If it was my choice of a rifle for a young fellow that would make him proud and keep for life, either a Winchester Featherweight or Remington Model 7 (or Mountain Rifle) would make sense. It is fairly easy to find stocks with reduced LOP for the Remington for his current use. Top it with a nice 3x9 like the latest Leupold offering or similar. A .243 would fill the bill nicely for now and give you a good reason to buy another rifle in a few years if he wishes to hunt game larger than deer.
In a perfect world I would choose a .257 Roberts over a .243 but rifles chambered in that cartridge have become hard to find unless you want to play the Kimber lottery.
Of course there are some good choices in more budget friendly rifles that might be suitable.