I've worked on a few Savages lately and am not recommending the cheaper ones, due to recent experience with friends rifles. The Ruger Americans I've worked on and shot are really great for the money.
Most of my centerfire rifles are Rem 700s, but they're not without a few problems. I like the way they feel and put up with a few quirks, but they shoot great and the stock design minimizes felt recoil better than most.
My Tikka T3 Lite and my 595 are really great, light rifles. The T3 Lite is nice to carry and a great deer rifle in .243 Win. It has taken 4 deer and I can't say enough about the rifle. It, like all my hunting rifles, has a 3-9x Leupold VX2, 3-9X, which is about the best hunting scope I've used. They're on sale at Cabelas now for about $250.
Whatever you get for caliber, get something that you can feed from Walmart or other local stores. These new cartridges are nice, but ammo is expensive and may not be available in your area in bullet weights/types that are good for deer. I've looked for and had a hard time finding 7mm-08 and even .308 Win in the past year or two, so your chances of finding 6.5mm ammo in the local store is practically nil.
JP