I would definitely get a plastic stocked gun for your purpose. A plastic stock can be sanded down and painted. If there is a scratch, it can be resanded and repainted and it will not shift zero as bad as a walnut/beech stock. Next best would be a laminated stock. As far as stainless verses blued - The stainless barrel will take wear better than a blued barrel. The stainless can be polished up back to like new. A blued barrel will show signs of wear (from the scabbard) and can be scratched and then you have to re blue cold blue or do something to it other than polish. I have not had a problem with blued barrels rusting as long as I use a quality rust prohibitive on it regularly. I like CLP break free, but there are others that work well too.
I have 2 Stevens rifles, but both have been modified some. They are a light weight gun in stock form. If you are planning on using a heavy kicker, you may want to get a gun that is more weighty to help tame it down. I would definitely make a trigger change on it if you were going to be using one. I have 1 accutrigger Savage - a Model 40. Love the gun - but, I do not like the creep in the trigger. I much prefer the rifle Basix triggers I have put on my Stevens. After I wring out the Model 40 and I still can not get used to the trigger, it will be switched.