My personal choice is Marlin...but regardless of which company, if you want to save some money, consider buying a used rifle. Millions of these rifles have been manufactured in the last 100+ years, and many, many of them are available online or at a local gun or pawn shop.

True, some of them can be pretty beat up, but there are still plenty of nice examples floating around.

Here in the DFW area, you can pay as little as $175 for a nice used Marlin...with a scope.