Thanks for all responses so far. It is always helpful to get information from those who have held, shot, and dealt with the guns in question. Keep your comments coming!

I have a savage model 10 in 300 win. short mag,20 inch barrel that i love. short and light weight.easy to carry.

I'd defintely look to a .243win or 7mm-08

above your budget...but I picked up a Weatherby ultralightweight in .243win, still learning it, but its superlight, 7lbs even with 4.5-14x44 scope on top!

I love my Marlin 336, with Leverevolution ammo the 30-30's good past 200 yards on deer.

" But I'm in the process of trimming my arsenal, and want to buy a new (or lightly used) Compact-lightweight rifle for deer hunting." Now that seems alittle odd. I want to trim my arsenal and want to buy a new deer rifle. LOL Sound like the wife was looking over your shoulder. I am going to get a 308 myself.

For about 20 years I have had a Ruger 77 Mk 11 in .308. I forget the exact name of the model, but it has an 18 1/2 inch barre. I believe it is the ultralight. I put a 1.5x5 Leopold on it. It is carried of course much more than shot, but at the same time I certainly am not handicapped in a tree stand. It certainly carries with ease all day long.I have accurately taken and made 3 base of the head/neck shots at over 180 yards. I put in a competition spring and firing pin, and a Timney trigger early on. It is a little fussy to sight in due to the very thin barrel (I wait about 10 minutes between shots), but has stayed dead on. It is all the gun I could ever want. I have a difficult time figuring out what the actual upgrades in the Hawkeye are (I guess there is a new trigger).
I would think you should be able to come up with a good used with quality glass in your price range...probably even tweek it a bit like I did. The light rifles are fussier in shooting, as they arent quite as stable a firing platform as a heavier gun, so you really want to optimize its potential.

I checked out a Kimber Montana the other day and it was a pretty sweet rig...not sure on price tho...

I fondled one of the Ruger compacts at my local shop.I really liked the feel of the thing.I also fooled around with one of the compact CZ guns .It felt good also.I don't know how either will shoot.But I do know for a fact if you can get your hands on an old Remington Model 788 carbine they handle extremly well and I have yet to see one that did not shoot good.JMHO

No .. really ...! Honest! I need to off-load up to 8 rifles because of duplication. I have 6 different 6.5 X 55's and at least 2 of those will go. I have several SKS's and at least one of those will go. I have a 12 ga thats
halfway out the door. and then I have small collection of military rifles that will lose a couple of it's ranks. When I add to the list at least 5 scopes that need to go I should be able to buy the compact outfit I want and still have plenty of sprerad in my collection of hunting rifles. As a matter of fact I also have a couple pistols that can go.
It is not normally in my nature to ever sell guns, usually just buy them, but the time has come to go for a bit more quality in my lockers and trim the quantity.

I have a model 7 in 243 and a Ruger Compact in 7mm-08 both of them shoot great... My real shorty is my TC Contender in 223 with a 16" barrell and a youth stock that I built for my son. It is 29 inches long..

If I had to choose one it would be the Ruger compact.