This may sound crazy but if $150 - $200 is really all you wil be able to spend dont rule out some of the surplus military rifles. For example a 6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser. Excellent round and high quality rifle with low recoil. You can buy bullets at Bass Pro etc. You can find them at gun shows in very good condition for $150. Only problem might be they have open sights that arent so great but you say you will be shooting at mostly short range and you can buy scope mounts for them if you want to. Thats what I started with. Now I have 3 of them and I even bought a Ruger M77 in 6.5 x 55 because I like the round so much.
Think about it!