrel. Then worked on loads.
It may be the most accurate gun I have for a 1/3 the price. It took a LOT of work to get the load JUST right very little changes made a huge difference. NOW off a bench 300 yards is nothing to be well under an inch group, with 75gr Barnes tsx bullets. We push them at MAX with varget.
For hunting we found a 85 gr Speer lead tip is the best and off shooting sticks 300 group is around 1.5 inch, not moa but inch! I have personally killed cow elk and bear with it with one shot.
I would save some $$$ and use the savage.
All that said we JUST added two Howa 6.5 Grendel to our stable, one a youth 20" and the other a 22". We are still braking in the barrels but it's looking very promising.