I have one and love it. For the money. Service tech...tikka's are more for the foremans.
What I love:
Accurate
Needs nothing from the gunsmith, full kitchen table build.
Can get trigger to where you like, mine went down to 3 lbs without a spring mod or swap, and I shoot that just fine out to 500, good for passing to the kids too.
Bedding set up works, it shoots tight right out of the box.
AR magazine that came with mine. All metal and quality for the long haul.
Barrel is threaded, a good thing to have for future proofing perhaps one day we will have suppressors.
Mounting options, either the rail that came on it or easy to get bases/rings such as talley etc.
The factory stock fit and feel is great for the budget.
Weight is good if setting up as a hunting rig it's ideal, not too light, not too heavy.
Aftermarket pretty good for them, parts, stocks, chassis, and tuning tips and tricks to snick them up a bit and smooth things out on feeding etc.
What I don't like;
1. tang safety, they suck in a chassis which is what I did, great for regular stocks however
2. bolt doesn't lock down on safe, which is fine since mine is in a chassis the safety is bolt handle up, it actually locks and holds that position better than bolt down
3. on the factory stock the soft tacky recoil pad, I don't like the squishy sticky recoil pads that seem to come on a lot of things these days, cured as I'm in a chassis
I prefer this to cz 527 and howa mini in the micro length action cartridge I shoot. The cz is nice but mine go to smith for the usual suspects especially pillar bedding and action needs some jb bore compound and few hundred cycles to snick up, trigger can be a bit finicky to set but was able to get almost creep free 2 3/4 lbs and then loctite the creep adjustment screw down so it didn't back out. The cz didn't shoot quite as good as the howa or ruger out of the box. The howa's two redeeming qualities were accuracy and bolt that locks down on safe...and only the barrel and bolt of acceptable quality for the budget, the stock, bottom plastic and magazine are garbage, the safety while in right spot is cheap and crap feel stamped nonsense and the 2 stage trigger has a cheap feel although you can get it to break well and at the lower poundages easily.
All these options and including savages have trade offs, just have to figure out which ones work best for you. I have to replace a ton on howa to make me happy. The cz needs most effort but is the gem once that is done. The ruger just needs nothing and there's a charm in it that I dig. It can be 100% left alone out of the box and just get it done and that itself makes it a budget winner. I never compared to savage though and maybe savage would be closer to the ruger. I shot a buddies axis .270 win not long ago after saving his chamber from rust (put away wet with one up the pipe) and hooking him up with a deal on one of my accupoint scopes and had some leftover 140 ab ammo and man that thing shoots tight as we redid the rings/bases/scope and I zero it for him, it felt alright, but the magazine and safety...meh. I think if I was in a standard short action cartridge the ruger would win out over savage axis and even the 110 types unless I was after that stainless lightweight...probably the only savage I'd contemplate.
I've had tikka's and sako a7, they are another level in a lot of ways and I'd be going to chassis and aics mags to deal with the weak points, on the tikka anyway. Just not the same class so anyone waffling between the classes, I think ruger rocks the working mans class but the tikka chassis set ups go next level and can run with just about anything out there regardless of price.
