What kind of action and distance are you wanting to shoot. Does a bolt action bother you or you looking for an auto? Remington 700, Winchester 100's and Browning A-bolts are all good shooting bolt actions.
How far are you wanting to shoot? If you aren't looking for much more than 100 yard .22 will work. smaller rounds like .223 and 22.250's are very fast and pretty accurate several hundred yard(the Army did any internal investigation in Iraq because of all the head shots. Then the investigators went in the field and witnesses a couple headshots from 300yrds with an M4 when the terrorist would peek from the windows it was dropped) The rounds are light and get blown around by the wind. THis is a big issue with 17HMR's.
Most big center fire rounds like 30-06, 308, 270, 30-30 are going to cost $15-20/box of 20 target ball ammo at Walmart.Atleast for decent ammo, Wolf can be had for cheaper. Sometimes cheaperthandirt.com has some pretty good deals on ammo. The only real way to get cheap ammo is getting is military calibers 5.56x39=223 and 7.62x51=308 (more of less).
My buddy is saving for a .338 lapua. 2K for the gun and 2.5K for the Nightforce scope needed to clearly see the 1900yds he is wanting shoot it. Maybe he will have it by deer season. I want to see deer turned inside out.