Mossberg ATR
The Mossberg 100 ATR is a decent rifle for the money. A young guy I work with bought a scope combo model in .243 for his wife to deer hunt with last year. I was surprised at the quality of the rifle, good metal finish, decent fitting birch (?)checkered stock. The scope was a pretty cheap chinese (not going to bash the brand) that I replaced for him with an older Redfield 3-9x40 that I had as a spare. I sighted it in and between the three of us shot a full box through; it is easily capable of an inch or so at 100 yards. He paid right at $300 for it on sale at either Dick's or Cabelas, I can't remember now which.
That was last November, I have since seen the same rifle, except with a synthetic stock, with scope, regularly selling for less than $300. I think that the regular priced wood stock version is between $350 and $400, but still a decent rifle, with a scope and rings.
A scoped, synthetic stock version could be well under the $300 limit "on sale".