So you ask what sort of bolt gun?
Young and on a budget but a great love for guns ......
I would suggest Savage.
Now I love the Remies and Winneys as much as the next guy. Mausers thrown in for good measure along with tang safety Ruger 77’s.
However the Savage brings versatility to the equation. They are clumpy looking but shoot like sin!
I personally do not like the Axis version and greatly prefer the regular Savage or Stevens lines the best there are a LOT of satisfied owners that own (Axis) them.
Take my first Savage, a long action blued bought slightly used with a wooden stock for $225. It came to me as a 7 mm Rem Mag and I have switched it to a varmint weight 25-06 and a 338/06. Another long action came as just a stainless action, began as a 300 RUM but ended up for now as a 257 STW.
If one finds a cartridge one just can not bear to have in another rifle you can always have one built on another platform or one could just realize that a rifles beauty can be something other than skin deep and accept Savage bolt guns as they are .... a whale of a shooter that can be owner switched with a minimum of tools along with some common sense and some self education.
Next subject: Reloading
I can not fathom what my gun craze would be without handloading! Period!
I do not differentiate between a guy with the cheapest of setups and the most lavish of layouts. I started with a RCBS Jr single stage press mounted to a home made stand, a Ohaus 505 scale, a Pacific trimmer and a plastic spoon dipping gun powder from a paper picnic bowl onto my scale. I added a Uniflow measure after while and then a trickler later but the press and stand served me for my first 35 years.
Simply put handloading is a bridge to a greater understanding of firearm performance .... there is no way around it.
Three44s