No brainer...Id definately go the stevens route.
They are pretty good shooteres from the box and tons of aftermarket stuff to be had for them, (basically a savage.) Plus you can build off of them later and do the work yourself.
I bought a stevens 243 about 2 months ago for my coyote rifle for both calling and the truck. It was $320 at sportsmans warehouse. Only thing I did was lighten the factory trigger and found a decent load with some 55g nbt's that shoot .5"-.75" moa and its killed 6 dogs so far. THe stock is worthless, but what can ya expect. As long as it shoots, thats really all that matters in my eyes.
The idea is to shoot the barrel out in a couple years, then rebarrel to either a 26" 6BR or 243 AI w/1:8 twist to shoot 105-115's out to 1K. Figure for another $800 for the shilen drop in barrel,laminate stock,rifle basix trigger,EGW 20moa base/rings, I can have a semi custom rifle that I did the work to, and it will shoot very very good out to 1K.