I have a Winchester Model 88 in .308 and a Ruger Deerfield .44 carbine. I like both but want a better all around gun, mainly because they are blued/wood and since most of my time is spent on or near salt water. Also, not many aftermarket products available. I think I will sell or trade my Model 88 for something, and it will have to be VERY weather resistant. Many calibers would suffice, but I'd like to stay at 30-06 recoil or less. This gun will shoot small deer, maybe a large moose, but mostly cans and targets, to be honest. I like to shoot. Some deer hunting could occur in unfriendly brown bear country, but I will not seek bears. CALIBER IS NOT THE ISSUE! Stock will have to be synthetic, right? I really like the rubbery Hogue stocks and they are only available for Ruger 77 MKII, Rem 700, Win 70. Most any synthetic would do, though. I'm willing to get a new trigger, if it makes sense economically. Stainless is OK, but I think something like a Black-T or teflon finish would be much better up here, so maybe I'd better reserve $200 for that. I've seen lots of stainless with minor pitting, but never as bad as some of the blued rifles my buddies have abused. I don't know if it matters if you finish on top of SS or blue. I'd like to stay under $800 (or much less, if possible!) for the project, without scope, ending up with a very tough, accurate, fun gun that can travel with me everywhere. Compact like Model 7 might be OK if recoil is not too bad. Rem 600 in .308 is a little more than I like, however.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for all I've learned here in the last few months.
-Bob