First of all one major expense of sporterizing them that everyone mentions is a new synthetic stock, but that really isn't necessary unless you just want one. The wood stocks they come in survived Russian winters. They will do just fine here. Also it's unfair to list the price of the scope and mounts because you are going to have to buy a scope and mounts no matter what rifle you buy. So really you are just looking at the expense of having a gunsmith drill and tap it and modify the bolt to a bent version that will function with a scope. Aim Surplus has really nice factory refurbished Mosin Nagants for 80 bucks. The bolt conversion by a gunsmith will run about 50 bucks. That takes you to 130 dollars invested . I haven't had anything drill and tapped in a while so I'm not current on the cost. But it shouldn't be that bad. I would have to believe that you would still be at or around 200 dollars as you start to look for mounts and a scope. I haven't seen any bolt action rifle of any type in a store cheaper than about 350 bucks anywhere.
So I would say that it's more time consuming to have a Mosin Nagant converted to a hunting rifle compared to just buying a cheap savage or stevens. But I disagree that it costs the same.
Here's a link to a guy that does the bolts.
http://www.angelfire.com/gundam/boltman/bolt_work/