Buy a Remington 700 ADL in black synthetic stock. You should be able to buy one for $350 or less. It has open sights and can be used to shoot and kill game as is. When you have some extra money -- I'm suggesting doing this in a two-step process -- buy a good scope and mount that on the rifle. Don't let people tell you that you can't take big game without a telescopic sight. You can. Most big game animals are taken at relatively short range. All of my deer have been taken at 150 yards or less (1 at 15 yards, 1 at 20 yards, and 1 at 35 yards). Of my two elk, 1 was taken at 60 yards the other at maybe 200 yards. I'm guessing I could have taken that 200 yard elk with open sights, though the shot was at 15 minutes after sundown (legal shooting extended to 30 minutes after sundown) and though I was 55 years old then.

All of my big game rifles have telescopic sights. I love telescopic sights. But cost seems to be an object to you at this time. When you have saved some more money, go buy a Leupold VX-III 3.5-10x for about $500. Now if you have $850 available now, by all means buy the rifle and the scope now.

Don't figure this will be the last rifle you ever buy. You will probably buy others. You can look at this rifle as a backup for all your hunting further on down the road. I personally like wood stocked rifles for their aesthetic value, but if I were going to go hunting in inclement weather I would leave my wood stocked rifles in the dry and take my Remington 700 ADL with synthetic stock in .30-06 out to hunt.