Your problem is answered nicely by what I refer to as a general purpose hunting rifle. I consider this to be any rifle that is suitable for big game up to 1000 pounds in weight, that can be carried all day in difficult terrain without causing undue fatigue, and that can be fired from any practical field shooting position including prone. IMHO, the rifle is a more important consideration than the cartridge its chambered for, and any cartridge from a 6.5 (any medium capacity version) up to a .375 (any of the medium to large capacities versions). But don't immediately decide that bigger is better, and don't be taken in by high velocity figures or flat trajectory on a ballistics table. Choosing a cartridge with 3" of drop at 500 yards is no advantage when you're faced with shooting a moose at 75 yards. If you're scared of your rifle, because you chose a 6 pound .300 magnum with a stock that's too long and a scope with eye relief that's too short, you'll miss that moose at 75 yards, where you'd have meat in the freezer with a $150 iron sighted H&R Topper in .30/30. A velocity of 2300 fps will provide a flat enough trajectory for a shot at a big game animal out to 300 yards. Most modern cartridges when loaded with mid weight bullets produce 2600-3000 fps, which when combined with a pointed bullet, provides very flat trajectories.
I consider it a mistake to put price ahead of all other considerations, and equally so, we can get a little carried away in our quest for accuracy that cannot be exploited under typical big game hunting conditions. Your rifle should grab your imagination, and you should be emotionally invested in it. It should feel good when you shoulder it, but more importantly, the LOP should fit you. Most factory stocks are too long, as there is no one size fits all, and its easier to shorten a stock than to add to it. In this respect, its easier to shorten a wood stock than a synthetic one. Few hunting rifle stocks come with a provision for adjustment, and those that do tend to be very expensive. A good quality recoil pad not only makes shooting more pleasant, it also provides a positive nonslip surface on your shoulder, even if you're wearing a slick Goretex shell. With respect to price, one should always purchase the best he can afford, and if he can't afford new, there are deals to be had on quality used hunting rifles from dealers like Tradex, whose honesty and attention to customer service is beyond reproach. A quality used rifle is superior to that brand new bargain basement special, which will probably come with a scope to boot. Thus you've wasted your money on a rifle that is not only difficult to use, but also on a scope that won't stand up, and proves almost impossible to zero. With rare exceptions to the rule, stay clear of rifle/scope combination deals.
I like bolt actions. In their better examples, not only can they be cycled at the shoulder, they can cycle like butter. They can be conveniently chambered for more powerful cartridges than the others, and seem to have an edge when it comes to the quality of the trigger. Their strength can provide both a sense safety and tangible safety to the shooter. Their camming action provided on closing provides easier chambering of cartridges that are slightly out of spec, a condition the handloader tries to avoid but might still might encounter on the range. In the field his ammo should have been cycle through the rifle to ensure it feeds effortlessly. The bolt action tends to be available with larger magazine capacities than other actions with a similar chambering. There are more junk bolt action rifles in the market place than there are in any other action type.
But you might prefer something else. Some folks like the idea of a single shot, and suitable rifles can be found in both break actions and falling block. The receiver of these rifles is shorter and simply provides a means of attaching the stock to the fire control and the barrel rather than to store and/or cycle rounds to the chamber. This allows the single shot rifle to have an overall length 4"-6" shorter than a repeater of equal barrel length. Most hunters prefer a repeater though, and if they don't like bolt actions may opt for a lever action, a pump, or a semi-auto. All have their advantages and disadvantages, all are accurate enough for big game hunting. The lever action typically has a very narrow profile which makes it a joy to carry, and it can be cycled quickly. The pump is the only manually operated action that does not require you to break your firing grip between shoots, while the semi-auto allows you to fire multiple rounds without having to think about the functioning of the rifle beyond your sight picture and trigger control. The lever, pump, and semi-auto rifles all tend to have a narrower profile than their bolt action counterparts, which may or may not influence your choice.
Aside from fit and an adequate cartridge in the chamber, a hunting rifle needs a couple of basic elements which make it easier to use. Specifically it needs sights you can see, and a trigger you can manage. Lets start with the trigger. It can be single stage or two stage. Most modern hunting rifles have a single stage trigger, this means that there should be no perceptible movement in the trigger from the time its engaged until it breaks. The two stage trigger is more common on military surplus actions, the difference is a that there is slack which must be taken up by the shooter until the sear is engaged. Usually the shooter can feel the point of engagement, but on some its pretty easy to pull right through, which makes this trigger much more difficult to master. Some triggers are adjustable for weight, others for travel, over travel, and weight, and some are not adjustable at all. As a rule of thumb, most people find that 3 pounds is an acceptable weight for the trigger on a hunting rifle. If its much lighter and you could end up firing the rifle before you intend to, particularly if your fingers are cold, making it difficult to feel contact with the trigger. On the other hand, if a trigger is much heavier than 3 pounds, it can induce shake, making it difficult to hit your target, and in extreme cases the trigger weight can be so heavy that it causes pain before the rifle will fire. Its not impossible to shoot well with a rifle having a poor trigger, but the required increase in effort is unreasonable when the cure is as simple as ordering an aftermarket trigger.
Despite the nearly universal use of optics, it is desirable for a hunting rifle to be equipped with iron sights. Under some circumstances, the iron sights are more appropriate than a scope. A scope with a 1X or a 1.5X low power can be very good in close range low light applications, but its not so good if its raining or snowing with big heavy thick flakes that stick to the lens. In any case the mounts you choose should be the quick detachable type, which allows you to quickly switch from scope to irons, or in the case of a rare breakage, from one scope to another. The primary advantage of the scope sight is not magnification, rather its focus. Iron sights require you eye to shift focus from the target to rear sight to front sight, as objects at different distances cannot be held in simultaneous focus. The scope sight puts the target and the reticle, the aiming point, on the same focal plane, and both are in sharp simultaneous focus. The purpose of magnification is to allow the shooter to see his target. Thus the shooter with a 1X scope sight has the advantage over the shooter using irons. At 1X the field of view, that is the width of the image in the scope is very wide, but as magnification increases, it becomes much smaller. If your scope has too much magnification, it is very difficult to find a large target like a moose at close range, in that sight picture. Most hunters would do well with variable low power scopes in the 2-7X or 3-9X range.
Iron sights are generally one of two styles, open and aperture. The open sights usually have the rear sight, some sort of "V" placed at a mid point on the barrel, and the front sight is usually a bead placed above the muzzle. The shooter places the bead in the notch provided by the "V" places the sight on his target, then shifts his focus to the front sight, and presses the trigger at the appropriate moment. The aperture sight is at its best in the ghost right style, which is a thin rim with a large aperture. While less precise than the thick rim small aperture preferred by the target shooter, what is lost in precision is made up for in speed, and the small loss of precision is not critical to the big game hunter. The front sight can be either a bead or a rectangular post. I prefer the rectangular post because it provides and index of elevation which is absent with the bead. Think of the post front sight as a cross hair. The flat top is the horizontal wire, and an imaginary line down the center of the post equates to the vertical wire. The human eye is very adept at finding the center of an object, and so it is with determining the center of the front sight post. When shooting with a ghost ring and post sight, you look through the rear sight not at it, and there is no attempt made to focus on the rear sight or to place the front sight in any particular position within it. You simply look through the aperture, just as you look through the ocular lens of a scope, put the front sight on the target, then shift you focus from the target to the front sight and make your shot. Provided your cheek weld on the stock is the same for each shot, the bullet's point of impact will not change. ,
Books have been written on the subject of the hunting rifle, and this is rapidly approaching that length, even though much is missing, so I'll stop here. If you're still with me, and your eyes haven't glazed over, I hope it helps.
