A good hunting rifle could still be found under $300 before Covid; The Savage Axis.
Wood & blued steel was by far more common, but there were some synthetic stocks available as aftermarket items; The Ruger 77 I had for the moose hunt had a McMillan stock. Before that one (1990) I had put Bell & Carlson (anybody remember them?) synthetic stocks on my 742, for some reason I can't remember. Iron sights were on virtually every rifle, and see thru mounts were fairly common. Despite the funny cheek weld, they were pretty accurate. (at deer hunting range, anyway)
I still remember the 'new gun' smell the of the Mossberg 500's in the rack at Holiday (a regional gas station chain in Minnesota, mostly in rural towns) on the way up North duck hunting. We'd stop and fill the truck up, and optimistically buy a few more boxes of shells, Holiday brand, made by Federal. The wildlife art on them was by Les Kouba-I now collect those boxes.
The typical Minnesota deer camp guns were, c. 1976 ; at least one Winchester 94, and also one Marlin 336, and the owners would argue back and forth the merits of each. One Remington Model 14 or 141, and one Remington Model 8 or 81. Those hunters were usually in their 60's, unless someone was using Grandpa's gun until they could buy a Savage 340 .30-30 bolt action (for some unknown reason my friends were enamored with this gun) or at least a Lee-Enfield or other milsurp. There was always that one guy with a Remington BDL or Weatherby, with the stock so shiny the deer could see them coming a mile away. Never got a deer , but sure looked good doing it. Then there was the guy who never had the same gun twice year to year. (This was my Dad in our camp.) Sometimes he'd even hunt with 2 or 3 different guns over the 10 day season.