It depends on what you want the rifle for. There are many calibers and every shooter has his or her own favorite depending on needs. If you are planning on buying a new rifle I would recomend buying a newer caliber. Meaning I would not buy a 45/70, 35 remington, 257 roberts, 30/30, etc. I am not saying these calibers are bad in anyway(I love my 30/30) but there are newer calibers that will get you better balistics and shoot flater.

Personaly if I could only own 1 rifle it would be the 300 Win Mag. This caliber is very versitle. You can use light magnum loads for deer, use regular ammo for bear(small to medium), and heavy loads(federal 200 grain) for moose. If you reload then you can load this rifle to a 30-06 performance and get less recoil at the range. I have never tried it buy you can load 100 grain bullets in this caliber. You can hunt any game in North America with this round(assuming you arent hunting varmets). Of the 30 cal mags it is the most reasonable at about $20 a box.(price out all the 30 cal ammo) I own a ruger M77MKI in this caliber and absolutley love it.

If I was buying 3 rifles(match the game to the gun) I would get a 22 caliber(or the new 17), a 7mm caliber(or 25) and a 338 or 375 caliber. That way I could hunt small game with the 22. Deer, preadtors, small bear with the 7mm and Moose, large bear, about anything that moves with the 338 or 375. I agree with the guy about walmart. They have a Ruger model 77 for $460 and a savage 111G for $370. A good woods gun for the price is the savage combo with scope for $420 and they have many calibers including Win short mags(check the ammo price first). If you are looking to hunt mostly deer the 30-06 combo with a scope for $340 is a steal. They even sell browning, weatherby, and have a special order catalog.

I would read a book on balistics or check out a reloading book. That way you can see what each caliber can do. You can also check out remingtons web site and compare 3 diffrent balistics(thier loads).

Good Luck
Jay