RE: A good yote gun?
I bought a Stevens model 200 in .243 at the Sportsman's Warehouse in Lafayette, IN for $259 last spring. Your name makes it sound like you're from Indiana, so if you ever get to Lafayette maybe stop in. They're $289 now, but still a good deal. Mine shoots 4 different factory loads into less than and inch at 100 yards. And like you said, if I ever left Indiana, I'd have a nice deer rifle. Oh yeah, you can pick up a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 on ebay for $125 on ebay. Put that scope on the Stevens, and you've got a nice shooting rifle with a decent scope forjust over$400.
"What's a short action?", you ask. Well, they make the reciever and bolt assemblies in two different lengths. One for shorter cartridges like the .223 and.308 family,and one for longer cartridges like the 30-06 family and magnums. On the Stevens, you'll have a hard time mounting a scope on the long action due to the distance between the rings, so I'd vote for picking a short action cartridge.