Savage, we do have mountains near. I am about 20 miles as the crow flies from the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, 45 miles from Glacier National Park (hence my call name), about 45 minutes from one of my favorite whitetail areas down the Swan Valley.
You can pretty much find excellent big game hunting in any direction, and great duck hunting (my favorite) five minutes away.
I take it you like Savage 99s. The Savage 99 I have was inherited from my Father in Law and I have shot some pretty nice bucks with it, open sights and all. Can you recommend a good peep sight for it, one that won't require extra holes being drilled? I was thinking about that Marbles post type peep sight.
You're right about the steel butt plate and I feel like I have Elk covered with my 7mm rem mag, at least it's always worked for me up till now, so thats why I was thinking smaller for Antelope. And my Dad alway raved about the .257 but the 6.5x55 sounds interesting. If the stock was inletted for a short action I would probably go with a 7mm-08 or .308.
