Well the most popular 7.62x54 bolt gun is the mosin nagant. What it has going for it is a low price, and potent enough ammo at a reasonable cost. It has downsides, which will be minor or atrocious depending on whether you talk to fanboys or naysayers. Some of these include difficult scope mounting, and a lack of refinement in a lot of areas, but it IS cheap.
30-06 is uber popular and you can get a bolt gun from pretty much and manufacturer in 30-06. It is easier to get ammo, but the ammo is more expensive. You have more selection in pretty much everything, and any rifle you buy will probably be easy to scope, and have a better trigger and greater accuracy than a mosin nagant, but the whole works will be more expensive. A lot of it comes down to how much want to pay and subsequently how much you want to get. In my case, if I had a desert I would probable have a mosin to shoot it with.
