Marlin gives a better trigger, savage gives a clip. Both are going to share similar accuracy. I like the tupperware better on the Marlin; Boyd's gunstocks makes some nice looking aftermarkets stocks. Marlin has pillars in their stock, I'm not sure about the Savage. I'm prejudiced to Marlins, so I follow the X guns and from what I've seen is that the extractor on the bolt may be their weak link, but those few that did have an issue seem to have been accommodated. Whichever gun you choose, clean and lube it before shooting, I suspect that's the cause of the Marlin extractor failure; it seems to break early after purchased. Both actions are rip-offs of each other. The other thing I noticed with my Marlins is that the bolt doesn't lock down like my Ruger Hawkeye when on safe and I caught it opening from getting hooked in my hunting jacket; I don't believe Savage locks on safe either. Marlin also offers a fluted bolt, which does its job by holding field debris in the flutes while in the field; the bolt is smooth. My goal is to have a Marlin X gun in every caliber and personally I look for a JM stamped barrel, but there has not been any significant negative accuracy issues with the REP stamped barrels either.
Let me through another economy rifle at you to look at, and that would be the Ruger American. I thought the stock felt cheap, but it's plastic and they all do until you get used to it. The Ruger also has a clip. It's a new gun so finding reviews are slowly filtering in.
