Why can't you let the kid do a fun project, he's asking if it would be feasible to sporter another one.
And it is.p
Get a good MN 91/30, then get a scope mount and turned down handle HERE Then get an ATI Monte Carlo stock. You just got a rifle that will meet the needs you listed. You just spent less than $300, if that's not enough money for your college budget, go spend the rest on ammo.
The issue isn't about not having fun, or about "elitism" (at least from me). The issue is that the guy wants a decent "long range" hunting rifle.
Ruining a historic rifle like a MN 91/30 with a bunch of aftermarket junk and JB Weld is silly. Sure there are a lot of MN 91/30s now, but there were a bunch of extra Krags 50 years ago, and ask any milsurp collector how they feel about finding a rare Krag variant that some yahoo hacked down with a hacksaw, painted with house-paint, and put some cheap Redfield-clone Japanese-made aperture sights onto back in 1950.
No matter what you do to an MN, it probably won't shoot as well as a $300 used Remington 30-06 from GunBroker or a pawnshop. If you modify an old MN (especially a Finn), you've essentially ruined whatever historical value it has.
I'm not at all against hunting with interesting rifles, and if you really want some quirky milsurp sporter there are
tons of "ruined" milsurp sporterizations floating around, so you can just spend $250 on a Springfield '03 that some bubba cut up in 1960 (that would be worth $1000 today if he hadn't) and still have something cool. Or a sporterised Argentine Mauser, Carcano, etc.
I'm all for keeping things simple, but "saving money" by only stocking one kind of ammo doesn't make much sense when the ammo you use to plink with isn't good for hunting, and the ammo you hunt with (even 7.62x54) is too expensive to plink with.
Tarting up a Moisin Nagant is just ruining a tiny piece of history. If you can make non-permanent modifications, and want to hunt with it because you seriously want to hunt with a WWII rifle, cool. But tossing on a cheap plastic stock, drilling holes with a power drill, and slathering JB Weld is destructive and will not endear you to future generations.
Seriously, if you want to sporterise, but a milsurp sporter someone's already ruined. If you want a "long range" rifle, buy one of the thousands of affordable .270/.308/.30-06 used boltguns out there.