As much as I hate doing this kind of stuff, check out rimfirecentral.com . That is all they talk about over there, they could give you some good suggestions.

It's kind of going to boil down to what country you live in and what the prices are over there. What might be fairly inexpensive here might cost an arm and a leg there, and vice versa.

I would say if you can afford it look at the CZ's and the Ruger bolt action. The marlin and savages are pretty good guns for the money, but the ruger bolt action is much closer to a center fire in looks and feel, but it cost more as well.

The most versital and upgradable rifle on the market right now is the ruger 10/22 though. You can do anything to those guns. Unfortunately you said you can't have semi auto.

I have a savage .17hmr, savage .22 youth model, and a marlin model 60 right now. They are all good guns for the money. I used to have a Henry lever action and it was pretty nice as well. Probably the most accurate rimfire I have had out of the box, and wasn't that picky about ammo either. Trigger was a bit nasty though. And it's a lever action, so you don't want that, although I don't see how that would be any different than a bolt action?

I think there are guys from other countries at the site I mentioned above. I hang out in the .17hmr forums most of the time. I'm sure someone can help you out.

Paul