ORIGINAL: cayugad
A good rifle is a T/C Renegade in .54 caliber. It is a do it all rifle and there are some excellent drop in barrels you can purchase for it down the road if you find you like the traditional route. They are accurate, easy to take care of, and a great customer service. Keep watch on the auction sites. Good used ones are on there and can often times be had for around $175-$250. And since you're starting with traditional, stick with the percussion cap models for now. Later, you can play with flintlocks.
+1, I bought my TC FL on Gunbroker for $300 delivered. The gun was like new. Lyman or TC, get the percussion unless where you want to hunt allows FL only, which is my case in Penna, where I hunt FL with my brother. Chap Gleason