There are two immediate ideas that come to mind. First is my preference for milsurp Mauser actions/rifles and two calibers immediately surface: The 6.5 Swede and the 8mm Mauser. They come as mil-surp, are rugged and able to take the abuse of the outdoors. They can be turned into Scout rifle configuration if preferred or just drilled and tapped and scoped. Aftermarket synthetic stocks are available and the combinations are light, powerful, accurate yet fairly inexpensive. One other mil-surp that fits right in is the Moison Nagants/M38/44 (or whatever their model numbers are). They are very rugged, lightweight, shorter than the Mausers I believe, accurate and chambered in the 7.62x54R Russian round which is just about as hard a hitter as the 06.
The Swedes are easy to shoot and quality ammo, both mil-spec ball and hunting loads are readily avialable. If you wanted something a bit heavier, the 8mms are plentiful and so is new hunting ammo. Same same for the Moisons.
You can purchase either of the three for under $200 or maybe a quarter of so over for the Mausers. Moisons seem to be a bit less than that and some very nice examples turn up pretty regularly. You can probably add on another couple of hundred for drilling and tapping, bases, a scope, maybe some trigger work but there ya are.
HTH. Mikey.
