I would get either a stevens or a howa. The howa can be had for 500 with a nikko stirling scope which is a good combo. The stevens is cheaper and could be coupled with a redfield scope for about 500. I try to buy howa or weatherby rifles when possible. I've found that they outperform all the other production guns out there. I've had ruger, savage, remington, mossberg, cz, and marlin, but my howa and weatherby are both still around. If I wasn't worried about accuracy I would get the saiga for the fun factor. Other than that I have a lot of fun setting up an empty 22-250 case and hitting it at 200 yards with my 22-250 howa or 257 weatherby s2.