Re: Savage 10fp in .223 or .308?
For your purposes, definitely .223. Just make sure you get one of the newer 10fp's with the center-feed action. This will allow you to (much) more easily upgrade to a detachable box magazine setup further down the road.
As for range of .223, well NRA Highpower shooters shoot to 600 yds with .223 AR's using iron sights every week. And Palma guys go out to 1000yds with .223 and iron sights, so yes, it is plenty accurate to that range. Given that is for punching paper not harvesting game (2 or 4 legged), but the round is plenty accurate. To get out much past 600 yds, you would want a 1:7" - 1:8" twist bbl to utilize longer, heavier bullets, but 1:9 is a great compromise between the 1:7" military bbls and the 1:12"/1:14" varmint bbls. It allows you to use lightweight 40 some-odd gr. varmint bullets without over-stabilizing them (spinning too fast) as well as 55gr plinker ammo and 69gr match ammo.
.223 is going to cost approximately half as much as .308 to shoot when buying factory ammo. 55gr FMJ is great for plinking and 69gr match is great for accuracy. MANY MANY people reload .223 both for accuracy and for cost savings. With current ammo costs and availability, this is a great thing to look into (assuming you can find some friggin primers but that is another story).
In any case, 10FP's make wonderful starter guns to get into precision shooting. Check out
Sharp Shooter Supply for some cool stocks you can think about adding later.
For scopes, there is a ton of info on this forum. To get you started check out the Millett TRS-1 4-16X50MM (~$300), and the
Falcon Menace 4.5-14X42MM (~$400). For bases and rings, Millett makes quality stuff that'll cost you just under $100 for a quality picatinny rail and solid rings. They aren't going to be as good as the top notch stuff like Badger or Seekins you find on a lot of cool rigs on this forum, but they're way better than the average hunting fodder you find in most gunshops if you're on a budget.
Hope that helps
-Pete
