Weatherby Vangaurds are made in J a p a n by Howa. Not knocking Howa as they are decent guns but Tikka is made by Sako. The action on the Tikka's are butter smooth. The Tikka T3 lite does have a cheaper stock but the Hunter model has a nice wood stock.
As for caliber the .30-06 is pretty versatile and widely available. .308 would be another one which is close to performance as 30-06 and availability.

For some reason I can't type ***an on here without it being censored.